Many of the crowd around Jesus here had been with Him earlier when He had fed 5,000 with a few barley loaves and fish. Having followed Jesus to Capernaum, they were looking forward to more miracles and food…in other words, they had come for Dinner and a Show. But instead, Jesus offered them something life changing…He offered them eternal life. Just as He offered living water to the Samaritan woman at the well…Jesus offered the bread of life to the crowd. And He offers it to all of us today! Think about it, the world-view philosophy is empty and will never quench our thirst or fill our soul like Jesus can…and our man-centered spirit is continually searching for fulfillment, but will never find it outside of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Month: August 2020
Proverbs 31: 26-27 ” She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. “
The other day I was practicing a lost art…I was ironing! You know, that activity that uses a iron and a ironing board and you press wrinkles out of clothing. I imagine for many of you, this is quite a foreign concept, but before the advent of permanent-press clothing people ironed everything. And as a young lady, I was taught how to iron…starting out with flat pieces such as handkerchiefs, tea-towels, and pillowcases. My Mother would stand along side giving me instructions and encouragement as I learned how not to burn myself on the hot iron. Soon I would have a perfectly pressed item with her mark of approval for doing a good job. So the other day as I pressed her fancy, only for special occasions, ivory damask tablecloth, all those memories came crowding back…and when I was finally done, it too was perfectly pressed, just as she would of wanted it to look…and this afternoon, it will cover the display table at her funeral.
James 5:1 ” Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.”
In this letter, James isn’t writing to the general public…he’s addressing the early Church and Believers. He’s warning the rich Christians that they will be judged for hoarding their wealth, withholding pay to the workers of their fields, and living a self-indulgence life-style without regard for the welfare of others. Worldliness had crept into the early Church then…and it creeps into the Church today. For anytime more importance is placed on the elaborateness of the carpet in the sanctuary over helping the poor and oppressed among us…worldliness has found its way in.
Luke 9:49 ” ‘Master,’ said John, ‘we saw a man driving out demons in Your Name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’ ‘Don’t stop him,’ Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.’ “
The “inner circle” of the disciples were having a melt down. “How dare a stranger use Your Name to pray for people. He hasn’t been given authority like we have. We’re the ones who have the close association and relationship with You…he’s not one of us!” But they were really shocked when Jesus reacted to their biased thinking and elitist attitude by saying, “Don’t stop him!” Christianity has a way, if we’re not careful, of developing into a “club” mentality…a them against us posture with a superior prejudice towards anyone outside our inner circle. But we’re not part of an elite group…we are an elected group, chosen and saved through grace… not by anything we’ve done or are part of.
Mark 8:34 ” If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me.”
What’s the cost of following Jesus? It’s mostly things we don’t want to do, and our flesh rebels at the notion. For it involves intentionally making choices of self-denial…of giving up oneself and our interests to serve others. It also means sacrificially suffering in order to acquire a more deep abiding relationship with our Savior. But within the cost of following Jesus are also many precious workings of the Holy Spirit. There’s the sweet fellowship of faith with the Lord…the honor found in sharing in His suffering…and the humbling action of exemplifying His life in ours.
Acts 16:25-26 ” About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.”
This wasn’t the only time that prison doors shut by men had been flung open by God. In Acts 5:19 an angel of the Lord opened the jail doors for the apostles when the Sadducees had them thrown into prison for healing many people. In Acts 12:7 Peter was jailed by King Herod only to have an angel of the Lord escort him out past all the sleeping guards. Over the ages mankind has foolishly thought they could shut doors, stopping God’s work… only to see Him fling those doors wide open. Or they’ve unsuccessfully tried to pry open doors that God had firmly nailed shut. The truth is – you can’t shut a door God has opened, neither can you open a door He’s shut.
Hosea 6:6 ” For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Even today God takes no pleasure in the rituals, ceremonies, and religious acts we perform simply for the sake of doing them. They are like the constant, reoccurring daily sacrifices done by the Priests in the Temple for the people…and in Isaiah 1:13, God told them to, “Stop bringing meaningless offerings.” That’s because God is wanting a relationship, not our religious works…He’s desiring a deep connection, not just us sitting in a Church building…He longs to be in a partnership with us, not watching our put on piety.
Ephesians 6:7 ” Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men…”
Last week as I was paging through a very old cookbook of my Mother’s I found this at the bottom of one of the pages: “There are three types of people: The few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the majority who have no idea that anything has happened.” Anonymous And if we look up the Greek words in the Scripture above, it will help us see how true this statement is! Basically, this verse in Ephesians tells us to serve the interest of others, before ourselves, with a helpful and cheerful attitude. Well, no wonder it’s only a few that make things happen! We’re all too selfish. That’s why the many of us would rather watch others do the serving than do it ourselves. But it says the majority of us don’t even realize that there’s a need…and that’s sadly true. The majority of us have our faces planted so far into our phones we miss everything that’s going on around us…countless needs and ways we could serve others go unnoticed and ignored.
Luke 9:46-48 ” An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside Him. Then He said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in My Name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One Who sent Me. For he who is least among you all – he is the greatest.’ “
You’d think after this pointed rebuke the disciples would of understood what Jesus was trying to tell them…their petty infighting could never advance the Kingdom of God. But incredibly we later find them at the Last Supper hashing over the same old nonsense. For Luke 22:24 says, “Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.” I can just see them now, sitting around that table puffing out their chests and extolling their many attributes to each other, while Jesus slowly shook His head in disbelief. That’s why Jesus had placed a little child in front of them as an object lesson and told them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, like this child, and a servant of all.”
Job 8:13-15 ” Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. He leans on the web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.”
The false hope and promise of the world is much like a spider web. It appears strongly constructed, secure, and can be relied on…but in reality, it’s fragile, weak, and undependable. The world’s false hope is like thinking a spider web will break our fall…only to find it disintegrating in our hands. What the world promises us can’t be trusted…what it tells us to rely on is very deceptive…and how it influences us on a daily basis is usually wrong. That’s because, our true hope can only be found in placing our trust and confidence in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Rock and our Deliverer.
Safetypinlove 