Break Thou the Bread of Life

What a delicious, satisfying way to get full, on the living bread of God's holy word. This hymn is full. He is our living bread, our truth and our salvation. No more starvation in spirit, no more ignorance, no more bondate to sin. Alellelujah! What a Savior!

This morning in my devotion was reading John 21 1-25 where Jesus appeared on the shore to the disciples after they had been toiling all night with no success. He called to them to throw their net on the right side of the boat saying "you will find some". When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. They did manage to get the fish without breaking the net and afterwards Jesus called them to have breakfast. He had a fire with fish already baked and bread ready for them. Also, in this passage we have the conversation between The Lord and Peter with the three times asking Peter if he loved Him.

I recalled the words from this hymn I learned as a child, "beyond the sacred page, I seek thee, Lord. My Spirit pants for thee, the Living Word." I found this site so I could look again at the words of the whole hymn.

He is Our Living Lord today, in our hearts we seek Him beyond our routine bible study. He is the One that stands calling us to come to Him.

Our Dear King Jesus, is the Kingdom Bread, when we eat of this Kingly Bread, we are ruled inwardly, restored, satisfied, healed, loved! The Lord told the Canaanite woman that the Bread was for the children not for the dogs. In a lovely way, He told her she was a doggy, she then took hold of this "handle" and replied "Yes Lord, but even the little dogs eat from the bread crumbs." Today, The Lord wants to be eaten by His children, Eating is the way, there is no other way, no self effort is worth but useless, EAT THE BREAD. Meet Him every morning to EAT the Kingly Bread then we will enter into the reality of the Kingdom in this age and make ourselves ready to meet Him. Otherwise, we will be empty, found with no oil, and not be part of the Bride, ready to meet the Bridegroom. What is the way, EAT THE LORD JESUS!

While this hymn is often sung during Communion, it is really intended to prepare the heart for Bible study. The author, Mary Lathbury, was better known as a commercial artist than as a poet. Her illustrations regularly appeared in the popular magazines of the 19th century. She was a devout Christian who often vacationed at Lake Chautauqua, where she became one of the founders of a new movement. Mixing Christian inspiration, culture and education, the Chautauqua movement spread across the country. She was asked by the leader of the movement to write a Vespers [evening prayer] hymn, which she did ("Day is Dying in the West"), and then a Bible study hymn. As she sat with her Bible, overlooking Lake Chautauqua, she thought of the disciples at the Sea of Galilee and wrote this hymn. - Great Songs of Faith by Brown & Norton

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A great to open a Bible discussion, study or preaching.