Join us as Jack looks at this idea of Jesus being the Bread of Life...and what that means.

-- ORIGIN --

This topic is part of the Origin series where we look at the birth of the church and ask why this Man, Jesus, from 2000 years ago still has a major impact on the world today.

-- MORE INFO --

CROWD Church is a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps live a more meaningful life. We are a com­mu­ni­ty, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place where you can con­tribute and grow.

More info: www.crowd.church

Welcome to this week's crowd church service.

We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps

us live a more meaningful life.

We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place

where you can contribute and grow.

Our service, uh, will last about an hour and in a few seconds you'll

meet our hosts, uh, for our service, who will introduce today's talk.

After the talk, we will have a time of worship and reflection after which we

head into Conversation Street, where we look at your stories and questions

that you've posted in the comments.

Now, we want to invite you to connect with us here at Crowd Church, and we've got a

few ways in which you can do just that.

Firstly, you can engage with crowd from any device during our live

stream, and if you're up for it, why not invite a few friends over

and experience the service together?

You see, church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others,

and one of the easiest ways for you to do that is join one of our

midweek groups where we meet online together to catch up and discover

more about the amazingness of Christ.

You can also subscribe to our fairly new podcast called What's the Story?

Uh, where we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people.

More information about all of these things can be found on

our website www.crowd.church.

Or you can reach out to us on social media at Crowd Church.

If you are new to Crowd or new to the Christian faith and would like

to know what your next steps to take are why not head over to our website

crowd.church/next for more details.

And now the moment you've been waiting for is here.

Our Online Church Service starts right now.

Now.

Hi.

Welcome everyone to Crowd Church.

I'm Rachel and this is Sharon.

And we are your lovely host today.

And whenever we host Crowd Church, we sit on this beautiful sofa.

And then try and sit up as straight as we possibly can.

Yeah, we were looking at the counter going down and went.

I went, Oh, we've got a few seconds.

And we both went, we're slouching.

So welcome.

It's great to see you.

Um, so we're doing this, aren't we, on a Sunday, Sunday the 16th.

But if you are joining us in the week, equally welcome, And as Matt says in

the intro, this is a digital, digital church for people on the faith journey.

Um, welcome.

If you can say, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

Welcome to those of you who.

Definitely saying I'm on the journey.

I've got questions.

We're all welcome.

Aren't we, So it's great to see you.

Yeah.

So hi.

Hope you're well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what we doing today Shaz?

Today we've got a talk by Jack Mariner, um, and he's gonna

be continuing our journey into John, which is one of the books in the Bible.

So he'll talk about that.

After that, we're going straight into a, a worship song, which

is called Worthy Of It All.

I've got my notes here, uh, and after that it's gonna be me and Rachel again.

Just chatting about the talk and what we thought about it.

Mm-hmm.

hopefully answering any of your comments or hopefully Yeah.

Yeah.

So please do comment all the way through and we'll try and

pick up on what you are saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And um, if you think in it and it's a question, just type it in

the chat and, you know, respond, um, accordingly, won't we?

Yeah.

I've already listened to the talk twice, actually.

I've got my notes here.

Uh, and underneath that I've got my hot water bag cause we've

not got our heating on yet.

nicely camouflaged you.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyone else got their heating on yet?

We haven't, we've just gotta blow a heater and that's about it.

Yeah.

But, um, yeah, let, let's enjoy this time together and, um, Is anyone

done anything nice on this day?

You know, have you been for a walk or have you had any nice food or, you know, what's

the weather like outside your window?

It's been quite nice and all to me, um, here in Liverpool.

But, um, depending on where you are living, just let us know.

It'd be nice to know that as well.

Yeah.

Cool.

Cool.

Shall we go into the talk?

Yeah, let's do that.

Okay.

Let's have Jack talking about John.

Good book.

Hi everyone.

My name's Jack, and it's great to be with you as we're looking at John

chapter six where Jesus says, I am the bread of life, and my first thoughts

were gluten free followers of Jesus, I'm sorry, uh, but you might have to

skip out what we've got to offer today.

I was thinking of an appropriate alternative, something like.

Jesus saying, I'm the rice cake of life.

Um, but it just doesn't seem to, to have the same ring to it, does it?

But of course I'm joking.

And, uh, with many of Jesus teaching, the thing is not the thing.

He was using language and imagery of bread at that time to help communicate

something of this higher paradigm that they would've understood at that time.

So let's unpack it and see what he is got to say for us today.

So Jesus is talking to his followers here in John.

He has just fed the 5,000 with bread and fish, that famous passage, and

now in this passage he announces himself as the bread of life.

So why bread?

And what does he mean by this?

Well, Jesus uses the image of bread because over in, in all the world, and

particularly at that time for first century Jews, that Jesus was speaking to,

bread was this essential part of life.

In fact, the Bible mentions bread over 490 times.

Bread was key at that time.

It was essential for survival.

They had so many different varieties, um, different types

of use in different occasions.

But for those in the ancient Near East, Bread was life.

It is what they ate.

They didn't have this varied diet we have now.

Simply put, without bread, there was no life.

What's more?

Breaking bread, that tradition of breaking bread together was an important

part of family life, of community life.

It was a symbol of life in the relational sense as well as

physical and in their diet.

So Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life.

I am life.

Come to me, I'll give you life.

And I wanna unpack why that is so fundamental for us

in 2000 years later, 2022.

So to understand it, the language, that imagery used, we just need

to expand our mind a little bit.

And you know, this figurative and metaphorical language exists

not just here, but in many places throughout the Bible.

We have it in the Psalms when they write in poems to express their emotions.

And Jesus used it in the parables.

Like, um, all throughout the gospels, um, these images, there's metaphors.

They're a part of how God speaks and they communicate heavenly concepts

that are difficult to put into words.

And they help by providing these concrete images to help

us grasp those abstract ideas.

So this image here about bread, Well, let's have a look at the text.

Verse 30 to 31, the disciples say, Show us a miraculous sign.

They want a sign for us to believe.

Um, they, they asked Jesus, What can you do?

After all our ancestors ate manna, while they journeyed through the wilderness.

Scripture says God gave them bread from heaven to eat.

If you don't know the story the disciples are referring to, um, this whole passage,

this couple of chapters, references this story in, in the Wilderness.

There was this time where, uh, the Jewish people, the Israelites are

wandering in this desert land, and as with all deserts, there were, there

was this lack of food and water.

And their leader Moses prayed and God provided food for the

people miraculously from heaven.

Not just once, but every day.

And the disciples want Jesus to do something similarly amazing,

to prove himself to them.

And Jesus' reply to them, and I guess this is a paraphrase.

He's like, You want bread from heaven?

Well, I am bread from heaven.

You're looking at him.

You want that?

I'm here.

I'm the guy.

Uh, verse 35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.

Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

And I love that verse.

We, we love those sorts of verses don't we?

We like the idea of not being in need and someone meeting all our needs.

Well, God is our provider.

And that is not really the point here though.

He, he goes on verse 48, he says, I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors, Yes, they ate manna in the wilderness, but look, they died.

I'm not talking about just feeding you food and giving you food.

Anyone who wants the bread from heaven, however, will never die.

And in that story of the Israelites in the desert, God provided amazingly and

abundantly to meet their physical needs.

That was wonderful.

Um, and God can still provide for our needs today, but Jesus

is saying, I will do much more than meet your physical needs.

I will give you eternal life.

He says, whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in

me will never be thirsty in verse 35.

So this is not actually about the needs of our physical bodies.

Jesus is really talking about the needs of our spirit, our biggest

needs, our our most intrinsic needs.

He's talking about eternal life, just as bread is the essential

element in the human diet.

Jesus says that he himself is the foundation for spiritual life.

Jesus gives us spiritual and eternal life.

Okay?

So it is only at this point that Jesus then explains how he gives this life.

Um, and later we're gonna see how we can receive it.

So verse 51, he says, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven.

Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Jesus is talking here about his own death.

You know, it's easy to read this now we know fully the story that he went, uh,

that Jesus had to die and rise again.

But Jesus said this while he was still alive, he predicts

or prophesized his death.

He says this is gonna happen.

Um, and it's needed for life to be given.

My, my life needs to be given for others to have life.

In other words, without my death, no one else can live.

