God is also a personage of physical proportions. He has a tangible body. Paul declares in Acts 17: 28-29, that we are the offspring of God. He is the creator of our spiritual beings, our earthly parents are the creators of the physical bodies that house our spirits.

First we realize that death is a reality (the one thing everybody, regardless of anything, is assured to pass through). Death happens, it can be tragic, sudden and unexpected. Because it is such, it is often dreaded. Because those who are dead are out of communication with the living, it could be terrifying. Not knowing what will come next, or if anything does.

Second we realize and have hope and faith that the resurrection is a reality. Jesus, the first and only one with power, overcame death. That means he had the knowledge and spiritual and physical power to undo the affects of death. Physical death is a separation of body and spirit. The body we know well, the physical matter from which it is made, the physical properties it contains. The spirit is less known, scientifically unquantifiable. It is the dark matter of our selves. Yet the spirit is real, and connected with our bodies. It is the substance of us. It gives us our character, our wills, it is where our knowledge is stored. Death is the separation of spirit and body. With out the spirit to animate it, the body is useless, a lump of clay. Jesus had the knowledge and power to decide when this separation would happen, and to put them back together. He was the first of the resurrection. We will all be resurrected. This means our spirits and bodies will reunite, but this time they will never again separate. Our bodies will be of finer and greater make this next time. They will never tire, get sick, endure pain, age, and never be separated from our spirit again. I digress….

With that knowledge of the surety of death, the temporariness of life, we should endeavor to fill our life with good works. To do good things for others, to fill our hearts and minds with service. As President Monson says: “Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.”

So, what can I do today to help someone else? How can I be of service?

I’ve decided to do a study of prayer in the scriptures. I’m going to note all instances of people praying and conversing with God, and then study and analyze the results in an effort to improve my own relationship with God. My favorite words about prayer come from the Bible Dictionary.

As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7: 7-11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings. [Prayer, Bible Dictionary]

It is this type of relationship that I want to have, my will being brought into correspondence with the Father’s.

Faith

Jesus heals a man that has been blind from birth. All of the Jews know him (the Pharisees at least), so they know that he is truly blind. But in their hard hearts and spiteful minds, they can not see the great miracle that happened, and only see the supposed violation of the law of the Sabbath. The Pharisees had always wanted a miracle to happen for them to believe Jesus, yet here is one they can not deny, but won’t believe because they interpret the act as a violation of a law. The Pharisees question the man, trying to understand, and trying to find some proof that Jesus is of the devil. I love the reply of the man who was healed.

30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born ^ablind.
33 If this man were not of ^aGod, he could do nothing.

The man, through logic and faith, testifies that any man who can heal a blind man must be of God. The Pharisees, with pride and unbelief, cast him out. Jesus seeks out the man and asks him if he believes on the Son of God. The man wants to know who he is, and upon learning it is Jesus, immediately believes and worships him.

Such great faith. We must also have such great faith. It comes only when your heart and mind are open to receive it.

Sabbath

The other lesson to learn is about the Sabbath day. Division arose among the Pharisees because some believed the breaking of the Sabbath law greater than the miracle done. Others questioned, can a sinner do such a great miracle? This brings out the great debate between the letter and the spirit of the law. In this case Jesus broke neither, but it is a question and debate we should all have with our Sabbath observance. Jesus did not break the letter of the law. As he explained at a different occurance, even the Pharisees will feed and water their animals, should not a human being be blessed with site?

I have read often how the current prophets and apostles have declared that the Sabbath day should be kept holy. That great blessings come from this observance, and great calamities come with breaking it. I’m always amazed at people who claim to have a strong belief in Jesus Christ a testimony and desire to follow his commandments, yet can not follow one of the simple Ten Commandments. They shop, work, and play on the Sabbath day, and it’s just not right. They break the law and the spirit when they do not have their hearts set on serving other people and worshiping God.

Anyhow, those were a couple of thoughts I had today.

