The round-about

Once again glory to God for being here today.  Today is a new day and tomorrow is coming and we have no idea what it will bring for us.  Are you ready to receive tomorrow?  If yes, praise God.  If not, think twice.

 

Mark 6:37

They came to Jesus saying, we need something to eat and He said, “Give them something to eat”.  This is what I will call that the roundabout.  At the roundabout you find three or five or six different roads coming from different corners of the city and you have to decide what road you will take and if you choose the wrong one you may end up in the wrong destination but choose the right one and you end up in your destiny.

 

Jesus was preaching and suddenly He said, “We have to go because the crowd was increasing” and He went into the boat with the disciples.  Those on the land will run by the boat and wherever the boat landed, the people would be there.  Humans were rushing to catch up with Jesus.  Maybe the disciples said, “We can breathe now that we have left them behind, we are now free” but then suddenly the crowd shows up again.  Jesus looked at the crowd of people with compassion and said, “I can see they are like sheep without a shepherd and they need someone to look after them”.

 

How often do you have compassion on others, to yourself, to your work and what you do with that compassion?  Jesus has compassion on us and He knows we need someone to feed us and look after us.  The disciples knew the Word of God but they weren’t supplying enough to these people.

 

Jesus started to preach to them, to feed to them and after taking it all in, time was not waiting for them and now it was late in the evening.  The disciples stood up, “Lord, these people are tired and it is getting late”.  Look how the disciples are teaching God the time and reminding him that time is ticking, you are taking too long.  Sometimes we shake God, look time is passing, why are you taking long before you let us go, feed us, give us the answer to my prayers.

 

These people are hungry, they need food.  Maybe the disciples themselves were hungry.  Jesus looked at them and said, “Give it to them”.  You ask God for something and He puts it on you to find the solution while you have nothing.  Jesus didn’t have any food in His hands but they were asking Jesus for food to eat.  Give them food to eat was his answer.

 

When you reach a roundabout and you haven’t decided which lane to take, you panic and maybe stop in the middle of the roundabout and then a person will beep at you and you will miss the road and try again.  Sometimes God takes us around and around and you have to give yourself the answer.  You are capable, don’t stop at the roundabout because you will create a problem and someone might be killed.  You can’t say, I will leave my car here and walk.  You need to move at the roundabout and have to get prepared for vehicles that come and we have to be alert on right and left, how will I escape.

 

Jesus said it is your role to play, find something for these people.  How?  Ourselves, we have nothing.  We are too far from the shops.  How will we do this?  They were moving and thinking what they could say, they didn’t have money or shops or enough bread to feed everybody.  “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked His disciples.  He knew they had nothing.  The disciples were not prepared to stay there forever and were sure they will go back home and won’t need to bring food with them.

 

This is the challenge God sometimes puts us in.  You have to give offering and people will tell you, I have nothing.  Maybe give your heart, voice to sing.  He needs what you give from the deep of your heart.  Jesus said, “Put those people together in groups of 50s and 100s.  The disciples counted.  How long can it take to count those groups and when they were counting, they were hungry and tired while people are moving and disturbing the order so the disciples had to count again.  After counting and putting them in the groups, “Who has food among you?”

 

The little boy whose mother gave him 5 bread and 2 fish spoke up.  Jesus came by water (on the sea) and the people ran on the land.  The fish comes from water and the bread comes from the land.  The fish and the bread met together in the bag of the little boy.  No one knew what was inside of the bag while people were hungry.  The boy spoke up, I have some bread.  Five loaves.  A crowd of thousands and you only have five bread.  Jesus said, bring it here.

 

Once they brought it to Jesus.  Before they saw the bread and fish, they have to unpack the bag.  You can have all the blessings with you while others are crying with hunger but you have to unpack what is inside.  When you think about the desert (where they were) you think about dry land with sand and no grass but miraculously there was grass here because Jesus said to sit on the grass.

 

You might be in a situation where everything in your life is dry (love, relationships, money is dry) but God can make grass for you with a group of 50 people to make happiness in your life.  In that big crowd of people with a little child with his little bag of fish and bread and no one noticed him because he was just a child.  Maybe the disciples were only asking adults and putting the children aside.  That is what the church is doing today.  I’m a pastor, I only want to talk to pastors.  You people down there, I have nothing to do with you.

