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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Are you being put to the test? | John 6:6 | gracefull | 73902 | ||
Hi Ray..I do not believe we are in disagreement. Let's take a look at this from a different perspective...However, I am not speaking specifically about money. In the case of the need for food and not enough money, Jesus could have just as easily chosen to multilpy the money. He was testing Phillip to see where his confidence was , in what he could see and understand (it takes money to buy food)or in Jesus the provider. " I think that since the fall we have had to work by the sweat of our faces". I believe we are to work..Paul said that if a man did not work, neither should he eat. The difference is our attitude or belief rather about our work. I should be at the job God wants me to be at and understand why He wants me there. Many are working for a living and view God as seperate. In reality we should be at the job He chose, making the income He chose, and using the money as He directs. Everything we do (our job, our family responsibilities, etc.) are to be God centered. If we are 'God in me' minded we would first ask the Holy Spirit for His wisdom and guidance in all things. Now at first when we begin to discipline our carnal nature to seek spiritual counsel on things we will feel overwhelmed because we are accustomed to just handling them ourselves and see no need to consult with God, and indeed in this busy busy world we live in we often operate on automatic pilot. Our resources are carnal, but provided by God to be used in accordance to His direction. Let's say in the matter of money, it is His and we are merely the stewards. It may be that we face a crisis such as with the need for food and not enough money or maybe there is enough money but the Lord desires us to trust Him in another way. Here in America where we can make pretty good money, I believe our tendency is to stop relying on God as our provider, and to stop asking Him what to do in situations simply because we have the resources to meet the need without Him. (As I said, it is His and we are the stewards). Let's look at the woman with the issue of blood. She spent all she had and was none the better but in fact grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she said that if she could but touch the hem of His garment she would be made whole. Now a person today may spend all they have when indeed God desired them to simply turn to Him. As I said, in America we often use our own resources before even asking God, and then when our resources are inadequate (and money can't fix broken lives)our faith is under developed and we don't know how to believe God, so we panic. "But I see nothing wrong with exhausting our resources that we have worked to acquire; the problem comes when after they are gone we begin to be "anxious". The problem I see with this is that although you realize God gave you the strength, good health, ect., to get the resources, giving the implication that we are to rely on it first then turn to God when it is gone. I suggest rather that we seek God first. As to His offering the free bread of life I agree because as it has been pointed out on the forum many times, Jesus is the perfect teacher. He knew how to demonstrate and point to the spiritual truth through carnal means and was therefore constantly giving these un born again believers something to relate to. This is why the word is alive, it is so multifaceted!!! "So we seek spiritual things, then keep working knowing (by faith) that God will provide the necessary physical things." Let's take this one more step. Working too is a spiritual thing because we are spirits and where we are God is. We are not working for provision of our physical needs. Our jobs should be viewed as our ministry(If we are sure we are where He wants us to be). He could just as easily tell you to give your entire income away and provide your needs another way. This understanding frees us from the fear of losing our job and frees us to obey the Spirit of God on our job. My point is simply this....We are not to 'depend' on our jobs as our provision, but rather view first in our mind and heart that God is the provider and the job may or may not be the means. But we should be sure we are asking and listening for God's direction first and not relying on our resources, just in case He wants to do something different, just like He wanted to do something different here. After all, if we lived somewhere where it was impossible by man's standards to make an adequate living, we would be forced to do this, but God in His grace placed you and I here and put us in a postion of choice to seek Him first in all things. As you referenced Matthew 6:33. |
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2 | Are you being put to the test? | John 6:6 | Ray | 73945 | ||
Hi graceful, Thank you for your post for I appreciate the time and thought that you put into it. I, too have spent some amount of time in considering what you have said about my thoughts. The thoughts that you have expressed sound very good and indeed I may agree with you in most of what you said. I'm certainly finding it hard to put into words what I might disagree with, but mostly it is a feeling that I have yet that you might feel that God owes us a living. I believe that God provides. He provided a job for me when I had to leave a job after seven years because of a factory condition that was causing a health problem for me. They were not fixing the condition and after giving them notice I quit, not knowing where I would find work, but relying on God to provide for I could not continue there. With severance pay, I bought a camera and my wife and I took a mini-vacation. Within three days after our vacation I took a job with higher pay, better benefits, and from which I have recently retired some twenty-two years later. God is faithful and will provide and I give Him glory for it. But we have to do our part in job hunting, training, making the best use of our talents and possibilities. God does not owe us a living. Looking back at things most people I would suppose would be able to see how God had been active in their lives, even without them knowing it, but it was not owed them. As a "capitalizer" of pronouns of Deity may I say this. I checked my concordances today for "provider", fully expecting to find that God is our Provider. I did not find it. God provides but it is not His job to see that we are fed. He is, however, our perfect Teacher I believe. He is our Father, Leader, Teacher; Matthew 23. We are slaves, servants, bond-servants and we belong to Him. These are non-paying jobs I believe. I am not saying of course that servants of Christ in the ministry should not be paid for they should be. In fact, the twelve baskets of left over fragments of bread could very well be the payment to the disciples for serving the meal. John 6:12. See William Barclay's "The Gospel of John" from the Daily Study Bible Series. 1) You said, "Jesus could have just as easily chosen to multiply the money." Here I would say that Jesus is not concerned with riches. The question that Jesus put to Philip was, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" He was thinking about bread and more especially the application He would make later in the passage about working for the food which endures to eternal life. He wanted them to believe in Him as the Bread of heaven that gives life to the world. 2) You said, "We are spirits and where we are God is." What came to my mind is Genesis 6:3, "Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.'" Also, 1 Corinthians 6:17, "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." It is our joining to Him that is spoken of for we belong to Him. The Jews of John 6 wanted to force Him to be their king in order to use Him to get the things of an earthly kingdom. We all need to make sure that we allow God to use us for spiritual things and not look to use God. I look forward to more comments or admonishment. From the heart, Ray |
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