Weekly Memory Verse:
Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently search for him.
Hebrews 11:6 (ISV)
Meditation Thought:
Choosing to believe God may cause people I thought were my friends to leave me. Is that a risk I'm willing to take?
Today's Reading - John 6:41-69 (NCV) Choose another translation
Some people began to complain about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that comes down from heaven." They said, "This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother. How can he say, 'I came down from heaven' ?"
But Jesus answered, "Stop complaining to each other. The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread that gives life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give up so that the world may have life."
Then the evil people began to argue among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, you must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Otherwise, you won't have real life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever." Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
When the followers of Jesus heard this, many of them said, "This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?"
Knowing that his followers were complaining about this, Jesus said, "Does this teaching bother you? Then will it also bother you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from? It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh doesn't give life. The words I told you are spirit, and they give life. But some of you don't believe." (Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would turn against him.) Jesus said, "That is the reason I said, 'If the Father does not bring a person to me, that one cannot come.' "
After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him and stopped following him. Jesus asked the twelve followers, "Do you want to leave, too?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, who would we go to? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God."
(Today's reading came from the New Century Version)
2 comments:
I was working with a couple of teens this past weekend and we were having a discussion about some of their friends. Wow. that was tuff.
I know this much... the conversation could have been much worse if Christ wasn't at the center of our conversation. He saved me again.
Is losing friends worth that much? I believe that a true friend would die for you, could be my military past creeping in. The rest of the people out there are posers and pretenders. Let life get hard in any aspect and they can't scatter fast enough. At least God will always be there with open arms to accept me just as I am.
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