Good morning!
Have you ever been reading a book or listening to something and the words you are reading or hearing just hit you right between the eyes? And the experience leaves you thinking wow, why did I not see that or understand that before? And all of a sudden you know that your understanding is deeper than it had been before?
A few years ago, a couple things that I was involved in overlapped and resulted (at least I hope so) in a deeper understanding of God’s Word.
First, one of the things our IT team at FMSC did while I was there, was to have a monthly meeting where we focused on spiritual growth and team building to help us stay on the same page.
For several months we were reading Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love, Overwhelmed by a relentless God”. The month we were preparing to review chapters 5 and 6 is when some things came together for me. This book is convicting and illuminating in so many different ways but three things jumped out at me in chapter 6 at that time, that I want to talk about in this blog post.
And these three things overlap what was being covered in Bible Study Fellowship at that time, as we walked through the Gospel of Matthew that year. I saw a few connections.
Regarding the first one found In chapter 6 of the book, Francis Chan brings up two pieces of scripture
– Philippians 2:6-11 where Paul talks about how Jesus lowered Himself to the point of being nothing and to the point of dying on the cross for us – He did this for anyone, anyone who would heed God’s call
- Matthew 25:31-43 where Jesus contrasts those on His left and right. The ones who served the least of these and those who did not
In one case Jesus models how we treat others as God’s image bearers by lowering ourselves in service to them – sometimes even to the point of dying for them. In the other case, Jesus shares that the Father sees how we treat the least of these and whether we lowered ourselves in our life in service to others seeing them as image bearers or whether we did what we did for others selfishly – to check a box or to look good to others.
Connecting this to the study of Matthew in BSF this year, we see two stories of Jesus feeding the crowds – one group of 5000 and one of 4000. (See Matthew 14:15-20 and Matthew 15:32-37). In both cases Jesus calls out his disciples asking them to have the compassion He had for the crowd, to see them as fellow image bearers – telling them that they should feed the crowd.
This particular scripture also ties to the two other items I will bring up but for the first thing that hit me between the eyes – so this first thought - clearly how our hearts view others is critical and this question by Francis Chan in chapter 6 left me convicted:
“How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ?” Even as I type this I am caught short by God – this is a question I should answer every day with my actions and interactions.
I could say so much more here but there were two other things I wanted to share so moving on…so the second item Francis points out is this – “Jesus was forcing His disciples to trust Him.”. We see that clearly above in the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000. We fear something God is calling us out to do is too big for us, so we find it hard to put our feet into motion. When I worked at FMSC, I loved how the focus was on Christ and because of that the executive team lived on the edge financially choosing to not have a lot of buffer but rather to feed more kids.
This is the sort of trust Jesus is looking for – in ministry organizations like FMSC, our church communities but more importantly in our individual lives and in our decisions – listening to Him when as He says in verse 16 of Matthew 14 – “But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” He is telling them to have faith and act to feed the crowd.
Are you willing to trust Jesus that much?
Finally, Francis Chan asks this piercing question – “What are you doing right now that requires faith?” This one floored me maybe more than the other two. Jesus often points out the importance of faith. As believers we cannot be passive when it comes to faith – faith leads to fruit, faith is active. In Matthew 13:53-58 we see Jesus return to His birthplace Nazareth. In verse 58 Jesus says “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” We see in the feeding miracles, before the actual multiplication miracle, Jesus is healing many, casting out demons. An amazing number of miracles. What was the difference? Seems to me it was faith. In Nazareth, the level of faith was low – a lot of unbelief. With the crowds, these people believed or at least held out some hope in Jesus and who He might be.
Faith. Faith in Christ. If I am not living in a way that requires me to have a deep faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, maybe I am missing out on bearing the kind of fruit God has prepared for me to produce. (Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”)
Definitely something to dig deeper into. How do I live an active faith in all that I do?
Anything strike you in any of this?
