Luke 6:38.
“And the Lord said
unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed
short? Thou shalt see now whether My
Word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”
Numbers 11:23.
Good morning, giving
Christian! The Lord has blessed you with
a generous spirit of continual ‘cheerful’ giving. You
have sought faithfully to give what you have towards His Kingdom constantly and
- as a direct consequence - you are never found wanting in any good thing. Praise God for giving Christians! The Lord God bless you and reward you
abundantly!
“But this I (Paul
the apostle) say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he
which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man/woman according as he purposeth in
his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth
a cheerful giver. And God is able to
make all grace abound toward you…” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)
Today’s Journey in John’s Gospel finds
Jesus and His disciples faced with the humanly impossible task of physically
feeding ‘…a great company…’ of hungry people, who had no doubt travelled far in
order to hear Christ Jesus speak. How
did the disciples handle such a mammoth task?
The Lord tested Philip’s faith first, and Philip responded as many of us
today would naturally respond - he crunched the numbers and, humanly speaking,
came to a logical conclusion: “Two hundred pennyworth of bread in not sufficient for
them, that every one of them may take a little.” (V.7)
Isn’t this just like you and me? We try to handle day to
day situations and problems in a similar manner - we immediately apply logical
thinking.
The apostle Andrew’s faith was also being tested in this situation, and
he responded in a different manner, with a little more Christian faith and a
little less human logic: “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves,
and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?” (V.9)
Andrew was trying to practice
more faith, but in the end his logical human mind found it difficult to imagine
what the Lord could do with so little provision. Man’s impossibility is
God’s opportunity to do the
miraculous.
How could the contents of a
boy’s lunch meet the
great needs of over five thousand tired and hungry people?
Note also at this point that,
nothing could have been done to solve the problem of this hungry multitude IF,
first, the boy had not been willing to give up his own personal
provisions! The boy was willing to share
his resources, otherwise no great miracle could begin to be achieved!
Let us therefore ask ourselves
the questions: Are we as willing to give
of our personal resources that the cause of Christ might be furthered? Is our personal reluctance to share our
God-given resources - with worthwhile Christian causes - a very real hindrance
to the Lord God Who has given us these resources in the first instance? Sobering thoughts, what?
When the resources - ’…five barley loaves, and two small fishes…’ - were identified by the disciples, and willingly
given by the young boy, the Lord’s Divine direction
came immediately. ‘And Jesus said, Make the men sit down.’ (V.10)
Without Divine direction and
Godly organization we cannot commence any project of charitable giving - we are
to be wise stewards of the Lord’s resources. The world is full of money-grabbing con-men,
my friends. Be wise!
“Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try (test, discern) the spirits whether they are of God;
because many false prophets are gone out into the world…Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of
error.” (1 John 4:1-6)
Five thousand ‘…men sat down…’ in direct
obedience to the Lord Jesus’ command. (V.10) Without obedience to the Lord God, no miracle is possible.
Jesus, the Creator Lord God,
took materials and recreated them in multiples by His Almighty power. ‘…Five barley loaves,
and two small fishes…’ fed five thousand
men - AND all the women and children in addition to this number! Hallelujah!
Try counterfeiting that one, Mr T.V. Evangelist!
Thought: Gather up these ‘fragments’ of Spiritual
wisdom and GIVE as unto the Lord God.
You are in partnership with Him, dear friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I invite comments that are Christian in nature. All comments are moderated, and any negative submissions are deleted and never published.