Last time I was talking about going from the Valley of Baca to places of blessing in our lives. The Hebrew word Baca in the Old Testament of your Bible seems to mean dryness, desolation and depression. Verse 6 of Psalm 84 talks of going through that difficult valley to a place of springs and rain and growing and productivity. Going from bleakness to blessedness… through knowing and serving and trusting in the Lord our God (verses 4,5 and 12). Does that ring- a- bell in your experience? Is there now a place of dryness in your life that you’ld rather see swimming in springs of living water? Anything or anywhere or for anyone? There were 18 years between pastorates for me. A period of self-examination and self-recrimination… and just a long trudge through the Valley of Baca. But in that valley, spiritual things were beginning to happen for me. Even there and maybe because I was there. Like reading the Bible every day so that I’d complete it within a year. Never had done that before, I’m ashamed to say. But now I was doing it just to find my way back home…to God. Not because I had to or I was paid or expected to. None of those except to finds some springs and rain and pools of blessing from the Lord I really did love and want to serve. I found an old hymnal that I had and began leafing its pages and singing those wonderful songs that I used to sing as a new believer, at which time in my life I could not get enough of the things of the Lord. I would just sing all alone in my apartment. I found myself turning to that hymnal more and more just to hear those words and the wonderful melodies that I always loved and hadn’t heard in so many years. After marrying Sue, we decided to attend and then join an evangelical, Bible-believing church in town. It felt so good and so right– where we needed to be. It was there that I promised the Lord that we would never, ever join a church that did not lift up the name of Jesus, where the Bible was not preached as the inspired, inerrant Word of God. In 1995, I was asked to give the prayer at the Baccaleaureate service for son Dave. Introducing me was the manager of the local-access Christian TV station. Before the service I complained to him that we needed more local programming from his TV station , and not just ladies with pink hair that looked like cotton-candy and eyelashes a foot long. And he had the nerve to say to me, who had such great ideas, that maybe I should do something about it! What? Little, old me?! Wise-guy! But, as I thought about it, an idea germinated… my wife and I think our church friends really thought I was bonkers. Well, who knows?! TV–what experience have I had? Well, I was on the Johnny Olson show in New York City when I was 8 years old, where he, after the cartoons started, made me eat his bologna sandwich and drink his milk, both of which I don’t like to this day! Qualified–maybe overly-so! For 5 years ‘Person-to-Person’ was on TV in our area…a testimony and music program. What a blessing to hear every week the stories of how ordinary people, neighbors and friends, all came to know the same Jesus Christ. No two stories were ever the same. And then the guest would talk about what differences Jesus made in their lives. What a blessing week-by-week. But what nobody knew was that this show was restoring my calling to ministry through sharing the Lord in personal evangelism and mission. God was taking me through the Valley of Baca to a place of great blessings. That’s a journey He wants for all of us. I have more to share but that’s for next time. What I wonder, though, is what this means in your life? That’s for you to chew on today and ask Him to open up some springs of life and love and service to our Lord Jesus Christ. If it can happen for me, it certainly can for you!
FROM BACA TO B’RACA…….Read Psalm 84
I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to read Psalm 84…it is just wonderful. The word ‘blessing’ is used 3 times throughout this hymn of praise. Historically, Psalm 84 was often sung by God’s people travelling to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to worship the Lord. And blessings come their way from His hand. The first use of the word ‘blessings’ comes in verse 4– it’s the blessing of being in God’s Temple, His house, with Him, singing his praises and glories and wonders. Just to be with Him, that would be the very best blessing of all. But wait, there’s more. With the Lord, there’s always more. In verse 5 the author tells us of the blessings of strength and courage that comes from God who puts within our hearts a seeking after Him, a longing to find Him and be with Him–‘in whose heart are the the highways to Zion’. It’s as if God paves the inner highways so that our hearts are led directly to Him. The final use of ‘blessing’ is found in the concluding verse of Psalm 84 where people who trust in the Lord God of Israel, Yahweh Himself, they are the ones blessed beyond measure. Blessing…blessing…blessings! Now, the word for blessing in Hebrew is b’raca. That’s the word that starts off verse 5. But read on to verse 6. These pilgrims are going through the Valley of Baca on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem. The location of this valley is unknown, but probably refers to a place that is dry and hot and desolate at best. Ever been there, at least symbolically? Maybe you’re there now. The Bible says that even there we can sing