Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Keep me hungry, dear LORD, for the only Bread that can fulfill, sustain, and give life. Keep my heart hungry for Jesus, my Bread of Life. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

Some Jews began to complain about Jesus. They complained because Jesus said, "I am the bread that comes down from heaven." The Jews said, "This is Jesus. We know his father and mother. Jesus is only Joseph's son. How can he say, 'I came down from heaven'?" But Jesus said, "Stop complaining to each other. The Father is the One who sent me. And the Father is the One who brings people to me. I will raise up those people on the last day. If the Father does not bring a person to me, then that person cannot come to me. It is written in the prophets : 'God will teach all the people.' People listen to the Father and learn from him. Those people come to me. I don't mean that anyone has seen the Father. The only person that has ever seen the Father is the One that came from God. That person has seen the Father. I tell you the truth. If a person believes, then that person has life forever. I am the bread that gives life. Your ancestors ate the manna (food) God gave them in the desert. But it didn't keep them from dying. Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. If a person eats this bread, he will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a person eats this bread, then that person will live forever. This bread is my body. I will give my body so that the people in the world can have life." Then the Jews began to argue among themselves. They said, "How can this man give us his body to eat?" Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. You must eat the body of the Son of Man. And you must drink his blood. If you don't do this, then you don't have real life in you. The person that eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise up that person on the last day. My body is true food. My blood is true drink. If a person eats my body and drinks my blood, then that person lives in me, and I live in that person. The Father sent me. The Father lives, and I live because of the Father. So the person that eats me will live because of me. I am not like thebread that our ancestors ate {in the desert}. They ate that bread. But, {like all people}, they died. I am the bread that came down from heaven. The person that eats this bread will live forever." Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in the city of Capernaum.

Related Scripture Readings

We tell you now about something that has existed (lived) since before the world began: This we heard, we saw with our own eyes, we watched, we touched with our hands. We write to you about the Word (Christ) that gives life. That Life was shown to us. We saw it. We can give proof about it. Now we tell you about that Life. It is Life that continues forever. This is the Life that was with God the Father. God showed this Life to us. Now we tell you the things that we have seen and heard. Why? Because we want you to have fellowship together with us. The fellowship we share together is with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

The teaching that I gave you is the same teaching that I received from the Lord: On the night when Jesus was given to be killed, he took bread and gave thanks for it. Then he divided the bread and said, "This is my body; it is for you. Eat this to remember me." In the same way, after they ate, Jesus took the cup of wine. Jesus said, "This wine shows the new agreement {from God to his people}. This new agreement begins with my blood (death). When you drink this, do it to remember me." Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you make known the Lord's death until he comes.

Then Jesus took some bread. He thanked God for the bread and divided it. He gave it to the apostles. Then Jesus said, "This bread is my body that I am giving for you. Eat this to remember me."

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