Based on John 6:1-14, this book is an excellent tool for individual and group study.
Give Jesus Something to Bless: Even if it is Just Your Lunch! is a different and exciting approach to giving. This book takes the story of Jesus blessing a boy’s lunch and feeding a large crowd with the disciples retrieving twelve baskets of leftovers and challenges the reader to enter the story. Firstly, as the boy and offer Jesus your “lunch” for Him to bless it and thereby see many blessed. Secondly, as one of the disciples and obediently follow and learn what it is like to see Jesus perform uncommon miracles by using the simple things which are placed in His hands.
Excerpt
Resist the temptation to limit yourself to the logical and to doubt the illogical.
Philip’s Reasoning
Before we criticize Philip, think of the many times we would have tried to reason our way into an answer for some searching question from the Lord.
Jesus’s disciples were challenged to see the possibility of feeding the crowd. Try to imagine what it would be like to stand in a place where the Lord Jesus presents a challenging possibility. Philip gave the typical response that many of us who are concerned about the lack of our personal resources or church funds to meet the needs around us give. The truth is that when the numbers don’t add up, if we are not quick to switch to “supernatural possibility mode,” we very likely respond like Philip.
We have all responded like Philip at one time or another. The need was food for hungry people. How many people? The Biblical account only mentions a number for the men, “about five thousand” (v. 10). How much bread was needed and at what cost? Two hundred denarii was probably what they had in the coffers Judas kept. And even the amount of bread that that money would buy would not have been enough. Philip has done the calculations perfectly but wasn’t Jesus aware of that fact? Of course He was, and He already knew what He was going to do.
The challenge is to have the faith to see beyond the natural and logical. If the Church will be effective in the earth, it must have the faith to see that Jesus uses a heavenly mathematics that we have no way of understanding. How its calculations are done is beyond us. Jesus was about to activate a miracle, and Philip and his colleagues were being stretched into seeing and understanding the workings of the kingdom of heaven in a very tangible way. Philip’s reasoning gives us a better appreciation of what kind of miracle is needed to see this large crowd fed and satisfied.
Oh that we would have the faith to see what Jesus is seeing and not be robbed by the limits of our natural eyes. Remember, faith allows us to see beyond what we have tested and proven to be the norm according to the laws of nature.
Without food, the best option is to send the people away. But then Andrew presents some hope.
Andrew’s Response–The Miracle before the Miracle
Andrew announces that there is a boy who is prepared to offer his lunch to Jesus. This is a miracle we must not miss. How many boys do you know give up their lunches, especially when there is no possibility of getting a replacement? No explanation is given in the passage, but this boy must have either seen Jesus perform the miraculous before or he had heard accounts of the things Jesus is able to do. While the account did not say that an announcement was made for someone with lunch to step forward, this boy might have been close enough to hear the discourse between Jesus and His disciples.
Have you ever wondered if anyone else in that large crowd, child or adult, had also brought their lunch? If there were others in the crowd who had lunch with them, we cannot allow ourselves to follow their example. We must be like this boy and step forward. Self-preservation cannot be allowed to keep us from giving Jesus something to bless. It will take selflessness and faith in Jesus for us to activate our involvement in what He is going to do.
What about the voices of friends who may try to discourage you from giving your lunch to Jesus? The influence of friends can become an issue as we consider giving Jesus something to bless. They may encourage us to not give at all, or they may inject the similar element of doubt with which Andrew was struggling: “What can your lunch do for so many?” If we have listened to our friends and not given in the past, we will need to be delivered from the doubt that has hindered us from offering Jesus our lunches. We doubt because it is unnatural and illogical to even think such a small thing can benefit so many.
But what does “lunch” mean for you? What is the thing you should be giving to Jesus for Him to bless that will benefit others? Your “lunch” may be that one hour you can give to the children at the homework centre at the church. It may be that small amount of money you can give to help someone have a comfortable place to live. It may be that skill that you have been hiding from others because you feel inadequate. It may be some small thing that you have concluded will not make any difference in anyone’s life. It is these very small, insignificant things that Jesus wants us to offer Him so He can bless them so many will benefit.
Professional Reviews
Give Jesus Something to Bless
Twice during the last decade of the second millennium AD, I have been the happy and grateful beneficiary of the ministry and hospitality of Rulolph A. Prescod, the writer of this little book. Since the early nineties, he and I have kept in touch and I was delighted when he asked me to write a couple of paragraphs about it.
This is not a critique. I will leave that maybe to more capable minds. I am however a devotee of the inspired Word and especially its Divine Author.
There are many fine commentaries on John’s Gospel of the Word made flesh. Rudy concentrates on the one miracle of Jesus that is recorded in all four accounts of His life and ministry –“The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” or “The Feeding of the Five Thousand.” It is one of the stories I remember from my “short-lived” Sunday school days. Until I became a real Christian, it was largely forgotten and relegated to the irrelevant section of my life. When I received new life in Christ, the scriptures came alive. I have preached on this wonderful miracle many times but reading this book made me realize how little I knew and how much I had missed of its abundant teaching.
Some years ago, I walked by the Sea of Galilee not too far from the scene of this miracle. In my imagination, I could almost hear the hustle and bustle of the great throng and the words of Jesus and His disciples. Brother Rudy takes us there and challenges us – the people of God – to walk in the Biblical teaching of giving and receiving,
Like me, you may think you have exhausted the homiletical possibilities of this familiar portion of God’s Word, but, look at it again through the eyes of the writer and you may be greatly surprised.
By the Grace of God, “Give Jesus something to bless.”
Rev. Ken Staniforth,
Retired Commissioned Evangelist
Church of the Nazarene
Give Jesus Something to Bless
This book, Give Jesus Something to Bless: Even if it is Just your Lunch!, provides practical insight from John 6:1-14. It does more than challenge us; it motivates us with the knowledge that impossible situations are opportunities to partner with God. It is the key to overflow, stewardship, transformation, and renewed faith.
The reflection questions at the end of each chapter will enable one to incorporate this trust into everyday life. The Group Leader’s Guide at the end of the book is a great tool for motivating individuals to participate with God for His glory. This is a must read for all believers because it keeps our purpose before us.
Dr. Estelle Gross Cyrus
International Bible Teacher
Executive Director
“Right Way” Ministries International Inc.
Give Jesus Something to Bless
This book is a simple, sensible, sensitive approach to service.
Be a blessing by “giving God something to bless”.
The goal is action through partnership with God.
It calls us to be sensitive in community.
It celebrates how meager, or should I say manageable, resources can have major impact through partnership in the grace and for the glory of God.
It challenges us to respond to the spiritual nudges experienced through reflection personally and or in community. Each nudge is the loving desire of God for us to be decisive about partnership with Him.
The outcome of “giving Jesus something to bless” is as unimaginable as the impact of this book on your life in the grace of God.
Be encouraged to serve and enjoy journey with God.
Rev. Walter Woolford,
Minister, Church of the Nazarene
Metro New York District
Galatians: The Easy Study Bible Commentary
This commentary is for you if you struggle to understand the New Testament and would like to discover what God’s word has to say to you!
In Galatians: The Easy Study Bible Commentary, I hav
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