God’s praises, hold His hand by remembering His promises, and turn the Valley of Baca into B’Raca, a place of blessing , where the springs keep bubbling up water and nourishment continually! I’ve discovered something about myself by reflecting on this verse from Psalm 84. I really have. I like going to the Valley of Baca. I liked being called to ministry and work that was just on its last legs only to see what God could and would do. I wanted to see Baca become B’Raca…from bleakness to blessing. The 1st and 3rd churches I served were big and growing and established places. I loved being there but honestly I was bored and always looking for some new challenge outside those ecclesiastical four walls. I was restless. Something just didn’t feel right, like I was treading water, looking for some bigger and better position. I was always on the move. Never satisfied or contented. Anybody say an ‘amen’? You with me? Sound familiar in your life? Maybe not. But for me I discovered later in my minstry that I loved a challenge, being in a church that was one step from closing its doors. A church in deep decline–in ‘the Valley of Baca’, so to speak. That 2nd church in New Jersey had a large membership, over 1000, in the 1930’s and ’40’s. But by 1975, when I was called to be its pastor, it was down to less than 100. My 4th church, in Aberdeen, Washington, had a thriving ministry of 300 plus members in the 1940’s and 50’s yet had declined to 18 faithful members when we began ministry in the year 2000. The Valley of Baca, dry and desert and desolate and depressing. Yet, the Psalmist says that it’s there that God’s people can make a difference– ‘they make it a place of springs, the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength…’ How satisfying and just plain fun to see the Holy Spirit work doing new things as we looked to Him, preached and taught only from the Bible, started giving to God’s causes beyind our church walls. People of all ages were coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Members were growing in Him. It was exciting to see what God could and would do. From Baca to B’Raca! Must stop now…gone on way too long for this posting. More next time…
THE RARE ART OF LISTENING…….Read Psalm 81
One of the main points of Psalm 81 has to do with a very rare experience in life–listening. Whether it’s you or me listening to someone else, or someone else listening to us–it’s something hard to come by in life. Just listening or being listened to. I mean without all the distractions, all the thoughts that enter our minds that interfere with a concentrated listening experience. You know what I mean? Ever talk with someone who just can’t wait to jump in with their own examples or experiences –always greater or more severe than your own? Or asks you the same question 3 or 4 times letting the cat-out-of-the-bag that they were far away from any listening to you? One of my dear members in a previous church would write long letters to me inspired by my Sunday sermon. Was I really that thought-provoking and profound? This person so wanted me to know that the message had been well heard. Listening had certainly happened. Each week I’d read a new letter, and each week I’d get quite a chuckle out of what I was reading for the points this member was making had absolutely no relation whatsoever to anything I had said in my Sunday sermon. Nothing even remotely close to what I had been saying! And I mean nothing! Listening had not happened–not at all. In reading Psalm 81 you discover that listening is what God does for us…and what He wishes from us. Verse 7 says, ‘In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you…’ And in verse 8 He says, ‘Hear, O my people…if you would be listen to me!’ His people cried out to Him and He answered them. But, no, His voice has not been heard by His people. The Bible may be the most purchased book annually, but the knowledge of it almost anywhere (in society, novels, media, politics, wherever, and sadly among Christians and their pastors in our churches) diminishes dramatically with each passing year. As believers, are we listening to our God? Spending more time in His Word than less? Bringing those verses and stories from our Bibles and letting them enter into our every day life…from the distant past to the here-and-now, from thousands of years ago to right this very moment, where I’m living and struggling and joyful and fearful and loving and needy. Really listening to our Lord. The choir of my last church, the United Christian Church, that has generously honored me with the title of ‘Pastor Emeritus’, sang a wonderful song entitled, ‘Listen, Jesus is Calling You’. I loved to sing it with the choir. The message was precious–calling us, all of us who know the Lord, to listen to Him. Simply and honestly, to listen to Jesus. After all, He said we would, if we were really His own. In John 10, verse 3, Jesus says, ‘The sheep hear His voice, and He knows His own sheep by name and leads them out.’ It may be a rare art, this business of listening, but we can and really must listen to our Good Shepherd. He knows us intimately…even by name. And He leads us. He knows the best pasture land of all. He knows where Heaven is and He’ll lead us there some day. That’s what the Good Shepherd does for all His flock. All He asks of us, in the meantime, is to listen…’to hear His voice’. And to follow. Can you hear Him?
SHEEP SAFELY GRAZING…….Read John 10: 7-16
It’s just plain amazing how many sheep are grazing on the hills of England! And not just out our front door, and over the moat which keeps those sheep in their fields and us enjoying the privacy and the views here at the Old Manor House in Hadzor, Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, England–but everywhere we travel driving on the left side of the road as best we can! Jesus says in the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 7 that He is ‘the door of the sheep’. He is the Way to go. The entryway , the passageway–all through Jesus alone. When we arrived here at the Old Manor House, the housekeeper Debbie warned us about closing the gates behind us when we go walking to the dock area at the adjacent Worcester-Birmingham Canal–to keep the sheep from wandering off and creating a real problem for the owner of this house and probably for us as the renters.! It’s such fun watching the sheep grazing here and there, eating grass all day long, once in a while eating apples that are still on the lower branches of the trees or some that have fallen to the ground, following each other around eating…grazing…eating. What a life! And they probably think the same of us! Our sheep here are kept in a large field by fencing, moat, and more fencing all the way around, on all sides as far as we can see. They stay safe while grazing within the confines of the fencing provided. The farmer came last week and mowed the field which appears to make it even easier for the sheep to graze and eat. He takes care of them. They’re together with each other. Some sheep appear to lead while others are content to follow. Within the boundaries provided, they are sheep safely grazing. But once they transgress those fences and gates, trouble looms on all sides! And the same for you and me. As long as we stay close to the Shepherd, our Lord Jesus, as long as we stay within the boundaries He has provided and called us to, we can be sheep safely grazing. Jesus provides for us. He has ‘other sheep that are not of this fold’ (verse 16)…our families in the Lord keep growing and growing. New believers of every shape and stripe are always and more than welcome. But once we breach that gate or fence, we open ourselves up to troubles we were never intended for or certainly could ever want. Think about those 10 Commandments and stay within them…sheep safely grazing. Think about His calling us to love each other, to encourage others when down, to cry with those who are grieving…stay within and you’ll be sheep safely grazing. Have affairs, get into pornography, drink way too much and too often, gossip with relish– and soon you’ll be sheep lost in strange and scary fields knowing that’s not where you belong and far away from home. Stay close to Jesus, stay within His grazing land, listen for His voice, watch Him gladly provide for you and sometimes in the most amazing ways, and there you’ll be content, happy, provided for, with conscience clear and free and light…like sheep safely grazing!
THE SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP…..Read John 10:1-16
Two days ago, my wife Sue and I arrived in England for a two-month get-away. Long flights from Seattle, a grueling time getting our car rental worked out as originally contracted for (see my blog on Timeshare Salesmen and you’ll get my drift!), driving for 2 hours on the other side of the front seat and piloting on the other side of the road. All with almost no sleep and directions to our home rental that even Lewis and Clark would agonize over. But, praise the Lord (and I mean it), we pulled into the stone driveway of the Old Manor House in Hadzor, Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, England. This will be our home for the next 2 months. A home built in the 15th century. That’s right, you read correctly– I didn’t make a mistake on my keyboard. At the time it was a large manorial home in the midst of the Feckenham Forest, known for game hunting. Originally, the house had no chimney–only a large hole in the roof. A beautiful chimney was added during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st in the 16th century. When Henry VIII divorced his wife, the Spanish Princess Catherine of Aragon, he gave her the Hadzor estate that included this Old Manor House as part of the divorce settlement. As we would say, ‘if the walls could speak’! Looking out our front windows you see a lovely large lawn with a moat at the border to keep the many sheep that are grazing in the fields beyond our lawn. The moat predates the home and even may be from Roman times, where it was used as a security system. Farther away, you can see a stone foot bridge built in the very early 1800’s to walk over the Worcester-Birmingham Canal which is still in use today, over 200 years after its completion. We see ‘narrow boats’, as they are called, passing by with people standing up guiding their boats through this narrow canal. Back to those sheep, though! They are most interesting. Downwind today has been less than appetizing, and we ate our fish-and-chips after the wind changed directions! Apart from their very strong odors for a variety of reasons that I need not spell out (!), they just roam around all day long. In the early morning they can be found, all of them, under a large tree in the shade– all lying down. Until one gets up–and slowly but surely, and then you’ll see all of them, one-by-one, doing the same and roaming around somewhere else in the fields. Eating…eating…eating. No fighting, no arguing, no butting heads– seeming most contented and well-cared for fenced in a large series of fields. In this Bible passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd while referring to us as His sheep that He cares for so much, even to point of giving His own life for us. As I have been watching the sheep, I’ve thought about how caring our Shepherd really is for us and to us. There’s never a time when He’s not intimately caring for you and me. Never a time. He loves to be with His sheep. Unlike the hired worker, Jesus owns us. He paid for us with His life so we would never have to face death alone again. Never. I’m sure glad that I’m in Jesus’ flock. Aren’t you glad? It’s a big flock but He has time and attention for each and everyone of us. He IS the Good Shepherd..for sure! More on this next time! Tally-ho!
