Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube version with images and lyrics from the group Sidewalk Prophets singing … Come To The Table … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, must open the door to our hearts every day and partake of God’s “bread of life” at His table of fellowship where our Savior gives us the sustenance of eternal life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 24:30-31 [NLT] … 30 As they [the 2 disciples traveling to Emmaus] sat down to eat, He [Jesus] took the bread and blessed it. Then He broke it and gave it to them. 31 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And at that moment He disappeared!
… Jesus reveals Himself to the two in the context of fellowship and breaking bread together.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 24:28-35 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus reveals Himself to two disciples on the road from the crucifixion to their home in Emmaus.
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Reference Passage : … John 6:32-35 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus teaches a crowd of followers about His role as the “bread of life.”
Reference Passage : … Revelation 3:20 [NLT] … 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
… Jesus always wants to have fellowship with His disciples; but we’ve got to open the door of our hearts as He knocks to enter and dine with us.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Patricia Raybon, uses a personal reflection of a local coffee house and compares it with how Jesus so desires to fellowship with us as His disciples. The ODB author writes … The coffeehouse in the town near my house is named Fika. It’s a Swedish word meaning to take a break with coffee and a pastry, always with family, co-workers, or friends. I’m not Swedish, yet the spirit of fika describes one thing I love most about Jesus—His practice of taking a break to eat and relax with others.
Scholars say Jesus’s meals weren’t random. Theologian Mark Glanville calls them “the delightful ‘second course’” of Israel’s feasts and celebrations in the Old Testament. At the table, Jesus lived what God had intended Israel to be: “a center of joy, celebration and justice for the whole world.”
How often Jesus, in attempting to show Himself as the true Messiah, used the context of being the “bread of life” or our “living water; and often used those elements to invite others to believe in Him. He did so with those two despondent disciples walking to Emmaus after the crucifixion when Jesus appeared to them, opened up the “bread of life,” that is, the Scriptures; and then in actually breaking bread with them, they recognized The Messiah in their midst (see highlight passage).
Oh how Jesus wants to break the “bread of life,” i.e., His word, and dine with us in fellowship (see Rev. 3:20 as He knocks every day on the door of our hearts to let Him in; but we’ve got to open the door. And when we do, coming to His table of life, as the Sidewalk Prophets sing in the linked song, He will share His bread of life and the essence of Whom He is with us.
That’s why you find me here each morning, starting my day by breaking the bread of life (God’s word) with my Savior; and I pray that all who read here will hear our Lord knocking each day to come in and break bread with Him.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for inviting me to share Your bread of life here daily.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to open the door of our hearts daily and come to our Lord’s table to share His bread of life. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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