Sunday, April 8th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Samuel 1-3

Today's scripture focus is John 6:1-15

¹ Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

 ⁵ 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?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

 ⁷ Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

 ⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

 ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

 ¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

 ¹⁴ After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Once again, Jesus is talking about more than the physical.  Just like the temple, being born again, being living water and now being bread of life.

And the people recognized Jesus as the Prophet and King - but He was not the kind of Prophet or King they thought He was.  They wanted Jesus for His miracles.  They wanted Jesus for the gifts He could give them.

In his sermon, The All Providing King who Would not be King, John Piper says something that just jumped out at me and clarified something for me that I've never fully understood before.   (I'm not going to bold/italic anything, just to see if the same thing hits you that hit me - something else might hit you instead - if so, please comment!)...

There are at least three things about me that you don’t see. First, you don’t see that I am going to use my power not to triumph over the Romans but to be for your sins. Second, you don’t see that I myself am your food. It’s me, and not my gifts, that your soul needs. And third, you don’t see the connection between these two: the way I become food for the everlasting satisfaction of sinners is by laying down my life. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51)

What jumped out of that paragraph for you?

This is what hit me....

It's me, and not my gifts, that your soul needs.

Let that truth settle in your soul for a moment.

It's me, not my gifts.

I've always got the point that God is not a genie in a bottle and doesn't grant prayer requests like wishes.  But it's never fully clicked that one of the reasons He doesn't, is because He doesn't want the gifts to be mistaken as the object our souls yearn for.

We yearn for Him.  He is the Gift.  He is what our soul needs in order to be truly satisfied.

He doesn't want to give us gifts, He wants to be the gift.
He doesn't want to give us bread, He wants to be our bread.

But we're sinners and completely undeserving, so the only way for Him to be our bread is to give His flesh on the cross to become the bread - the all-nourishing, all-satisfying bread that our souls yearn for, and that all sinners can receive if they believe.

Don't get so distracted by the gifts that you miss the Gift.

Don't get so distracted by the bread (the stuff that is delicious and satisfies for a bit but then leaves you hungry once again) that you miss the Bread that will satisfy your soul, forever.



Christ is risen!!  Hallelujah!

Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 6:16-21

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 4-8