Lunch Post :P

Okay I can't let the QT postings pile up too long, else I'll get a list as long as the uncapitalised one below :P

Sunday's QT:

Okay I shan't cheat by pretending I read the Bible passage, because I didn't :S Well it WAS a Sunday, after all, which generally means a surfeit of Bible passages/verses. Hee. (Will put up sermon insights... sometime. :P) But here's a verse from the passage that DID catch me now I read it.

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without murmuring and disputing,

(And I was like "Oops! Sorry God for all my complaining about schoolwork :S")

The sharing story was about how some church member praised the church caretaker for his faithful job of keeping the church sparkling clean, and the caretaker replied: "I love my work. And when I go to heaven, I hope to have a job just like this." The church member was stunned at his reaction (and so was I! :S) and went on to ponder: "It was a tedious job that didn't pay a lot. Yet he was cleaning with the joy of the Lord in his heart, saying he hoped to have 'a job just like this' in heaven. ...Could I take a menial job and find joy in serving?"

And that question has struck me too. Could I?

That reminds me of my mum and how she faithfully does all the housework, ALL, without complaining. And of how I really should be starting to help her out much more than washing dishes twice a week. :S

Monday's QT:

Psalm 109:26-27 Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, that they may know that this is Your hand-- that You, Lord, have done it! (I assume "done it" here means "saved me" :P)

Psalm 109:29 Let my accusers be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. (I bring this up because it reminds me of the point in the sermon about "putting on" various virtues like pieces of clothing -- this seems to be the same though pointing in the other direction :P)

Psalm 109:30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. (This is an answer to anybody who ever asks me whether I feel I am shoving my faith in the face of people too much by talking about Christian/church stuff, or blogging about God all the time. If my God is so great, can He be hidden in the private recesses of one's life? Should He not be proclaimed all the time, in every way? I will not insist that you believe in Him right now, but neither will I accept it if you tell me to stop talking about Him. I can't. "Can't stop talking 'bout everything He's done / He's the best thing happened since the world begun" :D)

Today's QT!

I am continually amused by how God uses my Bible's lack of the book of Luke to point me to interesting things nonetheless. Everything I've had to refer to Luke for has been a story, and seeing as I'm using the New Living Translation for these Luke excursions it seems particularly apt :P

Luke 9:10-17
It's the story of Jesus feeding the... well it doesn't say here how many. But a huge multitude of people fed with just 5 loaves and 2 fish, and with 12 baskets left over too. This really reminded me of something I read on Ade's blog just a day or so ago:

(Again, from Elizabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity" :P)

One morning I was reading the story of Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. "Let me have them," said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker, Ruth Stull from Peru, had said: "If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad."

Been thinking about that part I bolded, and wondering if God was trying to speak to me through it. I did blog about something like that before, about sharing love with people who need it and don't get it (like the socially ostracised) rather than reserving it for that One Special Person because so many more people are blessed that way. But as I thought and prayed and tried to imagine it in my mind's eye, I remembered that it's not a win-lose situation. It's not that the little lad whose lunch was taken to feed the crowd had to forego his lunch in order that the crowd be fed. Jesus asked for food, the lad offered his lunch, Jesus asked the Father's blessing and broke it in pieces and gave it out, and the lad was one of the 5000 who was fed to the full. In other words, as I see it, it's not that you have to deny yourself of something forever in order that others be filled, but that you give it over to God to handle, and He multiplies it by His grace such that not only others are filled, but you are too. His grace is sufficient... for everybody, including yourself.

And I think... if I (in the guise of lunch :P) hadn't been given to a little lad, I might have only been serving my own family of fishermen, perhaps an entire village of friends and acquaintances, and some strangers passing through. The wise Mother up there (God is both our Mother and our Father, if Henri Nouwen is to be believed :D) gave me to a little lad, and if he had kept me to himself, I might only have fed a few more of his buddies, maybe another family and village if he was generous (my metaphor's getting fuzzy here). But this little lad placed me in God's hands, and now Jesus can use me to feed a multitude of family, friends, strangers beyond count, and people who may not yet even be in the world... none of which could have happened if I had remained lunch at home, and not been given to the little lad.

Does that sound crazy? :D I admit I might have overstretched the metaphor. But it was a sudden inspiration upon reading the story. :P

Oh another thing that struck me about the passage was that Jesus asked God's blessing on the food. Was thinking about how my family says Grace before meals and the focus seems to be slightly different... We often thank God for the food. Dad will say "please help it to bless our bodies" and we do follow him sometimes, but it doesn't crop up as often as "thank You for the food on the table and mummy for cooking it". I wonder if it's time to pay a bit more attention to the blessing part, particularly as my parents begin to age gracefully? :P

The QT sharing did touch me too though, it was about a bunch of teens who used the church lawn for hanging out and were unpopular among church members because of their habit of leaving litter on the lawn. One day a church member spoke to them kindly instead of scolding and invited them to join the church youth for pizza and games. The church youth followed up the invitation and some of them did join in eventually. the sharing ended with "Inviting those outside the church to come in -- isn't that what being the Lord's people is all about?" And I quite agree! :) Now if only I could muster up the courage to put that into practice... (Thinking of a certain S. Not the little girl I talked about before. Wondering and praying. Draw her to You, dear Lord.)

Other sentences from the sharing that drive home the point :P

"Lord, help us to welcome those who are not wanted, those who are displaced, those who don't quite fit in. May we reach out to offer friendship and spiritual nourishment and draw people into Your house. Amen."

"Most people need an invitation to get them to come to church."

A song I've always quite liked (reminded of it also through Ade's blog :P)

As bread that is broken, use our lives
As wine that is poured out, a willing sacrifice
Empower us Father, to share the love of Christ
As bread that is broken, Lord, use our lives