HEARING AND BELONGING…….Read John 8:42-47
When I was a brand-new Christian, I suffered for too many years with a nagging doubt as to whether I was really a Christian. It wasn’t because of some on-going struggle with a certain horrific sin. Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake that nibbling at me with doubts that felt like a reprimand chewing me out for even daring to think that God would accept the likes of me. I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but maybe I didn’t say the right words or do enough good deeds–why was I feeling so miserable and here I’m supposed to be ‘filled with the joy of the Lord’. Right? Not how I felt. Not at all. As a matter of fact, the doubts would growl at me when I couldn’t sleep at night or when a very convicting evangelistic sermon was given, I just knew I must go forward…again! And I did…on 3 different occasions. Went forward and was even baptized again at one of the largest churches in the USA, along with over 100 others at the 2nd service that Sunday morning south of Chicago, in Indiana. I just felt so guilty, so much of the time. Until…until I read and digested verses like those found in John’s Gospel, the 8th chapter. It hit me like a ton of bricks (well, not that violently and fatally!)– the time to worry about my salvation was when I no longer cared about it or about Jesus or about anything having to do with God. When I didn’t want anything to do with Jesus, then I had something to worry about. God, you go your way and I’ll go mine. But that wasn’t me at all. I desperately wanted to be a child of God, my warts and all. I needed God. I always have, but I just didn’t know if He gave a hoot about me. Well, those insecurities about my eternal security lessened the more I heard God’s Word and the more time I spent with Him. Just like Jesus said, ‘He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God’ (John 8:47). If we hear Him, listen to the Lord, follow Him as best we can always getting right when we’ve gone wrong, wanting to know His Word, cherishing moments in the Bible whether in the morning, afternoon or late at night. Wanting Him is the best assurance He gives us of His salvation. Not my feelings of insecurity, my self-doubts put on Him. No. Read verse 47 again. Doesn’t that just ring true? Like a tuning fork is the Bible, tuning to the right note and the right pitch so we sing and play the right notes with that pure tone of the Lord. I’m glad I’m a child of God, and the more time I spend with Him in prayer and reading His Word, the less time I have to wonder and to doubt and just drive myself batty!
LET THERE BE LIGHT…….Read Zechariah 14: 1-7
Were you afraid of the dark as a child? I was…and at certain times and places, I still am. I don’t like to admit it as it sounds so childish. But at my age, who cares if someone laughs at you. That’s their problem! The dark can still grab me with fear once in a while. It stems from when I was in the polio ward at the young age of 2 years– I can still remember at night those old-fashioned shades being pulled down, and the metal sides to our cribs locked into place, and the old globe lights being turned off–and it was dark as dark could be. Sixty-five years later and I can still picture it; and, if I think about it for awhile, I feel like I’m still back there…in the Sister Kenny Ward at Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey. Talking with both my sister and brother, they remember not just what happened to me but to the family and to the new neighborhood that we had just moved to the week after that germ found a new home in me, and what the kids at school said and just lots and lots of other consequences from having a highly contagious disease affect one of the children, the baby of the family, their brother. Fast forward ahead many decades now, and Sue and I are staying at a rather funky Bed and Breakfast in rural Connecticut, so we can enjoy some of that unbelievably beautiful fall foliage in New England. We stayed in a little, old cottage attached to an antique shop the owners had which was itself part of the much older colonial home that they lived in. The B&B complex was set way back from the tiny road that ran out front. No street lights there. We had watched a little TV before heading to bed, which was in a nice-sized bedroom at the back of the cottage. We turned the TV off, got into bed and..uh oh, it was so dark you couldn’t see the hand in front of you. I kept looking and no hand, no wife, no anything!! I jumped out of bed in male Fischer-style panic (we’re famous for it!) and after grasp onto and banging into the molding of the bedroom door, stubbing my toe on the ridiculously hard bed frame, I finally got back to that TV and turned it back on and just let it run all night to give but a little light…so I could sleep in peace and quiet (for my wife!). Zechariah 14 is a great chapter about ‘that day’, ‘the day of the Lord’, the coming time when the Lord will right all the wrongs in this crazy world, no more jihadists, no more phony-baloney politicos of any sort or stripe. In verse 7 it says that ‘it will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime–a day known to the Lord. When evening comes there will be light.’ An endless time of perpetual light. As the Prophet Isaiah said, ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned’ (Isaiah 9:2). Like a return to earliest creation, when God created light, even before He separated the light from the dark (Genesis 1: 4). And what did Jesus call Himself in John 8:12?–‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ Jesus lights the way. It’s easy to follow Him when we see His light before us. And His light in our lives remains forever, giving us eternal life! Whatever darkness you or I may fear, open the shades of belief in Jesus, let down the metal sides of those cribs that hold us in, and turn on the light that Jesus shines all around for you and for me! Yes, let there be light… His light in our lives!