You know, just as corn in the field has to be cut down and crushed to make

bread, which brings life and sustenance.

So Jesus was killed.

He suffered and he died on that cross so that we can have eternal life, and there

was just no other way for it to happen.

This is a reminder that our good deeds do not give us spiritual life.

Our best efforts do not give us life.

Now, Jesus knew that he would have to die.

He would have to be crushed in order to pay the price for our wrongs.

And on that cross, he brought us life.

Now the bread is his flesh and his flesh was given.

His death, brought life into the world.

And this is the unique and beautiful thing about our Christian faith.

It is nothing to do with us and everything to do with him.

He was that perfect sacrifice.

He led a perfect life and he died to take the place of us on that cross.

So Jesus brings us life by his death.

Okay, so now we're getting into the good bit.

Uh, and I hope you're ready for this cuz Jesus doesn't just claim to be

one among many things that bring life.

Jesus claims to be the bread of life.

He's not just the best batch, the best dough, he is the bread of life.

And this is the message I think our world so desperately needs.

Our world that is on the one hand, obsessed with self and

what they can achieve and success and looking after myself.

And on the other hand, trying to just provide, afraid, focus on survival.

Fear of economic, economic uncertainty.

On either hand, people are looking for more.

They're searching for life.

Maybe they believe in God, maybe they don't.

And Jesus is saying, whoever you are, whatever your circumstances, whatever

your outlook on life, come to me.

I am the bread of life.

I am all you need.

Stop looking elsewhere for your sustenance, your purpose, your meaning.

You wanna know how to live?

You want a life of significance, a happy life, a peaceful life?

I am.

I am the source of life.

I am.

I am, and I love those two words.

Those two words are really significant in the Bible.

I am.

Um, God when trying to explain who he is.

Well, when he was, when he made himself known to mankind, he couldn't

find better words than those two.

I am.

He is the most constant thing that has ever lived The anchor.

You know about three, uh, 1300 years before Jesus was born, Moses and

God were having this conversation in Exodus three, 13 to 14.

And God had just told Moses to go and tell his people that

their deliverance was near.

He was about to come to the rescue.

And Moses like, Who shall I say you are to them?

And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

And he said, Thus, you should say to the children of Israel,

I AM has sent me to you.

So God, the great I am, is now being used by John.

He's demonstrating that that same I am in Exodus was now physically standing

in front of the people ready to be their shepherd, ready to be their bread

of life and their truth and their way.

Jesus is the great I am.

The beginning and the end, and just as God, the words spoke life into

being at the beginning of time.

So into our world right now, Jesus' words come to bring us life.

Jesus' life and death has brought us life.

And that is, it's not one of many options that we can take.

It's not a guess at what we need.

Jesus didn't guess at what we need.

He knew and he knows he, He is the creator.

He says, I am the creator God.

I am the foundation of this world.

I am the source of life and all we have to do to accept this is believe in him.

Listen to this in verse 29, the disciple saying, How do we live a godly life?

And the response is, this is the only work God wants from you.

Believe in the one he has sent.

Believe in me.

Believe that my life, my death, and my resurrection will bring you eternal life

and that's what will bring you life.

And that's what eating the bread of life looks like.

Believe.

So how can we respond to Jesus today?

Well, firstly, it's as simple as just saying Jesus, I believe,

and perhaps you find that easy.

Perhaps you made that decision a long time ago, and you, you pray that

prayer, you thank him, that his body was broken, his blood poured out.

You thank him for that on a maybe daily or regular basis.

But maybe you are unsure.

And that's, um, the invitation, I guess, that Jesus invites you to today.

He says, Come and taste, see for yourself.

But it starts with a step of faith.

If you've never said yes, if you never have said yes, I believe in Jesus,

then you are in the right place.

You know, Jesus welcomes you with open arms.

Just drop off a message.

If that's you and you are unsure, you'd just like to know a bit more.

We'd love to share some ideas about how to, how you can

get to know Jesus a bit more.

So we say yes to Jesus.

That's our first response.

You know, it's not just a one time meal we need, is it, you know, that's not

the sort of life that Jesus is offering.

Can you imagine only eating once a a week?

Um, that would lead to a very miserable life if you ask me.

