The Bread of Life, John 6,1-71

9th Sunday after Pentecost

Shiloh Lutheran Church, State College PA

One of the people who helped me early in my Christian life was Francis Schaeffer, the founder of L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland; he ministered to young people who were struggling with their faith, and people I've talked to who knew him said he had a gift for compassionate listening and was able to help people who'd become disillusioned and given up hope on the Church. I never met him, but I heard him speak at a conference and read all of his books; they were exactly what I needed at that point in my life. In one of his printed sermons, Schaeffer said "We all tend to live ‘ash heap lives;' we spend most of our time and money on things that will end up in the city dump." Our lives are consumed with the things of this world. Most of our time and attention is focused on things that are one day going to be destroyed. Schaeffer describes, in that sermon, the excitement he felt at buying a new car, the first new car he had ever owned. He says he couldn't keep his eyes off it, and he wanted to keep it looking shiny and new. He was obsessed with it, initially. Have you ever had that experience? There's a sense of exhilaration that goes with buying something new, but that exhilaration quickly fades. So we find ourselves wanting to buy something else. And the process goes on and on. He was thrilled with his new car, but after a couple of days someone bumped into it and made a fairly large scratch on the side. He said that scratch completely changed his attitude about the car. He suddenly realized how fragile and unstable it was; it wasn't going to last. Someday it was going to end up in the junk yard, as scrap metal. This fallen world has been "subjected to frustration, and decay" as Paul says in Romans 8. Treasures here on earth are uncertain and unstable: "moth and rust destroy, and... thieves break in and steal." Earthly treasures aren't reliable.

We're constantly tempted, in this fallen world, to become completely engrossed in the things of this life. I've heard people say, "I don't have time to sit in church; I've got work to do;" or "Sunday is the only day I have to sleep late." Jesus, in the Parable of the Sower, talks about the seed that fell among weeds. It sprouted and started to grow, but it was eventually choked out by the weeds. This represents those who hear God's Word and believe it, but then the Word becomes choked by the cares and pleasures of this life. "Ash heap lives," lives that are totally consumed with things that are going to end up in the city dump, are lives that are being choked by the cares and pleasures of this world.

John is concerned, in this gospel, to tell us how to have eternal life. He's not trying to satisfy our curiosity about Jesus; his purpose is to preach the gospel, to tell us about the saving work God accomplished in sending His Son. He says that explicitly in chapter twenty: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (20:30-31). John's purpose is evangelistic. His intention in writing is to lead us to faith, so that by believing we might have eternal life.

Everything he records in his gospel has this purpose: to lead us to eternal life by believing the truth of the gospel. He gives us pictures of Jesus, descriptions from various angles and perspectives, all with the intention of leading us to eternal life. We see Jesus, earlier in this book, as the Word made flesh, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In the chapter we're studying today, Jesus is the Bread of Life, and there are other pictures later in the gospel. We experience eternal life by feeding on Jesus, the Bread that came down from heaven to give His flesh for the life of the world. Jesus describes eternal life in chapter 17: "and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Eternal life is found in communion with God and with Jesus Christ the Son. This is how we escape the cycle of ash heap living. We experience eternal life by feeding on Jesus, the Bread that came down from heaven. This morning we're going to look at three things that keep us from experiencing eternal life in all its fulness.

The first thing that keeps us from experiencing this eternal life is a limited perspective, an outlook on life that is confined to the things of this visible world. Jesus tells the people, in chapter 6, that their perspective is all wrong, that their expectations are bound by the limitations of this world. The two miracles at the beginning of this chapter set the tone for what He's going to say about the Bread of Life. It's helpful to know that John is presenting Jesus here as the New Moses: the feeding of the five thousand corresponds to the provision of manna in the wilderness; and Jesus' walking on water corresponds to the crossing of the Red Sea. John wants us to see Jesus as the prophet promised by Moses: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him" (Deut. 18:15). The people realized the significance of the first miracle: "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world" (v. 14). So Jesus withdrew into the mountain, because they were ready to make Him king by force. They understood the point of Jesus' miracle, but there was still something wrong.

The next day they sought Him out, but when they found Him Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life." They had experienced His miraculous provision, so they came to Him thinking He'd provide for them again. They believed in Him in a sense, but their faith was confined to the things He could do for them in this life. Several years ago, I heard a man speak about all the wonderful things that had happened to him since he became a Christian. He'd become a successful writer; he had a nice home in California, was involved in film making and had several celebrities who were personal friends. All because he had given his life to Jesus Christ. He was speaking to kids, and his was that if you follow Jesus He'll give you a successful and glamorous life. Apart from the fact that it usually doesn't work this way (it certainly didn't work that way for Jesus or any of the apostles), it's the wrong perspective. He wasn't asking for too much. He was asking for too many things that will come to nothing in the end. "Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last" (The Message). Having our perspective limited in this way keeps us from experiencing the eternal life Jesus offers, because it leads us to be satisfied with something less. We become so preoccupied with the things of this life that we just don't look for anything else.