A TRUE FRIEND……..Read 1 Chronicles 27: 33
In my life, I’ve just had the very best friends. Not gobs of them at any one time, but at each place or church or job as financial planner, the Lord has provided good friends to enrich my life. I look back and thank the Lord for the blessings of friendship. For all those friends He has provided for me. And beyond that I hope that I have been the blessing to someone else as their friend. I’ve learned a lot over the years…and God’s not done with me yet! I’ve learned that having a friend is not a common, ordinary experience. Most people could care less. Even some Christians that we know and love. Let me tell you what I mean. When I left the 3rd church I served, it was a messy and painful experience to say the least. Devastating then and for quite awhile afterwards. There were over 100 ministers in my old denomination in our larger area. I was a member-in-good-standing–or so I thought, whatever that meant. Until it all fell apart for me…and them. Of all those ministers, the whole bunch, only one ever phoned me to say he was praying for me. Only one, and I guess that’s better than none! I guess. No one from my denomination ever stopped by, no one ever sent a letter or a postcard (no e-mail in those days). It was ironic that my dear friend, the local hospital Roman Catholic priest-chaplain, had me preach at the Sunday Mass at the hospital two later and said to ‘get back on the horse’! And another friend, a leader in the Jewish Synagogue in town, phoned to encourage me to start my own church and ‘please use the synagogue as we only use it on Friday Nights and only a few times a year.’ Friends come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. With surprises thrown in! Through all of this, I learned that being a friend is a very important calling from the Lord. Not just saying we are friends, but being one and actually acting as one, which is no ‘act’ at all. I’ve learned that right or wrong, I need to be there for my friends. Like what they did or not, I’m to be there for them just like God is for us when we’ve given Him lots of reasons for Him to ‘head out of Dodge’ from the like of John Fischer! Did you read that little verse in 1 Chronicles yet? Before that verse, for chapters really, are lists and lists of David’s most valuable people–leaders in the army, leaders in the coming Temple, and his own royal assistants. Almost at the end of all those names comes a man named Hushai the Arkite. He’s not in charge of the donkeys or the olive oil or one of the worship singers or an army officer. No, he’s listed simply as ‘the king’s friend’ (verse 33). Some Bible scholars think that the word ‘friend’ here is actually an official office, like an advisor or cabinet officer. But earlier in verse 33 there is mentioned Ahithophel who was ‘the king’s counselor’. David had his advisers but Hushai is his friend. The one he can open up to. The one he can trust like no other. The name Hushai in Hebrew means ‘quick’. As if to say, when a friend is in distress and trouble, don’t hold back. Let them know you care, that you love them, that your prayers will always be there for them. Be a friend like Hushai. Believe me, I’m taking my own advice. I’ve learned. The Lord has shown me. I’ve been there. You too?
