Jesus and the doggy bags

Love this amazing story of Jesus and the twelve disciples on the shores of Galilee. We can read all about it in John chapter 6.

Jesus had had a pretty trying day - he had cured a grossly paralysed man at the sheep gate in Jerusalem where this man had been lying around for 38 years for some kind person to help him into the a pool which was called Bethesda in the hope that he would be cured.

Jesus saw the man, had huge pity for him and healed him there and then - pretty awesome, incredible and astounding really, but the thing was it was on a Sabbath - the day of rest and the Pharisees those hierarchical hound dogs for the law were waiting for Him knowing that he would trip up and do something they could 'get him' for.

They 'pounced on Jesus when they saw that He had dared to heal on the Sabbath and interrogated him - Among other things Jesus 'laid it straight to them and told them how it really was, saying:-

"I'm not interested in  crowd approval. And do you know why? because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God's love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the Authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rival and ignoring God?

Well that must have thrown them a curved ball because they sort of didn't know what to say, so Jesus climbed into a boat - more than likely one of the disciples boats, and sailed away across the sea of Galilee.

Exhausted He sat down on a grassy hillside surrounded by His disciples and looked out to see a huge crowd who had followed Him - 5000 men, women and children. He immediately said to Philip "Where can we buy enough bread to feed these people"?

Now, Jesus knew before hand exactly what he was going to do - He said this to Philip to test him - Has Jesus ever done the same to you? - If so how did you react? has a seemingly insurmountable problem floored you to the extent that you want to give up? I know I have and I know Jesus has surprised me over and over again.

What we see as insurmountable to Jesus is really nothing - Can you just imagine what was going through Philip's mind right then? Now that was a huge insurmountable problem - "Jesus expects me to feed all of these people? He must be joking? - His answer to Jesus sort of says it all. "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece!"

Just then Andrew, Peter's bother came up - obviously hearing the conversation between Jesus and Philip and announces he has found a lad with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Good old Mum must have packed her boy's lunch - Don't you just love caring Mums and dads?

Andrew was sort of aware that Jesus was the saviour - the true God - the Messiah and he sought of knew that Jesus could have worked a miracle and yet he too erred on the side of caution saying to Jesus "But that's just a drop in the bucket compared to all these people!"

Are you a Philip or Andrew when it comes to trusting in Jesus?

Philip, gobsmacked at the enormity of the problem at hand - Andrew sort of trusting that Jesus could do something but not quite sure if He really really can or not. Remember that these two had just witnessed an amazing miracle and heard Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and telling them that He indeed was the Messiah.

Jesus told the disciples to organise the people to sit down on the grass - and be sort of crowd control managers because He knew what was about to happen. He knew that the people needed feeding and he knew that it could quickly get out of hand if not organised.

Jesus knows what we are about too! He knows what makes us tick, our motives, our heartaches, our panic-stricken moments, those times when our fears overcome our faith, when we falter in our trust to him and rush out to do our 'own thing' often only to fall on our faces.

Jesus took the lad's loaves and fishes and broke them up and fed the people orderly and quickly - fed them until they had had enough - they were filled each and every one.

You know our God is an unlimited God - He knows what and when we need it - It's always, always in His time not ours.

After they had all eaten He told His disciples to gather up the left overs - I guess you could call it the very first doggy-bag incident - 12 baskets of food left over - 12 baskets!!

God doesn't do anything half hearted - nothing is wasted with our God.

The people looked at Jesus and said "surely this is the promised Messiah - right here with us in Galilee"

Can people look at our lives today and know who Jesus is? That after all is the very purpose of our lives - to reflect Jesus - to make others aware of His amazing love to us and his miraculous saving power.

Love this chapter so much because it is just jammed full of amazing miracles and true signs of Jesus redemptive power to save.

After the bread and fishes incident, the disciples climbed in a boat and headed for the distant shore but Jesus was left behind because he had slipped off on his own to be by himself for a while. A huge storm blew up and in the middle of the night in a fierce gale He came walking to them on the water and once inside the boat they immediately reached land in the exact spot where they intended to go.

The next day, when the crowds, realised hat Jesus had gone followed Him across the lake. I must admit I love this next bit and the Message Bible puts it so, so well. When Jesus saw right through the crowds He said:-
"You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs - and for free."

Jesus knows why we do things why we say things, nothing is hidden from Him. He told the crowds not to waste their time striving for perishable foods but work hard for food that sticks with you and nourishes your lasting life.

