The Living Grain

Yesterday I read something with Jennifer, it's from Genesis: when Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Joseph became the high ruler of Egypt and this is what he said to his brothers who came begging for food:

"Come close to me... I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! Now, do not be distressed... because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you... there has been a famine in the land and there will be no plowing or reaping. But God has sent me to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then it was not you who sent me here, but God." I am now, "ruler of all Egypt... Come down to me, don't delay. You shall live... and be near me... I will provide for you... otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute."

These are like the spiritual words of Christ to us all. He beckons us to come close to him. (Acts 17:27) We have sold intimacy and unity with Christ for money, power, jobs, relationships, love of the world, self gain, and on and on... He tells us this very day as Joseph did his brothers, 'there is a famine in the land and whatever you plant will not grow, whatever you eat will not fill you. As when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So it is today. You hope for a new home but once you get it, you are still not satisfied. You hope for intimacy, once you get it, you are not satisfied. You hope for that new job, once you get it, you are not satisfied. This is GODS plan. For it is Jesus alone who is ruler of all Egypt (sin) and if you come to Him. You WILL live. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will remain destitute. For He ALONE is the bread of life, as it is written: "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

Consider this, do you hunger? do you thirst? Christ has come that we might have life abundantly. This is the spiritual life, of which it is written: "I will dwell in them and walk among them..." "For of this you can be sure, that no sexually immoral, impure, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. Please don't get hung up on the first one, thinking "I'm not sexually immoral" so I'm all set. No, it's far deeper than that. Have you ever lusted after anything? Do you ever wish you could have something, anything, that you don't? If so, you are the covetous person, the idolator, which is the same as sexual immorality. If we want or value ANYTHING, then we are actually worshiping it. The worship of ANYTHING other than God is the evidence of the spiritual desert within our hearts.

We are ALL in the land of famine, and we need to come to get the spiritual Grain, the LIVING
Bread!