BELIEVE IT OR NOT….. Read John 6: 25-40
Jesus has just told the crowd that they are following Him because He fed them…food for their stomachs, bread and fish to keep them alive and well. He encourages them not to ‘work for the food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life…’ (verse 27). And I’ll bet(even though I am not a betting man!) that they wonder how they can get from Jesus some of that Wonder Bread! So they ask Him,’ What must we do to do the works God requires?’ What do we have to do to get a chunk of that bread? And that becomes the universal question, the question for the ages. What do I have to do to get in good with God? We could go on for the rest of the year with answers from comparative religions to economic theories to pleasures allowed and those prohibited, we could read the philosophers and dramatists from ancient times, from time immemorial. But for me, I’m like the crowd that day. I want to hear from Jesus…what He has to say. You too? Most would expect Him to give a long laundry list of things to do to get in the good graces of God. I remember a terrible book that I read in Bible College about prayer– how to get things from God. Like God has all the goodies and we have to figure out how to open His clenched fists, His reluctance to give more than just the back of His hand. Wangle it out of Him! Use just the right words! Terrible, I say. Makes our loving Lord into a great, big, cosmic meany. Here’s Jesus clear and simple answer–‘the work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.’ Believe in Jesus as the Son of God come in the flesh to offer His life a ransom for many, to forgive our sins offering the free gift of eternal life as God’s children, safe in His arms forever. Jesus says that He is the bread God gives; like the manna that God gave through Moses day after day for 40 long years in that desert. And, of course, the crowd wants this bread–‘…from now on give us this bread’ (verse 34). Possibly shaking His head at the denseness of this crowd, He tells them that He is the bread of life. He Himself. You need look no farther nor further. He’s standing right in front of you. Do you see Him? Do you believe Him and believe in Him? I first put my faith in Jesus when I was 16 years old…over 50 years ago now. I believed in who He said He was. And, trust me, I knew so little of His claims–mainly that He loved me and wanted to be in my life. That’s all I heard that Sunday night on my radio. I didn’t know all that that meant, not really. But I learned. I started reading the Bible. I found a Bible-believing church where I couldn’t get enough of sermons and Sunday School teaching and anything at all about this new life in Christ. I was growing in Him but nobody had to tell me that I needed to. I knew it. And I wanted more of Him. Not just the goodies, which I didn’t know He had to offer anyway. And I’m still growing (not just in weight either!!) and learning and asking for forgiveness for daily sins, and wanting to share Him with others. As St Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, ‘…work out your salvation with fear and trembling…’ (Phil. 2:12). Notice Paul didn’t say to work for your salvation. No, but work it out. Get it out. Let salvation work itself out in your life. Let God work through you once you have received His free gift of salvation. That’s what this ‘Reflections’ blog is for me…God working His salvation out through my feeble hands and mind… to share Him with others, with you. What’s in your heart that God has placed there to work out for Him for others? Believe it or not, He has great things to do through you…and me! Why not let Him…
EVERYTHING IS FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!………Read John 6: 22-29
One of our new favorite movies is entitled Popeye starring the late Robin Williams! In it is a catchy little song called ‘Everything is Food, Food, Food’. That song could have been sung by the ‘Apostles’ Choir’ as Jesus discerned what people were really looking for as they searched for Him. The crowd had been tired and hungry. Word had gotten around that Jesus is this miracle-worker. He heals the sick and they wonder what He’ll do next… and maybe what He’ll do for them. But He has compassion on them, and does for them what only God can do–fed them all, probably well over 20,000 people, starting with a mere 5 barley loaves of bread and 2 dried or pickled fish. Everyone had all they could eat, all they wanted; and there were even 12 baskets of left-overs. I would have loved those left-overs! And best of all, no bill was presented at the end of the meal and to you Aussies reading here, no tip was expected or given! Jesus withdraws up a mountain area to spend time by Himself while His disciples sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to Capernaum, hometown for Jesus’ ministry. But the crowd wants more. The crowd searches high and low. They want more…and then some. Of Jesus and His teaching? Of Jesus and His mercy and love? Of Jesus, the Promised Messiah whose message is like that of no one they had ever heard before? And when they find Jesus He says ‘I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill'(John 6: 26). The crowd wants more of Jesus–not the divine Son of God but the bread- and fish-man who fills their tummies. The One who gives out all those goodies. Over the past 34 years ministering where we live, either as pastor or even while being a financial planner for 20 years, I have performed numerous funerals and weddings. I remember one person who attended, I’d say, every funeral I ever officiated at. Don’t think this person knew most of the deceased or their families, but the newspaper had mentioned that a reception would follow– and there was the draw! ‘Everything is Food, Food,Food’! This person even had plastic liners in overcoat pockets to cart home some goodies for later consumption! Talk about planning ahead! Back to what Jesus said about that crowd that day. Now, let’s bring to us. And I wonder if all those showers of blessings had dried up in a drought, how would I feel about Jesus? Would I stand tall for Him when another religion says to convert or die…what would I do? What would I do if I had to live where being a Christian was a sign of shame and bigotry and hatred…and to be accepted all I had to do was deny Him or just plain leave Him out of my public life? What would I do? What would you do? What will we do as this is coming our way more and more, day by day, we see the shadows of deciding for Jesus alone coming on the horizon. The shadows are lengthening and our Lord is asking what we will do. Will we stand by Him? Will we stand up for Him regardless…? Some things to ponder for today– and there’s more on my heart from this Bible passage, but that’s for next time…
Reflections out of time 