Travel back two thousand plus years, as you go about your day, on foot, in Judea (the area of today’s Israel and Palestine), you start hearing “talk.”  Word spreads about a rabbi teaching and healing.  Would you be interested?  Possibly you become curious. The only matter of “news” is the chatted about stories as folks work, walk, and travel about the area.

        Two different stories are recorded in Matthew and Mark mentioning the feeding of 5,000 (in a Jewish area and the number was probably higher if you included women and children) and another teaching/feeding of 4,000 or more, in a Gentile area.  Would you have attended?  Would you have believed Jesus to be the Messiah? I find it significant to have learned the crowds were Jewish AND Gentile. Jesus’s teachings and feedings were for everyone.  Who listened and believed? 

        How very different for us to sit in a cozy Sunday School room and be taught about a loving Lord, or comfortable on a pew hearing a preacher share the good news…but would we have been interested enough to go hear something so different, so unheard of, so unbelievable? We are so blessed to have many resources, media, and audio and visual techniques to enhance our learning.  With so much given to us through the Bible written in a mega number of languages and various versions, are we telling anyone? Those who were at the “feeding of thousands,” shared what they had seen and heard.  They were eager to talk and find those who now were believing a new message and with their own eyes seeing our Messiah.

        If you do believe in Jesus Christ, share the good news.  Invite a friend to church. Share a link to Bible readings online.  Have lunch with a friend and be excited to let them know Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

        May the Holy Spirit stir within you, empowering you to reach out to others. His unconditional love is for EVERYONE!

Jill