Jesus said "I am the Bread of Life" whoever eats of this bread will never hunger again.

Jesus is our bread of life - yours and mine - if we truly partake of Jesus as the TRUE bread who came down to earth to save us then we feed on Him and we have eternal life.

My prayer for all of us this week is that we all feed on the Bread of Life - Jesus. And through this amazing transformation of our lives we will catch a glimpse of the overflowing feast of love that He has in store for us - we can even take the doggy bags home to share with all we meet.

Amazing and awesome is our God - God bless you all this week.

Stay the Course - Keep going no matter what

I've been reading James in the Bible and our church has done a whole series on the book just recently. I have been so convicted about some things and others I have found to be extremely difficult.

To be completely honest the verses I have had trouble coming to terms with are James chapter 1:1-4

Here they are according to THE MESSAGE:-

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."

A Gift? A Sheer gift? I really don't want a "sheer gift" of any type of trial thank you. I am quite happy being me in my world.

Another version says - "Count it pure joy when trials come your way" even the Children's Bible says "You should be very happy, because you know these things are testing your faith."

Amazing, incredible, astounding! So what is James really saying here? That we should be overflowing with happiness when we lose someone very dear to us, or our job, our home is burnt to the ground or our marriage just exploded in front of us?

No not at all! - My mind goes back to the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Mary and Martha implored Jesus to come and heal their bother Lazarus but Jesus stayed longer and didn't go when they directed him to. Lazarus died.

When he did turn up at Bethany and saw just how distraught Mary and Martha were at the loss of Lazarus what did He do? He didn't put on a happy face, No! he wept.

When Jesus faced the cross and all that it meant, He did it with crying and tears, He was sorrowful not joyful. James doesn't mean to imply that we should deny our emotional pain, he doesn't mean to paint on a happy face and deny we are screaming out in pain. So what does he mean?

What James is saying here is to realise that because of your trauma, whatever it is, that your "faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours."  Our faith is truly tested when we have hit the wall, when disaster hits us like a mac truck.

James goes on to say that we shouldn't try to get out of anything prematurely, which I am assuming that means that we can get out of things before they have run their true course.

Looking at it humanly, I can see why people run away. People run from the their marriage, their family, their jobs and their churches when things get out of hand but that is not what James is saying and saying very plainly. DON'T even try to get out prematurely don't even consider it.

That's when the "consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides" comes in.

These often horrible and unexpected challenges can hit us broadside from the most obscure areas and usually at the most inopportune times. Not that I feel there is a good time for any trial to hit us!

When things are going along Ok - when the world is as it should be, when things are all rosy in the garden then there is really no pressure to test our faith. In these times it is easy to have faith and go along with all the usual platitudes and using all the right Christianeze language.

It is only when we are put under pressure that the real test of our faith comes to the fore and our faith-life will be "forced into the open" as James puts it in the Message Bible.

But we don't like who we are under pressure - we would so much prefer to be our own people in our own comfort zone but guess what? We can't pick the amount of pressure we will be under when the tidal waves hit. It's not so much that they hit us but who we will rely on when they do.

Will we be master of our own destiny and rely on ourselves to heal the problem? Will we maybe run away and 'take a break' from the world to make the current disaster disappear?  Or will we use our faith to rely, trust and obey our Master Jesus Christ.

Will we use His example of perseverance under pressure or not? It is our very faith in God that is being  tested here. Another way of looking at it is that we may not even know if our faith is genuine until it stands up and is counted under pressure of trials, cyclones, tsunamis or whatever.

It's so easy to say "I trust God" heaps of people "say" that but really it is not until we are placed under severe pressure that the genuineness of our trust is proven. Afterwards when the tidal wave has passed, which may take years, you will know for sure whether the trueness of your faith is sure or not.

The awesomeness (in the true sense of the word) is manifested so strongly, when James commands us to trust God and rely on His hope and joy, yes JOY, in the middle of extreme trials.

Matthew 16 says "if anyone comes after me let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me."  Deny in this context actually means to be prepared to lay down their very lives for Christ, taking up your cross simply means taking everything the cross means to you and showing that to the world around us no mater what we are gong through personally.

If the cross of Christ means hope, faith and trust to you, then let's turn that cross into a sword and become real warriors for Jesus. When you consider what Jesus did on that cross, how He turned that wooden, terrible yet wonderful cross into a sword and smashed death in one blow, then we can surely use our cross and make it a sword of life, felling disaster and trials.