Jesus wants to give us our daily bread, otherwise we'll run dry.

Why he said to to pray.

Father, give us our daily bread.

And that story of manna from heaven with the Israelites and the

wilderness, it wasn't just for fun, it revealed this spiritual necessity.

It's how we are wired, hardwired.

Deep into us is a need for a daily relationship, daily

doses of spiritual bread.

And so often we get good spiritual feed, we have a, a good talk, or we

encounter a good sunrise or we feel closer to God as we worship him.

And then we can go days or weeks or months without a good feed.

Anyone like relate to that, hoping that we would be sustained, um, by that thing

then and that would sustain us now.

But here's the thing, we need to feed daily on Jesus.

You know, we can't store spiritual food like an animal puts on fat for the

winter to, to keep it alive and, and, um, thriving, uh, so that it can survive.

But look what happened when the Israelites trying to hoard the

manna in Exodus 16, 19 to 20.

Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it for the morning.

God wants to provide daily, but they did not listen to Moses.

Some left part of it till the morning and it bred worms and stunk.

And Moses was angry with them.

You know, I relate to them, but our spirits need fresh daily

nourishment that comes from a living relationship with Jesus.

He designed us for regular daily communion with him, and that is

how he's wired us, and that is the source of life he's offering.

And so my question is, what are you feeding on at the moment?

And how is it bringing your life?

You know, for many the answers are so varied for this.

I love that we can encounter God and feed on him by reading this word, by

being in silence and hearing his voice in prayer, in worshiping him, in prayer.

We encounter him when we meet together with others like this or in homes to

pray and to look at scriptures together.

We can encounter him by serving.

By feeding the home, the, the, the hungry by, by welcoming in the

widow and the orphan, by doing the things in the places that he is.

He, that's food for us.

But I wanna end with a final thought.

I think for many of us daily encounters with Jesus, whether at

home or outside, they can feel like a rule, and when we don't do it,

we can feel rubbish and condemned.

Anyone feel like that?

Oh, I never spent enough time with God, or I just can't get around to it.

Life's so busy.

But if that's you, Jesus said, I have come to give life, not condemnation.

John three 17 says, For God did not send his son into the world to condemn, but in

order to save, Jesus wants to bring life.

He can bring life into your life right now.

Salvation, not condemnation.

He is the bread of life.

So I invite you to start today afresh.

Um, plan what you'll do tomorrow.

Prepare when you'll do it and put it into practice.

You know, whether it's reading the Bible at breakfast and taking two minutes just

to pause and say, God, I give you my day.

Help me live for you.

Or just waiting on him and listening to see his direction for the day.

Maybe it's going to bed 15 minutes earlier than normal and journeying, um,

or journaling even as a helpful way of praying to God or enjoying just praying

throughout your day in, in different ways.

Maybe setting the alarm on your phone at one o'clock and four

o'clock just to check in with God.

What you'll find is that doing these things, these disciplines,

each day, they soon become a habit.

And what happens with a habit after a while is that it develops into a lifestyle

that will bring you spiritual life.

And yes, it takes time, uh, but it is part of being mature disciple of Jesus

just as a child takes time to develop it physically and mentally into an adult.

Uh, so too it can take us time to develop spiritual maturity

where we learn to self feed.

So just in summary, as we draw to a close, Jesus is the great I am and he

is the bread and the only bread of life.

He has come to give life.

All we need to do is believe in him, Say yes to him.

And I wanna invite you if you've never said Jesus, I believe, as I am right now.

Um, if that's you, then just get in touch.

We'd love to connect with you.

And for those who know Jesus, how are you feeding on him this week?

And is there anything from today that stood out to you

that you might wanna respond to?

Thanks for listening.

Thanks to Jack Mariner for the talk and to John and

Anna Grace Farrington for the song.

If that song's new to you and you are, uh, looking at the line that

said day and night let incense arise and you are wondering, What

on earth is that talking about?

There's a passage in the Bible that talks about the incense from the temple

and the prayers of God's people, or just people going up to heaven, and

I just love the imagery of that.

Mm.

Um, Yeah, yeah.

Just before we get into the discussion on the talk, uh, we just wanna say hi to a

few people that we've seen in the comment.