So, we have a bunch of people that want physical, temporal, natural sustenance. They want free food. The people  had made a great effort to follow and find Jesus (despite his having walked on water that evening, so his tracks weren’t easy to follow). When they ask where he went and how he got to where he was, Jesus, in verse 26, astutely answered them, in essence, “you are looking for me because of the food I gave you, not because of the miracles I did. You put forth a lot of effort to find me just to get more food to eat, but I say, put forth that much effort to find the food that lasts forever and provides eternal life.”

Physical food (the kind from the grocery store) sustains and edifies and makes possible our physical life. It helps our physical bodies grow. It keeps us alive. Jesus makes reference to a different kind of food that sustains a different kind of life, that keeps us alive in a different way, an eternal way. An important verse to help us understand the three remaining “verily, verily” statements comes in verse 63, when Jesus is speaking privately with his chosen apostles. He explains to them that it is the spirit (small ‘s’ meaning our own spirit, not the big ‘S’ meaning the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost) that is everlasting, it “quickeneth”. The New Oxford American Dictionary (the one that comes with Macintosh’s Dictionary application) explains the mainy meanings of the word quicken. “While all of these verbs mean to make alive or lively, quicken suggests the rousing or renewal of life, especially life that has been inert or suspended.” This is a need explination when we consider that our lives have been spiritually intert or suspended until we believe on Jesus Christ and accept his Gospel. Not until then do we experience a spiritual rousing or renewal of life. Indeed, this is what Jesus then explains. He goes on to say, in verse 63, that “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The words that Jesus had been using were to express a spiritual truth and principle, couched in physical and temporal explinations (an instance of parables available for those with ears to hear and eyes to see).

So, after knowing that what Jesus is speaking is to be understood spiritually, lets look back at the four “verily, verily” instances.

1. verse 26. We should use our energy and “labour” for things that feed our spiritual bodies. We should provide food for our spiritual growth. This comes in the form of reading the words of God from the scriptures and his living prophets, in testifying of the Gospel to others, and accepting and doing the things Jesus asks of us.

2. verse 32. The people begged, Moses gave the people manna, can’t you give us your bread forever (temporaly speaking)? Jesus replied, testifing of his Father, it was not Moses who gave you anything, nor is it every the work of man or prophet, but always and only the Father that gives the food for spiritual growth. We see here the people speaking in temporal terms, but Jesus answering in spiritual terms. Our Father in Heaven is the one and only one who provides the “true bread from heaven.”

3. verse 47. Jesus had said that he was the bread of life, that he had come down from heaven. This smacked of blasphemy to the Jews, and the started to disbelieve his greatness, saying “isn’t he just Joseph’s son? Don’t we know his parents?” Jesus responded to their unbelief, the way to eternal life (again spiritually speaking) is to believe that he is the Son of God, their Redeemer.

4. verse 53. And why should we believe on Jesus, how is he the way to eternal life? He states in verse 48, “I am the bread of life.” Again a spiritual statement. Then in verse 53, he exhorts us to “eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood” and unless we do so we have no life in us. The peolpe have thoughts of cannibalism, again not understanding the spiritual aspects in which Christ is speaking. We have to injest or internalize the teachings and essense of Jesus Christ so that we may have eternal life. When we eat food, we use that food for energy to make our bodies function, grow and live. We must use the Gospel of Christ in the same way. We must internalize his teachings, make his way of living our way of living. We must become so much like him that our flesh and blood mimics and has become like his. When we do that, we become spiritually born again. Reborn, or quickened, into a life like Jesus’.

Concluding this verse is a wonderful testament of Peter. All of the people left because Jesus would give them no more bread and fish. Jesus asked his apostles, his chosen twelve, “Will ye also go away?” Peter replies, “to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” A powerful testimony and statement of knowledge and believe about the divinity and truth of Jesus Christ. The apostles understood the spiritual message, and employed it in their physical lives, that they might gain an eternal life with Christ.