A little over a year ago my wife got me an IPod shuffle for my birthday. What a great present. I love my wife; she does such a great job on b-day presents for me. That is not the only reason why I love her; she’s also really, REALLY HOT! Ever since we’ve had the IPod, I’ve been downloading the books of the Bible Experience from ITunes. If you don’t know, the Bible Experience is a theatrical reading of the Bible. Zonderman pulled in a bunch of top actors to read different parts of the Bible. I love it. It is awesome! Since March ’08 I have downloaded the whole New Test and the books Genesis & Exodus. Next month will be Leviticus; can’t wait for that! The first book I started with was the Gospel of John. WOW! It was like John himself was telling me the story. I would listen to it while working out. Thank God I wrote down my reps because if not I would have been doing the same exercise for an hour. This thing was mesmerizing. As I would concentrate on what I was hearing I started to pick up on stuff in the Bible that I never took time on before. What I am about to share is one of those simple things that suddenly grabbed my attention.
We all know the story of the feeding of the 5000+. It’s found in books of John, Mark, & Matt. Since “John” was the 1st book I downloaded I’m going to run with his record of this story. John 6:1-14 is the feeding. In vrs. 15, Jesus went hiding because He knew what the 5000+ had in mind. Right after that Jesus decided to strut his stuff on the water; that’s found in verses 16-21. Now comes the key part for me. In verse 22 thru 24, the 5000+ who ate from the 5 SMALL loaves and 2 fish realized that Jesus had gone to the other side of the lake and they went searching for him. Wouldn’t you if you got that free meal? In vrs 25, the crowd caught up with Jesus and asked “Rabbi, when did you get here?” The thing that Jesus said in the verse 26 is what caught my attention; it’s something I never picked up on before. When I heard it I had to re-wind it a few times to make sure I heard what I thought I heard. Once I realized I had, I stop the IPod and started repenting for the same mistake that this crowd was guilty of. Before I go on we better read what Jesus said to the crowd. He said this: “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.” How many times have I had my fill and yet I go back to Jesus looking for my next fill. How many times have I been blessed just to turn around and ask for my next blessing? Is that what I’ve made Jesus out to be, someone who’s there to give me free hand outs? Am I guilty of that? YEAH! I am guilty of that. This sounds like an anti-faith statement but as long as we have breath we will have “needs” in our lives. Jesus didn’t die/raise again just to be our “genie in a bottle”. God knows we have needs, He said so. Before we even ask He knows our needs (Matt 6:8). The point is that Jesus is our true blessing. Jesus declared it further down in vrs 35 “I am the bread life”. Later on in John 6:53 Jesus said one of the craziest statements recorded in the Bible: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” CRAZY! John chapter 6 is one of the hardest chapters to swallow (pun intended). Verse 60 even declares that “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”. Right after this Jesus’ congregation count went from 5000+ back down to 12. If I heard that live I may have split too but the whole point is, like I said before, Jesus is the true blessing. Our needs will be met if we chase after Him, after His kingdom, He promised that. I just have a hard time relaxing in that at times. . . ok most of the time. We love to quote Philippians 4:19 (and my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus) when we’re in need but the reality is that script was written to a group of believers who were seeking the Kingdom first. Look it up for yourself. Read Phil 4:10-19. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t offer prayer requests. That’s not it at all. We’re suppose to let our prayer request be made known (Phil 4:6). The problem is that we chase after the supplies instead of the chasing the supplier. That’s hard to do when the supplies given are good and perfect (James 1:17). That’s alright; as long as the Lord delays His return we will have time to perfect our “chasing the supplier” skills.
The more I read John 6 the more I want to dive in. I love the Word of God. It’s so rich. A friend of mine once said that the Word of God is so shallow that you can wade in it but so deep that you will never reach the bottom. I love that. Catch y’all next time
Stay blessed, it’s your choice!
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