Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
-Matthew 4:4
Monthly Archives: June 2019
Nourishment Beyond our Physical Needs
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Nourishment Beyond our Physical Needs
LUKE 9:11-17
Jesus feeding the five thousand men was another miracle He did to show us what He could do.
The feeding of the five thousand was Jesus visible nature of compassion to the needy.
But God is not only concern about the food that we can eat physically but something greater, a food that will sustain us spiritually.
A food that brings life eternally.
The Physical Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body.
Normally of plant or animal origin which contains essential nutrients which provides us energy, maintain life and stimulate growth.
All living creatures cannot survive without feeding on food as this is one of the basic necessities of man aside from clothing and shelter.
The Need for Food
Men understanding to survive, work so hard to always put food on the table, till the land, plant the seed, cultivate and harvest.
For so many, we need to strive and earn a living in order to have food at least three times a day.
This is the cause of worries of most of us, where we will get our food to eat.
This makes more anxious so Jesus in
Mt 6:25 said “ For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat and what you will drink; nor for your body as what to put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.
God knows that we need food when we are hungry.
In our gospel today, Jesus was so compassionate that even he was to tired and need rest, yet His attention and concern were for the people who were also tired and hungry.
He asked His disciples to give them something to eat.
Provisions in a Desolate Situation
The disciple approached Jesus to send the crowd away that they may go to find food and lodging as they are in a desolate place.
They were in the wild; in an isolated place where there were no sources to buy food nearby.
Is it not that in the time that we are in our desolate situation, God always provide for our needs.
If the birds eat their meals in time, how much more that we have a Heavenly Father.
Our heavenly Father knows what we need (Mt 6:32)
Remember how God feed Prophet Elijah by sending daily his sustenance.
1 King 17:6 The raven brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening….
As God can send His provision in a desolate situation, the same God will send your blessings way ahead of DHL.
The Manna in the Desert
Desert resemble a place of no life, a life of emptiness, a life of hopelessness.
The Israelites where in their desolate situation and for forty long years, God’s provision never failed.
His blessings are always new and fresh every morning.
Never so focus on your desolate situation that you cannot see God’s provision.
The manna and meat were daily given to them.
Food for the Soul
God’s provision in the desert sustains the physical need of the Israelites.
But God want us to understand that man shall not live by bread alone but also by the Word that comes from the mouth of God.
There is something more and greater than what we could receive aside from the food of our physical body.
We become what we eat. You eat more sweets and food rich in carbohydrates, you become diabetic. You intake food rich in bad cholesterol, you tend to be likely become hypertensive and increases you chance to have heart problem.
The more we intake food for our soul gives life, the more we listen to the Word of God, the more we become Christ like.
The problem we have today is that many people tend to eat and eat as they want.
We treat ourselves in a fine restaurant and buffet of unlimited food then we wonder why become big.
We cannot just be healthy from the outside but malnourish in the inside.
Never deprive our soul with the food it needs to become healthy spiritually.
The Real Manna from Heaven
In John 6:51 “ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven, if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.
Jesus clearly said that He is the bread of Life, he who will come to Him will not be hungry and he who believes in Him will never be thirsty.
The manna that God given the Israelites in the Old Testament was a bread that sustains their existence in the dessert. The bread for physical.
This manna in the New Testament became real when a true manna from heaven came down to give eternal life. The bread that brings eternal.
In John 6:32 Truly, truly I say to you, It was not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.
The Bread of Life in the Holy Eucharist
The blessed body of Christ becomes real in the Holy Eucharist.
When we partake in the breaking of the bread, His real presence becomes alive as He is with us.
In John 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God has set the seal.
For many, this is difficult to believe but he said that He said that he who believes has eternal life. John 6:47-48
In John 6:53 “I am telling you the truth: If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man & drink His blood, you will have no life in yourselves“.
For my flesh is the real food and my blood is the real drink.
This teaching may cause us to depart from our faith and that was many have done because they cannot accept this teaching, but blessed are those who believes.
This teaching was not accepted by some of his followers and they departed away from Jesus. So Jesus asked His disciples if they will do the same but Peter courageously said “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the Word that gives eternal life”.
May your soul be satisfied,
Mikesendon
GIVE MORE THAN WHAT THEY BEG
GIVE MORE THAN WHAT THEY BEG
Acts 3:1-10
Giving someone will not change the world but it will change someone’s world.
We can’t give to everyone but everyone can give to someone.
This is what we want to achieve the goodness within us ripples until it becomes a miracle.
Is it not a miracle to see everyday people living happy and content because there is abundance and no one is lacking not because everyone is rich as Warren Buffet; but because everyone discovers the joy and principle of sharing?
There is greater joy in giving that God is teaching this to us. The joy the giver have is more than the joy experienced by the recipient.
That the blessings of someone who gives are far greater than the one who receives.
IS IT A RECKLESS DECISION?
We learned that giving is not a reckless decision at all.
Because we understood that it is in giving that the more we received.
There is more joy in giving than in receiving alone.
OUR PRESENCE is our PRESENT
We can give without loving but we cannot truly love without giving.
