Day by Day

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"Serving the Good Shepherd and His Sheep"

"I am the Good Shepherd." John 10:11
   

In southern Missouri lives a woman whose main work is shepherding. Raising sheep, she said, "has full-time aspects." When lambs are due to be born, the owner must be there. Sometimes as many as ten lambs are born at Christmas time, cutting down on her holiday season.

In biblical times, women were involved in sheep care. We read that the daughters of a man named Reuel, in the land of Midian, led the flocks to water, with the shepherds sometimes bothering them. One day they were assisted by a refugee from Egypt, and this led to the marriage of Zipporah, one of the daughters, to the benefactor, Moses (see Exodus 2:11-21).

While shepherds were watching their sheep, as at the birth of Jesus, we can well imagine that their wives were giving loving, tender care to ailing sheep and lambs at home.

Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep. In John chapter 10 He stresses in what sense He is the ultimate care-taking Shepherd: "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). He adds that He has the power to do this and to take up His life again with His resurrection. Before ascending into heaven, He appointed under-shepherds, the apostles, who in turn trained successors to nourish Christ's flock with the Word of God. Through the centuries pious men were called and ordained by congregations to continue the work.

Faithful women have been active in the flock, serving their Lord by teaching and befriending especially the young in church, school, and home. They walk in the footsteps of pious women who followed Jesus, ministered to His needs, and shared the Gospel with others. They were the last to leave the cross on Good Friday and the first at the empty tomb on Easter.

Christ's richest blessings rest on women today who serve as shepherdesses among His people.

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"The Debts are Paid"

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Galatians 3:13
   

What shall a country do when prisons overflow with convicts? It is said that England, by the year 1789, had deported to Australia 160,000 people with prison records. Some had been imprisoned because they couldn't pay their debts. In the new world they could get another start.

Spiritually speaking, all persons since the time Adam and Eve fell into sin have been in need of forsaking the past and starting life with a clean slate. All had made many debts by their sins against God's moral law, the Ten Commandments. Saint Paul states that "the written code, with its regulations" (Colossians 2:14), was against them. We were all head-over-heels in debt. And none of us could ever make restitution for our wrongdoing. Jesus made this clear in His parable of a man who owed his employer 10,000 talents. Even if his wife and children were sold into slavery, he could never repay. This is the situation of every sinner in relation to a holy God.

How does God deal with His debtors? He has a better plan than to export them to Australia. He doesn't want to banish them from His sight or to exile them to a planet where living conditions would be severe. Instead of sending them away to work out their own salvation, He sent His Son into the world and made Him the consummate Debtor in behalf of us all. With the price of His own blood, Jesus Christ paid for all our debts and set us free. No second payment, either by the Savior or by us, will ever be demanded. The written code is fulfilled, and the debts are canceled. This is what faith in the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ does.

The apostle states what the Christian's response to God's grace should be: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness" (Colossians 2:6). Surely this is also how we react.

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"Christian Virtues"

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
   

Seven is a holy number in the Bible. The prophet Isaiah refers to the seven gifts of the Spirit (Isaiah 11:2-3). Wisdom is said to have seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1). The writer of Proverbs lists seven sins that the Lord detests (Proverbs 6:16-19). These references may have been the basis for the medieval church's distinction between the seven vices and seven virtues.

From another religious source--from Maimonides, a Spanish rabbi of long ago--comes this: "A judge must have these seven qualifications: wisdom, humility, fear of God [reverence], disdain of gain, love of truth, love of his fellowmen, and a good reputation."

These are qualities everyone should have, whatever his or her station in life might be. Wisdom: "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15); Humility: "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another" (1 Peter 5:5); Reverence: "Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (Hebrews 12:28); Avoidance of Covetousness: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have" (Hebrews 13:5); Love of truth: "Whatever is true, ... whatever is right ... think about such things" (Philippians 4:; Love of fellowmen: "Keep on loving each other as brothers" (Hebrews 13:1); Good conduct and reputation: "Conduct yourselves in a manor worthy of the Gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27).

These qualities are the fruit of faith, or the "fruit of the Spirit." This tells us how they are acquired. How different they are from the world's "morality." The latter have been compared to gilded nuts serving as Christmas tree decorations. Christian virtues are real; they result from Christ-centered faith and life. He who is our Savior from sin and the Enabler of the new life in Christ declares: "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit" (John 15:5).

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"Speaking Clearly"

"If I want him [John] to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me." John 21:22
   



"Reading from the same page" is an expression often used to point out the need for two (or more) persons to make sure that in the conversation they are talking about the same thing. No agreement can be reached when one is talking about apples and the other about oranges.

