Five Lessons From Five Loaves of Bread and 2 Fish... Part 1

This summer I did some incredible research on the the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. As I began the research I really did not think that I would gain much from it because I have heard/read the story hundreds of times and I probably could tell the story without even having to think about it real hard. I'm pretty sure that God just laughed and then opened my eyes to some awesome stuff. Anyway, over the next few days I would like to share five lessons with you that I have learned from this story over the past few months. We'll call them "five things to help you be all you can be for Jesus..."

This miracle of Jesus is the only miracle that can be found in ALL FOUR gospels. (In my world that means it's special!) In my thoughts and lessons learned from the story I will be using the record of it in John 6 and in Luke 9.

Here we go... Lesson 1!

First let's look to the scriptures~ John 6:1-9:

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Jesus had been healing people and His "popularity", if you will, was growing big time. Jesus had crossed the sea with His disciples to get away, one would imagine, but it didn't work. As they sat on the side of a mountain multitudes of people surrounded them. Now it was dinner time and if there was a baptist anywhere in the crowd people would be alerted that it was time to eat! Jesus sat there and saw all these people*** Side Note: We are told that there are five thousand MEN there, but scholars estimate that when you add in women and children there could have been somewhere around ten thousand people in attendance. Anyway, this point is irrelevant except for the fact that it just makes what Jesus did even more cooler!*** Back to the real world, Jesus and His disciples were sitting there and Jesus decided to ask what His disciples thoughts were about dinner. Philip was, well, dumbfounded. He was like "where in the world can we find bread for all these people. I mean we couldn't even give everyone one bite if we spent eight months pay on bread." Andrew looked around and found a boy with two fish and five loafs of bread. He came to Jesus and said "Here's what we got, but how can we feed so many?"

Soak that all in...think about it...Here we go!

Lesson 1~ ATTITUDE

Jesus and His Disciples sat on the mountainside and saw a HUGE task before them. Jesus, already knowing what He was going to do, turned to His disciples to test them. First we look at the attitude of Philip. Philip looked at the task and could not believe that Jesus was even thinking about trying to do it. He made excuses and decided that there was no way that the task at hand could be accomplished. Then there was Andrew. Andrew looked around at the task and was a little dumbfounded just like Philip, but he saw something. He saw a young boy with a small lunch. He wasn't sure what could be done with it, but I think he was willing to try.

Now granted, I understand that neither Philip or Andrew showed the kind of faith in Jesus that they should have, but the difference in their attitude towards the situation tells the story.

Attitude~
God has set a huge task before each one of us. First of all I think as Christian's we all have the task of bringing the world to the saving knowledge of Jesus. BUT I also think that God sets before each one of us our own unique tasks. For instance: God might have laid a project, a mission trip or a friend/family member that you need to share the Gospel with, on your heart and that is your huge task. You might be looking at it with the attitude of Philip and saying "God, this is bigger than me, I can't do it." What kind of attitude is that? You have a task sent just to you from the Creator of the Universe and you don't think He is big and powerful enough to supply everything you need to get it done... Or you can look at it with the attitude of Andrew and say, "God, I really can't see how this can happen, but here is what I have. Take it and let's see what you can do."

So what is your attitude going to be like? Are you going to have the attitude of "This is impossible. I see no way that it can happen" or are you going to take on the attitude of "God, I know I can't, but here's what I have. Show me what you can do."

To be all you can be for Jesus you have to have the right ATTITUDE...

Pressing on.