We cannot consecrate our all by giving our treasures alone.
Because sometimes, God and other people don’t need your money but they need your time.
Sometimes, our time is better than any dime; our presence is the best present we can give to a person.
Our presence cannot be replaced by any material things.
For those OFW with family miles away, we usually equate our presence with our dear ones with material things. We translate our love for them with goods, gadgets, and comfortable life.
But sometimes they don’t need our money, they long for our presence, tangible love.
Good that in this digital era, we can fill the gap of our absence by the use of social sites through FB, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, IMO, and skype. Our presence with them becomes virtual.
But no matter how it is, the effort of making ourselves available to them cannot be discounted.
PETER HADE GAVE MORE
In the reading of Acts 3:1-10 12, Peter and John on the third hour of the afternoon for prayer, going up to the temple a man lame from birth begs them for money. Peter looked straight at him and did John, said to the man “Look at us! Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
A poor beggar received more than what he expected.
Because Peter and John, have given more than what the man asked.
They had given what they only have, their TIME and Jesus who is in them.
In this part of the talk, we will share how & why you have to give more than what others beg of you:
1. GIVE THEM RELATIONSHIPS NOT OWNERSHIP
If we want to improve our relationship with others, even if it’s our spouse, children, parents, or other people; we need to spend quality time with them.
Because you cannot replace our presence with material things. Sometimes, people don’t need our money.
They need our time and the time we devote to others sends a message that they are important to us.
The time devoted by Peter and John to a beggar on the street helps the man to understand that respect for oneself is more than a small coin he can receive.
The sense of touch and sight was felt by the beggar when he looked at the disciple’s eyes and that feeling flowed when Peter reached out his hand to the man.
This power of touch and sight is missing in a virtual and digital relationship.
I wonder about seeing couples in a cozy restaurant, dining together but they don’t look at each other their eyes were hooked on their own phone.
Leave that gadget behind for a while, start a good talk, look at each other’s eyes, and connect.
This is what the lame beggar felt when he looked at Peter and John. Connection.
Our time spent sending a clear message that you are near and available on time that they need us.
Another act of good deed is by the Good Samaritan. A businessman and a traveler where time is gold; he dared to spare his time to carry the man to his horse and brought him to care in a hotel and paid for it.
2. GIVE THEM OUR GOD NOT YOUR GOLD
We cannot truly consecrate by giving what we really have by giving our treasures alone because it is not enough.
Share to them our God when we give.
Let them know that we are just a channel of God’s goodness; that every blessing we share with them is not from us but the fruit of God’s goodness and generosity to us.
We let them realize that God is alive through us. We become Jesus to someone.
We become a living manifestation that God is real because they can sense, they can feel that He is working through us.
The reason why many desperate people don’t believe that God cares is that they don’t experience that sympathy, that empathy from people who were blessed.
The ultimate purpose of our blessing is that we become a blessing to someone who is in need.
Because all the things that we have, time treasures, and talents all come from Him alone.
Let them realize that what they receive does not come from us, but we are only sharing the blessing that we received from God.
Don’t ask them to repay you, but let them do exactly what you did to the next person with the same experience and situation.
Ask them to do other what you did to them, let that goodness ripple and daily we will see miracles. The goodness they received shall be the same goodness they will share.
Giving our God to them is empowering them to stand in their own faith and relationship with God.
By sharing with them our God, let them discover a wonderful relationship with our Master and let that relationship be intimate and personal with God.
3. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY REALLY NEED
Sometimes our intention to help is good. However, in the long term, we don’t really help but rather let them be lazy, lame, and selfish.
We teach them to be too much dependent on the moment that it paralyzes them and kills us as well.
The problem sometimes with us, we let them paralyze their thinking because every decision should be coming from us. We limit their ability to think for themselves.
Don’t give them the fish but teach them how to fish.
You can empower them by teaching and sharing with them what you know and how they could be able to maximize their time and resources.
Give to our children what they only need. Don’t just give our children the taste of our wealth but teach them what made us wealthy. Don’t just give them your riches, show them how you did it. Teach them your passion, your vision, your mission, exemplary character, and your outlooks in life so that they could have their own.
I think it’s not right that we only give food to beggars to eat, it is hard work but we need to transform them to be a better part of our society. They need to regain their identity and integrity so that they could somehow be contributors to the common good of the community.
We should give them a chance instead of giving them a label that reminds them of their inability to be part of the community.
4. GIVE THEM MOTIVATION AND NOT DISSUASION
Some of us offer our help but we use it as a reason to judge people on their inabilities, weakness, and limitations.
They don’t need our judgment. They need our motivation and inspire them to rise above their situation.
We should not use our giving to let others look stupid and miserable or to use them for our own propaganda of being self-righteous.
5. GIVE THEM LOVE NOT PITY
What people need from us is not our pity but our love.
We can only strengthen their belief in themselves if we show them our trust and belief that they can do it by themselves.
The more we pity them, the more we let them stay in their miserable conditions.
You give not because you expect to receive but because you love.
Like the Good Samaritan, what he had given is the best out of his love and kindness without expecting any form of return.
