Grace and the Feeding to the 5000

I have just been re-reading Philip Yancey’s brilliant book What’s so amazing about grace?  In the light of this I was reading the Feeding of the 5000 in Matthew's' Gospel and realised what a grace filled occasion it was.

The context for this miracle was that Jesus has just been told that John the Baptist, his relative, the forerunner of his ministry, has been beheaded by Herod.  I am sure Jesus was very upset and the Bible says ‘When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place’ (Matthew 14: 13).  

However Jesus was not going to get any private grieving time or time to process what had happened or talk to his heavenly Father because the crowd ran round the lake and were waiting for him.  Most of us, I am sure, would not have been pleased to see them but Jesus full of grace and truth healed all their sick.

As evening approached, the disciples, full of worldly wisdom, asked Jesus to send the crowd away to get food and lodging for the night. Jesus however replied ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’ (Matthew 14: 16).  

The disciples must have been amazed.  Most people hearing this suggestion would have gladly agreed and been happy to get rid of the crowd of needy people but Jesus not only does not seem to want to get rid of them but he actually expects the disciples to feed them.

In Mark’s Gospel the disciples told Jesus that for them to feed the people would cost half a year’s wage – a lot of money in anyone’s currency – but in the currency of heaven, all that is needed is 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Grace – being given something you don’t deserve – does the impossible and feeds a huge crowd, so that everyone ate and was satisfied. There was no portioning out the meagre rations. It was eat and be satisfied; have as much as you like.  Not only that but there was more food left over at the end of the meal than they started with. 

Grace is an attitude of life that Jesus exemplified. Jesus never decided if someone was deserving of a miracle or healing. He just did it. He healed all their diseases (Matthew 4: 24). Jesus didn’t look at the enormous, hungry crowd and teach them a lesson in personal responsibility, he graciously fed them.

Of course there were times when having healed someone, Jesus told them to ‘go and sin no more.’ However Jesus never waited till someone had got their act together before healing or providing for them.

When Mother Teresa spoke to President Clinton and top government officials at a National Prayer Breakfast, she confronted them about the appallingly high level of abortion in USA and it is just about as awful in all the Western world. She told them that if Americans did not want their babies, give them to her and she would take them and find homes for them. 3000 babies were sent to her. That is a level of grace and trust in God that falls into the Feeding of the 5000 category.

Mother Teresa was moved by compassion just as Jesus was. When he saw need, his heart was touched and he extravagantly met the need.  Grace does not decide the rights and wrongs of a situation; it just loves to bless.

I am so thankful for the grace God and many other have shown me. My prayer is that I grow in grace and compassion every day.

Moving past tragedy

I confess that today I am writing about something of which I have no personal experience. I am talking about personal tragedy by which I mean circumstances that are outside the experience of most people and which have such an impact on a person’s life that it changes them forever. Nevertheless, despite my lack of experience, there are some in the Bible and others who I know who have suffered and overcome this level of tragedy.

Most of us have had some very difficult circumstances such as the death of someone close to us, the loss of a job or an accident, all of which will have impacted our lives. However there seems to be a level of tragedy which can affect a life in such a way that they find it almost impossible to move on. Life stops and they get stuck at that moment and though everyday life continues, underlying it is a sorrow of the heart or even a bitterness of the spirit that seems impossible to shift.

However there is always God; the God who loves us and for whom nothing is impossible. Only he can heal the bitterly wounded and rescue those drowning in sorrow. We see it most obviously in Job, the man who had everything taken from him and who battled with God and his unhelpful friends but who never gave up. God then intervened and following Job’s incredible God encounter that literally shook him to the core, God restored and increased all that had been lost.

I know of a lady in South Africa who was married with two sons but the marriage was on the rocks. The husband persuaded a doctor friend to have his wife committed to a mental institution though there was nothing wrong with her. By the time she persuaded the doctors there that she was perfectly sane and was released, her husband had absconded from the country, taking their sons with her and clearing out all their money from the banks. She had nothing and even her own family were unhelpful. She has never seen her husband or sons again.

This level of tragedy could have caused her life and especially her relationship with God to come to a grinding halt. Instead, over time, she found forgiveness and healing and God has used her to talk to others in similar circumstances to help them through and out the other side of their tragedy to a place where their lives can begin to function again.