 

Lord our God blesses you through small things.  The first Adam was created as a man but the second Adam was born as a baby.  Jesus was born as a child.  Why not come down as a fully grown man?  The Kingdom of God is like children.  The secret behind children?  Jesus calls us children of God even though we are adults.  I’m an adult but God will say, you are my child.

 

This young boy didn’t cook the fish or bake the bread, the mother did the job and gave it to him to eat.  The mother did not come with the boy, he went by himself.  The boy is among the crowd of adults with fish and bread hidden, bring him out.

 

When you are at the roundabout in your life, look at the children (those who are humble and will tell you the truth).  Jesus took the five bread and counted them.  How long would it have taken to count?  Two seconds to count the fish and bread while the disciples had to count groups of 50s which took time.  Five plus two equals seven which we all know the meaning of that number.

 

The people were sitting down waiting and hungry.  Be patient.  Jesus picked up the bread and broke it piece by piece.  Hurry up Jesus, we are hungry.  Jesus broke it into small pieces and maybe some pieces were dropping on the ground.  Finally the blessings started to show up.  The power of breaking the bread started to show up.

 

If you want blessing in your life, accept to be broken first.  Accept to be broken in pieces and accept that you are nothing and that is when God will bring you a huge blessing that can feed 4000 men.  If you don’t want to be broken because it hurts, God will tell you, “If you don’t accept to be broken, forget about my blessings”.

 

All those in the Bible who were blessed, even healings, He will tell you, you are a sinner, sin no more.  I will break you by informing everyone here, you are a sinner, don’t sin anymore.  Imagine you are exposed in front of the crowd.  How will you feel?

 

This rich person, “I’ve done everything God, now tell me how to inherit the Kingdom of God”.  Give away your wealth.  “No way, I’m against that”.

 

This young boy made a big sacrifice to give away his food and he stayed there empty handed because he gave everything away.  He didn’t hide it or keep for himself but gave for the entire crowd, “Jesus take it all, do what you want”.  How often do you give to God all that you have?  We very often hold onto half of it and only give God a portion because we believe we will lose something. 

 

God is asking you to give it all and the boy did.  Suddenly they forget about the boy and only focus on their own loaves and fish.  They started to eat.  After eating the bread, the Bible says that 12 baskets were collected.  Why do you cry or complain about your situation everytime and tell God you don’t have enough?  God is saying you have your bag with you, five loaves and two fish, it’s enough for you and others but why don’t you bring it out and share with others.

 

I only have $10, what can I do with this? I have two kids, maybe we can have fish and chips and then while I’m thinking, Ange turns up with four girls and then Annette with Chris.  If I buy $10 chips with this crowd of people, my children will not have enough.  We become selfish, I will wait for them to leave so we can have enough.

 

God says, “I have given something small in your pocket but you don’t want to share with others”.  Some will prefer to use the money for a movie ticket while someone is hungry.  Where is love, where is Christianity?  Aren’t we like the disciples, God has given them a crowd and He feels compassion because they had no leader.  The disciples had knowledge for themselves but not to share with others.  Judas had money but didn’t suggest to buy food, “No, I’m a good accountant, we don’t have to spend money”.

 

When it is a matter of money, people become serious.  Because of love of money, people will fight the government, their bosses, the shopkeepers, “you gave me the wrong change”.  Here Jesus is teaching us to give it all.  The boy didn’t say, “mummy said its mine, I can’t share it”.  He opened his heart, “here it is”.  Now this small boy is written in the Bible as sharing his food.  Where were the adults?  Maybe some adults had something small but didn’t want to give it, they kept it for themselves and when the miracle was performed, they thought, oh I should have given.

 

We sometimes run behind God and ask God for something and He says, “You have it,” and you go around and around the roundabout and God says, “Give what you have”.  What you have to do is open your mouth and ask God what road should I take?  That is the first mistake Adam did.  When the serpent arrived and gave Eve the fruit.  Why didn’t they wait for God and ask Him if they were allowed to eat it.  Because of lack of patience they didn’t want to wait.  We always need patience in life.

