Matthew 14:14-36, 15:1-20, Mark 6:34-56, 7:1-23, Luke 9:11-17, John 6:2-71, 7:1
\nMark 6:34, Luke 9:11 – Here we see Jesus’ teaching and healing was motivated by his compassion.
\nMatthew 14:23-33, Mark 6:47-52, John 6:17-21 – This is one of my favorite miracles of Jesus. He seems to be having fun with the 12 and His powers, as He does in the previous story about feeding the 5,000 (In John 6:5 Jesus seems to be teasing Philip about buying food for the people.) He sends them on ahead, the wind is against them, they get three to three and a half miles out<\/i> and here comes Jesus walking on the water. In fact, they’re rowing but he’s caught them and was about to pass<\/i> them when they noticed. I can almost hear Jesus saying as they cry out, “Oh, I didn’t see you there. Can I get a lift?”
\nMark 6:51-52 – For a long time I didn’t understand this statement. What did the loaves have to do with this walking on the water? Ironically, I guess my heart was hardened. Perhaps the point of the loaves was not to feed the people, wow them or to toy with His disciples. I was to point out that Jesus was no ordinary man, he was God in the flesh. Some of the disciples got it and were not shocked at this action by Jesus (Matthew 14:33) but the others were amazed because the loaves had gone over their heads.
\nJohn 6:25 – I get the impression that they were more annoyed at being left behind rather than being interested in following Jesus.
\nJohn 6:30-31 – Can they be serious? Didn’t he just feed them from nothing? I guess they didn’t understand about the loaves either.
\nJohn 6:44 – Did Jesus mean here that God chooses<\/i> who will be able to come to Him and who will not? On the face of it that is what it would seem, but the rest of this passage (John 6:41-66) seem to indicate man’s coming to God. vs. 45 – “every one how “listens … comes to me”, vs. 47 “he who believes has everlasting life.”, vs. 51 – “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”, vs. 56 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” In John 6:64-65 He says “Yet there are some of you who do not believe. … This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” I can’t tell if it’s just my preconceived notion getting in the way of my understanding here or if it’s really this challenging. I have a feeling there’s some truth here between my traditional view of man seeking and finding God and the opposite extreme of God picking and choosing the saved based on His own discernment.
\nMatthew 10:13-14 – Again Jesus seems to indicate that some men are sent from God and others are not. Yet He follows that up with a call for discernment on the part of the follower. So men ‘from God’ are not necessarily sent<\/i> from God but simply those who do God’s will.
\nMatthew 15:17-20 – This is a simple yet profound truth, and one that people continually miss. We want rules and regulations to know how we stand before God. We want assurance that we’re doing the right things, but God here points out to us that it is not the things we do<\/i> that matter but who we are<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"