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Refreshment in Refuge

    by Gina Burgess

8 signs Jesus's authority -- Bread of Life
Date Posted: December 18, 2022

Jesus is the Bread of Life – John 6:1-14; 26-40 – Jesus feeds the 5,000. The crowd was not so amazed at this feat because Jesus was never loud in performing His miracles. Unlike many sorcerers of the day, Jesus was unobtrusive in a lot of the miracles He performed. However, certain followers of Jesus were astounded and said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world,” meaning the Messiah. Jesus explains in verses 26-27 what the miracle of the feeding actually meant. He vocally pointed out the crowd wasn’t seeking Him out because they thirsted for Him; and they were not chasing Him because they desperately sought salvation. He bluntly told them they only wanted to be near Him to be physically fed again.

Jesus spoke plainly of the relationship between manna and Himself. Without manna, the Israelites would have surely perished in the wilderness. Moses did not give bread from Heaven. God gave them the manna, just as God sent Jesus as the Bread of Life (v. 35). Jesus explained that God gives true bread from Heaven; and “the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.” (vs. 32-34) Jesus was also clear, without parables, in publically stating He came from Heaven to do God’s will which was to take those who believed in Him, never to lose them, and to forever keep them from hunger and thirst.

It was an astounding claim which infuriated the Jews. They knew Jesus was declaring He was divine: A blasphemous claim if it came from a mere human. This particular passage highlights how blind the Jews were to the Messiah’s true identity. They disregarded all the miracles He had performed in front of thousands of witnesses; and they disregarded all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah because Jesus had fulfilled each one of them before their eyes. There is nothing worse in God’s eyes than disbelief of His Son.

Without bread, we can live for a short while, but the body has adverse reactions both in short term and long term when carbohydrates are removed from our diet.

A No Carbohydrate diet produces in the body:

  • High protein consumption from food which limits production of new cells, tissue, enzymes, hormones, anti-bodies, and limits fluid regulation which leads to dehydration.
  • Limited burning of fat efficiently. Carbs combine with fat for energy; and when fat breaks down incompletely it produces ketones which causes ketosis which causes lack of appetite which limits the trigger for water consumption leading to severe dehydration. Lack of proper fiber consumption and dehydration leads to constipation.
  • Dehydration leads to toxic waste build-up in the system.
  • Lack of energy and accumulation of ketones which leads to nausea, headaches, dizziness, fatigue and bad breath
  • Lack of energy leads to lethargy, reduction in exercise which keeps muscles toned.
  • Long-term effects of cancers, kidney stones, lack of calcium absorption, heart disease, high production of uric acid which needle-like crystals in the joints cause gout, and possible bodily function shut down.

God shows us these bodily torments in the story of Job. Compare Job’s afflictions in his “living death”…

1. Boils all over his body, “from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” that continually oozed – (2:7&13; 7:5; 30:17)

2. Severe itching and irritations (2:7-8)

3. Tremendous grief from great losses of all his children, his herds, his worldly possessions (2:13)

4. Lost appetite (3:24; 6:6-7) Many things can cause loss of appetite, and when your soul has no satisfaction from hunger, then you will wither to nothing.

5. Agonizing discomfort, and relentless pain (3:24; 30:17)

6. Insomnia, worm and dust infested flesh (7:4-5)

7. Hallucinations (7:14)

8. Shriveled up (16:8; 17:7; 19:20)

9. Decaying skin (13:28)

10. Severe halitosis (bad breath) (19:17)

11. Teeth fell out (19:20)

12. Skin turned black (30:30)

13. Raging fever (30:30)

14. Dramatic weight loss (33:21)

I am not saying that Job was not saved. I am saying that God used a righteous, prominent man who suffered (mentally and bodily) without sin to physically illustrate how spiritually sick we can be without Jesus in our lives. I do not believe Job could have done that without spiritual strength from God Himself.

We can draw a dramatic conclusion from all of this because God gave us this physical example of what happens to our eternal spirits when the Bread of Life is not present. Our spirits come vibrantly alive when we bond with the Holy Spirit. We instantly begin our eternal life at that nano-second. Without Jesus, we live a life of spiritual starvation which leads to eternal death.

Do not indulge in a No-Carbohydrate diet, it is too dangerous. Seek ye this day the Bread of Life which came down from Heaven to sustain us with Food and Living Water.

Next week we will study another sign or signs, a lot depends on what God tells me to share with you.

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Biography Information:

Gina Burgess has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training for almost three decades. (Don't tell her that makes her old.) She earned her Master's in Communication in 2013.

She is the author of several books including: When Christians Hurt Christians, The Crowns of the Believers and others available in online bookstores. She authors several columns, using her God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world. You can browse her blog at Refreshment In Refuge.

If you'd like to take a look at some Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction book reviews check out Gina's book reviews at Upon

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