 

If you don’t have patience, you don’t have love.  Those who sat down waiting, they could not see this if they couldn’t wait for the disciples.  Once the miracle happened, the job of the disciples was to distribute the food and people were eating with joy.  How do you feel when people eat with joy with you?  Some might feel like telling the visitors, “You have eaten enough now, stop now,” because they are thinking of tomorrow. 

 

When God gave the manna, that bread could only be eaten today and not tomorrow because God gives more tomorrow.  The blessing that you get, even the talking that you do, seeing people are all blessings so use it and share in a nice way with others.  Be kind with others.  Treat others like human beings.  God is asking us to use our blessings so others benefit from it.  If you have extra shoes, give them to others and that is how you get more blessings.  After giving away, you will be surprised to see you still have 12 baskets of blessings (After eating, Jesus said to collect it all the leftovers). 

 

We send our children and we want them to be children of God.  When satan comes in our family and wants to snatch our child, what do we do?  Stop, give him/her back and you fight.  The secret to finding the solution is to pray, seek God first.

 

God says, I’m here for you.  Show off pastors will pray and command Jesus and Jesus says, “I will not do it, who are you to command me?”  Give your problem to Jesus directly, He will break you but give you the solution and you will get all the blessing.  Don’t minimise yourself, you have enough because five loaves fed 4,000 people.  Two words in front of God is enough.  A pastor can never sort out your issues, talk to God, He is your friend and God and provider.  God can do it.  There is no other solution except for God. 

 

Instead of going around the roundabout, ask God which way to take and He will tell you which exit to take and you will continue your journey.

Bread

By Odon Bulamba

 

Jesus said, “Father give to us our daily bread”.  Why didn’t he ask for a monthly bread, or weekly or yearly?  Our lives day after day depends on God.  Bread doesn’t only mean what we eat or see but it means the signs of life.  Bread means food but before to become food it is a plant.  The plant is turned into flour.  The flour is mixed with water and sometimes yeast added.  The ingredients then must be baked.  If I take some wheat flour and put it on a plate with a glass of water and put a fire there and ask you to now eat, you will say, “this is not food” because you can’t eat wheat by itself. 

 

Bread is really tasty.  It takes time to make bread.  When I was a child I used to bake a lot and I would steal some wheat and oil from my mother’s kitchen and take it into the bush. I would make my own bread hiding in the bush because my mum wouldn’t let me bake because according to my culture only women can bake.

 

The colour of the outside is different to the colour of the inside of the bread.  There are two different colours.  The outside is in contact with the heat from the fire (or oven) and becomes the colour of that the wheat plant is initially which is a golden colour.  The inside remains white.  The outside gets a little bit burnt but the inside remains intact.  When Jesus broke the bread, He told people, “Take this, this is my body”. 

 

Some versions say, He broke it and then blessed it but other versions say he blessed it and then broke it.  We are the body of Christ, maybe Ange is the leg, Robbie the arm etc.  All together we make up that body and when Jesus rose up His hands and broke it, He wasn’t saying He is breaking Himself.  He was saying, “I am breaking you in Me because whoever sees you will see Me in you”.  This reminds us that God said at the beginning, let us make man in our image.  Once you are broken, God continues to pray for you (HOLY SPIRIT will intercede for you).

 

When you are saved, he breaks you and tells people to eat you.  You are the food for others: your actions and your words will make people to be fed spiritually.  How can I become a bread for others? 

Wheat is a plant and easy to grow.  You are a plant that God uses.  God looks at the life inside the plant.  The plant has a role to collect food and feed the branches.  It will collect from the soil and suck the food and feed the plant.  The roots will bring it to the trunk that will take it to the branches and then flowers and then fruit.  If the roots say no, then the plant will die.  When Jesus says I break you it means for you to become a servant to feed others and if you say no, those people will starve to death, they will die from lack of knowledge.