The key seems to be acknowledging all that has gone on and letting God touch every area. There may be areas that are so painful, so difficult that they have to be hidden away till God and time have done a measure of healing. Then they can be brought gently out for God’s divine touch. There may have been great injustice and only letting God help you find forgiveness will bring release and healing.

Why? will almost certainly be the word on your lips and in your heart and you may not ever have a satisfactory answer to this question. God however wants to take your hand and help you climb over the wall that Why? represents and help you trust him with that answer. He wants to help you move on. He wants to rebuild your life. He wants to give you hope.

I confess again this is an area of which I have no personal experience but I know and read about others who have overcome personal tragedy through the God whose love is limitless, who is bigger than anything we can think or imagine and who never leaves us – ever. He truly is the God of all hope.

Healing the nations

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fall. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.  Ezekiel 47: 12

This passage in Ezekiel 47 is one of my favourite passages of Scripture. The river of God is the river of life because it flows from God’s sanctuary. Everything about the river of God speaks of abundance.  The river flows from ankle deep to so deep that no one can even cross it (47: 5). A great number of trees (47:7) grow along its banks. The life giving water turns salt water to fresh (47: 9).  Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows with large numbers of fish. (47: 9). The river is so abundant in life that fishermen will fish all along the banks of what is now the Dead Sea.

Even the marshes and swamps, not touched by the river, will be useful for salt. Finally abundant fruit will grow from the many trees growing on both banks of the river. The trees are so healthy and full of life that their leaves do not wither and their fruit doesn’t fall to the ground. In fact the trees produce a fresh crop of fruit every month.  Their fruit is picked for food and the leaves of the tree are for healing. In Revelation 22:5 which also speaks of the river of God, it says the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.

What a wonderful picture this is of the life giving river of God. It is full of hope for the believer that God wants to bring fullness in every way to unpromising, barren situations. It speaks of the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who wants to flow through our lives, our churches and nations bringing his life giving abundance to all he touches.

How we need that work through the life flow of the Holy Spirit. In particular we need the healing of the nations. The planet is full of wars and disputes. Nation is rising up against nation and there is hatred everywhere. There is so much entrenched racialism and bitter hostility often going back centuries that needs the restoring work of the Holy Spirit. 

In eternity Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4). Jesus died for everyone and in heaven there will be a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

I believe though God wants churches to be places not just of healing from sickness and disease but also healing and restoring relationships between people including healing between nationalities from racialism and prejudices - now. The Church can be a picture of genuine love and fellowship between people from all nations that provides a picture to unbelievers of God’s love for his world.  Nowhere else can there be genuine love between people of all nationalities than in the Church where God’s river flows.

 

Rooted in Jesus

No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6: 43 – 45

I have unfortunately discovered this week how true these verses are; that when unresolved frustration and anger are stored up in the heart, the mouth will act as a safety valve and when the pressure is too much, all the frustration and anger pour out in a bitter flood. Thank goodness for the gracious forgiveness of both Jesus and those offended by my words.

There is no doubt our words reflect what is happening in our hearts. When our hearts are full of love, grace, patience and so on, our words will reflect this.  If we have unresolved anger, frustration, bitterness, unforgiveness, fear, feelings of unworthiness, insecurity, inadequacy and rejection both from current situations and those from our past, our words will reflect these. The words may come out quite calmly and in ordinary conversation not as an angry outburst but there will be nevertheless glimpses of the heart’s condition.

So how do we improve the heart’s condition?  There is no doubt Jesus does not want us carrying around all these negative emotions as they are damaging to both our lives and the lives of those around us. Jesus wants to heal us from past hurts, abusive situations, fear, pride, feelings of rejection, unworthiness and inadequacy. He also wants to show us how not to get into situations of unresolved anger and frustration so that our mouths do not become an unpleasant safety valve like a pressure cooker exploding!

The way is shown by the preceding verses about good trees and good fruit.  Trees bear fruit based on their character and what they are rooted in.  When we become Christians we change from bearing the bad fruit of the flesh to bearing the good fruit of the Spirit. The process for doing this and it is a process is by rooting ourselves into Jesus. Colossians 2: 7 says: So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness.

