An Appointment with Christ: Multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Mark 6:30) Part 2

Last time we talked about the disciples who came to Jesus after their time of Christian service on the outskirts of the city and when they returned from their ministry trip they told Jesus everything they had done and what they had taught. This is recounted by Mark as a kind of preamble for what will later be this wonderful miracle that Christ does of multiplying the loaves and fish.

But even in these initial words we already find some very powerful and very deep teachings. Last time we spoke about life lived in total dependence on God, about the importance of all the things that we undertake, we undertake in the name of Jesus Christ, trusting in Him, the life attached to God, the life that derives its strength and its effectiveness from an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus and we said that this intimacy is only obtained through a life of prayer, reading the word of God, communion with other believers who infect us with their faith and their love for the Lord. And in this way, with a life of faith in Christ, in the Spirit, we can be powerful people and used by God.

It is so important that Christians cultivate that sense of total dependence on God, of knowing that without Christ we are nothing, that without his power we cannot do anything truly worthwhile in the Kingdom of God. And I turn now to those who want to serve God, who are Christians who are perhaps even serving in a church. If you want to be truly effective in Christian work you have to go to the Father again and again so that He endows you with His power.

Effectiveness in Christian service does not come from filling one's mind with many words, many concepts, many theologies, much biblical knowledge, it comes from an intimate relationship in which God becomes something very unreal for you, from a relationship so intimate that the life of God becomes part of your own life.

I think of the story in the old testament when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the law. Moses spent a long time in intimacy with God alone on the mountain receiving instruction from God.

The Bible says that when Moses descended after that terrible and powerful encounter with God, it says that his face shone in such a way that people were terrified when they saw him and he had to put a kind of sack mesh over his head because such was the glory of God that was reflected through his face that it inspired terror in those who saw it.

And here I see such a precious image of what that intimacy of life with God is, it makes that closeness with God so great that the power of God is transmitted to us and the very glory of God comes to shine through through us and is reflected in our words in our actions, even in our own appearance, in the sense that when people see us and treat us they actually see grace, love, mercy, meekness, power and the authority of Christ Jesus. The Christian life has to be like this, a life of contagion, where we approach Christ, we live in Him, we are filled with Him, we are aware that without Him we are nothing, we allow Him to transmit His power to us, that His Spirit May the Holy Spirit enter into us and manifest his life through us, that the works and the fruit of the Holy Spirit may be manifested through our daily actions and that then we can be truly effective with the Lord.

Because again I believe that the healing that God can bring about through our lives is not through the words that we can say or the advice that we can give to people in the flesh, but more It is good that the energy of God is transmitted, the regenerative, healing, transforming power of God is so present within us that when we come into contact with others, that power is transmitted to others.

That is why the apostle Paul says that the Gospel does not consist of words but of the power of God. It is that truly what we have to do is fill ourselves through that closeness that we see here in the apostles, they joined Jesus again. It is so important that we receive that vitality from God because what will happen is that when that vitality of God is in us, it will then manifest through us in others and with our simple walk, we will bless those who they are all around us.

I don't know if you have ever met a person who is so full of God's grace that that person simply blesses us by being around us. When he comes to our house and stays or simply visits us, like when they leave, they leave that sweetness of God's presence, that joy of knowing that an angel almost visited us. Those people who, when we talk to them, inspire us with confidence and encouragement for life and that simply being close to them gives us a reason to have hope and to see things in a different way.

Well, I think that comes from the fact that the grace of God is in these people so strongly that God manifests himself through them. Because again the Kingdom of heaven is a Kingdom of power, it is a Kingdom of energy and not so much of words, of philosophies, of teaching, of theoretical theology, but of works of power in Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul says: "because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but powerful in God for the destruction of strongholds."

The Christian moves in the power of God and that power only comes when we stick to Him, when we live an attitude of total dependence, when in our minds we have resolved who is in charge and whose is truly the foundation of our life. It has to be God. When you cultivate that attitude of total attachment to God then wonderful things happen. When you do not trust in yourself. The writer of proverbs says: "My son, do not trust in your own wisdom, do not lean on your own understanding. "We have to seek the wisdom of God, we have to consult the events of life with God, there are big decisions that you have to make in your life. The one who is going to advise you has to be God, the wisdom of God. The apostle James says: "if anyone lacks wisdom, ask God who gives abundantly and without reproach and it will be given gives." Many people live making wrong decisions and regretting their mistakes because they do not take the time to depend on God and to seek Christ's advice in their inner being, who need the wisdom that only God can give. Wisdom only comes from God and that is why you have to consult with God about the great things in life.

I also think of the words of the Apostle James who in James 4.13 says: "let's go now what you say today and tomorrow we will go to such a city and we will be there for a year and we will trade and we will earn when you do not know what tomorrow will be because, what it is your life, certainly it is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes instead of which you should say, if the Lord willing we will live and do this or that.”

You see that's the attitude I see in the word of God, that attitude that before we do anything we consult with Christ. As the apostles we left Him, we work in Him and we return to Him to be strengthened, so that He speaks to us about perspective, ministers to us , teach us the true meaning of life experiences and then we are prepared to return again to the struggles and challenges of Christian service and daily life.If you live your life like this, with an attitude of dependency and consultation with God and of what As a result of the presence of God in your life, you will be a man or a woman of great success, of great effectiveness, and the peace of the Lord will be transmitted in you and through you. May the Lord bless you and we will continue in our next session.