Bread Cast on the Waters

Human eyes cannot see directly the life growing inside a mother’s body, but when we meet the baby through an ultrasound, we marvel at the wonderful power and wisdom of God. There is the picture, with the baby’s face, hands and feet in view and the spine standing out clearly. And inside one person’s body another life, with a completely different blood type, is alive and doing well. There is no other way to describe this than as the power of God. Only God can cause a life to be conceived like this, and only God can make the bones grow in the womb.

You were born into the world under this same blessing. Every soul in this world is precious, and the very fact that they were born into the world is a blessing and a miracle. These souls were born within God’s absolute care and love, and it would be the responsibility of those who came first to bring them God, who does all things, and to help them understand him.

In Ecclesiastes it is written, “Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.” It means that you are to cast the spiritual food you now have on the waters. If you cast the food of life you have into the world that the prostitute holds in her arms, after many days you will find at least a few people. That bread is the food of life that saves people, and it is Christ, just as Jesus likened himself to bread. You must without fail cast on the waters the bread of life that Jesus gave you. When you pass on Christ, the bread of life, to the world, those among the hearers who have ears to hear will surely be saved. Just as you received the bread of life and were saved, I hope that through you someone will come onto the road of salvation.

As I expounded Ecclesiastes, I came to see how deeply Solomon repented of the wrong life he had lived, and how earnestly he longed for his people not to walk the road he had walked. You will have understood that the bread cast on the waters is Jesus Christ. Do not be stingy in sharing that bread. You should take the lead in the growth of the kingdom of God by casting the bread in ever more places. However much power and wealth someone holds in the world, in the end a human life returns to a handful of dust. As believers, on the road of life that runs as swift as an arrow, we should leave behind the fruit of the Spirit, the marks of our labor for faith and for the saving of souls. I hope you too will cast off all greed and craving, follow Solomon in his repentance, and take the low place with a humble heart.

When you close the last page of this book, I hope that, like Solomon, you will recover your first love. If you recover the deep love of God, who waits to the very end, God will begin a greater work through you. Even as everyone confesses that life is vanity of vanities, I earnestly hope that you will always be a precious instrument in God’s hands and be used by him. I will pray that you always enjoy peace and rest in the Lord.

January 2010
Cho Chun-sook, Pastor of Watercourse Church