We become rooted in Jesus as we live in the Word and with worship and thanksgiving we let him transform our lives. There is no situation that Jesus cannot redeem. There are Godly men and women today who grew up in the most abusive and horrendous circumstances but as they rooted themselves in the Word, God changed their lives, their attitudes and their thinking and their mouths too came into line reflecting the inner transformation. 

Whether our lives need a major overhaul or a minor adjustment, let us not give up but continue to cooperate in God’s transforming, redeeming work by rooting ourselves in the Word.  Good fruit will grow in our hearts and our mouths will overflow with the good fruit of the Spirit.

The downside of healing the leper

Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:  “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Mark 1: 42 – 45

This is the story of a leper who came to Jesus and asked him to heal him. He had such faith that if Jesus was willing, he would be healed and his faith was rewarded. Jesus was willing and he stretched out his hand and the leper was immediately healed.

However Jesus told him with a strong warning not to tell this to anyone. In the Amplified it says Jesus charged him sternly (sharply and threateningly, and with earnest admonition) and [acting with deep feeling thrust him forth and] sent him away at once. Jesus had good reasons for doing this. As a result of the leper’s talking freely, it caused Jesus to be seriously inconvenienced and it certainly severely hampered his ministry. Jesus ended up having to live away from society.

 We can understand why the man wanted to tell everyone and his reasons may have been good in that he wanted God to be glorified for his miracle or it may just be that he wanted to be openly welcomed back into society. Leprosy was a terrible cause of social exclusion and normally lepers would live and die away from family and friends, so to be healed was a memorable miracle.  However Jesus warned him strongly and sternly not to tell anyone and yet he ignored Jesus and went and told everyone.

 I doubt if the leper realised what a problem he was causing Jesus. He just did what he thought was best but it is obedience that God values.  God has the bigger picture and can see things from all angles for all people. When God asks us to do things his way it is because he really does know best.

Perhaps next time God asks us to do something his way, the first thing is to obey. Then we can take it up with God and ask him why it had to be this way and he may well tell us or let events unfold that show that he knew something we didn’t. That has happened to me on several occasions and I know now to go with not against the check in the Spirit because inevitably later on, all will become clear.

God wants our obedience not because he wants slavish robots who cannot think for themselves but because he wants us to walk freely in the joy of knowing that God’s ways are best for everybody and will bring the greatest blessing to both ourselves and those around us.

 

Freely you have received, freely give

Freely you have received, freely give Matthew 10: 8

I have just been reading something from Joyce Meyer who was saying that she had great difficulty in the past from being merciful because she had never truly received God’s mercy for herself. She had no mercy from God to give others.

We can never give to others what we have not already received or have access to.  I cannot give you a glass of water if I have neither a glass nor access to fresh water. In the same way I cannot give you grace if I have not received God’s grace for myself. I was a very graceless person because I was hard and legalistic to myself and therefore to others. If I made a mistake I beat myself up about it so if others also made mistakes, even if I did not say anything, mentally I was criticising them for their mistakes. God had to show me how ‘bad’ I was and how much grace he had shown me, so that I too could show that same grace to others. It was a bit of a revelation to realise how graceless I was.

This difficulty can infiltrate all sorts of areas of our lives. If we feel guilty, we want to make everyone else feel guilty; if we feel shame, we want to blame others; if we feel rejected, we reject others and so on.  What we have, we give to others. The great news though is that as we get revelation of this, we do not have to sit in a pond of despair but realise that God is holding out his hand to lift us out. Jesus suffered to take all our sin, guilt, shame, rejection, sickness and every work of the enemy from our lives.  It takes time but God is patient and as we let him work in our lives, he will bring us to wonderful places of freedom.

So as we have been shown grace, we will be very gracious; as we have been shown mercy, we will be merciful; as God has set us free from sin and shame, we will walk confident in God’s goodness and love and show that to others. Where God has healed us, we will have great faith for healing for others. The very areas of greatest weakness and shame in my life have been turned around by God to bring freedom to others in those very same areas. As a teenager, I made quite a mess of my life – I was insecure, rejected and behaved very badly. As God has healed me, he has given me such a heart for teenagers not to have to walk through the things I put myself through. It is such an honour to help them find God’s love and walk through those tricky teenage years holding his hand and not walk through hopeless and helpless, trying all sorts of useless things to fill the void in their hearts.