 

Ex 12: Moses was given a mission to help the Israelites to leave Egypt.  Wouldn’t you be proud to lead all these millions people out of Egypt?  Everyone likes to be a leader.  But to look after millions of people is a big job especially when you can’t look after your own family.  Moses couldn’t look after his own family.  His wife was doing work that Moses was supposed to do.  God said regardless of your weaknesses, you will take my people out of Egypt.

 

God knows your weaknesses but His purpose is for you to lead His people.  Moses came up with a good excuse, “whenever I speak I stutter and people laugh”.  God said, “you have to go”.  Very often I present my excuses to God.  I tell God, “not today, what about tomorrow”.  Excuses can take us far.  God said to Moses go and God chose Aaron to walk with Moses. 

 

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh on nine occasions and each time God was turning Aaron and Moses down.  Pharaoh refused to listen.  Moses would perform miracles and still Pharaoh would not give up.  Sometimes God sends you places and then puts a barrier there to see how you react.  You ask, “God why didn’t it work”.  God tells you, “I’m baking you because you were wheat and water and I’m the fire and this is the cooking process and cooking is a long process and takes time”.

Nine times they went back and finally God said, Aaron and Moses this is now your first month – start to count it from today.  God changed the calendar.  God can change your plan and you were thinking to do something in 2012 and you don’t get it.  You can think about ideas but only God can make it happen. 

 

Moses and Aaron had to go to all the families and ask them to slaughter a lamb and put the blood around the door frame.  Pick up animal blood and put it around the house – what will your neighbour say?  The role of the door is to come in and out.  What leads your body?  Your mouth, nose, ears, eyes, feelings? Someone can become angry and punch the door so the outside will reflect the inside.  That is the door that God said to paint with blood. 

 

The role of the blood to purify and sanctify.  Repentance should be at the frame door of your mouth, ears, eyes or wherever there is a danger for sin to come in.  God is reminding us that if we don’t put blood there, God will come down and any house without blood, He will kill the first born.  The first born is Jesus.  Maori culture respects the first born because they are the representative of the family and they are there to teach the family.

 

When my father died, I was given His clothes because I am the first born.  Jessica (my youngest sister) calls me father because I am the first born.  Every first born child and animal of every family will be killed without the blood on the door frame. To kill the lamb was not enough.  Jesus dying for us was not enough if we don’t apply His blood on our door frames.  My door according to Revelations 20 is the heart.  If you hear the knock, you can open and let Him in.  The door of your heart should be painted with blood of Jesus.

 

Jesus said, “This is my blood, drink it”.  There are around 4000 components in blood.  Four major things: red, white cells, plasma, platelets.  When you cut yourself you can see blood coming out but platelets will be alerted and they run to secure the position in the body of the person to protect them.  Some of our brothers are getting lost.  Blood is supposed to be in the body. The platelets are very quick thinking.  Platelets will run. 

 

If you are hurt in your arm, you will hold firmly there to stop the blood being lost.  Platelets will say, praise the Lord we can act now and they will start to make the blood coagulate.  The blood flow will stop while the platelets are very small.  However, it won’t work if you don’t put a tourniquet around the arm so the platelets can work. 

 

In the event of anything, pray to God, “this is my problem, I am hurt, there is a cut over here, I am holding it”.  How many times do people wound you?  You hear words that shock you and you lose control.  Is your mind painted with blood of Jesus? When you see the power bill, you become angry or you become worried.  Is your mouth painted with the blood of Jesus? You can say yes I’m saved, I have Jesus in my life, He has paid the price for me, but you need to paint the blood on all the entries of your body and your heart.

 

Jesus said, “Take this wine” and they drank like you and I this morning and when we drank the grape juice for communion.  Jesus said, “remember me”.  How often do you remember about the blood circulating in your body? You don’t think about it.  You have no idea but Jesus said to remember that blood that was given to you.  How often do you remember that Jesus died for you?  When I have an accident, I remember but do I remember His blood which means that every step we make we should think about the cleanliness of our heart.  Is my heart clean?  If Jesus comes back now, am I really clean, am I ready to go?  When I see something, is it really important for me to see this? Am I really ready and clean if Jesus comes now?  It’s only when I cross hardship that I remember Jesus. 

