Brown's Daily Word 9-24-07

Praise the Lord ,
Praise the Lord for His mighty deeds and for His awesome power. He is in control. He performs miracles of mercy and grace. He invites us to become partners in ministry and in His miracles.
An English teacher and her class were studying well known Proverbs. One day she gave them a test to see well they were understanding what she taught. She would state the first half of a proverb and then asked the students to come up with the rest of what it said. These were some of the answers that the teacher got from her students on that quiz:
It’s always darkest before... Daylight Savings Time.
Never underestimate the power of… termites.
Don’t bite the hand that … looks dirty.
If you lie down with dogs, you’ll… stink in the morning.
An idle mind is… the best way to relax.
A penny saved is… not much.
Two’s company, three’s… the Musketeers.
Children should be seen and not… spanked or grounded.
If at first you don’t succeed… get new batteries.
When the blind leadeth the blind… get out of the way.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and… you have to blow your nose.
Even though the students in that class had studied those parables for several days they still had trouble with the right answers.
And even when Jesus’ disciples had been with Him for several months they still had trouble with getting their answer right. During the time they had been with Jesus, His disciples had watched Him as He had…
healed a Leper – Mat 8:1
healed the servant of a Roman centurion– Mat 8:5
healed Peter’s mother in law – Mat 8:14
He also healed numerous people who had evil spirits and various diseases – Mt 8:16
They had even seen him raise a girl from the dead – Mat 9:25
The disciples had seen all of this. They had seen His power up close and personally. But now it became late in the day. They were on a hill out in the middle of no place and they had a bunch of hungry people on their hands. The disciples were practical men, and they suggested to Jesus that He send the people home so they can get something to eat. It was then that Jesus says the most unusual thing to them: "They do not need to go away. YOU give them something to eat." Matthew 14:16
That would seem like a practical solution except for two things:
1. There were 5000 MEN (besides and women and children) in this crowd
2. And they did not have nearly enough food on hand to feed that many people
The Gospel of Mark tells us another part of the conversation. When Jesus said that they should feed the crowd, “they said to him, ‘That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" Mark 6:37 The Gospel of John gives us another insight into this story. It says that Jesus had been speaking to Philip when he was telling them that they should feed the crowds. And John 6:6 says “He asked this only to TEST him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”
When I started to look at all the miracles Jesus had done up to that point I suddenly realized what was going on. Up until that point in time Jesus had been doing all the work. Jesus taught the people. Jesus healed people. Jesus raised people from the dead. And the disciples pretty much had been along for the ride. But at this point… it’s test time.
It was like that teacher who set the stage, by citing the first part of the parables to her class, and then expected them to fill in the blanks. In the same way, Jesus had set the stage for His disciples. He had given them an impossible situation, confronted them with nearly 15,000 hungry people (5000 men, plus women and children) and He told His disciples to feed them.
TEST QUESTION: How are YOU going to feed them?
And, how did they answer? We don’t have enough money - We ONLY have 2 fish & 5 loaves. . . So give Jesus what you have and let Him deal with the solution
Hebrews 11:6 says – “… without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that HE REWARDS THOSE WHO EARNESTLY SEEK HIM. If we earnestly seek His involvement in our plans, and we have nothing much to bring to the table, He fills in the gaps. His strength makes up for our weaknesses. That is the essence of faith. The Lord of miracles, desires to stretch our faith. He wants us to mature in our faith, and in order to get us to do that He often puts us in situations where there is NO way we could EVER possibly do what He’s asked on our own. That’s what Jesus did with the Disciples in this feeding of the 5000. He had put them into a situation they could only accomplish if the Lord did a miracle.
Hudson Taylor said, "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith." If we could do it all by ourselves what need would we have for God?
In this story of the feeding of the 5000 was that Jesus’ objective was not to feed the 5000. If that was all He had in mind, He could have sent them home. They didn’t need Him to get food for them. They could have gotten their groceries somewhere else.
When Churches don’t understand this, they can fall into the trap of forgetting why they exist. Up until this time Jesus had been doing all the work. But now He told His disciples: YOU do it – YOU give them something to eat. And how much food do the disciples come up with? (5 loaves, 2 fishes). It wasn’t even their food. It was the lunch of a small boy in the crowd! They needed a catering service, and they handed Jesus a sack lunch! But Jesus was NOT offended by that; He took what they gave Him, and He blessed it. Matthew 14 says that “He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he GAVE THANKS and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.” Matthew 14:19
When everybody had eaten their fill, they collected the fragments they ended up with 12 baskets full of food.
Jesus took what the disciples gave Him and He multiplied it. Why did He do that? Why did He ask the disciples to come up with the food? He didn’t need their food. He didn’t need the 5 loaves or the 2 fish. He was Jesus! All He needed to do was clap His hands and the food would have fallen from the sky, complete with table service. Why then did He do it the way He did? He did it that way because He wanted His disciples to be His partners in ministry.
Bill Hybels once said, “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncallused hand, a hand never dirtied by serving, and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus.”
When God tests your faith, when He challenges you to do more than you have ever done with your life, you should realize what a great opportunity He is giving you.
In my own life, I have discovered that the hardest tests have lead to my greatest testimonies. In fact, that’s one of the beauties of the English language: His TESTS lead to our TESTIMONIES. The Lord's tests lead to realization that He really wants to use me, and that I have value and purpose in His service. That is also the effect the miracle of the 5000 had on Jesus’ disciples.
Do you realize that this is the ONLY MIRACLE recorded in all 4 gospels? No other miracle has that honor, but this one does. This event was such a turning point in their lives that it became one of their greatest testimonies.

In Christ,
Brown



"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people." - G.K.Chesterton


A young boy had just gotten his driving permit. He asked his father, who was a minister, if they could discuss the use of the car. His father took him to his study and said to him, "I'll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up, study your Bible a little and get your hair cut and we'll talk about it."

After about a month the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss use of the car. They again went to the father's study where his father said, "Son, I've been real proud of you. You have brought your grades up, you've studied your Bible diligently, but you didn't get your hair cut!"

The young man waited a moment and replied, "You know Dad, I've been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, and even Jesus had long hair...."

To which his father replied, "Yes, and they walked every where they went!"