So freely give what God has given you and if you are still struggling with some areas in your life, give them over to God, stop struggling and trust him to bring wonderful freedom that will bring great glory to him and help others. My old life honoured nobody; my new life I live for him to honour him as best I can.

Breaking limited mindsets

Show me your ways O Lord; teach me your paths

Guide me in your truths and teach me, for you are God my Saviour and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25: 4 – 5

One thing I have noticed recently is that when we are learning something new and trying to assimilate some new information, we always try and place it within our existing frame of reference; by which I mean our existing body of information and experiences. This is fine until we find the framework inadequate for the task. For instance I would be unable to place information on the law of thermodynamics within the limited framework of my Primary School science knowledge.

When this happens we can either try to adapt the knowledge till it does fit or discard it as incompatible at this time. Unfortunately this can happen with our knowledge of God and reading the Bible.  We read something that just does not make sense to us or fit in with our present thinking so we either try and adapt the truth or discard it.

I know I have read some bits in the Bible which I really don’t like so I may discard them. Giving out of lack is a good example. My frame of reference says giving out of lack leads to greater lack. However these verses from Psalm 25 show us the better way. When faced with uncomfortable truths we need not let our frame of reference hinder us but rather ask God to expand it to incorporate things we have previously found too hard to include. Alternatively we can hang the truth on the frame for further consideration and meditation. I now know that giving out of lack or plenty leads to greater blessing than we can imagine.

God has so much to share with us and so many wonderful truths to reveal to willing hearts and minds but we must not limit ourselves.  God is so patient but our world needs the wisdom of God revealed through lives that are ready to open their minds and spirits to truths from the throne of heaven.

One area that has challenged me is the area of healing. We know God is our healer yet we walk in so little of that reality. Our hand stretches for the pain relief for headache before we even think to pray. I want to see healing as part of my and the Church’s everyday life not an occasional occurrence. Both Jesus and the disciples walked in amazing healing miracles and so I want that to be part of life – without excuse.

I want to encourage us that if there is an area of Godly truth or revelation that you really want to see God move in, do not let your frame of reference hinder or deter you. Rather ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and show you his ways so that we may see the breakthroughs we long for. God has so much in store for us and the world needs Christians prepared to break out of traditional and limited mindsets and break into fresh truth to bless them.

 

God of all hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 13

Hope is as essential to our lives as the air we breathe. Without hope, life begins to shut down and close in. For the Christian, hope is not an optimistic wish for future things but hope is a trust in the goodness of God; that despite the circumstances, God is good and will bring forth good things.  

Most Christians, I am sure, would agree with this but for some there can be areas of our life where hope has died and when that happens it is as if we close the door to any further hope in that area to save ourselves from future disappointment. There are many areas where this could happen but some examples are being single, childlessness, bereavement and grief, separation and divorce, church life and ministry, unemployment and failure. So often it feels like hope has been dashed and in order to function, we put our lost hope and disappointment into a room and close the door.

However God does not want us to have closed doors in our lives as they can lead to further difficulties and a bitterness of spirit. The only way to keep the door open on our deep hurts and disappointments is to establish in our own lives that God is good and has good things for his children. As Steve Backlund says, ‘hope expects and knows that things will ultimately work out in a good way.’

Whatever has happened is not because God is punishing us. God has not stopped loving us and God does not want to teach us a lesson in a negative sense. Some of these past hurts may have come about because we have made poor choices or even sinned. God wants to bring healing and hope again into these areas.

Today if fear is gripping your heart and you dare not trust God in an area where you have lost hope, start with this declaration and prayer:

God I trust you because you are a good God and want only good things for my life. I am so sorry if I have in any way caused these difficulties but I will not blame anyone for what has happened. I forgive any who have been instrumental in what has happened including myself. Today I choose to believe that you will bring good out of this. I open the door of my hurt to your healing love and restoration and I receive your hope. In Jesus Name Amen.

