TMC has a “new” 2005 SUV!
Once a week, sometimes twice, we load gifts of food into our TMC SUV. We have day-old bakery items, nonperishable foods, and sometimes leftover fellowship dinner meals which we take to our friends. As they take turns picking out food items, we have conversations about life, work, children, school, faith…. And right there in the streets we have the opportunity to see the unmatched, incomparable love of Jesus at work– a love that is always the best food we have to offer.
I am inspired by the parable Jesus tells in Luke 11. A friend comes to his neighbor in the middle of the night, asking for three loaves of bread for another friend who has come to him on a journey. Even though the neighbor won’t help his friend initially, the neighbor eventually relents, gets up, and gives his friend as much as he needs. Why? Jesus says it is not because they are friends, but rather because his friend is persistent and shamelessly bold in his asking.
We are learning to go to God continually, consistently, persistently to ask for bread for our friends, whose needs are as varied as their lives are. But God knows exactly what is needed. We ask boldly, so that what we offer them doesn’t merely fill their stomachs. Jesus is the bread of God which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. We want to share life!
Life! Jesus is the bread which satisfies forever. I can tell you firsthand that when we experience His life we experience both joy and satisfaction. So put the tailgate up! COME ON, LET’S EAT!
John 6:33, John 4:32-34