This is also true in religious discussions. The Bible records gross misunderstandings made by people who were not, so to speak, "reading from the same page." For example, Jesus was speaking about His forthcoming death and bodily resurrection when He said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days" (John 2:19). Some of His hearers, however, understood that as a reference to the temple building in Jerusalem. Again, when after His resurrection Jesus had a private talk with Peter, the subject of John's future came up. Our Lord had said that John would stay alive until His coming again "if I want him to remain" (John 21:23). The "if" is important. But Peter was not "reading from the same page." He thought that Jesus had said that John would never die, and this rumor prevailed for a while.

We do well to bear in mind that we can avoid unpleasant misunderstandings by always being clear in our words, especially when we talk about religion or matters of the Christian faith. The prophets of old, the psalmists, and then Jesus and the apostles set us examples in clarity of expression. They tell us the truths of salvation in clear language. Here is an example, both as to the statement of true doctrine and as to the exclusion of error: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When we all study the Holy Scriptures carefully, hearing, reading, marking, learning, and digesting them inwardly, we will understand ourselves much better when we speak to one another. We will be "reading from the same page."

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"When God Blesses Cities"

Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire. Isaiah 1:7
   

The play "Brigadoon," by Lerner and Loewe, is pure fantasy. It is about two New Yorkers on vacation who come to a most strange Scottish city. In the 18th century it vanished under a religious spell. But every 100 years it allegedly comes to life for a day, shows itself as it was then, and disappears again.

The Bible speaks of two cities that disappeared from the face of the earth by fire and brimstone: Sodom and Gomorrah. They will never appear again because the Dead Sea covers the sites. Saint Jude writes in his epistle that they perished because of "sexual immorality and perversion" (Jude 7). Saint Peter adds that God "made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). Unlike Brigadoon, they were not imaginary cities but were very real--real in their sinfulness, and real was God's judgment on them.

In a certain sense Sodom and Gomorrah live on, not only because the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament, makes mention of them but also because their sins continue in other cites. Jesus said of the cities of His time--Capernaum, Korazin, Bethsaida--that a greater judgment awaited them than did Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, because they rejected the ministry of the very Son of God (Matthew 11:21-24).

Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians that the Scriptures were written for our learning and warning. We are not to repeat the sins that displease God and arouse His anger. Sodom and Gomorrah are long gone, but some of their sister cities live in the same iniquities.

The Scripture teaches us, too, that communities where righteousness prevails and God is honored are blessed. All the truths written in the Bible give us endurance, encouragement, and hope because they bear witness to Jesus Christ, God's own sacrifice for the sins of all (Romans 15:4).

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"Good Works Should Be Well Done"

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. Colossians 3:23
   

On an October day in 1989 the communist regime of China executed 18 factory managers in a rice paddy while 500 plant workers watched. The charge: They had done "shabby work."

A church theologian stated years ago that Christians should not only do good works but do them well. God is not pleased with careless, half-hearted efforts, especially when they result in the loss of customers or the disadvantage of employers. The Ecclesiastes writer declares, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Jesus applied Himself diligently to His assignments, saying, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working" (John 5:17). Again, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). The great work the Father had assigned to Jesus, His incarnate Son, was the making of restitution for the sin of the world. He endured death on the cross to do it.

The apostles, following the example of Jesus, worked faithfully as His ambassadors. They instructed their followers to do likewise and to avoid sloth. Saint Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men" (Ephesians 6:7). He told the Colossians to work faithfully "not only when their [masters'] eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord" (Colossians 3:22).

"Shabby work," while it certainly does not call for a Chinese-style execution, is not for Christians. The latter strive for excellence because they are the followers of Jesus, of whom the people said, "He has done everything well" (Mark 7:37), and they are the children of the heavenly Father who, on surveying His creation, declared it to be "very good" (Genesis 1:31).

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"Love Surpasses Knowledge"

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding. Colossians 2:2
   

People may have wondered why stations along the Kettle Valley Railroad in rugged British Columbia bore names like Juliet, Romeo, Iago, Portia, or King Lear. Andrew McCulloch, the chief engineer during the 1910-16 building era, was an ardent student of Shakespeare. With entertainment not available in these lonely places, McCulloch amused the workers in the evenings by reciting from the writings of the British bard.

It is good to be more than a one-dimensional person. One purpose of education is to broaden one's interest in things beyond one's immediate job.

