Full Stomachs, Empty Souls

Posted by anointedplace on December 12, 2010 · 8 Comments 

John 6:²⁶ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” ²⁸ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

 

This passage of scripture has always puzzled me and not because what is said here but what is said around it.  The sixth chapter of John starts with Jesus Christ and His disciples feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves and fish.  During this miracle, the disciples had no idea how all the people was going to be feed nor did they have enough money to buy the food.  But there was a child there who had a little and Jesus took what was there and made more than enough.  So we have disciples who were powerless to do anything to feed the people plus individuals who have showed up with nothing to eat and yet all was feed.  Christ already knew how and what He was going to do but He questioned his followers as to what to do.  The surprising thing is that the people showed up to make Jesus king.  So often we desire to make people king over our lives not because we respect them but because we wish to control them undercover.   Jesus already knew these peoples intend and still showed grace.  He showed them a loving father and all they could thing of was continuing the giving of material gifts.  What better way than to make themselves a king for all the wrong reasons.  Because of this Jesus left them and went into the mountains to be by himself.  Right before we get to this scripture the disciples cross the sea without Jesus and run into a storm.  Christ walks on the water and calms the storm.

Now, at the end of the ordeal the disciples and Christ reach the shore and the people realizes that Christ is gone and give chase.  They follow him and this is were we see Jesus realizing their hearts.

So, how often do we see Christ working and moving on our behave in our lives?  How often does He do these things when we know that we don’t deserve them?  How often do we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and know that it is the grace of God and His mercy that has seen us through?  But we don’t make Christ LORD of our hearts because He is God, NO! we do it to keep the blessings flowing.  And what happens? We take off across the sea of life on Monday without Him and run into a storm.  We forget Him and try to live a life without Christ but it will not work.  So to feel better we seek those that will preach to us on Sunday to make us feel better.  No correction, no growth, no repentance, no worship, no truth just feeling better about being born a sinner.  We don’t learn anything and we don’t read the word of God, so when Christ walks out on that sea to calm the storm we fear because we don’t recognized Jesus when we see him.  We don’t recognized Him because we are not intimate, we don’t have a real relationship nor do we know anything real about Him.  Sunday after Sunday we hear ghost stories.

John 1:¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

John 1:¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Romans 10

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”^[g]

¹⁶ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”^{[h] 17} Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”^[i]

 

Faith comes by the Word of God was is Jesus Christ made flesh and it is through him do we know th Gospel.   God reveals Himself to be God by His Holy Spirit not by your bill getting paid or anything else.  Christianity is not folk lore or a preacher’s opinion….  No man in his right mind would make something up like this. To think so is complete foolishness.  I only repeat what God says… (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8)

Galatians 1

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! ⁹ As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹¹ I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. ¹² I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

 

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