When we were taking communion this morning, not many people took the outside part of the bread.  Most took the inside because the inside is soft while the outside is tough and maybe people were worried what had touched the outside (a fly?).  This reminds us that the outside of our bodies is always burnt by the fire but our soul and spirit is not attacked. 

 

A blessing will start with your body.  You feel like stealing, the thought will come first by your eyes and sends the message inside that what you are seeing looks good.  Then your legs move and your hands take it.  Your conscience will tell you, “No I don’t want to think about the blood of Jesus.  Be away from me God.” Then you thank God because no one caught me and now I have what I wanted.  I have heard of armed robbers praying before going to steal.

 

Your body will go through fire and will change the colour of your body.  When your body is burning with the desire, do you stand firm in Jesus? When you have blessings and all that God allows, do you stand firm in Jesus?

 

When I was a child I was sent to buy bread and a list of other items but my mother insisted that I should not forget the bread.  I bought butter milk instead of butter and milk and then I saw yoghurt and bought it for me and I thought I’ll throw away the receipt so my mum won’t know.  When I got home, my mother asked, “Where is the bread?”  That’s when I woke up.  I told my mother, “I can go back’.  But I knew in my heart the money was used.  I went back to shop with intention to steal the bread.  God was so good, when I walked in to the shop and walked over to the bread, I looked left and right and when I put my hand on top of the shelf to pull the bread, the man on other side said, “Hi son”.  I left it. 

 

I came back to try again and then heard a whistle, so I left it again.  Then I tried for a third time.  When I took bread, this little lady asked me, “Who are you buying this for, let’s walk together”.  I thought, “Why is everybody after me?”  This lady knew I was stealing and she told me, never steal anymore.  I came home crying?  I told my mother I was sorry.  To steal was the sin but I forgot about my actions and I thought my plan was good and that I was more clever than God. 

 

When we sin, we think we are clever because no one will see me and it’s fine and I’m enjoying it.  We have to stand firm in our sin.  We are gold and when we go through fire, we will never burn.  So stand firm in the fire.  In a physical fire, our body would get seriously burnt and we would need to go to hospital.  For temptation there is no hospital but we have to persevere.  That is all you can do even if you call 111 for God, He will tell you persevere.  When you go through hardship, people run from you and leave you alone and that is the hardest time in life to find yourself abandoned and when you tell them the people, they believe you are a complainer.

 

I watched this movie called Shrek.  A character on that movie was a donkey, and he could talk.  Shrek became annoyed and told him, “stop it donkey”.  Sometimes your problems will not interest other people, it will sound just like a cymbal in their ears.  When people don’t have time to listen to you, praise God and ask him to help you persevere.

 

Jesus said, “My time is arrived where My body will be given and My blood seen”.  All the disciples ran away.  He was tortured for many hours where He was alone and He had to endure.  Sometimes people tell you persevere but you feel that you can’t take it anymore.  Their encouragement to persevere will become a discouragement.  Jesus told us that sometimes you call God for help and He won’t answer or intervene at that time.  As Jesus said, “Why have You have forsaken me,” He is asking God, where are You? 

 

Your problems will sometimes make you doubt God exists, “where is He, I can’t see Him, He doesn’t answer my problem”.  That is the way God is baking you to make your inside soft and edible.  You go through difficult times (fire) so your body gets the proper heat and then everyone will choose your inside.  People will say, “He is a nice guy” about you.

 

If people described you in two words, you might be shocked.  Some will hammer you while you believe you are a good person because they only see the outside which is not well cooked.  When you are cooking bread and the bread is not ready, if you put your finger on the bread, it will go through the bread because it is not well cooked.  Yet, if the outside accepts to get burnt by the fire then all will be perfect on the inside.  But we don’t want that.  We want the inside to get cooked so the outside can look beautiful.  God allows temptations on the outside. 

 

If you are given money you will be happy and call it a blessing.  But money can sometimes be a curse.  Apreacher was saying he got $140M and IRD asked for tax, the bank needed insurance. You have money but you have to pay for money again.  The more money I have, the more I lose.  The money decreased while he wasn’t even using it.  Money is not a blessing.

