Long I stood in the bread aisle of our supermarket. There was multigrain bread, oat bread, flax bread, whole wheat bread, white bread, rye bread, pumpernickel bread, raisin bread and cinnamon bread. But what I wanted was Wonder Bread. Enough with the healthy bread, I wanted bread you could squeeze into a ball and bounce off the wall. When I was a kid watching the Howdy Doody Show, Buffalo Bob told us Wonder Bread advertised that it built strong bodies in eight ways. Later it became twelve ways. It has been decades since I have had a piece of Wonder Bread. It now sits in my pantry awaiting the right moment. I am trying to decide if it will be with PB&J or lettuce, tomato and fake bacon.
Jesus made several references to bread. He actually called Himself “The Bread of Life.” Jesus is “The Real Wonder Bread” He builds healthy bodies in 10,000 ways. He also talked about yeast and how pervasive it can be. He warned His disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees. Often I have seen congregations infected with the yeast of works. They are fed a diet of grace and along comes a smooth talking preacher who so subtly and probably ignorantly talks about grace and then adds the poisonous word “but”. Beware of the word “but.” It comes like this, “We are saved by grace, but …” It works its destructive force so subtly we barely notice it. A dear friend of mine recently said, “I am so afraid I will be lost for one little sin I don’t know about.” Ouch! I wanted to cry.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwe.org