The second thing that prevents us from experiencing eternal life is wrong expectations. After Jesus confronted the people with their limited perspective, they immediately cried out: "What must we do to do the works God requires?" What great thing can we do to please God? They expect Him to give them something important to do. There's a story in 2 Kings about a man named Naaman. Naaman was an important man, a commander in the army of the king of Aram. The king valued him as an officer in his army, and he was highly respected in the nation. But he had leprosy, so he was sent to Elisha, a prophet in Israel, to be healed. He arrived at the prophet's door with great expectations. But Elisha didn't even come out to greet him. Elisha didn't recognize his importance, didn't make a fuss over him. He sent a messenger, instructing Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan river. But that wasn't what he was looking for: "But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.... So he turned and went off in a rage" (2 Kings 5:11-12). Elisha's instructions weren't dramatic enough. They were too simple.

The people who are talking to Jesus are like this. They want something that they can do "to do the work that God requires." But Jesus directs them to the simplicity of faith: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." When Jesus tells them to eat the Bread of Life, He's calling them to faith. Verse 29: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Verse 35: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Verse 40: "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Verse 47: "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life." The people were asking Him for manna in the wilderness, like God provided through Moses, so Jesus takes their request and says "this isn't what you need. You need Me. If you come to Me in faith, you will have eternal life." So, throughout most of this chapter, eating the flesh of the Son of Man is equivalent to believing in Him, trusting in Him.

But in verses 53-59 He expands the image: "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." He's still talking about the union we have with Him through faith, but He's expanded the image in a way that points to Communion, or what has traditionally been called the Eucharist (which is from the Greek word for thanksgiving). The original hearers wouldn't have understood it in this way, but in John we often see Jesus saying things that will only be understood later. The Lord's Supper is a tangible way to unite ourselves with Christ in faith. We see the same thing with baptism in chapter 3: saving faith is not only something that happens within us; it takes concrete form in the things we do. Baptism is a tangible identification with Christ in His death and resurrection and a tangible break from our old way of life in this world. Baptism, and the calling to live a life that's consistent with our baptism, keeps us from a merely internalized faith. Communion is another one of those things that keeps us from a merely internalized faith; at the table of the Lord we are nourished by Jesus' body and blood.

When we find that our perspective is limited to external things, as we saw in the first point, the answer is not simply to retreat into our inner world. Jesus provides ways for us to find connections between physical and spiritual realities. As we, in the context of worship, take the bread and the cup, we are being nourished spiritually by the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Robert Webber, who was a college professor for many years, and just died a few years ago, has a good description of what this means: "When the elements of bread and wine are taken in faith, the transforming and nourishing power of Christ for the salvation and the healing of the person is made available.... Sometimes students or other persons struggling with a painful experience in their lives will come to me for counsel. I always say to them, ‘I'm not a counselor and I don't have the tools necessary to help you with this problem. But I can suggest one thing–flee to the Eucharist. Get to the Table of the Lord just as fast as you can, because it is there that God can and does touch his people in a healing way.' In all the years that I have been giving this advice, not a single person has come back and told me it is not true. On the contrary, many have affirmed that God through the Eucharist reached into their pain and touched them with his healing presence" (Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith, p. 111). That's why the early church celebrated communion so often. At the table of the Lord, when we come to Him in faith, we are nourished by Jesus' body and blood.

But there's one more thing that keeps us from experiencing eternal life: lack of ability and power. We're not able to believe on our own. These people had wanted something they could do to make themselves pleasing to God, and then Jesus had pointed them to faith. But then, as they began grumbling, He said: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise them up at the last day." We don't have the power, in ourselves, to come to Jesus, to enter into communion with Him. We're dead in sin and alienated from the life of God. Saving faith is more than intellectual agreement with what the Bible says about Jesus. It's not enough to simply agree that Jesus is sent from God. That's James' point when he says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder" (James 2:19). Saving faith, eating the flesh of the Son of Man, coming to Jesus, leads to a radical transformation. That's why Paul says "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!" We don't have the power to accomplish this ourselves. All we can do is bow before God and cry out to Him for help and for mercy. We're completely dependent upon God, even for the simple act of putting our faith in Jesus, the Bread of Life.