 

God gave us a soul to look after.  The only way to be ready on day of resurrection is to accept your body to go through fire.  If you can’t say no to satan or temptation and you can’t persevere, then your soul will perish.  That will be your responsibility. 

 

Many people when they eat bread will use jam.  Some will use honey or margarine.  They will believe bread requires something else.  Sometimes those things will make the bread lose its taste.  You can have your soul and body and when you add on top of it, it will start to lose taste and God who sees the inside will start to worry.  That’s when you hear people say, “In my church we don’t believe the Old Testament is a part of the Word of God.  The Old Testament is only for the old time.” Yet the New Testament says that God is the same God that is there yesterday, today and forever.  Some people will say according to my culture, or God will understand, I’m human but God also understands He created you in His image and you are His son/daughter.

 

Ange, if I were to tell you to give me the life of your daughter or give me a bag of jewellery, what would you answer. You’ll give me the bag of jewellery because you love your child.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. He had a choice between keeping Jesus and saving the world.  Look how big God’s love is to give His only son to die for you.  When you speak to God, you tell Him to shut up you are busy.  Our lives are very short and we are called to look after our bread.  My body is small and easy to manage.  If you decide not to sin, you won’t.  If you decide to read bible, you will read it.  When people are sick in hospital they will make effort to listen to God.  Do you make yourself listen to God or do you tell him you are too tired?

Communion message

Communion message

 

By Odon Bulamba

 

Mathew 26: 2; 24:26,

Who should we believe?  Jesus before he left, he picked up the bread and blessed it and then broke it and said, “Remember this, this is my body.  Do this in remembrance of me.  This is my cup, do this to remember me”. 

 

Because we forget sometimes, Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.  Because people sometimes invite us to the wrong place and say Jesus is here, we get mixed up and that is why Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.  Sometimes we read the bible and we don’t understand it and it’s because we forget to remember the signs God gave us.  That is why Jesus tells us to come to communion to remember.

 

Luke 24: 2.  The disciples of Jesus were walking and suddenly Jesus was walking among them and they could not recognize Him because their eyes were covered. When the men with Jesus reached their home, it was time now to have dinner.  He took the bread and blessed it and after blessing it he broke it.  After breaking it, small pieces fell off from the bread and at that moment their eyes were opened.  They recognized Jesus and remembered their lord. 

 

You have to remember how Jesus blessed the bread and how he broke it.  The way Jesus broke the bread was unique and that is why those two disciples remembered Him.  They remembered the way He broke bread.  What do you remember? Do you only remember Jesus sitting at the table?  That is not enough because sitting with Jesus was not enough to recognize Him.  It wasn’t until the bread was broken.

 

1 Cor 12:27.  We are the body of Jesus.  “Lord I want to be broken, break me as you broke that bread, break my arrogance, my attitude”.  When you break the bread, you can see the inside which looks different and soft compared to the outside.  It also smells good and tastes yummy compared to outside.  Many only eat the inside and not the outside because flies can land on the outside.  When Jesus breaks you and me, this is what should be seen.  Ask your lord now to break you if you are a part of the body of Jesus.  It might hurt because some types of bread are really tough and hard to break but tell Jesus you want to be broken.

 

Then Jesus disappeared, and the bread was broken only in front of two not thousands.  Jesus may only choose to reveal the true meaning of bread to some.

 

Then the disciples said He was alive but many thought the body was stolen from the tomb.  Thomas testified the Jesus that we broke the bread with today is a different Jesus to the one we saw before the cross.  He is an “alive” Jesus and not a dead Jesus.  If I am a part of this body, I am alive with him.  Because Jesus is not a part of the dead, I should also not be a part of the dead.  I should be alive with Him. 

 

This is the body given to you in order to be broken.  The body that you have, has to be broken.  That is why Paul says in Corinthians, if you are a sinner do not eat the bread because if you do, you might become sick or die.  Let’s pray for God to make us ready first.

