Thursday, January 1, 2009

Manna our Daily Bread (Part 1)


1) Exodus 12

2) John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

3) Matt 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.

4) Matt 6:31-33 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (KJV)
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Wishing you a Happy And Wonderful New Year! Bye Bye 2008, Hello 2009...

I took my family to Jakarta recently for a short holiday and stayed with a friend whom we have not seen for almost 8 years. She was a student at Monash University and attended the weekly Bible study meeting at my apartment in Melbourne.

We insisted for local Indonesian food as we wanted something than our usual diet. The local food was different and I enjoyed it - initially. But after a few days of those food, I begin to long for Malaysian food. This has prompted me to think about the Isaelites in the wilderness when they were led out of Egypt. There were murmurs and complaints that Moses and Aaron had to deal with the Israelites, particularly of their desire for Eqyptian food.

In the previous article, we have seen the importance of the Passover which implies redemption and regenerated life in Christ. In this posting, however, we are going to see God’s intention to change our constitution; that is, He intends to reconstitute us through change of diet.

Although the children of Israel had been redeemed and delivered, they were still Egyptian in their constitution. As far as constitution is concerned, there was no difference between them and the Egyptians. They were a composition of the Egyptian element, for they grew up in Egypt and were raised on the Egyptian diet of cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. Everything they ate was Egyptian. Like the children of Israel, we today have been delivered out of "Egypt", out of the world, but in our nature and constitution we are still worldly. Therefore, it is necessary for us to grasp the concept concerning the change of constitution.

Over a period of forty years in the desert, God gave the children of Israel nothing to eat except manna. No one knows the essence or element of manna. We only know that it daily came from the heavens. In John 6 we learn that this heavenly manna is a type of Christ. Christ came from God to be our diet, our daily bread. We need to eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him. We need a change in our inward constitution, not merely a change in our outward behavior. If we would have such an inward change, we need to have a change of food supply, for the food we eat is the source of our constitution. The more we eat Christ, the more we are like Christ. As God’s people today, we need to be reconstituted with Christ as our very element. In this way, we shall become Christ as far as our constitution is concerned. Through the change of diet, we receive the heavenly essence that reconstitutes us with Christ.

Praise the Lord! Christ is our daily bread, similar to the manna in the wilderness which was provided by God to the Isrealites on a daily basis.

2 comments:

DC said...

How important it is for us Christians to realise that we need to eat Christ!

In John 6:57, Jesus said, "As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me."

We are what we eat, as the saying goes. Having been regenerated/reborn of the divine life, we all need to grow by drinking the milk of the Word of God (1 Peter 2:2). This is the secret of growth in the Christian life: reading the Word of God every day, pray over it, consider it, think about it, muse upon it..letting the Word of God nourish our inner being. This is to "drink" the milk of the word. If we do this, then we will surely grow and mature in the Christian life.

May the Lord lead and guide us, build us up with the brothers and sisters in the church. And may the Lord bring us to full maturity as we eat His living word (Matt. 4:4).

Stephen Lim said...

Well said, brother. We are what we eat. The more we eat Christ, the more we are like Christ.

Therefore, to be fully constituted and be perfected, we need Christ daily.

He is the way, the truth and the life.......