Bread Ministries reaching Children with the Christian message and Kid's Magazine

Spring has finally arrived on Bethlehem Acres. After one of the most consistently cold winters we have had in years, and the dead brown color of all our plants and trees, the new spring green is a beautiful sight.

The Azaleas have been blooming and there is new growth on all the plants that had to be cut back after the last frost of the winter. We have had some wonderful rains that have helped the new growth. Judy and Carole took turns trimming and cutting out dead branches and shaping up overgrown plants in the courtyard and around the building. Of course new growth means the weeds are growing also and the grass will need cutting before long.

Some decorating changes have been made around the office. A new wall hanging is going up in the foyer and the banner from there moved to the Chapel. We also have a new picture that was donated and it went up on the entry wall of the Chapel. The inside of the office is looking good as well as the outside.

We still need to get the logs cleaned and re-stained, but we will need extra man-power to do that. The church that was going to supply manpower had to divert time to their school in Haiti after the earthquake. We will trust God to provide.

We were very saddened that our dear friend, Dorothy Gaskins, was very ill; but then rejoiced when she went home to be with Jesus. Dot loved the Lord and centered her life around serving Jesus. She was one of the first volunteers to work with Mrs. Carlton in BREAD’S beginning days. Dot and Jerrold Gaskins were the owners of the property that is now Bethlehem Acres. Dot also said that Jerrold came to know Jesus by helping her proofread BREAD manuscripts. We will miss her, but know that she is no longer suffering, but rejoicing at the feet of Jesus.

Mazie Livingston has moved into the position of Board Member Emeritus and another dear friend, Carolyn Hoyt, has come on the Board. Our Board members are all volunteers, except Judy Gibbs. They serve faithfully the same way they live, loving and giving glory to the Lord.

We welcome visitors any time so come on by if you are in the area. We are paying that some missionary friends will make a visit this summer, and others are coming this spring.

If you can’t come to visit, please remember us in prayer. We do need your prayer support.

Bible Study

Bible Study Intro:

JESUS: GOD IN PERSON

Question: “How can I believe in God when I can’t see or feel Him?”

Answer: Believing in God is a matter of faith, not a matter of sensing Him in the natural.

Question: “How can I have faith?”

Answer: Faith comes by hearing the words of God.

Question: “How do I hear these words of God?”

Answer: The words of God are found in the Bible or come through those who study the Bible and preach what it says.

We have faith in a lot of things we cannot perceive with our natural senses. There are emotions and feelings that do not have substance. There are powers in the airwaves that we can neither see nor understand. There are principalities and powers that rule over areas that cannot be seen. All of these are known through faith.

God created the world and all that it contains or ever will contain. God created man to be in fellowship with Him, yet man did not cherish that privilege. Man broke fellowship and was separated from God. God did not leave the matter there, neither did He decide to make something or someone new to fellowship with. He sent His Son to earth as a man to show mankind the way back into fellowship with God. Jesus had to come as a man, so that men would listen to Him.

Part One

JESUS WAS AND IS

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was (John 17:5).

In His prayer to His Father when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father to glorify Him like He had been glorified when He was with the Father before the world was formed. Jesus was with the Father when He spoke the world into existence. Jesus and the Holy Spirit were part of the creation of the world and all it contains.

In his letters to the young churches, Paul made mention that Jesus was with the Father before the foundation of the world. Jesus was at the beginning of life as we know it, and He is the One who now sustains that life.

The book of Hebrews talks about a priest named Melchizedek to whom Abraham gave offerings. Melchizedek’s name is interpreted to be the King of Righteousness, the King of Salem, and the King of Peace. It goes on to say that this priest always was, with no beginning of days and no end of life. He had no earthly parents, and was eternally in existence. He is a type of Jesus Christ.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. (Although Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and Jesus did not speak in Greek, the meaning is still the same: He is the first and the last.) Jesus also told the Jews that He existed before Abraham. Of course, the people did not understand Him because they were looking at things in the natural and Jesus spoke of the spiritual.

