Matthew 6:16-18 ~ received their reward in full

In John 6:35, Jesus tells us that He is the Bread of Life. Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t suggest to us that we should fast, He says 'when' we fast.

Matthew 6:16-18
16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you

Why would we seek each day to please Father God?

Revelation 22
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Joel tells us we all enter Heaven. We present ourselves to Father God.  In this Life we easily reserve for ourselves, in discernment, who will surround us. God also discerns who will be called into His Heaven. His Kingdom was bought with a price. Heaven was Sheol, a place of the dead. Jesus took what was wrong, impaired, flawed and deliberate sin upon Himself. He bought us with taking the curse of sin and death upon Him. Father God saw life has unusual twist, turns, requirements and injustices.



Isaiah 53
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.

Jesus steps up for us and says He has cancelled all debts that could be held against us. If someone provided for us all our lives, surely we would want to do what was right for them. This is why we don't lightly misbehave knowing what Jesus has done for us. God considers our souls so deep and so complicated, He tells us our soul is known to God. When we see this Great Love God has for us, we want to have honored God and considered this Love. Hannah could tell God her troubles. Proverbs tells us Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy. Except Abba, Father.

The Bread of Life:

Matthew 26:26
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Jesus as Bread of Life says this in John Chapter 6:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

Jesus has brought us new Life. To worship God in Spirit and Truth.

Romans 7
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Father God is not far away and unknowable. God says He will dwell in us. Which sounds like Bob Uker could say, "Just a bit outside." John, having walked with Jesus, understood this and commented how we bring God to the people He gives us.

1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Romans 13
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 14
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”

12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

This week I was on my way to Church and as the Policeman said, "In a twinkling of an eye, it can all change." And I heard a terrific crash and large impact as a car ran a red light into me, traveling well into a green light. My first thought as I gripped the steering wheel and, found out later, my childhood monkey type feet gripped the brake - was - "This is the end. Here I come Father God!" I don't think I even had time to say a word. And I realized, if I go home today - I'm okay. What I have prayed for is to go on Home to God without suffering. And I was shaken. It was a large, large jolt twice and I felt mostly euphoric to realize - I've presented myself before God daily and when I see God, I'm fully in faith Jesus covers me. And the event is now just sore muscles with more comfort God is there for us when we believe God is who He says He is. Hope is that His Promises are for me. Faith - we can believer He means this for me. Love - all there ever was covers me.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.


Thank You, Father God. In Jesus. Always. His Name covers me.  Cover the people I love and care for this day and always. You alone are God. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

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