So, hi to Dave and Miriam.

Uh, we've got, uh, Matt Edmundson, my husband, uh, doing all the

tech behind the scenes for us.

Hi to Matt Crew.

Hi to Nicola.

It sounds like your day so far has been a mixture of food,

friends and leaf clearing.

I'm sure there's other bits as well.

Yeah, yeah.

Sorry if we've missed anyone.

These are the ones that we can see.

Yeah.

But yeah.

So anyway, to the talk, Rachel.

Yeah.

Um, one of the things like, so the question that Jack asked at the end

was about what bits of the talk stood out to us, and one of the things that

stood out to me was that whole thing about Jesus saying that he's life.

And I think partly because in the past, I'm not sure if it's the same now that

I think Christians or Christianity has been seen more as kicking the life

out of things and being severe and taking all the joy and fun out of life.

But this is saying the complete opposite.

Mm-hmm.

that Jesus came to give life.

Mm-hmm..

So yeah.

Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean we were talking about it cuz we've

heard the talk before, haven't we?

Through up in the chat and um, Jesus is the source of all life.

He was around when life began and he's part of creation.

And so, um, he is life.

And so I think to connect with him and to connect with the, the source of all life

is the most freeing, wonderful thing.

And yeah, you are right.

I think Christianity's had quite a bad press, hasn't it?

Through various things in history and um, maybe perceptions and

things that people have said in the past, but he is a life bringer.

And, um,

What does that actually look like in your life?

Cause we can talk about it, but what, what does it actually mean

that Jesus is life and gives us life?

Well, I think he gives us a new start.

I think he brings in, um, a totally different perspective than maybe to

what's normally around us or inside of us.

And, um, he, it, it's like I sort of view that, um, our, our, our who we

are was made to be connected to him.

So it's the bit of us that connects to him on a sort of, almost like

a, an unseen level that then brings life and brings him into everything.

Who we are, what we do, what we think.

Yeah.

Um, what we end up doing with our lives.

And, um, yeah.

It's amazing.

It's, it is more of an adventure and interesting than I think, Yeah, people

might think Yeah, if they don't know him.

Yeah.

I think there's a misconception as well that, um, faith is just to be kept as

a separate part to the rest of life.

But the Bible doesn't talk about it like that way at all.

It's like, God, is the one who brought life to everything that we

see around us and to every part of us.

Our spirit, our soul, our emotions, our thinking, our relationships, the way

we do work, the way we do everything.

And that God has got stuff to say about all of those areas.

Mm-hmm..

And I think as we connect with him and we listen to him on all of those areas, it

starts to transform all areas of our life.

But the question I do have from that then is, does that mean Rach, that

since you've become Christian, that life is full of all like joy and

loveliness and fabulousness all the time?

No, of course not.

And, and it does say in the Bible that.

Um, there will be hardships and trials and difficulties and feeling like people

are getting at you, and it does say that.

So, um, but I, I think the promise that is always there is that when

we are with Jesus eternally, he will, um, either bring sense to

it all or it won't matter anymore.

But there's um, there's a beautiful verse in the Bible that says that he

will wipe away every tear from our eyes and that, um, he will restore

everything to how it was meant to be.

Mm-hmm.

. And so that is like a hope that when you're going through the really tough

times, you might even just hold onto with your fingertips or even at times

feel like you've let go of and then God will hopefully, well, God will

remind you and me of of that promise.

But no, it doesn't mean like, Oh look, I've got the perfect life.

Not at all.

But what it does mean is that we've got the life bringer, the bread of

life, Jesus, with us through it all.

Yeah.

And that's the main difference.

Yeah.

And we're not on our own, even when other people around us might not

be there in the way that we want 'em to be, we're not on our own.

Yeah.

One of, we were talking earlier about, one of the phrases that we hear quite often

in our church is that God's kingdom, his way of doing things is both now it's for

our lives now, but it's also not yet.

And that what we have now on this earth is only like, uh, a partial, um,

Yeah, a partial thing in that he, he does come into our lives and transform

it, but actually there are still many things in the world that are wrong,

that we are interacting with the world all the time, and we come across, we

come up against all that stuff that's wrong and all the pain and the, yeah,

all the other stuff that goes with it.