 

Then Jesus said the wine represents His blood, take it in order to remember.  The blood of Jesus is to remove our sins.  The blood of Jesus.  Imagine if I said brother Peter, we have to eat your flesh and drink your blood.  The police will come and call us cannibals.

Can you eat flesh of brother Peter?  No I will run away.  But for Jesus, He approaches us to say this is just a symbol and you have to understand the meaning of eating my body and drinking my blood.  The world may misunderstand/misinterpret it and think it is crazy but there is power behind it to bring healing from sin.

 

Before Jesus broke the bread, He blessed it first.  Even if you are going through hardship with problems, God has made you sick, or poor or rejected, remember He blessed you first.  Although I am going through this, I am blessed, although I am suffering I am blessed.

 

Ask God to break you.  Galations 5: tell god which fruit of the flesh you have and ask God to break those from you.

Communion

By Hayley Boud

Mathew 26:26-28

If we look at the physical attributes of bread and wine, we are able to find something spiritual for our lives.

Bread is tasty to eat but it's only tasty when it's fresh. Bread represents the Word of God which is always fresh, it never gets old - it is relevant for us today. But we need to eat it while it is still fresh for our lives. We shouldn't wait until tomorrow thinking it will be a better time to leat it. We have to accept the Word that God gives to us today. We can't decide to listen to that Word another day because it might be too late. Sometimes God speaks through my conscience and I try to ignore it and if I ignore it for too long, I'll miss the opportunity for God to help me. The bread will become hard and so will my heart. Communion is also relevant for today and very important for our lives.

In the old testament, the bread had to be unleaven, meaning it had no yeast in it. The yeast represents the impurities and therefore it is very important before to take the bread of communion and before to read the Word of God, to be sure that we are pure. It only takes a few seconds to analyze ourselves. And when our conscience speaks; listen, repent. Remember God wants us to say sorry to the person we have offended before we say sorry to Him.

Bread is a staple food. Many people eat it as a meal, especially at lunch time because it is filling. The Word of God should also be a staple part of our spiritual diet. Communion should be too. When I'm hungry, I eat breat and feel satisfied and so does our soul when we eat the Word of God and take communion.

Bread also smells good, especially when we are hungry. As soon as I smell it, I feel the need to eat it. My mouth starts to water and my tummy starts to rumble. Do I also have that same feeling with the Word of God? Do I hunger for it? Do I feel that desire to take communion?

When I eat bread too quickly, it gets stuck in my throat and it actually hurts quite a bit. Sometimes we need to slow down when reading the Word of God, and meditate on it and we should also slow down when taking communion and think about the importance of what we are doing. The Word of God should stick in us, and it should sometimes hurt a little. The Word of God is a double edged sword so it must cut us.

Wine represents the blood of Jesus and we all know that life is in the blood. If I cut myself and bleed until there is no more blood, I will die which means blood contains life. Without Jesus Christ, we die spiritually and without communion we die in a way also because communion helps us to stop and examine ourselves which helps us to stay alive in faith and remain close to God.

In order to examine ourselves we need the Word of God which is a double-edged sword that cuts us. It must produce blood because life is in the blood. If the Word of God doesn't cut us and if it doesn't produce blood, then we won't have life.

Jesus said whenever we are gathered together we must share His bread and remember Him. Whenever we meet with others, we need to share the Word the Word of God, even in our daily conversation and use the Word to encourage each other to produce life in us (blood = wine).

I remember one time I was extremely upset about something and I started to tell a friend but before I finished, that friend told me a verse in the Bible that didn't even relate to the problem I was facing. I was annoyed and said, "Why did you tell me a verse? Why can't you just sympathise with me?" . He answered, "Because I don't want you to sin so I'm distracting you with the Word of God so you can focus on something that will help you but if I talk more about your situation or ask you more questions, you will feel worse and complain and your complaints will be sin." I understood but I didn't like it. The Word of God isn't always want we want but it is always what we need so whenever we are together we must read the Word and speak the Word and remember Jesus and get life from it.

This is the same with communion - it's not always what we feel like but it is always what we need.

So before to take the bread and wine of communion, take some time to think about it's significance and make sure to be ready through repentance.