House of Bread

House of Refuge

House of Mercy

House of Bread

Who we are, what we should do.

union of God's work and human agency

union of Divine mercy and human charity

(Being and Doing)

John 6:35 ESV

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.-John 6:35

Have you ever made fresh bread or been in a house where someone has? I’ll bet I can make you hungry merely by suggesting such wonderful food. Can you smell it? It smells so moist that it seems to emanate a bread cloud over your head, ready to rain down a gustatory experience of biblical proportions. The air is so thick with flavor that you believe you can reach up to it, grab some, and stuff it in your salivating mouth.

“Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” John 6:5

John 6:5 ESV

Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

“Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

They looked around a five barley loaves and two fish John 6:8

Matthew 26:26 (ESV)

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “TAKE AND EAT; this is my body.”

take it and eat it

The Christians in your life are really fellow table guests, all hopefully on the way to the same great feast, and your conversation with them is to be the holy table talk of the saints.

Keep before you the smell and taste of fresh bread, for the way you desire fresh bread is the way you must desire the True Bread.

you are made into a bakery of Christ

Bread is one of life’s most common things, and without it man would not survive. God wanted his Son to be “common” in the sense that He is available to all. Without Him, there is no life.—Brian Atwood

Bethlehem

The following three Bethlehem moments included a birth, a marriage and a death,

It is where Jesus and David were born

David craved the water of Bethlehem: 2 Samuel 23:14-16, 1 Samuel 17:12, 14-15

It is the place where Boaz married Ruth: Ruth 2:4-6

It is the place where Rachel is buried

House of Refuge

House of Mercy

House of Bread

House of Refuge

House of Mercy

House of Bread:

Have you ever made fresh bread or been in a house where someone has? I’ll bet I can make you hungry merely by suggesting such wonderful food. Can you smell it? It smells so moist that it seems to emanate a bread cloud over your head, ready to rain down a gustatory experience of biblical proportions. The air is so thick with flavor that you believe you can reach up to it, grab some, and stuff it in your salivating mouth.

Bread is one of life’s most common things, and without it man would not survive. God wanted his Son to be “common” in the sense that He is available to all. Without Him, there is no life.—Brian Atwood

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.-John 6:35

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

The following three Bethlehem moments included a birth, a marriage and a death,

It is where Jesus and David were born

David craved the water of Bethlehem: 2 Samuel 23:14-16, 1 Samuel 17:12, 14-15

It is the place where Boaz married Ruth: Ruth 2:4-6

It is the place where Rachel is buried

Bethlehem (the House of Bread) to be the Prince of Peace, the Shepherd to the lost flock, and the Bread of Life:

“We’re coming right back to the beginning, right back to that image and likeness business. We know well what the image is, even though it is beyond us, but we know so little of the likeness, of becoming more and more like God. God has made a way, though.”

The Spirit comes and dwells. The presence of God dwells within us. We become tabernacles, the ark within us in a spiritual sense as the ark was in Mama Mary, who brought Jesus into the world. We too are bringing Jesus into the world.

God is glorified and made known in the world. Paul is saying you and I are the living, breathing, walking-around places where God’s presence dwells and is made known

No longer do we meet God in the tent of a tabernacle or the great stone structure of a temple. In the person of Jesus Christ God is right here, the ark walking around, in our midst.

For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt…” Deuteronomy 23:3-4, NIV

“When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.” Ruth 1:6, NIV

Interestingly, the ‘food’ being referred to here is a translation of the word “bread” in the original. Naomi can now return to the ‘house of bread” because there is “bread” in that house again

take it and eat it

The Christians in your life are really fellow table guests, all hopefully on the way to the same great feast, and your conversation with them is to be the holy table talk of the saints.

Keep before you the smell and taste of fresh bread, for the way you desire fresh bread is the way you must desire the True Bread.

you are made into a bakery of Christ

The little dots are the vowels. The big letters are the consonants. So we are a “house of bread.” Oh, that people might always feed on Christ the living Bread when they come to Bethlehem! Might we all be nourished not only by natural bread, but “by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3)! But yes by natural bread too, as in the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). an we be a people with hearts large enough to embrace with gratitude both the scholarly enterprise and the simple joy of breaking bread together? What a great example we would be!