We experience eternal life, a life of fellowship with God that begins now and extends throughout eternity, by feeding on Jesus, the Bread of Life. We allow Him to broaden our perspective, so that we're living in the light of the reality of eternity, so that we're not any longer living as if this world were the only thing that matters. We humble ourselves before Him, believing that He is the "living bread that came down from heaven," and we cry out to Him for mercy and grace. And we come faithfully to the Lord's Table, to be nourished by his body and blood. As we do these things, we're beginning the life of eternity here on earth.

Jesus' words in chapter 6 lead to two responses on the part of those who claim to be His followers. At this point in Jesus' ministry, the opposition of the religious leaders is beginning to intensify, and some of those who've followed Him till now are beginning to have doubts. After this discussion, John says that many of Jesus' disciples become disillusioned: "Many among his disciples heard this and said, ‘This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.' Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, ‘Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen.... After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him" (The Message). They had been enthusiastic at the beginning. They were impressed with all the miracles He was doing. But this is just too much for them, so they turn away. They don't want to be associated with Him any more. Their perspective is too restricted; they can't begin to accept what He's saying. Their expectations are wrong, and they're not willing to readjust. And they're not willing to humble themselves and confess their helplessness. So they turn away.

Then Jesus turns to the Twelve: "You do not want to leave too, do you?" The Twelve often seem clueless. They miss the point of what Jesus is doing half the time, they fight with each other about who is the greatest, and they have no idea what Jesus is talking about when He begins trying to prepare them for His death and resurrection. As we see them in the gospels they're not terribly impressive or inspiring. But they're open and attentive, they're willing to have their priorities rearranged, and they recognize their need of God's help. Their attitude is just the opposite of those who are turning away. So Peter answers for all of them: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." He alone has the words of eternal life. In Him, we can begin the life of heaven here on earth, a life of fellowship with God that begins now and extends into eternity. Where else would we go, but to Him. John Calvin said: "For how comes it that we are carried about with so many strange doctrines [or any of the other distractions that lead us away from Him], (Heb. 13:9), but because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us? For Christ alone makes all other things suddenly vanish" (Commentary on Colossians). This is similar to the chorus: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." Christ frees us from all that is false, and causes all the good things in our lives to find their proper perspective in relation to Him. May God grant us grace to find our nourishment in Him, the Bread of Life.

Coming to Christ for Strength, 2 Timothy 2:1-7

I was meeting with a client recently, and when I started scratching the palm of my hand she said, "you're going to win a lot of money in the lottery," to which I responded, "no, I don't think that's going to happen." Winning lots of money in the lottery is unlikely in the best of circumstances, but since I don't ever buy lottery tickets my chances of winning anything are pretty-much non-existent (unless I were to find a winning ticket on the sidewalk). I don't meet the one necessary condition for winning, because you have to play to win, and I don't play. I don't put myself "in the way" of winning. If you want a suntan, you don't sit inside with the shades drawn; you go outside and put yourself in the way of the sun. If you're looking for a job, it won't do you much good to sit at home and wait for someone to offer you one. The sensible thing is to start filling out applications; this doesn't guarantee that you'll find a job, but it does put you in the way of finding one.

Paul, who is nearing the end of his life, is reminding Timothy of things he's said in the past, knowing that he won't be around much longer to act as Timothy's mentor. Near the end of chapter one he says that everyone in Asia has deserted him. Then he prays for the family of Onesiphorus (who appears to have died), since he was not ashamed [of Paul's] imprisonment. It seems likely, as I pointed out in the last sermon, that those in Asia deserted him because they were ashamed. Onesiphorus is someone who did the opposite, who stood with him during a difficult and dangerous time.

So there are two different ways that people respond to the hardships Paul is enduring as a prisoner of the Lord: those in Asia have turned away from him, and Onesiphorus sought to minister to him (and maybe ended up paying for it with his life). Then Paul turns to Timothy and says, "You, therefore..." Timothy himself seems to have been a timid, easily intimidated person, and Paul doesn't want him to be frightened away or scandalized by the things that are happening. He doesn't want Timothy to follow the example of those who've been ashamed and have abandoned him. Maybe Timothy's been bullied and pushed around in the past; in any case, Paul wants him to stand firm with confidence in his calling to preach God's Word.