But at some point, like you said.

Yeah.

God's gonna sort all of that out as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's great having that hope.

It is.

Yeah.

And it is a comfort, you know, if you've lost loved ones as well.

And, um, yeah, it's, it is a great comfort, I think, and

God is our comforter, so.

Yeah.

So another question on that, cause I have questions.

So can you give an example of one area in your life of where Jesus has brought

life to you, like a specific example?

Yeah.

I've not prepped you for that.

No.

So a bit on the spot.

Um, I think, well, when I first became a Christian, the

biggest thing that God did for me that, um, I realized that Jesus died

for me and raised again and dealt with everything, was knowing that I'm loved,

um, beyond anything that my family who are amazing could ever give me.

And it was such a different unconditional love that I'd never experienced before.

And that was, that was just like, I can still remember

where I was, what I was doing.

And that just sense of, um, pure acceptance from all through

me, just going through me.

And so I think, um, , that's when I felt for the first time fully alive.

I was quite young at the time actually, but um, and I hadn't particularly

had loads of trauma to speak of in my life that other people may go through.

But that acceptance was just absolutely incredible.

Um, and to know that I'm loved by a pure heavenly fatherly love was amazing.

And I think by somebody who actually really knows

what we're like deep down and who still loves us enough to come and come

down and suffer in a horrible way to say, Actually, I can see the things

that are not right in your life.

And actually I'm, I'm gonna do something about it, I think.

Yeah, it's like we don't have to hide who we are and the bits of our

lives that we're not proud of, the things we don't have to hide the

things we're ashamed of with him because he knows already and yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, that was the first major thing for me.

But I think as well, like, I mean, I'm 50 now, so I am, I'm 50 and um, I think

still realizing again, That at this stage of life that Jesus, um, wants to

be involved in every part of my life.

And I think sometimes you can go on autopilot and it's a bit like Jack said.

You can have your, your feast on Sunday or whenever you might connect with church or,

and with other people and encourage each other and then almost think, Oh, I can

just bob along and not sort of spend time with this wonderful Jesus during the week.

And I think it's going, no, yeah, I really wanna spend time and make that effort.

And, um, Matt shared on the, on the feed at the bottom, um, the three Ps that Jack

said, I'll see if I can find them now.

Was it plan,

plan, prepare, practice,

plan, prepare and practice.

And so I found myself thinking, Okay, this is how I do spend time.

Um, maybe in prayer or reading the bible at the moment, but actually,

what do I wanna change or do more of?

Or, and I think they're good questions to ask, aren't they?

So, do you have an answer to those questions?

Working on it?

Some ideas?

Yeah.

I think I listen to an app every day.

Um, a prayer app, um, on the phone.

What's it called?

It's called Lexi0365 and I really like that.

Is it a free app?

It's free.

So if anyone wants to connect with that,

Yeah, you can just look it up.

Matt can put it on the chat.

Um, so I really enjoy that and then I'm enjoying a book at the moment about Jesus

and thinking about him, and actually that's helping me to get to know him more.

But also I think I would, I would like to, um, maybe have a prayer sort of rhythm.

They call it bit of a jargony word, but I'd like to have a bit

more of a plan about how I pray.

Pray.

Sorry.

Pray.

Yeah.

How I talk to God, I chat to God a lot in the day.

Mm-hmm, But I find it very difficult to sit still and be quiet.

Doesn't come naturally.

It used to come naturally to me.

I do find it more of a struggle now.

I don't really know why.

Yeah.

I think just, uh, I think for, for me, things have changed over time and I'll

connect with God one way for a certain amount of time, and then I'll switch

it up and do something different and,

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, um, I think I, I've read an encouraging thing about a woman who

died, who lived in the 1300s, so a long time ago, and I think she was a nun.

After 20 years, it was part of this sort of plan, if you like, that you had to try

and spend an hour with God, um, in prayer.

And she said she used to watch the clock for that hour and

go, When's it gonna be up?

And then after 20 years things you to go.

And then all things opened up.

But it encouraged me, you know, But whatever age and stage we are

at, I do think that, um, there can be moments when things may be fall

into place a bit more, and yeah, we connect with Jesus a bit more.

