But as for me, I will sing about your power.
….Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.
For you have been my refuge,
….a place of safety when I am in distress. Psalm 59:16 NLT

John 6:1-14 (<<click here to see read the passage)
My one church, Beulah, for as long as I have been their pastor (I’ll have been there 15 years this coming August!) has been a bit untraditional when it comes to serving communion. But I would have it no other way! One Sunday a month we observe the Lord’s Supper (at least until the pandemic began), we have a chalice of grape juice (traditional) and a full loaf of bread.
Traditionally unleavened bread is used for many reasons, but an entire loaf of bread – yeast and all! – is what we use. My communion steward is kind enough to slice the loaf down the middle leaving just the very bottom uncut. When I go to “break” the bread for our service I heartily agree that it is a beautiful visual for those taking part. What better symbol than that for Christ, the Bread of Life?
Bread is used in many stories throughout the Bible. In today’s passage from John 6, Jesus has a multitude on His hands and all He has at His disposal is five barley loaves and two fish, the meager lunch of a small boy in the crowd.
One source I discovered had this to say about the loaves and fish.
The five loaves did not resemble large loaves of bread such as one might purchase at a bakery today. Rather the unleavened wafers of barley bread resembled small, flat pitas, each one, perhaps sufficient as one or two servings. The course barley bread, less expensive than wheat flour, made a staple for the poor. The two fish were probably dried sardines such as the fisheries from Magdala produced.
What Jesus had at his disposal was not extravagant…it was simple fare. It was something that, in all likelihood, every man, woman, and child had consumed on numerous occasions in their lives.
Jesus’ miraculous sign is astounding in its magnitude! 5,000 was the number of men gathered to listen to Jesus, which could easily be doubled when adding in women and children who were there as well! It is simple math but well over 10,000 people ate as much as they wanted and there were still 12 baskets full of leftover bread collected!
Yes, that is amazing, but the point I want to bring to the forefront is that Jesus used the simple things of everyday life to bring about astonishing results! Am I another John Wesley? Nope. Have I taken on the mantel of Billy Graham? Not even close. There are many Christians if we were to stand side by side that I would make a poor comparison…and I’m not casting myself in the light of false humility. I am a very small fish in a massively large ocean of humanity. But I know that God has used my small offerings – my writing, my speaking, my life even – to impact those in my immediate life as well as those from many parts across the globe, at least when it comes to this blog.
Yes, it is very humbling…but God doesn’t need flashy and exciting. He just needs “loaves and fish” kind of people to willingly give themselves over to Him. All we have to do is sit back and watch the Master at work!

May 27th, 2021, Thurs, 8:02 pm