Bring them here to Me…

VERSES: And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Mt. 14:14-21, New King James Version)

Many times in life, we are faced with tasks and responsibilities in the Lord for which may not have the necessary resources. Here in verse 16, Jesus tells his disciples to give ‘them’ something to eat. We all know that the ‘them’ in question is a group of 5000 men, besides women and children. So the logical question is: How on earth did Jesus expect His 12 disciples to come up with enough food to feed a crowd that huge?

Well the truth is, that’s not what He expected….

The disciples would have been understandably perplexed. But even then, instead of arguing like most of us would do: “Lord, how do you think we’re going to do that?” or “You can’t expect us to come up with that much food in such short notice!” They said, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Their surrender of the little they had led to probably the biggest (unprepared!) feast in history…

From this we can understand what God really expects of us. We do not have infinite time, skill, talent or even energy. But are we ready to give up the limited resources we have when Jesus says, “Bring them here to Me..”?

THOUGHT: Is serving God about how much we’ve got from God? Or is it more about how much we are willing to give to God?

The Ultimate Salvation Plan: The Son redeems, the Father forgives and the Holy Spirit renews!

VERSE: But when the kindness of God our Savior and {His} love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to {the} hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7

The participation of the Trinity in our salvation is just amazing and the role of each person in the Trinity is as important as the other! The Father’s love relationship with man is illustrated through His ultimate sacrifice of His Son who redeemed man from the filth of sin so that the Father could forgive mankind and give him the hope of eternal life. Jesus our Savior sent the Holy Spirit who would renew us so we no longer have to live under condemnation (Rom 8:1). It is also added that He poured out this Spirit abundantly so that our hearts are renewed and the guilt of sin is removed. Again Paul makes it very clear that we haven’t attained this through our works but because of His mercy alone. Paul also brings out the symbols of salvation that is water baptism where we become dead to sin and alive in Christ. Col 2:12-13 says that “Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross”. This all-clear certificate gives us the ultimate hope of eternal life and that is the ultimate salvation plan!

THOUGHT: Are you living each day believing that you have been redeemed by the Son, forgiven by the Father and renewed by the Holy Spirit from the guilt of your sin?

All verses have been quoted from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved.