I was at Acts Centre last Sunday and the pastor preached on Jesus feeding the multitudes, first the 5 thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, then the 4 thousand with 7 loaves. I found it interesting that in the account of the feeding given in the Gospel of John, it was Jesus who took the initiative and drew his disciples’ attention to the hunger of the crowd.
“Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (John 6:5, NIV)
And the answer from Philip was about how expensive it would be to just give each person in the crowd just a bite. I think he was probably surprised that Jesus would even think about feeding the people, and pressurized at the enormity of the idea, finding food for so many. I mean, it was a remote place. Who’d set up a bakery there?
Applying that thought to the worship ministry, when I first looked at the task of teaching praise and worship to the rest of the body of Christ I felt pressurized too. The task was enormous and the responsibility was heavy. “God, why not you send something else?” Well, it seems that I am not the first to want heavy responsibilities passed to someone else. The disciples did the same thing.
Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said “Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging…” He replied “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9:12, 13, NIV)
And when the disciples failed to push the task away, they were then struck with how woefully inadequate their resources were for feeding the people.
“Here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9, NIV)
And that’s what I felt too. I know what I do is effective. But would I be able to teach it correctly to other people? And how will I be able to serve so many people, when I am only just 1 person?
We know how that whole crowd-feeding incident turned out. Jesus blessed the bread, the food multiplied and the disciples fed the people with the food Jesus multiplied for them.
All this came to mind as I was organizing my materials for the book. I looked through my blog to see if there was stuff I could reuse in my book. I soon realized that a lot of what I posted there isn’t really relevant to the book, so I can’t just copy, paste and edit. And yet I came up with 16 chapters of material on various topics. Most of those topics I never mentioned before on the blog.
And I remember when I first started the blog. Do you know that I only had 4 topics in mind when I started this blog? I could only think of 4 topics to blog and email you all about. What was I going to do once I run out of things to write about? And now the whole blog has grown and grown, and from the looks of things will continue to grow even if I consciously keep out things that I might develop into more teaching materials.
The 5 loaves and 2 fishes I offered to him multiplied. It’s an awesome feeling.
And of course, I am proud that I have not used my blog as a complaints department to rant and bemoan all the unfair things that have happened to me in my life. Growing the volume of my blog in that way (like many others do) is not something to be proud of, right?
Anyway, my book is pretty much done. I am now editing it to make it more readable and clear. When I started to write this book I wanted to make it a basic reference text for all my students, so that I need not repeat certain things over and over again. My students will also have a ready answer if they are questioned about some of the more non-conformist things they are taught. And now that it is done, I really can’t see how I can possibly top this project. There is a sense of completion to it, that anything else I do will build upon what I have written about in this book, but this book can achieve what it set out to do just by itself. It stands alone.
Anyway I have decided that when the book is done I’ll give all of you on my list an opportunity to buy it first at half-price. That window of opportunity will only last a few days, because after that I’ll have to raise the prices to pay for the advertising of the book and for the commissions of those who help me market it. So once the website is up I strongly urge you to go there and get your copy of the book as quickly as possible.
So that’s about it for this update. There’s still a lot within my heart that I can’t really put words to for now, but I’ll post it up in due time. Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement this season. It means a lot to me, and I really appreciate it. Be blessed, everyone!
“Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (John 6:5, NIV)
And the answer from Philip was about how expensive it would be to just give each person in the crowd just a bite. I think he was probably surprised that Jesus would even think about feeding the people, and pressurized at the enormity of the idea, finding food for so many. I mean, it was a remote place. Who’d set up a bakery there?
Applying that thought to the worship ministry, when I first looked at the task of teaching praise and worship to the rest of the body of Christ I felt pressurized too. The task was enormous and the responsibility was heavy. “God, why not you send something else?” Well, it seems that I am not the first to want heavy responsibilities passed to someone else. The disciples did the same thing.
Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said “Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging…” He replied “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9:12, 13, NIV)
And when the disciples failed to push the task away, they were then struck with how woefully inadequate their resources were for feeding the people.
“Here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9, NIV)
And that’s what I felt too. I know what I do is effective. But would I be able to teach it correctly to other people? And how will I be able to serve so many people, when I am only just 1 person?
We know how that whole crowd-feeding incident turned out. Jesus blessed the bread, the food multiplied and the disciples fed the people with the food Jesus multiplied for them.
All this came to mind as I was organizing my materials for the book. I looked through my blog to see if there was stuff I could reuse in my book. I soon realized that a lot of what I posted there isn’t really relevant to the book, so I can’t just copy, paste and edit. And yet I came up with 16 chapters of material on various topics. Most of those topics I never mentioned before on the blog.
And I remember when I first started the blog. Do you know that I only had 4 topics in mind when I started this blog? I could only think of 4 topics to blog and email you all about. What was I going to do once I run out of things to write about? And now the whole blog has grown and grown, and from the looks of things will continue to grow even if I consciously keep out things that I might develop into more teaching materials.
The 5 loaves and 2 fishes I offered to him multiplied. It’s an awesome feeling.
And of course, I am proud that I have not used my blog as a complaints department to rant and bemoan all the unfair things that have happened to me in my life. Growing the volume of my blog in that way (like many others do) is not something to be proud of, right?
Anyway, my book is pretty much done. I am now editing it to make it more readable and clear. When I started to write this book I wanted to make it a basic reference text for all my students, so that I need not repeat certain things over and over again. My students will also have a ready answer if they are questioned about some of the more non-conformist things they are taught. And now that it is done, I really can’t see how I can possibly top this project. There is a sense of completion to it, that anything else I do will build upon what I have written about in this book, but this book can achieve what it set out to do just by itself. It stands alone.
Anyway I have decided that when the book is done I’ll give all of you on my list an opportunity to buy it first at half-price. That window of opportunity will only last a few days, because after that I’ll have to raise the prices to pay for the advertising of the book and for the commissions of those who help me market it. So once the website is up I strongly urge you to go there and get your copy of the book as quickly as possible.
So that’s about it for this update. There’s still a lot within my heart that I can’t really put words to for now, but I’ll post it up in due time. Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement this season. It means a lot to me, and I really appreciate it. Be blessed, everyone!
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