The Bread Man

If you are like me… you like bread.

Whether it is a loaf of Italian bread, a slice of sourdough, a bagel, or an organic-whole-grain-gluten-free-no-GMO-cardboard-consistency- taste-challenged slice of goodness…

It is always better fresh.

Sure… there are uses for day old bread.  Like for putting in meatballs, or for use as bread crumbs, or even possibly croutons…

But day old bread wasn’t intended to be a staple of our diets.

At least not Biblically…

The finer things in life

I have never been a “success” as the world would define it.   And I have learned to live in it. (yeah… I said “in” not “with”.)

It’s not that I haven’t done well or held good jobs.  I just don’t seem to fit in all the time.

When you tell someone that you are praying for them and the next visit you get is from HR…

Or it becomes apparent that your convictions are in conflict with expectations…

You realize that God is moving you.

Not judging anyone else… not speaking evil of anyone else…  Just guiding you.

And while it has been a bit unnerving at times…  God has always been gracious toward me.

He has always provided and has always kept His promises.

He gives my wife the necessary skills to make me look good.  When she is done stretching the pennies we can sell it as wire.

I swear I bring two fishes and five loaves in to the kitchen and she tables an amazing feast.

…With left-overs.

And He has given us good friends.  People who He gives through.

So where am I going with this?....

When the devil doubles down...

Deep in to the hand… chips on the table… sweat from his brow…

He thinks he knows you.  He thinks he has got you all figured out.

You aren’t the one he is playing with.


No.

The devil is playing for you…

Not “on your side” for…

You are the prize….  He wants to own you.

He had walked in to the room and saw Him sitting at the table… seated… confident.

So he strolled over and sat down.  I can see him now in his red three piece suit, black fedora, shady moustache, and a tooth pick dangling from his lip.

And then it started… but it wasn’t the enemy who spoke first… it was Him, Jesus… “Have you seen my servant…?”

Game on.

Trial after trial, card after card… dealt.

Satan looks in his hand and sees your failures, your habits and addictions, your past, your weaknesses… and he starts to sneer.

So he doubles down… goes “all in”… figuring that Christ is bluffing…  that he has got you now.

But I have  secret I want to share…

God always has the winning hand.  You know how you can tell ?

It’s the one with the hole in it.

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons… can separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

The devil could never take you from His hand.

When satan doubles down… God lifts you up.


SDG