Michael is my middle son and he has a best friend, John. They enjoy playing together, shooting grackel birds with BB guns and just messing around. But when it gets close to dinner time, everything changes, they get serious. They want to eat together, and they won't take no for an answer. They don't really care what's on the dinner table, they just want to break bread together.
I've been in many Bible study groups where one common premise is "doing life together". We often share a meal before opening our Bibles. There's just something about the conversation over food; it has a way of bringing us closer than just about anything else.
Paul told the church of Thessolonica that he cared so much for them that he not only shared the gospel with them, but he took the time to share his very own life with them (1Thess. 2:8). I can just see him now. Spreading the gospel like only Paul can, and then taking the time to sit and share a meal with those new believers. In first and second Thessalonians we see how he encouraged them, instructed them and shared his sufferings with them.
There's someone else in the Bible who took the time to share a meal with his new friends. He sought them out, expecting nothing in return, blessing them far beyond their wildest dreams. He brought them on journeys as He spread the gospel with His very presence. He not only broke bread with them, he broke bread for them, by the shedding of His blood. His name is Jesus, and He did that for you and me.
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