{"id":6686,"date":"2015-07-08T00:05:24","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T07:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6686"},"modified":"2015-07-07T11:27:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:27:11","slug":"dont-get-bored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/07\/08\/dont-get-bored\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Get Bored"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn\u2019t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn\u2019t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.<\/p>\n

\tThen Jesus called his disciples and told them, \u201cI feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don\u2019t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe disciples replied, \u201cWhere would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus asked, \u201cHow much bread do you have?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThey replied, \u201cSeven loaves, and a few small fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSo Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to the disciples, who distributed the food to the crowd.<\/p>\n

\tThey all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were 4,000 men who were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children. Then Jesus sent the people home, and he got into a boat and crossed over to the region of Magadan. (Matthew 15:29-39)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tDon\u2019t get bored! The story of feeding the four thousand sounds very much like the story of feeding the five thousand\u2014so much so that we might be tempted to think it\u2019s the same story. What purpose do two very similar stories serve?<\/p>\n

\tAfter healing the first blind man, people were amazed. After the hundredth, it probably didn\u2019t feel so remarkable any more. How many demon expulsions happened before the disciples started yawning? <\/p>\n

\tGod fed the huge crowd of Israelites in the wilderness every day for forty years. What Jesus did with four thousand was much the same. The Jewish people of Jesus\u2019 day expected the Messiah to feed the masses, so that\u2019s what he did. It took willful hardheadedness for the religious establishment to conclude, in the face of all Jesus did, that he was not, in fact, the Messiah.<\/p>\n

\tIt is easy for us to grow so familiar with Jesus that we lose sight of how marvelous he is. Every day, lives are saved, homes restored, sins forgiven, relationships mended. One person\u2019s miracle is much like another. The blessings of God surround us. Don\u2019t get bored!<\/p>\n

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Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn\u2019t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6689,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6686\/revisions\/6689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}