Saint Paul, in all humility and in due recognition of God's enabling grace, called himself an "expert builder" who laid a foundation on which others could build. As a spiritual "Andrew McCulloch" he entered the rugged regions of the pagan world and built a road for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A man strong in the Christian faith, he was also strong in knowledge, laying all his talents at the foot of Christ's cross. He knew the Greek Philosophers and poets, quoting them several times in his epistles.

The apostle wanted his young trainees to continue their education through reading. He writes to Timothy, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). All the while Saint Paul was telling the Ephesians--and is telling us today--"to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Just to know Shakespeare gets no one to heaven, but to know the One in whom also Shakespeare professed faith--Jesus Christ as Savior--does.

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"Jesus is the Way"

Jesus answered, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." John 14:6
   

Big cities have their main streets: Michigan Avenue in Chicago, St. Catherine Street in Montreal, Kalakaus Avenue in Honolulu. In many places where the early Spaniards were we find a main road called "Camino Real," or the King's Highway. Rome had its Via Appia on which Saint Paul traveled on his last trip to Rome. Christians from the city came out to meet him and his group at the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns.

On what important streets or highways have you traveled? In doing so, your destination may have been your parents' home, or a vacation site, or a place of doing business. You began with the prayer that God would grant you a safe journey. The plans you made allowed for changes. Saint James writes, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. ...Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" (James 4:13-15).

Of all the important roads we may travel, none surpasses the way that leads to eternal life with God in heaven. It is the "camino real," the heavenly King's Highway. It is the road on which Jesus traveled when He returned to the Father. When our Lord spoke of this, Thomas asked, "Lord, we don't know where You are going, so how can we know the way?" (John14:5). Jesus had a ready reply. He Himself could directly approach the Father, but as far as we are concerned, He Himself is the Way to the Father. All of Holy Scripture is our spiritual road map showing that the only road to heaven is faith in the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ. It is for us to check our road map often, to make sure that we are on the right road.

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"Christ, Our True Treasure"

"Whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it." Mark 8:35
   

A ship, sailing from Panama to New York in 1857, was carrying gold prospectors from California. It was overtaken by a storm and began to sink. One man, with a fortune in his carpetbag, left it behind and saved his life. Another prospector found it impossible to abandon his gold, and he drowned.

Many important decisions have to be made in life. These involve not only material things, forcing a choice, perhaps, between investing in real estate or in a business. They also may involve lifestyles--whether to marry or to stay single, to live in a city or on a farm, studying to become a teacher or a nurse.

The ultimate choice has to do with life itself, whether to devote it to Christ or to mammon, to God or to gold. It is of utmost importance to devote oneself to the truths of God's Word, for a life thus lived is worth far more than all the wealth of the world. Our natural, or physical, life is a gift from the Creator and is to be valued as such. But besides our bodies we are endowed with immortal souls, inclusive of intelligence, speech, talents, and other mental and spiritual gifts from God. Human beings are thus set aside from other creatures of God. We are the special objects of His love.

Because of sin, however, whether greed, evil lust, pride, or desire for power, people are inclined to bargain away their lives in service to Satan and the sinful self. To prevent people from choosing the broad and easy way that leads to destruction, God prepared another way. He sent His Son into the world, not only to enlighten us as to life values but to release us from bondage to sin. Through Christ's redemption he set us free to be His servants, yes, His redeemed children and heirs of eternal life. By faith in Jesus Christ we are enabled to choose what is good, to lead fruitful lives, and to glorify God on the road from earth to heaven.

No treasure--certainly not a carpetbag full of gold--is greater than life in Christ, for He redeemed us not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood.

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"God, Our Provider"

He [Messiah] has taken me to the banquet hall, and His banner over me is love. Song of Songs 2:4
   

Henry Shaw was a successful businessman in St. Louis. He set aside funds for beautiful Shaw's Garden. He also provided for a special service to be held annually in the church he attended. There was to be a sermon "on the wisdom and goodness of God as shown in the growth of flowers, fruits, and other products of the vegetable kingdom."

The same truth, on a smaller scale, is stressed in our houses of God. On special festivals and on ordinary Sundays flowers adorn our altars. On occasion, perhaps on Thanksgiving Day, food is brought to church for distribution to the hungry. These fruits of fields and gardens testify to the goodness of God as our Provider.

