Given

Everything that we have studied up to this point - Taken, Blessed, Broken - have all been leading up to now. I believe God intentionally takes us through all of these stages to prepare us for the point where we can launch outward to others to bring them through the same process that we have understood.

I think specifically of a sermon I heard once from Louis Giglio that seems to fit this very topic. He talked about the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. What hit me so strong was that the very things that Jesus did in feeding all of these people were the exact things that we have discussed. First, Jesus took the bread and fish. We assume these came from someone in the crowd, but I believe Jesus chose these items for this miracle. Next, Jesus looked to the Father and blessed the food. Then, he broke it. He molded it into the shape that he needed to be able to use it. And finally, he gave it away.

What is interesting here to me is that Jesus had to have continued to break and give..........break and give.......break and give. This was a continual process and the food was multiplied as the blessing seemed to work its way into the bread to expand its usefulness just as yeast does to make it rise.

To go even further, Jesus showed how he was able to use these items to break and give over and over to the point where each disciple was able to pick up a basket of food that would be left over. What an awesome demonstration for each of them to show that he not only has enough for the masses, but also more than enough to give to each of them personally!

This is a metaphor, then, for what Jesus does in and with our lives. He can take, bless, mold, and give us away for his own purposes in ways that are far greater than we can ever imagine, but we have to be willing to go through that process because we are in the Master's hands - the hands that perform the actions that give us away. It is obvious that we are bread for our starving world - not because of who we are, but because of what Christ has done in and through us.

We would normally simply say - as Jesus did - that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It is a tiny speck of a seed that grows into a mighty tree where birds can nest and flock together. Maybe we can also say that the Kingdom of God is like the fish and loaves - that this small amount can be used to feed multitudes and even have enough left over. Maybe we can finally say that we can be used in the Kingdom - that our small, sometimes seemingly insignificant lives can be taken, blessed, broken, and given away to the glory of God.