Yeah, and that was encouraging.

I definitely have found that, like I said, things have

changed, has been periods of time where I've just really like studied something

in the Bible because it's like I've got loads of questions and I wanna know

the answers, and I'll do like a deep dive and I'll get really into it for

ages and I'll get loads out of it and feel like I'm like connecting with God.

And then I'll get to the point of saturation and just go,

No, I don't do that anymore.

Yeah.

And then do something else.

But then I, There have been times when I've found it easy to connect with God.

And times when actually I find it really hard.

Yeah.

And it feels like a slow.

Yeah.

And I think that's okay.

So if you are, if you are a Christian already and things don't always go easy

on that, I think just take heart and know that possibly every other Christian

has felt like that at some point.

I think so.

Yeah.

I think so.

Matt's just, um, put on the chat.

In quotes, Rachel finds it difficult to sit still and be

quiet with laughing emojis.

I dunno what you're saying Matt, what you saying?

No, I do

. Rach Marshall: I, Um, But because

the Greek word for life, didn't we?

Yeah.

We looked it up.

So Shaz has got some interesting facts on that.

The Greek word that is used here.

It's actually used 126 times in the New Testament.

And it's actually the word Zoe, and my lovely husband Matt, who's doing

all the background stuff today, um, before I even knew him, had done a

study on this Greek word in the Bible and was so inspired by what he found

there about what the God kind of life means, which is what that word Zoe is.

It's a God kind of life, which is the most amazing life that he said If I ever

have a daughter, I'd like to call her Zoe.

And uh, it's just as well.

So this was before I even knew him.

Uh, so it's just as well that when we did get together that

I actually liked that name.

Yeah.

And so we have a daughter called Zoe.

Lovely.

Yeah.

15 now.

Yeah.

But yeah.

But that's why she's called Zoe.

Yeah.

And then it, when we read it said about, um, physical

life and almost like the other, a metaphorical life, if you like, but it

talks about exuberance and um, fullness.

And I, I just think that's something that is really clear in this message.

There's an exuberance and fullness to life through knowing Jesus that

we will never find anywhere else.

And I think we're all, everyone's searching for that

fullness and, um, I think.

We can think that we can get it in other ways, like through stuff

or through work or through, um, Relationships, Natural relationships.

Yeah.

But actually first and foremost, fullness of life comes from knowing Jesus.

Yeah.

I've heard it many times of people who are completely successful in their field,

whatever that is, whether it's as a business person or in the medical field,

or as a footballer or being famous, and they get to the top and then realize it's

actually really empty and all the things that the world kind of portrays as if

you've got all these things and you've, you're really living the life actually

are pretty empty when it comes down to it.

And, and it is in Jesus the sort of life that we do have that life, even

though like we said before, that doesn't mean that life is easy and that

we don't have hard times cuz we do.

Mm Uh, we just have to look at the life ofmost of the

people in the Bible that, Yeah.

Yeah.

To find out that things that can be tough even when you are following God.

Jesus himself.

Yeah.

Look at what Jesus went through and what people said about him, and

ultimately what they did to him.

So,

We can so many examples.

Yeah.

John the baptist.

Yeah.

Thrown in prison.

Yeah.

Paul thrown in prison.

Ship wrecked.

Yeah.

All for following God.

Yeah.

Matt just shared, um, John 10, 10 verse, It's a very famous verse in the New

Testament and it says The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

Aye, That's Jesus came, that they may have life in brackets

Zoe and have it abundantly.

And I think, um, That would be, I, I think we both go, Yeah, we agree with that.

Yeah, we agree with that.

That was actually one of the passages that kept me going.

Uh, I've shared many times about how even after I'd become a Christian, because I

still didn't really understand about, um, dealing with the past and just actually

letting God into each area of my life.

I was a big mess for quite a while, and when God began to sort

of help me sort through that, it was actually very, very difficult.

And those verses just really helped me to keep going because there was

that sense of no, keep going with God and this is what he's gonna bring me.

He's not gonna leave me depressed and anxious and with all this other stuff.

But, um, but yeah, but he, he does want to bring life.

Yeah, just when you were talking Shaz, it reminded me

of another promise in the Bible and it says that if we seek God with

all our hearts, we'll find him.

