The current stress and strain of making a living has given rise to new levels of nervous, fussy, neurotic temperaments in our society. We are showing signs of increasing instability in our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual equilibrium. We are played out with business, pleasure and fatigued with formality & fashion.
In order to cope & combat we seem to be reaching out for some five hour like stimulant to spice us up and whip our jaded nerves into line just to make it through the day or week. I am concerned that we are not turning to Christ and the Gospel as our source of wholesome thinking & living but instead we are looking for the new religious "pick-me-up" get us by.
Recently I taught a series on The Lords Prayer. During this time I was deeply moved & convicted that this was far more than a prayer teaching but an actual model of the way Christ lived out His life. He said that we are to pray to the Father, "give us this day our daily bread". There is something very powerful about the daily bread... Jesus said that He was the "bread of life" in John 6:48 and He went on to say "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of he world".
And on the night He was betrayed, "...when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me". In remembrance involves more than just memory; the word suggests an "active calling to mind".
As we "actively call to mind" Christ death, burial & resurrection we are living by the Gospel.
The Gospel to the hungry becomes food, daily bread and a way of life rather than a medicine for temporary pain and pick-me-up.
"...The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel"
~ Mark 1: 15
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