[Paula O]

(Sorry about wierd formatting--I don't know how to fix it)


Matthew 14:13-21 (New Living Translation)Jesus Feeds Five Thousand 13As soon as Jesus heard the news, he went off by himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed by land from many villages. 14A vast crowd was there as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15That evening the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and it is getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus replied, "That isn't necessary-


-you feed them." 17"Impossible!" they exclaimed. "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish!" 18"Bring them here," he said. 19Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. And he took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked God's blessing on the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave some of the bread and fish to each disciple, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20They all ate as much as they wanted, and they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. 21About five thousand men had eaten from those five loaves, in addition to all the women and children!





"Christ can meet our spiritual needs, our emotional needs, and our physical needs. He is both deeply spiritual and entirely practical. He can also apply a miracle to absolutely any situation...Christ can perform astounding wonders when we bring Him all we have. Matt 14:17 records the disciples saying, "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish." Christ then responded in verse 18, "Bring them here to me." I want you to hear something loud and clear: no matter what your "only" is, when you bring all of your "only" to Jesus, it's huge! When we bring Him everything we have, He multiplies it beyond our wildest imagination. On the other hand, we can surrender Him "some" of our lot and it can dwindle to virtually nothing.""Think bigger, boys!You've yet to findI've got all the powerAll of the time.Think bigger, boys!While it is dayWatch what I doDo what I sayThink bigger boys!See every sceneWith Me in the middle reigning as KingThink bigger, boys!For one day you'll seeMe in my gloryThen you'll say to me...We should've thought bigger."From "Jesus the one and only" By Beth Moore-------------Jesus Christ, so real, so personal, so alive and no longer a baby in a manger-- knows each of us through and through. He loves and cares about everyone, including people who want


nothing to do with Him or deny He even exists. We


are as like Saran Wrap before Him--He can see clear down to our hearts where nobody else can see with nothing hidden.


He knows what we struggle with, every detail of our past, our today, our future. He knows all about our weaknesses, our mess ups, our failures, the things we wish we could take back or change but we can't. He knows when we stand up or lie down and every single thought we'll ever think even before we think it(now ain't that a thought ! His Word tells us that He's got a heap of love and grace and forgiveness to lavish on each of us. His desire is for us to have a personal,


intimate relationship with Him and His arms are stretched wide open to us.


We don't have to get formal with God or clean up our act first and then


come to Him. This has nothing to do with going to church or any "religion".


We can come to God just as we are--warts and all and talk to Him like a friend because he


truly is one. If you want to get to know God better and have a great relationaship with Him, tell Him so.


Ask Him to make Himself real to you in a very personal way. We can hand Him every doubt, fear, every bit of anger and confusion, all our messes and ask Him to give us faith


to believe when our faith is nill. He can give us peace and hope in the midst of the hardest situations.


There's a verse that says "If you seek me you will find me if you seek me with your whole heart."





Jesus was called the Great Physician.


He is fully capable of healing what doctors can not. NOTHING is impossible for God, absolutely NOTHING.


Sometimes He uses tools like surgery, radiation, chemo, etc in our healing and sometimes He does not. I really


do not know why sometimes He heals people physically and sometimes he doesn't but some of His


biggest miracles have nothing to do with healing diseases like cancer. Sometimes a bigger miracle than healing cancer


is the healing of somebody's heart and soul. This same Savior Who walked with the disciples can take the equivalent


of a few fish and loaves and multiply them before our eyes as we surrender full control to Him.


Gratefully His child,


Paula