SCRIP-BITS

John 6:35.    And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
 
Oh Friends, the ole fella’s in rough shape this morning. I was doing some other stuff last night and didn’t get to bed until three a.m, hoping to get up early and write the Bit. Hn! But whom am I fooling eh? I was never an early morning riser, except when using Billy Shakespeare’s terminology: ‘to go to bed late is to be up early.’ So the ole body just refused to get up when I requested it to. I guess some of you old fogeys will understand that. (smile) Anyway, I have some information, sad stuff that I want to share with you. It deals with world hunger. Listen to these shameful statistics: Over 925 million people in the world experience chronic hunger. Steups! That means almost one eight of our almost eight billion souls on earth are constantly hungry! What a crying shame! That’s not all: One in seven people will go to bed hungry tonight. Disgraceful is the only word for that in a world of such plenty! Then to make matters even worse, food prices are approximately 36 percent higher now than a year ago. Why eh? How can people be expected to survive with so many homeless, jobless and hurting emotionally? And here comes the statistic that just floors me: Hunger is the number one (#1) health risk in our world, killing more people every year than AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria combined. Wow! What does that say about man’s inhumanity to man eh people? How can so many be chronically hungry and dying from hunger when there’s such an abundance of food in our world? And a whole lot of good food is thrown away everyday too. Ah Friends, what a sad state of affairs! I guess there are many reasons for it, but whatever they are, they don’t justify so many people going hungry in a world of plenty. If we can go to the moon and outer space, why can’t we solve the logistics of spreading food around? Because the powers that be aren’t really interested in doing so. It all comes right back to money and politics throwing humanity to the sidelines. And sadly this problem doesn’t only exist in the supposed developing countries, but also in the highly developed ones. Right here in Toronto the Good, oodles of children go to school and to bed hungry everyday. Chuh! It’s both amazing and disheartening to see the rise of food banks and soup kitchens in this advanced Western society. Those things were only supposed to exist in times of war, but no more. They are now a constant part of our society. And it’s not only the unemployed who use these food banks and places that offer free meals. No Friends, lots of working people are forced to turn to them because the wages they earn are ridiculously low in comparison to food prices, and they still need outside help to barely make ends meet. Oh mih breddren, this is indeed a sad commentary on mankind’s sharing of God’s resources, and unfortunately I don’t know how to fix it, except to say that all of us who have enough food, should find a way to share with the less fortunate. Next week is our Canadian Thanksgiving celebrations, and the U.S. celebrates theirs in November. How can we do that with a right heart knowing that so many people in our two countries and all around the world are constantly going hungry? It would certainly be nice, if between now and then, we can share our largesse with other needy folks, so that when we talk about thanksgiving it wouldn’t be mere lip service, but some true giving, with thanks attached. Oh my people, I don’t have a solution for our world’s physical hunger, but I do have one for our spiritual insufficiency. And it’s a very simple, but powerful, tried and true solution: TURN TO JESUS! Yes Friends, Jesus sincerely proclaims it in our Bit today: ‘I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.’ And that’s true, true gospel, mih brethren! Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, the heavenly Son who sacrificed His holy, sinless life for us, by spilling His precious blood on the cross of Calvary in atonement for our ugly sins, IS the bread that brings and gives spiritual and eternal life to all who trust Him and sincerely accept His easy yoke and light burden. And all God’s people joyfully declared: ‘Thank You Jesus!’ Now let’s end today with some further clarification on the subject from Jesus Himself: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ (John 6:47-51) My people, though our bodies may be physically hungry, there’s absolutely no reason for our hearts and souls to be empty, when the filling nature of Jesus is just a prayer away. Please, let’s go to Him today, RIGHT NOW, and allow Him to generously fill our spiritual hunger. It’s the only wise and sensible choice available to man. Much LOVE!…Jesus…the ONLY satisfaction…the ONLY ONE who can satisfy our spiritual hunger…