 

 

 

Trusting God with our hearts

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding Proverbs 3: 5

When we become Christians we talk about giving our lives or our heart to the Lord but these two expressions are not the same. Giving our lives to Jesus talks about living for him instead of ourselves; we prioritise him in our lives so he becomes the most important person in our daily existence. Giving our hearts to Jesus is about how we feel and think about him and others. It is about letting Jesus touch and heal our emotions so we reflect his love and kindness to others.  

When I gave my heart to God, it was strongly encased in a hard shellto protect it because I had decided that due to past wounds, no one would hurt me or get too close to me again. By nature I am soft hearted but I felt people didn’t care about me that much; they had hurt me and so I let this hard shell surround my heart. I had to ask Jesus to take away the hardness.  In addition my heart had some very sore scabs from the wounds I had suffered from misunderstandings and thoughtlessness on the part of others. I had to ask Jesus to heal my heart and with his love and grace he has soaked away the hard shell and the sore scabs so my heart is much softer now towards both him and others.

I also had to learn to trust him to look after my heart and protect it from the inevitable hurts, pains and disappointments of this life. This was a really hard thing to do because by entrusting my heart to Jesus it felt like it was sitting exposed on the palm of his hand. It made me feel very vulnerable. However Jesus has proved faithful and he has protected me so when the knocks and hurts of life come, I have not had to withdraw in anger or silence from others. I have been able to stay open to them knowing God has my heart firmly and safely in his hands.

It can be a very daunting thing to give our hearts to Jesus but he wants us to walk in freedom not hidden away behind our own shells of protection, nursing our wounds but to walk openly being able to show love and grace even in the face of unkindness knowing that God will protect and look after us.

Healing the sick

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Matthew 4: 23

Recently I have become very aware of the number of people who need prayer for healing and what is more the increase in the testimony of people being healed. Whenever Jesus taught he also healed the sick including those suffering pain, paralysed or having seizures. He drove out demons, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and healed the lame so they could walk. This is the Kingdom coming to earth. Jesus brought the Kingdom of heaven here and in this the kingdom there is no sickness, pain, disease or demons and their horrible ways.

It is this same Kingdom that Jesus wants us to proclaim. He wants us to bring his Kingdom to people regardless of whether they are believers or not. Jesus made no distinction and neither must we. In fact it is a powerful witness to non believers when people are healed in their midst.  People get saved when the miraculous happens near them.

Despite my perceptions, I am certain that there are not more people who are sick than before but our awareness of them and our desire to pray for them with faith expecting people to be healed is I am sure increasing. The church is getting hold of the need to really pray for the sick and the testimonies are increasing. For instance, today someone one told me of a young man suffering from cancer who is doing so much better than he should and doctors are amazed. A lady I know is having a small operation today and I said I would pray for her. She was surprised but very pleased.

John Wimber said. ‘I do not know why some people are healed and others not. All I know is that if I pray for the sick, some will be healed. If I don’t pray for the sick, nobody is healed.’ Let’s keep on praying for those who are sick whether we know them or not. We may be asked to pray for a stranger but our prayers are just as important as family and friends.

I believe God wants to increase the level of faith for healing in the church and he is training us through many different circumstances to persevere in prayer until more and more people are healed. Let us not give up but instead pray till we see the kingdom coming in increasing measure in our midst. 

The KIngdom of heaven is near

As you go, preach this message,: The Kingdom of heaven is here. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.  Matthew 10:7- 8

Jesus only mentions the church twice in all his teachings and we find these in Matthew 16: 18 and 18: 17.  Yet he talks about the Kingdom all the time. As Christians we tend to talk about church all the time and hardly ever about the Kingdom.

Jesus said, ‘I will build my church...’ (Matthew 16: 18) yet too often we spend all our time building the church not the Kingdom.  I believe that what God wants instead is that we do what he told the first disciples to do: preach the Kingdom and then do it; heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the skin diseases and drive out demons.

The Kingdom of God is God’s rule and reign and God asks us to bring this to people. We need to talk to them first about the King, not the church. He wants us to talk to people about his amazing love for everyone and his desire that all be saved from their sin. He wants us to heal the sick and minister to people’s needs in Jesus’ Name.

Let’s become more Kingdom minded. Let’s talk about the Kingdom and the King and then let’s do the things that Jesus did and more.