Men As Christ (MAC) / Jesus’ Digest and the Little Bird

Men As Christ (MAC) is an international Christian Faith Group that shares the Word of God with people around the world in over 57 countries on 6 continents. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text below belong solely to the Author, and not necessarily to the Author’s employer, organization, committee or any other group or individual.

John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

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When we think about the word “digest”, we are often thinking about the verb form of the word where we’ve ingested something and our bodies are trying to break-down a particular food in our digestive systems. The Jews thought about Jesus’ body and blood as food references. But, Jesus wasn’t only referring to the verb form of “digest; He was also referring to the noun form which means “a compilation or summary of material or information”. He was calling for a focus on God and His Word and they were only focused on something possibly in the realms of cannibalism. Much like not seeing Jesus as the Promised Messiah (because He wasn’t a militarily-clad, warrior King ready to vanquish the Romans; but, instead wore sandals, simple clothes, and looked just like them), their lack of Faith had produced in them a veil to seeing Something (and Someone) Infinitely Better. In essence, they got too close to their own focus (their forests) to be able to see God’s Blessings (the Trees in the forest). How often do we do that? We are so consumed with our daily struggles and challenges that we often fail to see Christ in them; the “Good” in them. Our adventures in this world are “Good” adventures, because God has a plan for each and every one of us. The work we toil with in life is a “Good” work. I once heard a story about a little bird who was so upset with the unending rain that they became a bit disheartened. The little bird just felt miserable for weeks on end as the rain continued to fall each day. The little bird thought that the world might never see the sun again. Finally, the little bird’s Mother asked what was troubling the little bird. The little bird shared, “Momma, I don’t think that we’ll ever see the sun again.” The Mother suggested that they take a flight together. They continued higher and higher and higher than they had ever flown before. The rain was so heavy and the wind was so strong that the little bird wasn’t sure that it could make it any higher. Eventually, the Mother and the little bird made it to just above the storm clouds where light was streaming radiantly from the sun. It was just breath-taking; sun-light and blue skies as far as their eyes could see. It was at this point that the Mother bird shared, “You see, little bird, the sun was always with us shining above even when all that we could see were the clouds and the rain.” No matter what you’re going through, remember that the Son (Sun) is always there shining inside of you. Christ lives in those who are Faithful, so we need to continue to pray, love, read our Bibles, etc. and trust that the God of the universe is always there with us – even if we can’t see Him directly. And, never forget what Jesus told us in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

To learn more about Men As Christ, please click here. Please feel free to share this article with others and have them send me a LinkedIn message if they would like their e-mail addresses added to our weekly blog distribution list. Also, if there is anything that we can pray for you, please send me a message and we'll add you to our prayer list. For those local to Atlanta, our MAC Group in ATL will be taking the Summer Season off. Our next MAC meeting in ATL will be in September (9/26; please reach-out to me separately for the details or see our weekly meetings material on our website). In His Love - Gregg