Greetings brethren and Happy Sabbath!  I hope the sunshine and blue skies are helping cheer us all up through this current challenge!

Last week's memory verse was 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV), "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control."  Keep an eye out for clues to this week's memory verse below!

Are you done yet?

Deleavening, that is....  If you're like us, the quarantine or 'stay at home' order has at least given us plenty of time to get the house deleavened.  In think this year, we'll effectively be keeping two full weeks of Unleavened Bread!

If you haven't finished, you still have time.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins next Wednesday night, April 8th, at sunset.  This of course is the same time we will be enjoying the Night To Be Much Observed, albeit in smaller groups than we might ordinarily.

Symbols

As we get ready to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we of course think about the symbols involved.  Leaven represents puffiness, vanity and sin. During this time, we don't eat it to remind us that we should always be working to keep sin out of our lives.

But did you know that there is more to it than that?  Perhaps you've heard it this way before, "It's not called the Days of No Leaven, it's called the Days of Unleavened Bread."  That is to say, it's not just about not eating leaven, it's about eating unleavened bread as well.

One of the things that occurs to me as I clean my house, car, etc., is that I'm grateful we can still eat unleavened bread (especially cheese straws - if you haven't made these before, you must try them!  Here's the recipe - don't skimp on the cayenne!).  Could you imagine if we had to throw out not just leaven, but ALL bread?  

What a challenge it would be if we couldn't eat Unleavened Bread as well.  Bread - whether it be leavened or unleavened, barley, rye, wheat or corn based, has been used to sustain man's existence since the beginning of time.  God is wise and merciful in His commands, indeed...

Ultimate picture

Unleavened Bread ultimately pictures Jesus Christ, who was without sin.  But more than that, He was the perfect example of what we should be! What we think about then, during this Feast, is not just getting sin out of our lives, but putting Christ into our lives.

Whenever we eat a piece of Unleavened Bread over the next few weeks, it's not just reminding us that we shouldn't be sinning.  It's reminding us that what we ultimately need to sustain ourselves, both physically and spiritually, is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ!