How Many Loaves of Bread do you have?

‘How many loaves of bread do you have? And He said, ‘go and see’? (v.38)
On our Saturday night’s vigil prayer we meditated on the passage where Jesus feeds five thousand people (Mark 6:30-44). Right in the middle of this passage we read an intriguing question that Jesus poses to His disciples – ‘how many loaves of bread do you have? And he said, ‘go and see’? (v.38)

When we read and re-read this question there could be several counter questions that may come up in our mind. For the benefit of easier understanding, we spilt our responses into two halves as if it were a movie. The first half of this episode was all the questions that a natural person would have asked. For instance, the disciples naturally thought of the possible obstacles such as distance, time and the massive crowd (v.34-35). If you thought like the disciples then you can be forgiven because it was getting too late for them in the evening and particularly after a hard day’s work you don’t want to be bothered to take up another massive task. The second half of the story like in most movies is the most interesting part; this is where we wait for the action and climax. We see the miracle of multiplication, 5 loaves and 2 fishes being used to feed more than five thousand people.

Let us look deeper into this question:

1. Can you think about a time in your life when you were cornered by a difficult situation?
I am sure we all can recall at least one incident in our lives where we did not have answers. For instance, your boss may have asked you to finish a project without giving much information or the necessary guidance or your spouse may have high expectations on you which you could not fulfill. Do you recall how you reacted to those situations? Perhaps you may have overlooked some of the answered you already had at that time.

After our night vigil, on the following day as I was reading the text to prepare for my academic assignment, I stumbled upon some wise suggestion by Professor Jeffery Pfeffer of Stanford University. According to Pfeffer, we need ‘self-control and self management to be able to influence ourselves’ and he adds that ‘some emotions (e.g. anger) can interfere with our ability to make good decisions and it can also cause problems in our relations with others’ (Leading with Power, Stanford University 2010). If we put this into the context of our discussion, I am sure we can recall times when we reacted emotively or looked for an easy way out of the dilemma we were in.

The disciples looked at the obstacles but Jesus looked at the opportunity. Sometimes it would be wise to step back a little and let God speak to our circumstances, situations or dilemma. We may get too bogged down in the details or become too personal and sensitive causing our responses to become emotional. I can see the anger in the eyes of the disciples when Jesus told them to ‘go and see’ (v.38). We too can learn from this passage not to overlook what we already have before we call it quits.

2. Do you recall the times when you became the nourishment for the others?
The idea we get from the passage we are meditating so far is about providing nourishment for the others and this was the challenge the disciples had also but the actual expected response which I believe is in our being available to nourish the others their thirst, hunger, desires, expectations and so on. When Jesus offered his body to be consumed by us (Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24), it was for our nourishment. His body is symbolically the bread. Furthermore, the bread also refer to the Word of God (John 1:14). Therefore, we not only are to provide nourishment to the others, we also should become nourishment for the others. So how can we become nourishment for the others? Can you recall the times when you became bread for the others? Here are some examples of how we can become the bread for the others. Simply extending a smile to a stranger, encouraging others, going the extra mile to get the job done, volunteering to say a small prayer for the others in need or simply to be there for someone who is lonely. There are many more ways to become nourishment for the others. It would be worth noting the link between Body of Christ, the Bread of life and the Word of God. It was the Words of Jesus that the disciples had to listen and obey to get the job done.

3. Do you recall a time when you emptied yourselves (even reluctantly) only to see God multiply your basket?
Disciples had to look from within and be creative even to the extent of emptying themselves to face up to the situation and the result was astounding. A well fed crowd and about 12 baskets full of remaining food was a great outcome. But their intention was not to multiply but to place in the hands of Him who can make the increase. If our intentions for giving anything only in the hope of seeing it multiplied can be some sort of greed. We don’t want a transactional relationship with God; disciples did not have one with Jesus. It is by obedience and total dependence on Him who is able to do far greater things than our minds can comprehend.

Here are some of the ways we can empty ourselves to the others. Sharing our resources with the needy, our time in a time starved world, the use of our talents to help the community and many more such activities. What good it would have been if the 5 loaves and 2 loaves were left in their sack bag, it may not have been enough even for the disciples. The moment they placed it in the hand of Jesus, they saw the power of multiplication right before their eyes. Do you have some talents which you have locked up inside you? What good it does to you and others when it is not used? It is like the parents putting away all the birthday gifts of the child only to give it back to her on her 21st birthday.

4. Think about the time in your life when you thought about your own need selfishly but ignored the rest.
The disciples were tired and hungry; they wanted to rest and eat after a hard day’s work. I think that was a reasonable expectation. However, if we look at this from Jesus perspective, even He was tired, it was a remote place even for Him, it was getting late for everyone and Jesus also saw the very large crowd. When Jesus saw the large crowd, He was moved with compassion (v.34) but when the disciples saw the same crowd they saw them as trouble. Jesus saw the opportunity to become bread for the others but the disciples saw the obstacles.

Do you think the crowd would have waited to listen to Jesus preach had the disciples not been sensitive to their needs? Sometimes we too want the ‘right of way’ to get things for ourselves and our families. We want the best seats in the church; our children should be given the key role in the play. How many of us want to use the church but not willing to stack the chairs or clean the floor? How many of us want to be the lead singer rather than backup singer? How many of us who have talent to play music and sing would only use them in a major event only to be applauded by the large gathering. It is in the daily toils and doing thing not in the hope of multiplication but in the becoming of bread to the others we can see God’s words reaching masses. Do you recall a moment where by your action or inaction you have failed to be a witness for Jesus? Had the disciples turned the back on the crowd, they would have turned their back on them also. Our action will certainly speak louder than our words. Do you know of anyone who had been active in your church once but now is shying away from you? Perhaps you action has become a stumbling block for that person.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
When we are cornered with life’s challenges we do a good job in finding excuses and obstacles and we also tend to become a stumbling block for the others. Help us to look at our situation through your eyes. Help us to place our gifts, talent, time and resources in your hands so that it may become nourishment for the others. Help me to empty my basket only to see you refill it time and time again. This we ask in the Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

He Came to Redeem Us

Christmas Message 2010 - Given at Toongabbie, NSW

We live in a world where the message of Christmas is vastly distorted. People change the things of God to suit their convenience and pleasure while others simply don’t understand the meaning of the birth of Jesus. For instance, there is a push to replace the good old ‘Merry Christmas’ greetings with ‘Happy Holidays’. On the other hand, our kids are influenced by the media to think that Christmas is the birthday of Santa Claus. Shopping centers bombard you with all kinds of pre-Christmas and Post-Christmas sales thus forcing you to make your Christmas a ‘credit card’ Christmas. So in all these mess and confusion, what is the Christmas message and why is Jesus’ birth given so much of an importance?

Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians clarifies this misnomer about Christmas. According to Paul, two reasons why Jesus came into this world was to redeem mankind and make us to become part of His family (Gal 4:4-7). We will look at the first reason in more in depth.

Why should I be redeemed?

To answer this question we would have to go all the way back to the first book of the Bible, we read in Genesis that we are separated from God because of our sin. There is a gulf between God and mankind created by man as a result of believing in the subtle lies of Satan. Jesus is the one who will bridge this gap created by us and He does this by crushing the head of Satan (Gen 3:15). Therefore, at the appointed time God sent Jesus to be born of the woman. What intrigues me more is why the ‘appointed time’ (Gal 4:4)? Or some translations have ‘when the time fully came’. We will never understand what redemption means to us until we understand the merit of Jesus coming to us in a human form and dying for us. Therefore it is essential to put all this in the right perspective. To do this, we may have to go back to the earlier books of the Bible to decipher the historical evidences. Let me break it down for you.
In the following list you will notice how God weaved through the generations to make this day (Christmas Day) special for you and me.

• God’s promise to Abraham – ‘I will make you a great nation'
• The nation of Israel was under bondage in Egypt for 400 Years for their disobedience
• God brings the Israelites out of bondage and the 10 commandments were given to Moses at Mt Sinai
• Israelites reach the Promise land (Canaan) under the leadership of Moses
• 12 men were chosen to explore the land of Canaan, 10 of them refused to take over the land because they saw the occupant of the land stronger than themselves, but only 2 men had the confidence in capturing the land.
• Joshua and Caleb were the two who showed all the determination to capture the land that God had promised to their forefathers. Most of Israel doubted God’s ability to provide what He had promised. Israel were left to wander in the wilderness for another 40 years before they could enter the Promised land because of their disbelief
• Joshua, the new leader enters the promise land but the condition that God placed on Israel was that they were not to intermarry with the Canaanites or worship their gods.
• Once they were in the Promised Land, Israel showed their cyclic behavior of obedience and disobedience by doing all the things that God told them not to do.
• God appointed Judges through whom He would rule the nation of Israel but after a while they rejected the Judges and wanted their own king like their neighboring countries. Again with absolute disregard to what God had said and done Israelites continued in their disobedience they did what they thought right in their own eyes.
• The first king of Israel, Saul was selected but he did not honor God’s word, God chose David to succeed after Saul failed as a king.
• David ruled for a while and he trusted the Lord and did what was right in the eyes of God but he also failed as a King. Later, his son, Solomon ruled peacefully for about 40 years. He built the temple of God in Jerusalem which became a symbol a permanent dwelling place for God. After he died the nation of Israel was split into 12 kingdoms.
• The 12 tribes of Israel did not honor God’s word and they continued to live in sinful ways, God allowed the Assyrians and Babylonians to capture them and rule over them.
• During the 70 yrs rule of the Babylonian rule, God allowed prophet Ezra to write and consolidate the Old Testament scriptures and prophet Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem.
• Malachi was the last prophet God spoke to and after this God did not have any interaction with mankind for 400 years, we call these years as silent years.
• After the Assyrians and Babylonians came the Greeks. One famous ruler was Alexander, the great. It was under Alexander, Greek become the common language of his vast empire. Furthermore, the Romans Empire built roads and highways. Every Roman citizen was given security as they travelled to other countries using these highways.
  

