“Five Loaves. Two Fish. Twelve Baskets Full”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Five Loaves.  Two Fish.  Twelve Baskets Full"

   "And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me.  And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.  And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full" (Matthew 14:15-20).

   In a nutshell, this story declares, "Bring Me what you have.  I'll provide what they need.  And far more." 

   Our particular spheres of influence need us to feed them.  That is, God calls born again believers to serve our world with the One who said, "I am the Bread of life" (John 6:35).  Of course, none of us have enough within ourselves to provide the spiritual sustenance that satisfies the hunger of human hearts.  Our five loaves won't do it.  Nor will our two fish.  That is, unless the Lord Jesus is present to take what we have and make into what He multiplies.  He is present within our trusting hearts, and He purposes to feed our multitude as we present ourselves and our all to Him.  

   "Who is sufficient for these things?" asked the Apostle Paul regarding the ministry to which God called him.  Paul answers his own question: "Not to think of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, for our sufficiency is of God"   (II Corinthians 2:16; 3:5).  Paul realized that only the Bread of life can fill needy hearts.  Indeed, how do we know what to do or what to say that will apply the sustenance of God's provision and truth in precisely the way our world needs?  In and of ourselves, we have no clue about such matters except in the most general terms.  Only our Lord knows how to direct and guide the distribution of our five loaves and two fish into enough, and more than enough.  Thus, we bring what we are and what we have to Him.  It is all we can do amid the challenge of hungry hearts and too few loaves and fish.  And, it is all we need to do.  Again, regarding the challenge, Paul confessed…

   "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (II Corinthians 1:9).

   "Not enough!" we rightly acknowledge of ourselves.  "Twelve baskets full of abundance and more than enough!" we affirm of Him.  Our world awaits our recognition of both too little and more than enough.

I am Thine, o Lord, 

but I am most surely not enough

to be what my world needs,

not enough, not enough!

But then never did You call me

to be what my world needs.

Rather You call me to bring 

my loaves and fish to Thee.

Enough and far more I find 

when I look to You and see 

five loaves and two fish become

twelve baskets full, full of plenty!

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or thing, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Amen."

(Ephesians 3:20-21)

Weekly Memory Verse

   How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, o Lord!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings."

(Psalm 36:7)

   

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