In the Old Testament the Israelites, by divine direction, were to observe festivals to the glory of God. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread a sheaf of the first harvested barley was presented to the Lord to consecrate the opening of the harvest season. Then came the Feast of Harvest, or Pentecost, marking the close of the wheat harvest. Loaves of bread baked from the first wheat flour were offered to God. These were basically religious festivals, not like secular county fairs. All male members over 12 years of age were to be present in Jerusalem for the celebrations. Jesus participated in these festivals.

New Testament Christians want every Sunday--every day, in fact--to be a time of thanksgiving to God for His goodness in providing for us through the products of the soil and through other gifts. They are especially thankful for the greatest gift of all--Jesus Christ, His Son and our Savior. Through Him comes our eternal salvation.

Indeed, "Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands, Robed in flowers of blooming spring." But "Jesus is fairer and purer." In His great love for us He gave up His life that we might have eternal life.

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"On the Wings of the Wind"

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12
   

From time immemorial people have wished they could fly like the birds. Ancient legend has it that Daedalus, a Greek craftsman, and his son Icarus escaped from prison by attaching wings to themselves. In the Bible, the psalmist speaks of flying "on the wings of the dawn" and settling "on the far side of the sea" (Psalm 139:9), convinced of God's presence there, too. The prophet Isaiah says of those who hope in the Lord: "They will soar on wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31).

The time came when the dream began to come true. In 1908, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilber Wright ushered in the age of flight by flying their motored craft 45 miles in an hour and a quarter.

The airplane is a combination of wonderful inventions. It is being used in the service of the Gospel. In northern regions God's messengers use small planes to serve people spiritually in out-way-the-way places.

It is good and right to use the media of transportation and communication to bring God's saving Word to people wherever they are. In their day, the apostles used ships to preach Christ in faraway places. Saint Paul was a world traveler by land and sea. From his many sea travels he learned much about ships and the forces that affect them: wind and water. During his last voyage to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar, he gave advice to the captain and crew before, during, and after a disastrous storm. He made use of whatever vehicles were then available to proclaim Christ and Him crucified.

Like the apostles, and like Christians through the centuries, we use the means that God puts at our disposal to bear witness to the same message that Saint Peter proclaimed: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). That is the name of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior.

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"The Old Rugged Cross"

But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 1:23
   

Once there was a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck. It was pretty and had found a special place over her heart. Things would have stayed that way, except that one day she was approached by a man—one of those crabby kinds of guys that, thank heaven, you don’t meet very often. The man said, with acid in his voice: “Young lady, I imagine you think Jesus died on a cross for you. If He did, and I’m not saying He did, I don’t think that cross was pretty like the one you’re wearing. It was an ugly wooden thing. I don’t think you should wear it as a piece of jewelry. After all, you wouldn’t wear a hangman’s noose or an electric chair around your neck, would you?”

That little girl, placed in a position far too personal for her to deal with, responded with respect: “Yes, sir, I do believe Jesus died for me on a cross. And I know that His cross would not have been as pretty as mine. But I also know, sir, what they told me in Sunday school.”

“And what was that?” the man queried. “In Sunday school, my teacher told me that whatever Jesus touches, He changes,” she answered. “I think that is true for this cross. I know that it’s true for me.”

That grouch was absolutely right. The cross upon which Jesus died to save us was not a pretty thing. It was rough and rude and crude. It was an instrument designed to give torment to the one who hung upon it. Even as the grouch was right about the horror of the cross, the little girl was right as well. The death of Jesus transformed an ancient instrument of torture into God’s means and symbol for the salvation His Son won for us at such a high cost.

Yet it is not just the old rugged cross that has been changed by Jesus’ life, suffering, and death. The power of His redeeming, forgiving sacrifice transforms all who are called to believe on Him in faith. Christians, whose souls were once blackened by sin, are by the washing of Baptism, made white as snow. We who once were lost and without a family are—through the cleansing of Jesus’ blood—found and adopted into God’s family of faith.

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"God's Word Is the Truth"

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:13
   

To err is human. We see this from big mistakes made in the secular world: the Edsel car, named for Henry Ford's son; the changed flavor of Coca Cola; the Susan B. Anthony dollar issued by the U.S. mint.

People make mistakes also in the church at large and in local congregations. Missions are opened in unpromising communities, churches are built in wrong locations, investments are not wisely made. Where and when human beings, imperfect despite their commitment to Jesus Christ, are at work, errors in judgment can be expected. The Bible tells us this through many examples. Elijah erred when he thought he was the only one in Israel still true to the Lord in an age of apostasy. John and James were off base in asking Jesus whether they should invoke fire from heaven to consume an inhospitable Samaritan village. Saint Paul tells the Galatians that Saint Peter "was clearly in the wrong" when he refused to eat with Gentiles when Judaizers were around (see Galatians 2:11-12). Saint Paul himself erred on occasion--in the choice of co-workers, in wanting to preach in a region when the Spirit said no, in being subject to conceit and vanity because of God's special revelations to him. Also in Christendom today people can err when they follow their own wisdom in things spiritual.

