CXXXVII

WRITER’S NOTE

Dear Reader, thank you for your support! FYI, I will be taking a hiatus from writing stories. Whether it will be just this week, a month, or longer, I do not know. I’m praying for direction on how God would have me best use the time He has blessed me with.

However, I will still be posting ‘Destiny’s Notes’ every week. Once again, thank you, and may God richly bless you!

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 30)

Give Them To Eat. (See Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6: 32-44, Luke 9: 10-17, John 6: 1-13)

Christ had retired to a secluded place with His disciples, but this rare season of peaceful quietude was soon broken. From the hillside He looked upon the moving multitude, and His heart was stirred with sympathy.

Interrupted as He was, and robbed of His rest, He was not impatient. He saw a great necessity demanding His attention as He watched the people coming and still coming. He “was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.”

Jesus had labored all day without food or rest. He was pale from weariness and hunger, and the disciples besought Him to cease from His toil. But He could not withdraw Himself from the multitude that pressed upon Him.

Turning to Philip, He asked, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” This He said to test the faith of the disciple.

It was humble food that was provided. The fishes and barley loaves were the daily meals of the fisher folk about the Sea of Galilee. Selfishness and the indulgence of unnatural taste have brought sin and misery into the world. From excess on the one hand, and from want on the other. Christ taught them in this lesson that the natural provisions of God for man had been perverted.

God has promised that which is far better than worldly good, the abiding comfort of His own presence.

After the multitude had been fed, there was an abundance of food left. But He who had all the resources of infinite power at His command said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”

These words meant more than putting the bread into the baskets. The lesson was twofold. Nothing is to be wasted. We are to let slip no temporal advantage. We should neglect nothing that will tend to benefit a human being.

How often our hearts sink, and faith fails us, as we see how great is the need, and how small the means in our hands. Like Andrew looking upon the five barley loaves and two little fishes, we exclaim, “What are they among so many?”

Often we hesitate, unwilling to give all that we have, fearing to spend and be spent for others. But Jesus has bidden us, “Give them to eat.” His command is a promise. And behind it is the same power that fed the multitude beside the sea.

Christ is the great center, the source of all strength. His disciples are to receive their supplies from Him. The most intelligent, the most spiritually minded, can bestow only as they receive. Of themselves they can supply nothing for the needs of the soul.

Successful work for Christ depends not so much on numbers or talent as upon pureness of purpose, the true simplicity of earnest, dependent faith.

So when you are surrounded by souls in need, know that Christ is there with you.

The miracle of the loaves appealed to everyone in the vast multitude. In the days of Moses, God had fed Israel with manna in the desert. Who was this that fed them that day but He whom Moses had foretold?

(Night On The Lake)

(See Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:14-21)

When left alone, Jesus went up into a mountain apart to pray. For hours He continued pleading with God. Not for Himself but for men were those prayers. The Savior knew that His days of personal ministry on earth were nearly ended.

In travail and conflict of soul He prayed for His disciples. They were to be grievously tried. Their long cherished hopes, based on popular delusion, were to be disappointed in a most painful and humiliating manner. In the place of exaltation to the throne of David they were to witness His crucifixion.

This was to be indeed His true coronation. But they did not discern this, and in consequence strong temptations would come to them.

Without the Holy Spirit to enlighten the mind and enlarge the comprehension, the faith of the disciples would fail. It was painful to Jesus that their conceptions of His kingdom were, to so great a degree, limited to worldly aggrandizement and honor.

On the lake, the disciples thoughts were stormy and unreasonable. The Lord gave them something else to afflict their souls and occupy their minds. God often does this when men create burdens and troubles for themselves.

Already danger was fast approaching. A violent tempest was stealing upon them, and they were unprepared for it. Jesus had not forgotten them. The Watcher on the shore saw those fear stricken men battling with the tempest. Not for a moment did He lose sight of His disciples.

When their hearts were subdued, their unholy ambition quelled, and in humility they prayed for help, it was given them.

A gleam of light reveals a mysterious figure walking on the water, and they soon realized it was Jesus. Peter, beside himself with joy, asks to join Jesus on the water. But taking his eyes off of Him, he sinks and nearly loses his life. But Jesus takes his hand and rescues him.

When trouble comes upon us, how often we are like Peter! We look upon the waves, instead of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Savior.

He does not call us to follow Him, and then forsake us!

Jesus desired to reveal to Peter his own weakness, to show that his safety was in constant dependence upon divine power. Amid the storms of temptation, he could walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he should rely upon the Savior.

It is the daily test that determines our victory or defeat in life’s great crisis. Those who fail to realize their constant dependence upon God will be overcome by temptation.

Only through realizing our own weakness and looking steadfastly unto Jesus can we walk securely.