The fundamental thing, the foundation for everything else that he's going to say in this passage, is in verse one: "be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." The verb is passive, so "be strengthened," as it reads in the ESV, is clearer than the NIV's "be strong." Paul is not telling Timothy to do something but to receive something. We can't, by an act of the will or by sheer determination, be strengthened in grace. This is not something that depends on our own efforts and ability. But it's also not something we just wait for passively. We are involved in the process (otherwise, why would Paul bother to give this exhortation at all?). It won't do any good to sit at home in front of the TV and say, "I'm waiting to receive strength from the Lord before I attempt anything." Timothy can't strengthen himself in grace, but he can put himself in a place to receive strength. He can put himself in the way of receiving strength from the Lord.

This strength has two characteristics: it comes to us by grace, and that grace is found in Jesus Christ. It comes as a gift, something for which we are unworthy; and this gracious gift is found in Christ. It's source is outside of ourselves and we are unworthy of it, in fact are powerless to take hold of it for ourselves. We can be strengthened in grace only by coming to God with empty hands, poor in spirit, confessing our poverty and neediness.

That's the main idea in this passage: "be strengthened in grace." We don't have strength in ourselves. Paul isn't offering a self-help program: "you're stronger than you realize; you just need to learn how to draw upon your inner resources." Paul's not telling Timothy to toughen up and be strong. He's telling Timothy to come to Jesus to receive strength. We become strong by acknowledging our weakness and then coming to Jesus, crying to Him for help. That's the lesson Paul himself learned, as he describes in 2 Corinthians 12. He had prayed repeatedly to have a problem removed, something he saw as a hindrance to his ministry, something that got in the way of his full functioning. It seemed clear that he could do so much more as an apostle if he was functioning at 100 percent. But the answer he received was "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness" (v. 9).

As he receives strength, Paul wants Timothy to use his gifts to build up the Church: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (v. 2). Timothy is to equip others for the work of ministry by passing on to them the teaching he received from Paul. One of the great temptations we face is the temptation to use our gifts selfishly, to use them for our own sense of fulfillment or to boost our pride. But the gifts we've been given are not ours to use as we like. We've been entrusted with them for the benefit of others and the good of the Church. Whatever gifts we have are not really ours at all. They don't belong to us. God has entrusted them to us for building up the Church, for equipping others to live obedient and fruitful lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

Of course, it may be tempting at this point to say, "well, Timothy was a leader, so he needed to be strengthened in grace to carry out his ministry; what I do in the church is not such a big deal." But think, for a moment, about what we're called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. We're called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We're called to bear one another's burdens, to pray for each other, to help those in need. We're called to help others, often in ways that are costly and inconvenient (think of Onesiphorus and those in Asia who ended up throwing in the towel), and to do so without resentment in a genuine spirit of self-emptying. Do you feel up to this? Do you really think you can do this without being strengthened in grace?

Paul goes on to tell Timothy to "endure suffering and hardship." Peter says, in his first letter, "do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though some strange thing were happening to you" (4:12). Paul and Barnabas strengthened new disciples by "exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). For Paul, exercising his gifts did not lead to success and prosperity. It led to suffering, and the same will be true for Timothy. If we want to survive a life of discipleship over the long term we need to accept the likelihood that obedience will bring us into situations that we wouldn't choose for ourselves. If we're not armed with this expectation, suffering will take us by surprise and we'll be scandalized; many people end up turning away from the Lord when they encounter difficulties and opposition. "I didn't know it would be like this; God isn't taking care of me; He's not holding up His end of the bargain."

So the first temptation, in connection with our gifts, is to use them selfishly for our own benefit. But then, when we use them and suffer, the next temptation is not to use them at all. "This just isn't worth it. No one really cares anyway." But the point of using our gifts to serve one another is not to be successful, or even to see the fruit of our work. Sometimes we're enabled to see fruit and sometimes we're not; think of Jeremiah preaching year after year, with no measurable success. But the point is to please our "commanding officer" (v. 4). The benefits, the real benefits, lie in the future, a "victor's crown" (v. 5) and a "share in the crops" (v. 6). Paul is pointing forward to the time when we will see Jesus face to face. He's saying that in the light of all this it is worth it to endure suffering. We are following in Jesus' footsteps and He is with us.

Even if we aren't suffering right now, other members of the body of Christ are. We are connected with Jesus' sufferings and with the suffering of others in the body, both past and present. Paul tells the Colossians, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church" (1:24). He's not saying that Christ's sufferings are insufficient to redeem His people. He's saying that when Christians suffer they do so in communion with Christ as members of His body. Paul's sufferings are part of the suffering of Christ's body. When we are suffering we feel alienated and alone, and we combat this feeling by speaking to ourselves and reminding ourselves of the truth that we are not alone. We're connected, in Christ, with all those throughout the history of the Church who have suffered because they belonged to Jesus..