In summary, during the silent years which spanned for about 400 years, the writings of Moses and the teachings of the prophets were written to form the Old Testament. In addition to this, a number of synagogues were built by the Israelites who migrated to various countries. Furthermore, with Greek as a common language, people became literate to translate the scriptures and to teach them in their synagogues. Lastly, with the safety and security provided for Roman citizens, people could move about without fear to various countries and established their homes through the modernized road systems. Although these were 400 silent years, God was working in the background through various regimes to deliver His Son Jesus Christ into this world at the ‘appointed’ time. This He did to redeem us from the clutches of sin and death.

Seven Things You Can Do to Plan Your New Year - 2011

Seven Things You Can Do to Plan Your New Year - 2011

1. Commit every plan you have in the new year to the Lord, He will establish them (Prov 16:3)
This is the time of the year when we start thinking about our New Year resolutions and for those of us who are a bit older can recall so many of those resolutions that were impossible to keep even up till the first week of the new year. For us believers, it is a constant awareness of Our Lord who is at the epicenter of our lives and our plans will be established by Him. Before we do anything, why not write down the list of things you want done this year and commit them to our Creator to help establish them for us. It is by looking to our Creator for guidance rather than looking to the world, we as believer can have our plans established.

2. Examine, Test and Check your daily walk with God. Ask if anything you set to do is God’s will (Eph 5:15-17)
As the weeks and months wear out, very rarely we would remember what our resolutions were. What we can do this year instead would be to put some checks and balances in our life. For instance, how about checking back on the list mentioned in step one every week and see how we’ve made progress and make the required adjustments in such a way that we allow the Lord to work in us to have our plans established. If I want to change the way I react to stress, then I should check every night how I handled stress and how I responded to it. If there was anger as a result of stress then I should ask the Lord Jesus to teach me through His words how to manage my anger. Every time when we examine and check our behavior against the backdrop of God’s righteousness, we tend to correct things that are not according to His will. Making small positive changes by examining ourselves can make us in tune with God’s will for our lives.

3. Delight, Be happy and Content in the Lord and he will give answers to your secret petitions (Psalms 37:4-5)
Worrying endlessly about the things we cannot change will only cause more anxiety than good. Some of us may have been praying those ‘secret’ prayers for years without any answers. Indeed it takes much faith to believe that He is able to answer our prayers. He works on His timeline and not ours. For example, a wife may be secretly praying for her husband to break his bad habits, instead of getting frustrated and trying to lecture the husband , the wife chooses to delight and become content in the Lord eventually the Lord will answers her secret prayers. Often times it is through a change of heart that God causes by seeing a delightful and content wife that the husband changed. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist may have prayed for a son when he was much younger but as years went by and since his prayers were not answered he may have given up on the Lord. But at the right time, God through the Angel Gabriel announced that Zacharias will have a son. Doubting God as if He is not able to answer our prayers could put us in the same situation as Zacharias who was made dumb and mute for almost nine months until the birth of his son John the Baptist.

4. Know the Power within you and what you can do with that Power (Eph 3:20)
As Christians we believe that each one of us have been blessed with immense Godly power that lives within us. The power to make lasting change within us and to those around us are there for the asking, so when we set our eyes on anything that God wills, why not believe in the power that indwells us. It is not the special skills or talent that we have instead it is how we use them to be productive to assist us to meet our goals.

5. Ask yourself – how much focus you have on earthly things? Where is my heart? (Matt 6:19-21)
What we know is that all our treasures may be trashed one day, some of them even stolen leaving us heartbroken. Placing our focus on things only creates more anxiety than contentment. As worldly people one cannot think about not having focus on the tangible things where one can admire and put a value on it, but it takes more than this to put our faith in our Lord to believe the intangible, the heavenly things. We can check regularly to see where our heart is and make correction. We can ask, ‘Lord help me to hold the things of this world more loosely’

6. Relentlessly Asking/Seeking/Knocking is required until He answers. He is never late nor is He too early. It is His time (Matt 7:7-8)
There are those things you’ve been praying for years and nothing happened. You may have given up on God and lost hope. Is God really listening to me? Will I ever see the answers to my prayers? Questions like these tend to harass you but we can do couple of things this year. Firstly, we can trust that God is able to establish our plans, he will fulfill His promises. Secondly, God works in His timeline and not ours. We cannot twist God’s hands. He knows what is good for us and what is not and finally to become persistent and relentless in asking, seeking and knocking until we get the answers. It is an acting of keeping on asking, seeking and knocking to see our prayers are getting answered.

7. Make sure God has the last word in everything you do (James 4:13-15)
Whatever we do ought to depend on God’s will and He should have the last word in all of them. You may be looking to hop from your current job to another or you may be looking to buy into a new suburban home, whatever may be the case, it is God’s will that we need to fulfill and he will make things happen according to His will.

PRAYER:
Lord God our loving Father, as we embark into a new year, we want to thank you for another opportunity to show to the world how awesome you are. We want to reflect your presence in our lives which you made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to delight in you and commit ourselves fully to your Holy will. May we live our lives reflecting the teaching of your Son Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. This we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen