“Do you love me more than these?”

That was a soft, humble voice that I heard from someone that solemn night. I knew that a big crowd was surrounding me and yet I could only see myself and him facing each other. The man’s face was shining bright like a diamond. My eyes were in awe and kept on wondering what was going on.

   “Do you love me?”

This time he tenderly held my hand and asked the same question. I looked at him again and saw the blood running from his head down to his body and feet. Instead of shock and fear, my heart began to beat and felt compassion to the man.

But my weary eyes suddenly looked away from him and saw the world again. It was a kind of world that I aggressively chased which I believed would give me pure and genuine happiness. I knew it was what all I wanted all my life but my heart began to bleed when I realized that it started to fade away.

Then that soft, humble voice spoke again for the third time.

   “Do you love me?”    

That last question hit me like a lightning from the dark sky. It struck both my heart and soul. And I saw how my spirit humbly knelt down in front of the man who did not remove his hand from me. In his glory he knelt down too and lovingly hugged me like his long lost son. I cried like a child who finally found his father.

   “Yes, I love you more than anything else,” I replied. “Follow me,” said the Lord.

Like watching a Christian film, that’s how cinematic my encounter with Jesus Christ is. It was May 30, 2017 when my feet brought me to Victory Church in Ortigas. Overwhelmed by own Gethsemane, God called me at my darkest hour. I can still recall how Pastor Mike Manahan preached about John 21:15-17 as part of Moving Forward series. During the time that I felt betrayed by the world that I get used to love, it was Jesus who revealed his love that is indescribable and incomparable to what the world promises. I sincerely received him as my Lord, Master, and Savior and the rest is history.

My new found relationship with the Son of God gets deeper especially during the praying, fasting, and consecration week from January 8 to 12 of 2018 of my home church in the Philippines. I get to know more of him as I started the New Year. That familiar voice becomes clearer.

   “Man shall not live by bread alone.”    

It is undeniably part of the nature of human beings to get hungry. That explains the reason why we instinctively hunt for food (from the ancient era or even up to this modern age) or to buy or cook of what could be the main source of our energy and survival apart from water and air.

In the recently concluded praying, fasting, and consecration week of Victory Churches all over the country in-synch with Every Nation Churches around the world, I have this epiphany that Christ himself is the divine food that we need. Fasting teaches us to crave for more, not of what we desire in the world, but more of the revelations of God.

No, it’s more than a corporate tradition of depriving ourselves of meals that we normally take every single day. It’s more than a deactivation of all social media for a week, or an off to some things that feed our worldly pleasures. Empty stomachs and some conscious sacrifices would not add to the salvation that we already received when Christ died on the cross. It is already finished. The victory is already won 2,000 years ago. But rather, it should have been a week of strengthening the relationship that we have for Jesus, the Messiah.

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mathew 4:4)

When the time comes that we get too attached to the world and what it offers, we tend to seek all the means to acquire more breads. For some it could be bread that literally fills in stomachs, or bread that could buy and manipulate everything. Or maybe that kind of bread means a precious person who sufficiently satisfies your heart, or bread that brings accolades and places us on the pedestal. With all these we would do anything for these not to be taken away from us.

But all these earthly breads would mean nothing if we don’t live in accordance to God’s purpose for our lives.

   “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

Jesus is the divine bread. Through his teachings, we would be able to gain wisdom and knowledge of who God really is and what He wants us to do to build His kingdom. By receiving the grace of Christ, it means loving God more than worldly bread no matter what it personally means to you.

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Boon Lay, Jurong West, Singapore