Author Archives: God's Favourite House
Testing
Job 23: 10-11 “But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside.”
John 6:5-7 “Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” (emphasis added). Read the rest of this entry
Good Shepherd
Isa.40:11 “He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.”
Being spiritual does not mean that you cannot get any value from earthly things. Jesus needed Philip’s local knowledge because they were in Philip’s hometown Bethsaida. Yesterday, we spoke briefly about a time when David also needed to rely on local intelligence even though God had given him a powerful Read the rest of this entry
The Path
John 6:4 “(It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)”
When you look at the event of things, it was approximately six months exist between John 5 and John 6. It was almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Remember, in John 2, Jesus went from Capernaum to Jerusalem for the Passover, which was the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry. Read the rest of this entry
Supernatural Provision
Matt.17:27 “However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”
Have you ever experienced supernatural provision? Yes, God wants us to work, to invest, and God wants us to save. We have done several teachings on God’s heart for work and for our finances – earn some, save some, invest some, spend less, no loss, give more, and faith it. Yes, God wants us to be responsible, to generate an income, to sustain our life income, and to multiply our streams of income. However, there comes a time in every life where you need divine intervention, when you need a miracle. God has made it clear that this is going to happen, and He will come through for us. Please read John 6:1-15.
John 6:1 “After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias.” This is so important because John was writing to the people in Ephesus and they knew this sea as the Sea of Tiberias, not the Sea of Galilee. It is so important that as people, we speak the language that our community understands. Otherwise, they will see Christians as strange. Jesus had just finished healing the man that was lame for thirty-eight years and He crossed the Sea of Galilee to have some time away with His disciples. But the Bible said that the people followed Him. When Jesus was crossing the Sea of Galilee, thousands of people were going across Jordan following Jesus. Jesus obviously got to Galilee first and sat down with His disciples, but as He lifted His eyes, He saw five thousand people approaching and the story kicks off from there.
This miracle is recorded as the feeding of five thousand men, not counting women and children. If there are five thousand men, we can expect that there will be between seven and ten thousand women, and between two and three thousand children. There were about fifteen to twenty thousand people coming to Jesus. There are many different miracles distributed across the four gospels but the feeding of the five thousand men was the only one recorded by all four gospels and that is so significant. This miracle is recorded in Matt.14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-15. Please read all the different accounts, you will be amazed at the peculiarities of the writers and what they focused on.
For instance, John did not talk about Jesus distributing the bread to the twelve and the twelve distributing it to the people. John skipped that because of what he was focusing on. Matthew detailed how Jesus broke the bread and distributed to the twelve, but Matthew did not state that Jesus did this for the bread and then the fish. Matthew reported it as though Jesus did both together. But John said He distributed the bread first, then the fish. The purpose of Bible study is for you to get into the Word of God yourself.
Prayer: Father, I ask that according to Your Word, please supply all my needs according to Your riches in glory, in Jesus Name. Amen!
His Not Yours, III
John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.” (emphasis added).
John 21:15-17 “After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said. A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.” God measures our love for Him by our service for His people. Read the rest of this entry
His Not Yours, II
John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and tells him everything he is doing; and the Son will do far more awesome miracles than this man’s healing.” (TLB]
John 19:26 “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” (NRSV, emphasis added). God commits His most precious things to people that are convinced about His love for them. Read the rest of this entry
His Not Yours, I
John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.” (emphasis added).
In today’s anchor scripture, we see Jesus boast in His Father’s love for Him and that is big. “The Father loves the Son…”, just like a boy on the playground says, ‘my daddy loves me’. God’s love for you is more important than your love for God. Read the rest of this entry
Four of Four
John 5:45-47 “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
Yesterday we looked at the first two of the four-fold witness; Self-testimony and Testimony of Another. However, Jesus chose that these first two are insufficient simply since they are human testimony because He is superior. Read the rest of this entry
Two of Four
John 5:44 “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honour each other, but you don’t care about the honour that comes from the one who alone is God.”
Jesus shows us four different kinds of testimony that validate Him, called The Four-Fold Witness.
#1. Self-Testimony: John 5:31 “If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.” Jesus says the first of the four-fold witness is self-testimony. However, if I were to testify about Myself the testimony will not be valid. Read the rest of this entry
