Moving right along in the Book of Luke for my December 9th readings yesterday, I came across the feeding of the 5,000. First, I tried to picture 5,000 people (plus families). \u201cWhat did that look like?\u201d I googled U.S. stadiums that held 5,000. The only 5,000 people stadium I found was the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati OH \u2013 the location for the Western & Southern Tennis Open. Rabbit trail warning: In case you\u2019re interested in attending the tournament or get a grasp on what 5,000 people in one place with a preacher preaching, looks like, you might be interested in attending 2021\u2019s tournament which is the largest tournament in the U.S. leading up to the U.S. Open. (It\u2019s your fault, God! You gave me this inquiring mind!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s get off the bunny trail and back to this story. Unlike the tennis crowds that probably has more food choices located throughout the center than you could shake a stick at, the 5,000+ who were hungry for Jesus and hungry for food, had no local fast food or eatery choices available to them. The disciples, probably hungry themselves, advised the Preacher that the crowds were hungry (as if He didn\u2019t know). They were feasting on manna from heaven as Jesus spoke but the disciples\u2019 hunger pains were out of control.
Then came Jesus\u2026.to the rescue. He IS the bread of life and the water that never runs dry. He IS the \u201call you can eat and drink\u201d buffet, ALWAYS ready to meet the needs of those who call on Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus summoned the disciples to find food and all they found were five loaves and two fish. Then He directed them to get people in groups of 50. He knew crowd control \u2013 another of His superpowers. And then the grand finale\u2026 Luke 9:16-17 \u201cTaking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this most wonderful time of the year, I am caught up in Jesus\u2019 miracle birth, but this segue to Who the baby became stirs me up. This Luke “life of Jesus” reading plan has given me a reality check. Though we love our manger scenes, Jesus is no longer in the manger. The reality is you and I are His disciples today and when we come upon something that stumps us like feeding a 5,000+ crowd with a couple of fish and some bread or surviving a worldwide pandemic, He is right there to give us the wisdom, the strategy, the creative ideas AND the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God\u2019s faithfulness has never depended on the faithfulness of His children. He is faithful even when we aren\u2019t. Jesus co-partnered with the disciples and a little boy and He was able to feed the 5,000+ by multiplying what they had on hand. He is the Master multiplier. We are the chosen partners He uses. Imagine that little boy\u2019s story the rest of his life. \u201cJesus used ME!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if, today, right here at the end of this year, we present Him with what we have? Maybe be that one who raises their hand and says: \u201cPick me!\u201d to make a meal for someone in need, or \u201cPick me!\u201d to give Christmas to a needy family!” We can be difference makers when we co-partner with God. Not a big deal at all. But, if I\u2019m one of God\u2019s partners, my “little” just might be the BIG that God uses to multiply blessings to someone today. Yes, little becomes BIG when we accept our partnership with the great crowd Controller AND the great Multiplier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moving right along in the Book of Luke for my December 9th readings yesterday, I came across the feeding of the 5,000. First, I tried to picture 5,000 people (plus families). \u201cWhat did that look like?\u201d I googled U.S. stadiums that held 5,000. The only 5,000 people stadium I found was the Lindner Family Tennis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19337,19338,19336],"tags":[680,19330,19335,19326,2622,19328,11509,19332,19329,18352,19327,19334,19331],"class_list":["post-13589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crowd-control","category-feeding-of-the-5000","category-superpowers","tag-book-of-luke","tag-cincinnati-oh","tag-co-partner","tag-crowd-control","tag-faithfulness","tag-feeding-5000","tag-hungry","tag-inquiring-mind","tag-lindner-family-tennis-center","tag-loaves-and-fish","tag-superpowers","tag-then-came-jesus","tag-u-s-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13591,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589\/revisions\/13591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}