Reading: Mark 6:35-44 New International Version (NIV)
Yesterday we saw that our God is never late and that when He appears like late to us, we should go to Him instead of trying to come up with our own solutions. This is a demonstration of full faith and confidence in God and we set ourselves up for the miraculous. Today we look at Vs 36 – Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
Here the disciples are coming up with what was truly the most logical solution to the problem they had in hand. By sending the people away, this problem would have been solved and with no expense on the side of the disciples or Jesus. They were shifting responsibility away from themselves to the people. This morning as I reflected on this verse, I realized something – you will limit God’s power in your life if you don’t learn to take responsibility or develop the habit of running away from responsibility. To put it in another way – if you are not willing to sacrifice for others. Life will present you with opportunities disguised as problems and our response determines how God steps in to get involved. If we shrink, fear or just focus on ourselves – we limit God’s power in our lives. If we step out in faith, take full responsibility to solve the problem, God has a way of using the little we have in our hands. The secret is in being willing to release what we have to be used by God. The disciples here didn’t think of what they had – they went with what was most logical – pushing the responsibility to the people. What if there were people in the crowd that didn’t have money to buy food? This was a remote place – what if there was no enough food. If they had taken time to ask these questions – possibly their approach would have been different. We are living in a very needy society. There is a lot of suffering going on all around us and I believe there has never been a time for Christians to be relevant in the world than now. Every time I travel in our country and most of Africa, I take time to look around – and it’s true, we have a lot of problems in our society. There is poverty, hunger, disease all around us. How do we solve this? As Christians, we can do something by releasing what we have got and making it available to God. We can be generous and think of others at this time when everyone wants to think about themselves. We don’t have to have much to be generous – God always uses what He has given you and if we make it available – He is able to do the miraculous. Let us not send people to the villages – let us desire to take responsibility ad do something.
I finish this point by giving you this testimony – Sometimes in early 1993, two sisters came to see me one afternoon – we were in Mombasa then and we used to serve in the choir together. Their Father who used to be a Pastor had just passed away leaving their family home uncompleted and they came to ask me if I could help them to get it completed. I had just finished college and didn’t even have a permanent job at that time. I don’t know why these sisters came to me frankly or why they thought I could help. I was 24, living in the sitting room of my fathers rented house – didn’t even have a spare shoe! and my own mother wasn’t living in any better house at our rural home, but here were two sisters asking me to help their mother complete a house!. Any way we calculated how much iron sheets they needed and when I got paid some money from the place I was teaching part time computer studies, I gave them the money – it was frankly ¾ of my salary that month!. Shortly after that God opened a door for me and I got a permanent job in a bank while holding an Education Degree and with zero banking or commerce experience or knowledge.
Brethren – I strongly believe God has called us to live not for ourselves but for others. When we stand before God in heaven, what you did for yourself will count for nothing. What will matter is what you did for others. The nice house you build for yourself, the big car you drove, the nice food you ate and the many clothes you had, the nice places you went visiting – these are good things to enjoy and its ok, but remember they will count for nothing. We need not attach much significance to them and I must say with the bless me Christianity this is considered strange today. In Matthew 25:40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’.
This is the spirit that we pray for every member of this ministry. It is about what we do for our children, brothers, sisters, parents , the body of Christ and the world in general that counts and so we should put all focus and emphasis on this as we do live daily.
That is why we are all putting together our financial resources to build the CREM Centre – a place from where we can be able to touch more lives in Kenya and beyond. Last week, we circulated a video of a church building being opened (Eastern Kenya) – constructed with support from CREM Ministry (thanks to your monthly contributions). So I can only encourage all of us to continue being generous – you set yourself up for the miraculous. Have you been too cussed on yourself? When is the last time you stood to focus on others and those around you?.
In Matthew 25:34-36 : “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
May our good Lord help us all.
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