And um, that was one of my encouraging verses for, for

a number of years actually.

Um, and so God knows our hearts.

And he knows what's going on inside of us.

And if we say to him, God, I want more of you, He'll go, Yeah, I can see that.

Um, let's journey more together.

So I hope they're, they're both big encouragements, aren't they?

Both of them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And and they do, I think, help us to hold on in those times when actually

everything else seems crazy and difficult and hard and just to help.

uh, to be able to see beyond that and to, yeah, look further as to what God has

for us really, really helpful sometimes.

Mm-hmm.

, I agree.

Was there anything else that stood out to you from the talk?

Um, I love the way he linked, um, in the Old Testaments

when the bit of the Bible before Jesus was born, it talks about,

um, when the Israelites were in the desert and God provided daily manna.

Mm-hmm.

every day.

So he provided some it fresh for them every day.

And um, and then he connects when God reveals himself as I am mm-hmm.

, he connects that with Jesus again in the New Testament as revealing himself.

This is who I am.

And um, I just think I know that God has something fresh for me, for us every day.

Um, I would like to be more aware of that.

Yeah.

That there's something fresh of God every day.

And how, how do we be more open?

Mm-hmm..

So if anyone's got any thoughts, add them cause I'd like to learn more.

I definitely find it easy to get distracted.

Yeah.

by other things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, um, I've, I've heard people share all sorts of, um, ideas, um,

and that some people are better in the mornings, in the evenings, aren't they?

And um, yeah.

So I think it's about how do I spend time where I can be quiet

enough to listen to God and go, God, what fresh thing have you got?

Or, Is there a fresh, um, thing I need to understand, or just your

goodness that I need to accept today?

So are you a morning or evening person?

Evening

. Sharon Edmundson: I'd say I'm

doesn't involve talking to anybody.

I love my mornings, but still prefer to be just left to myself with my thoughts for

maybe add that on the chat.

Are you morning or evening person?

But thankfully we can talk to God all through the day.

Um, sometimes the only quiet place you might get is when you knit to the loo..

Uh, and I think a lot of people pray in the loo, so, that's another idea.

Just trying to think if there was any other bits.

I've got lots of highlighted bits here.

Uh, I think I've kind of covered.

Yeah, I think we've covered most of it.

Yeah.

Have you got anything else left to say?

No, it's just good thinking and talking about the,

what Jack's shared, isn't it?

And um, I think probably it's a lifelong talk to hold onto that

Jesus, abundant life is in Jesus and he is the bread of life.

Physical metaphorical.

Mm-hmm.

Everything, you know?

Yeah.

Are there any more comments to pick up on?

I can't see them.

It's just on Rachel's phone.

So, um, So your, Matt calls the toilet the throne room.

Yeah.

We, we do call it his throne room.

Okay.

Um, uh, he may or may not spend quite a lot of time in there.

Okay.

Um, so Matt is a morning person, but he used to be an evening person.

Oh, would be, it'd be nice to know how that changed and, and that was

me changed.

Okay.

I think we've kind of met a little bit in the middle because I used

to be totally morning person, happy to talk at that point.

Whereas now I stay up later than I used to and I'm, I still prefer

the morning, but like I said, prefer not to talk to people in it.

So, Yeah.

Yeah.

We've kind of merged over time.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, . I know this, but my husband is a morning person.

Yeah.

He gets up before the birds I think.

If I had a pound for every time he said, Oh, it was a lovely sunrise this morning.

But anyway,

yeah, I'm definitely not that much morning person.

Anyway.

It seems like we've kind of, we have come to the natural end of our discussion.

Little announcement next week, James Sloan.

Yeah.

So James Sloan carrying on.

Uh, our, uh, talks in the book of John next week, so do come along for that.

Um, yeah, and if you do wanna connect with us, we do look at the comments during

the week, even though it's not live.

So yeah, please do connect if you wanna know anymore, if you've got any questions

or if you'd like us to pray for you.

We do pray it in the week for, uh, people who write in too.

Yeah..

Yeah.

Great.

Lovely to be with you today.

Yeah.

Uh, I hope to be with you again next week.

Uh, that's it for now.

Bye