🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” —John 6:8
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
Barley grains…..coarse in texture and costs less. Ideal for families trying to save money. Wheat grains…..refined in texture and costs more. Marketed for those with a little more to spend. We don’t know the young boy’s background, but we know his family lives with limited means. His circumstances however, doesn’t confine him. It realigns him to Jesus Christ.
Thousands of people gather to hear Jesus’ preaching. Not in the city or a cosmopolitan location, but in the hill country. Now they are hungry and no marketplace nearby is accessible for this large crowd. In the midst of this quandary, an unexpected solution from an unusual source. The boy offers his meal, rather, he is sacrificing his meal.
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Grace-Giving
The person who packs this young boy’s meal is most likely a family member, possibly a parent or grandparent. This loved one could send the boy off with a dinner box filled with less than what he actually brings. If this family is frugal, half the number of loaves and one fish might be sufficient. However, this loved one graces the young boy with abundance. This young boy then turns around and offers to share his meal, gracing someone else. Often, the sweetest lessons in life are caught, not taught or bought. Grace is contagious and when caught, spreads its goodness all around. We receive grace. We give it away. Grace-giving grows the inward man.
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Life-Leaving
The setting is akin to an outdoor church service. More than 5000 men, women and children are present on the hill listening and learning from Jesus. The young boy’s contribution is a love offering. Instead of money, it’s food on the offering plate given to God to advance the kingdom of God. God takes this gift of seven items and transforms it into a spiritual bounty that all who are present can benefit. Love begets life. Pieces of bread and fish that are life nourishing. When the young boy leaves that day, he leaves behind pieces of life. Life-leaving grows the inward man.
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The outward man receives grace. The inward man gives it away. The outward man hears the Good News of eternal life. The inward man imparts life about the God News as he leaves people.
What physical decisions the outward man makes is seen in the spiritual realm of where the inward man resides. A line of consequences runs from the outward to the inward man, connecting one to the other.
This theology changes how we live: Jesus’ death on the cross is done out of grace for us. We give this grace away to others. Jesus loves us. We love because He loves us first. Love births life. (As any mother can attest to her newborn baby.)
Everyone sees your outward man and outward woman. But how is your inward man and inward woman doing? What grows your inward man?
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Copyright 2019