Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests
to OurChristianWalk.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of
The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then
He went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to Him, bringing
the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at His
feet; and He healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute
speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And
they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have
compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have
nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on
the way.”
His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread
in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then He took
the seven loaves and the fish, and when He had given thanks, He broke them and
gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and
were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken
pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand men,
besides women and children.
Matthew 15:29-38
During those days another large crowd gathered. Since
they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have
compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have
nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way,
because some of them have come a long distance.”
His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place
can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied.
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When He had
taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His
disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. They had a few small
fish as well; He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute
them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up
seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand were
present.
Mark 8:1-9
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
We just finished celebrating Thanksgiving here in the
United States, a day to share with family and friends, a day to reflect on all
the good things one has with a sense of gratitude. But one cannot possibly do
this properly, taking time to be grateful for what they have in life, without
first giving homage and thanks to the great Supplier of all things, the Lord
God Almighty who is our compassionate Provider.
Indeed, all we have that is good and edifying comes from
our Creator and Master. The scriptures proclaim as much:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of the heavenly lights. James 1:17
With this, we need only look to Jesus as the most good
and perfect gift of all for by offering up His only Son as a sin sacrifice to
pay the price for our transgressions, God saved us from the wrath and
destruction of His judgment and provided us the opportunity to instead live
with Him forever through Jesus His Son.
Did I mention God was a compassionate Provider?
The scriptures provide us one other important truth as
well about God as it applies to His Son. Look at these words from Jesus
Himself:
“I
and the Father are one.” John 10:30
Jesus is just like His Father in every way. In fact, God
gave His Son power and authority over all things when He ascended to sit at His
right hand. Again Jesus tells His disciples (and us) as much:
“All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:18
And so if God the Father and Jesus the Son are one, then
this makes Jesus a compassionate Provider as well, something we see over and
over and over again in the scriptures, especially evident in today’s passage.
Look again at these words from Matthew’s Gospel:
Jesus left there
and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountainside and sat
down. Great crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the
mute and many others, and laid them at His feet; and He healed them. The people
were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame
walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called His disciples
to Him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been
with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away
hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
His disciples
answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a
crowd?”
“How many loaves
do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they
replied, “and a few small fish.”
He told the crowd
to sit down on the ground. Then He took the seven loaves and the fish, and when
He had given thanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in
turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples
picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of
those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 15:29-38
After a brief visit to Tyre and Sidon, we find Jesus back
on a mountainside near the Sea of Galilee. The scriptures tell us that great
crowds came to Him bringing along people who were lame, blind, crippled, and
mute. All of them were laid at Jesus’ feet and He healed them.
Think about that for a moment before we go any further.
Picture yourself as one of the impaired in this story. No one has ever existed
who could cure you of your ailment. You are destined to be blind, mute, or
crippled for the rest of your life.
But then you hear of a man, one man, who has been
performing miraculous acts of healing for others, a man of love and compassion
unlike anything the world has ever seen. You come to Him with the hope He will provide
a cure for you as well and as you lay at His feet, you are made well, restored
to full health as if you had never been afflicted in the first place.
How would you feel? Wouldn’t you not just be satisfied but
overwhelmed with great joy?
Well, that would have been enough for Jesus to do in one
day to show He, like God His Father, is a compassionate Provider but He was far
from finished. For Jesus followed His miraculous healing with yet another
astonishing work, this time involving the incredibly large group of people who
had been with Him for three days.
The scriptures tell us the number of people with Jesus
totaled more than four thousand men, women, and children. Since they were in a
remote place, there wasn’t access to food for the people and Jesus was
concerned they would be too weak for their respective journeys home. And so
with compassion, Jesus made the way for everyone to eat and He did so using
seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.
Like He did to feed the more than five thousand, Jesus
asked the people to sit on the ground before taking the loaves of bread and
fish, and giving thanks. He then broke the loaves and fish, giving them to His
disciples to serve to the people and the end result was that everyone ate and was
satisfied. And to make the miracle even more incredible, there were even
leftovers, “seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over”.
The people had come to Jesus because they had faith in
Him as their compassionate Provider and He didn’t disappoint. Is there
something you need Him to do for you today? If so, come to Him in faith and
trust He can and will act in accordance with His will and at His perfect time.
Indeed, as the old hymn proclaims, “What a friend we have
in Jesus!”
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment