Category Archives: work
Bread of Life
After the feeding of the five thousand (John 6), the crowds were going to try to make Jesus their king (v. 15). Jesus withdrew to a mountain and the disciples headed toward Capernaum. Jesus went to the boat later that night walking on the water (v. 19). Once in Capernaum, the crowd that followed was there at the feeding of the five thousand; they were seeking Jesus for more physical food. Jesus tells them that they should be seeking the spiritual food that comes down from God and gives eternal life. The crowd also wanted to know what kind of work they were supposes to do to get eternal life. “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’ (v. 29)” The only work they had to do was believe.
The only access to God is through believing in Jesus and by doing this you will receive eternal life. Christ is the spiritual food that nourishes the soul like regular food is for the physical body. Jesus is the only bread that can satisfy your soul. Whenever you try to satisfy your soul with anything except Christ, it will leave you feeling empty and unsatisfied.
I’ve been thinking????
Work has been real slow, so I have had a lot of extra time on my hands. Some people are probably thinking, “I wish I had extra time right now.” There is always something to do (I have no trouble keeping busy), but when work is slow it gets me thinking. This can be dangerous. I start questioning or wondering if I should be doing something different. Should I continue on doing the same type of work, same ministries, ….same town…. the list goes on and on.
Tonight I was thinking about the different men of faith, who made a mark for Jesus in this world. The list of these men could go on and on, but the one who I was really thinking about was George Muller. If you haven’t read about him, I highly encourage you to look him up. This man was a man of prayer. He had strong faith that God would provide for him. He started a bible institute and many orphanages without ever soliciting for money. He would pray and God would answer. My favorite story of his is when there was no food in the orphanage. He had the kids sit down at the table to pray (remember no food), and as he finished praying, there was a knock at the door. It was the baker. God told the baker at 2am to bake some bread for the children. Right after that there was another knock at the door. The milkman’s cart broke down in front of the orphanage. The milkman wanted to give the kids the milk, so he could work on his cart. Again, God had provided for him.
The verse of Scripture that motivated George Muller to start the orphanages was Psalms 81:10 “…Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” In context, the passage is talking about Israel. Israel is worshiping other gods, so God reminds them that He is the one who brought them out of Egypt. God says if you open you mouth wide, I will fill it. The picture that I get here is of a baby eating baby food. The only thing that the baby is thinking is “give me more food”. So his mouth is wide open awaiting whatever his father has for him. Since his mouth was open wide, his father was able to fill his mouth with good things. Sadly though, Israel did not open their mouths for their heavenly father to fill it with good things.
What if we “opened our mouths wide for God to fill it”?
What if we prayed with confidence?
What if we had faith that could move mountains?
What if we were really willing to be used by God?
Think of what we could do.