The apostles, while they did occasionally err in everyday affairs, were totally truthful and correct when the Holy Spirit moved them in their oral preaching and their writings of the New Testament Scripture. When speaking as the oracles of God, they were guarded from error. The Old Testament Scripture and the words of Jesus to them that the Spirit brought back to their remembrance were the source, norm, and standard of the apostles' doctrine.

It is by the written Word, also today, that all who preach and teach in the church are to be examined. If they are found to be in agreement with Scripture, then they should be honored and faithfully followed because they proclaim Christ Jesus as the only Savior from sin. The "sola Scripture"--Scripture alone--emphasis of the Reformation keeps this truth before our eyes.

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"God Finds Lost People"

Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
   

In 1585, under the leadership of Sir Walter Raleigh, a colony was established on Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast. When supply ships came from England in 1590, no trace of the colonists could be found.

The story of people missing is nothing new. In 722 B.C. the ten tribes forming the kingdom of Israel were carried into the Assyrian captivity, and nothing more was heard of them. Looking for lost people also brought the Lord God in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had fallen into sin. They were not on hand, as usual, to welcome Him. Where were they? They were hiding among the trees of the garden because of guilty consciences.

The story of finding lost people is best told by Jesus Himself in the parable of the lost sheep. He tells how the shepherd looks for the sheep and, on finding it, carries it home on his shoulders with rejoicing (see Luke 15:4-6). The recovery of the lost is even more poignantly told in the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:4-6).

Why is the experience on Roanoke Island repeated? Our world is full of changes that bring about population shifts. Time was when Christianity flourished in northern Africa and other regions later taken over by another religion. In our cities, internal changes have caused once-flourishing congregations to disappear. Also in rural areas economic, social, and perhaps also weather changes have brought about dislocations. The former all-purpose 160-acre family farms have been absorbed into larger organizations. One can go to many areas in North America and find abandoned mills, mines, and ranches. Empty villages and burned-out inner cities raise the same question: Where are the people?

Adam and Eve tried to get lost in Eden. But God found them and promised them a Savior: the woman's Seed, none other than Jesus Christ the Messiah. He wrestled in another garden--in Gethsemane--as the Second Adam to redeem the first Adam and all his children. Instead of hiding, Jesus boldly went forward to meet the enemy so that, in the end, He might give His life for all. Now the lost are found.

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"Jesus, the Bread of Life"

"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land ... a famine of hearing the Words of the LORD." Amos 8:11
   

Overlooking Cobb Harbor on Ireland is a statue of a young mother and her two sons. It commemorates the many emigrants who had to leave their homeland because of potato famines, especially the one of 1847.

While physical famines are dreadful, they are superseded by the evil effects of the famine of the soul. The prophet Amos speaks of "a famine of hearing the words of the LORD" (Amos 8:11). It causes people to think more about God's Word as they seek help, for he writes, "Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the Word of the LORD, but they will not find it" (Amos 8:12).

Moses conceives of spiritually hungry people trying to "ascend into heaven to get it [God's Word]" and look for it "beyond the sea." Spiritually hungry people go to out-of -the-way places for the Word when all the while, writes Moses, "the Word is very near to you ... in your mouth and in your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:12-14). Today people also suffer spiritual starvation because they are ignorant of--or they outright reject--the Word of God that is so near to them, so near as the power switch of their radio and TV set.

As for earthly food, it abounds when crops are good. Then droughts come, causing people to starve or to emigrate to other lands. So it is with the Word of God, our spiritual bread. When the prophet Samuel was still a lad and ministered under Eli, we are told that "in those days the Word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions" (1 Samuel 3:1). Through the ministry of Samuel the situation was much improved. The Word then was plentiful. When God gives out His Word, whether in dewdrops or in deluges it will accomplish what He desires.

To alleviate spiritual hunger, God did the ultimate. He not only gave us His Word in words but also to the fullest extent in the person of His Son. Jesus Christ is the living, life-giving Word. He is the Bread from heaven come to nourish our souls in this life and to prepare the road to heaven for us by giving His life on the cross. Now it is not necessary for us to cross oceans to find Him: He is near us in the Gospel.