This leads to the third thing Paul says here: exercise discipline, or self control. "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules" (vv. 4-5). The Christian life is not a life of following our impulses, doing what we feel like doing. Some teachings on sanctification seem to suggest that God will take over our lives in such a way that discipleship becomes effortless, that we just hand ourselves over to Him and He does the rest. If you read things written by Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, you might get that impression at times. He went through a period when he was overwhelmed by the burdens of the work and by all the demands he was facing. He was burning out and uncertain that he could keep going. But then his whole outlook changed. He wrote to his sister, describing his intense efforts to grow stronger in faith: "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. As I read I saw it all! ‘If we believe not, he abideth faithful.' I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, ‘I will never leave you'. ‘Ah, there is rest!' I thought, ‘I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me -- never to leave me, never to fail me?'" (Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, J. Hudson Taylor, pp. 213-214).

After this, he talked often about the rest of faith, and his favorite hymn was "Jesus I am Resting, Resting." People observed him, in the middle of immensely difficult situations, singing to himself, "Jesus I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art; I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart." It changed his whole outlook, and sometimes when he talked he could give the impression that he was passive, just resting in the Lord, that he was no longer expending any effort and that everything was now being done for him. In reality he continued to work hard and spent much time in God's Word and in prayer. But he did it with a strong conviction of Jesus' constant presence and a confidence that he was fully accepted in Christ and was standing in grace. To get an accurate picture, we need to look at his words in the context of his life. He was doing the very thing Paul tells Timothy to do, coming to Christ to be strengthened.

Hudson Taylor, for the remainder of his life, exercised intense effort in following Christ and preaching the gospel, but he did it with an awareness of his full acceptance in Christ, which gave him strength to do the things that had previously exhausted him. The strength is not in us, but as we come to Christ and receive strength, we go on to take ourselves in hand, refusing to do some things and choosing to do others. I had a co-worker who was often overwhelmed. He had young children, worked full time and also taught piano in the evenings in addition to leading the choir in his church. Once when we were talking he complained that he didn't have time to read his Bible each day, that he was just too busy. I knew, from previous conversations, that he was in the habit of watching a fair bit of TV every night, so I suggested that it would be worthwhile to cut out some of that to make time for Bible reading, and that this would feed his spirit in a way that TV would not do. I don't know whether he ever did it, but it was clear that this had never occurred to him. To be strengthened in the Lord, as Paul calls us to do here, involves making choices in our daily lives that will put us in a place to receive strength, as Hudson Taylor continued to do after he had his great realization of the importance of resting in faith.

Then, having said all this, Paul ties it together by saying "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this" (v. 7). Reflect, think on all this, not because you'll eventually figure it all out. It's not that by our intense mental effort we're able to sort through everything necessary for a life of discipleship. We listen attentively to God's Word and He gives us insight. We come to Him waiting to hear from Him, and He speaks the Words we need to hear at that point. That's what happened to Hudson Taylor. He had been living and growing as a Christian for years, but he came to a point where he needed a greater sense of rest and of peace. He was near the breaking point, but as he was listening attentively and expectantly to God's Word his eyes were opened and he was able to see things in a way that he had never seen before. And it changed his life. "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this."

It's the same thing that we saw earlier about receiving strength. We can put ourselves in the way of being strengthened, but we can't make ourselves strong. We can reflect on God's Word, but we don't have the capacity within us to understand apart from the insight He gives. "It is God who gives understanding. The most intelligent man needs more and more of this gift. If he who gave the revelation in the word does not give the understanding in the heart, we are nothing" (Matthew Henry, Commentary).

I recently read a biography of the Scottish preacher Robert Murray M'Cheyne. He died before his thirtieth birthday and was in frail health for much of his life, but he knew how to come to Christ for strength, and he taught his congregation to do the same thing. He put together a Bible reading calendar, because he knew the importance of coming to Christ in His Word daily, not just sporadically when we feel the need. I've been using this calendar for many years, and it's the best one I've seen. Here's something M'Cheyne wrote to a younger minister who was just starting out in ministry: "You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try and understand it, and still more, to feel it. Read more parts than one at a time. For example, if you are reading Genesis, read a psalm also; or, if you are reading Matthew, read a small bit of an epistle also. Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the 1st Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, ‘O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man,' etc. ‘Let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly,' etc. This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray" (The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Kindle Location 792). If we do this kind of attentive, prayerful reading of Scripture, and seek to order our lives in obedience to what we read, we'll be putting ourselves in the way of receiving strength and understanding from the Lord.