Jesus always existed with God, the Father. God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit are the three parts of the triune nature of the Lord God. When the time came for the redemption of mankind, Jesus, the Son came to earth; born of a virgin to live upon earth as a man.

Jesus was born to a woman, but He was the seed of the Father God. Being born as any other man, Jesus was fully human. He grew in wisdom and stature like any other male of His day. Though He took on the form of man so that He could reach mankind with His message of the Gospel, Jesus retained the nature of His heavenly Father.

HE WAS PRE-EXISTENT

Several times throughout His life on earth, Jesus mentioned that He existed from the beginning of time. These statements were not liked by the religious leaders of the time. They often challenged the teachings of Jesus. They tried to trap Jesus into saying something that could be considered blasphemous. This was a serious accusation and these leaders thought they could discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people.ime He They challenged His teachings and asked Him whether or not His teachings agreed with the Law of Moses.

To test Jesus on His obedience to the law, they brought a woman before Him who had been caught in the act of adultery. The law said that she should be stoned, but what would Jesus say? The law also said that the man with her should be stoned, but they did not bring him to Jesus for judgment. Jesus paused, wrote something in the dust of the road, and then told the one among them who was without sin to cast the first stone. One by one the men dropped their stones and left. Then Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more. Rather than the letter of the law which will kill, Jesus expressed mercy.

At another time the Pharisees wanted to know where Jesus’ Father was. They were questioning Jesus’ comments that He and the Father were one. The Pharisees did not believe that His testimony was true.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto Him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also (John 8:14-19).

The Pharisees continued the argument with Jesus over who He was and who His Father was. They became very upset when Jesus told them that the Father sent Him and that they were one. They accused Jesus of being from the devil, but their ancestry went back to Abraham. Then Jesus told them that He existed before Abraham.

Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that He is your God: Yet ye have not known Him; but I know Him: and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know Him, and keep His saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto Him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:53-58).

That was enough for these religious leaders, they took up stones to kill Jesus, but He disappeared into the crowd. Religion will always get upset over the truth of God’s Word.

As we see from John 17, Jesus was with the Father and shared His glory before the world was formed. He was loved by the Father and they loved you and me before the foundations of the world were spoken into existence.

HE WAS CREATOR

In the beginning of time, God created the world: the earth and the heavens. The word for God used in Genesis is the word “elohiym” which is the plural form and it means the triune God. God the Father spoke and the earth was formed and every item on earth and in the heavens was spoken into existence. Jesus was the One who formed everything, and the Holy Spirit moved across all things.

Jesus was one with the Father before the foundation of the world; therefore, He took part in the creation of all things.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:3).

There is no part of creation that was not touched and formed by Jesus. All things seen and unseen were formed by Him after the Father spoke them into being. Paul calls it a mystery: how Jesus was with the Father and created all things.

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).

Telling others about this mystery was why Paul was called to be a minister of the truth about Jesus. Even though he did not understand how all this happened, Paul had no doubt that it did happen. Jesus was the one who created all things; even those unseen principalities and powers that rule over men and nations.

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:16, 17).

Jesus created all these things for His purposes. God has a plan and purpose for each person He creates, and the invisible forces and powers also fulfill His purpose. When God created man in His image, He desired fellowship with man. Then man sinned and was cut off from direct contact with God. After that, it was time for God’s plan for Jesus to come into being. Jesus made that way for man to be redeemed and brought back into a right relationship with the Father.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds (Hebrews 1:1, 2).

God spoke to His people through His prophets for many decades. The teachings of these men comprise much of the Old Testament. They often spoke of the promised Redeemer to come. Jesus, God’s Son, is that promised Redeemer. Much of the New Testament contains reports of the teachings of Jesus and the miracles He performed.

God made Jesus heir of all things and believers are numbered among the things Jesus inherited. Jesus also has brought believers into the family of God and as God’s children we are also heirs with Jesus of all spiritual blessings.