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we enter this weekend is that we remember to see all others as God’s image bearers, to trust you Lord Jesus and then use the faith this requires to help produce Your fruit in the world we live in today knowing we have an eternal future with You! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
Have you ever been reading a book or listening to something and the words you are reading or hearing just hit you right between the eyes? And the experience leaves you thinking wow, why did I not see that or understand that before? And all of a sudden you know that your understanding is deeper than it had been before?
A few years ago, a couple things that I was involved in overlapped and resulted (at least I hope so) in a deeper understanding of God’s Word.
First, one of the things our IT team at FMSC did while I was there, was to have a monthly meeting where we focused on spiritual growth and team building to help us stay on the same page.
For several months we were reading Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love, Overwhelmed by a relentless God”. The month we were preparing to review chapters 5 and 6 is when some things came together for me. This book is convicting and illuminating in so many different ways but three things jumped out at me in chapter 6 at that time, that I want to talk about in this blog post.
And these three things overlap what was being covered in Bible Study Fellowship at that time, as we walked through the Gospel of Matthew that year. I saw a few connections.
Regarding the first one found In chapter 6 of the book, Francis Chan brings up two pieces of scripture
– Philippians 2:6-11 where Paul talks about how Jesus lowered Himself to the point of being nothing and to the point of dying on the cross for us – He did this for anyone, anyone who would heed God’s call
- Matthew 25:31-43 where Jesus contrasts those on His left and right. The ones who served the least of these and those who did not
In one case Jesus models how we treat others as God’s image bearers by lowering ourselves in service to them – sometimes even to the point of dying for them. In the other case, Jesus shares that the Father sees how we treat the least of these and whether we lowered ourselves in our life in service to others seeing them as image bearers or whether we did what we did for others selfishly – to check a box or to look good to others.
Connecting this to the study of Matthew in BSF this year, we see two stories of Jesus feeding the crowds – one group of 5000 and one of 4000. (See Matthew 14:15-20 and Matthew 15:32-37). In both cases Jesus calls out his disciples asking them to have the compassion He had for the crowd, to see them as fellow image bearers – telling them that they should feed the crowd.
This particular scripture also ties to the two other items I will bring up but for the first thing that hit me between the eyes – so this first thought - clearly how our hearts view others is critical and this question by Francis Chan in chapter 6 left me convicted:
“How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ?” Even as I type this I am caught short by God – this is a question I should answer every day with my actions and interactions.
I could say so much more here but there were two other things I wanted to share so moving on…so the second item Francis points out is this – “Jesus was forcing His disciples to trust Him.”. We see that clearly above in the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000. We fear something God is calling us out to do is too big for us, so we find it hard to put our feet into motion. When I worked at FMSC, I loved how the focus was on Christ and because of that the executive team lived on the edge financially choosing to not have a lot of buffer but rather to feed more kids.
This is the sort of trust Jesus is looking for – in ministry organizations like FMSC, our church communities but more importantly in our individual lives and in our decisions – listening to Him when as He says in verse 16 of Matthew 14 – “But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” He is telling them to have faith and act to feed the crowd.
Are you willing to trust Jesus that much?
Finally, Francis Chan asks this piercing question – “What are you doing right now that requires faith?” This one floored me maybe more than the other two. Jesus often points out the importance of faith. As believers we cannot be passive when it comes to faith – faith leads to fruit, faith is active. In Matthew 13:53-58 we see Jesus return to His birthplace Nazareth. In verse 58 Jesus says “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” We see in the feeding miracles, before the actual multiplication miracle, Jesus is healing many, casting out demons. An amazing number of miracles. What was the difference? Seems to me it was faith. In Nazareth, the level of faith was low – a lot of unbelief. With the crowds, these people believed or at least held out some hope in Jesus and who He might be.
Faith. Faith in Christ. If I am not living in a way that requires me to have a deep faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, maybe I am missing out on bearing the kind of fruit God has prepared for me to produce. (Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”)
Definitely something to dig deeper into. How do I live an active faith in all that I do?
Anything strike you in any of this?
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we enter this weekend is that we remember to see all others as God’s image bearers, to trust you Lord Jesus and then use the faith this requires to help produce Your fruit in the world we live in today knowing we have an eternal future with You! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
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