Some people make friends because they have a vested interest in you.
Do we want to partake in a Mission of God to mankind by giving our time, treasure, and talents?
Do we want to have that happy and fruitful relationship?
Do we want to experience deeper peace of mind with God?
It is not that we are giving our time to God and man but actually, we are seizing that time we spent in our favor to experience His immense and glorious presence.
GOD’S EYE ON THE GIVER
Our giving cannot be hidden from the eyes of God. He is observant.
Every second, every time, every giving that we are doing is known to the Lord.
That is why we give our time and talent with joy.
He knows how much we give and the more, He knows how we value every act of giving we are doing.
May you always become Jesus to somebody,
Mikesendon
GRATITUDE TO A PERSON MISUNDERSTOOD
GRATITUDE TO A PERSON MISUNDERSTOOD
Honoring the greatest fathers in the world.
Your wisdom in times misunderstood but a treasure that is valueble than gold.
Your love sometimes we don’t feel and your sacrifice sometimes unseen because you like to do it behind the scene.
You are tough but we hold on to you when everything is rough.
We mostly honor our mother but sometimes forgot the heroism of our father.
You do your best to get us there to a place where there are bread and butter, so you are forced to stay far away yet we we ask ” Why he is not here?”
Today we celebrate and honor the greatest fathers who give there best even appreciated the least.
You are strict with discipline because you want us to be the best that we can.
Unless you become a father yourselves you will not understand how to be in thier sleeves.
Our gratitude to a person sometimes we misunderstood.
-mikesendon
#sparksdaily
PREPARE FOR YOUR GREATEST BREAKTHROUGH
PREPARE FOR YOUR GREATEST BREAKTHROUGH
John 21:1-11
INTRODUCTION
Most of us went through different setbacks.
Not every time is a good time and we experience our own bad times. Depressing moments that will almost bring us to the brink of our defeat and surrender.
And no one is exempted because this are just part and cycle of life season.
We will know that spring is coming only after winter.
Maybe, you are in your winter season right now but mind you; your greatest season is about to come.
Your shift is coming.
But today, let me unfold that our greatest victory will always overcome our greatest defeat.
That our greatest triumph shall be greater than our greatest failure.
That our grandiose comeback is lfar greater than our worst setbacks.
We have to PREPARE FOR YOUR GREATEST BREAKTHROUGH.
THE PETER & THE DISCIPLE
Revisiting the story and experience of Peter and the rest of his fellow disciples, they experience setbacks in their lives.
With all the hopes and aspiration that change was about to come in Israel, that a Messiah was about to deliver them from their situation; that hopes were ruin when Jesus was crucified.
Setbacks. Their faith was messed in a way due to the death of the One they expect to deliver them.
No more miracles, no more teachings, no more healings and their life was not normal and they were hiding and recuperating from the pain of a loss of a Master and a friend.
How many of us have the same experience?
-We experience setbacks due to financial obligations.
-Loss of jobs
-Marital dispute and relationship on the edge of separation
-Business is failing
-Health might we worsening
Name it and only you know, which type of setbacks you are into of which it slowly draining your energy, it slowly wavering your hope and doubt started to be bigger than your faith.
But here is the good news “ Ang nakalaang tagumpay ay mas mainam kesa sa mga karanasan nating nakakapanlupaypay”
Our depressing moment could be turned into a victorious event.
Here are some lessons we could learn from the setback experience of the Disciples:
1. Our Setbacks prepares us for our Greatest Comeback
In John 21:3 Peter and the disciples caught nothing. They toil all night but it was an empty and depressing night.
What if what we do best don’t work anymore? What if our experience failed us and put us into a center stage of shame?
In every setbacks, God has a purpose and reasons.
Setbacks teaches us a lesson to learn, because when we are experienced and know everything, we have that difficulty to accept the lessons.
Sometimes our being experienced is our big problem because we thought we know everything.
Have you noticed that when you know so many thing, you don’t lessen anymore? Because you develop a belief that you are far better than the other. And setbacks are just catalyst to humble us and see ourselves.
To see what is missing, to point what we need to do.
Setbacks prepare us to focus on the next level. It helps us to prepare a strategy.
David was being prepared by fighting lions and bears. Little he realized that these events of fighting lions were just preparations for the biggest kill of his life. Its Fighting Goliath.
It was not about lion but just a preparations.
It’s like Manny Pacquiao gears to fight the Golden Boy Dela Hoya or Mayweather.
Setbacks develops us to focus on the next level.
It should develop our skill set to prepare for the next step.
When you lose your first business, it’s not about the money you lost but the experience you gain. It increases your risk tolerance and evaluate what went wrong.
It’s expensive but losing an opportunity is more expensive.
It is not about what we lost but the experience we gain because every stumbling blocks are just a building blocks in the making.
It’s not about the problems, it’s about you.
It is making us READY.
To teach us to be patient, to teach us to wait. To teach us to trust. To teach us to focus. To teach us to work more and value the time we spent.
It teaches about synergy. Choosing the right people to work with.
Never worry if we are mopping the floor now, or we are cleaning other’s house or we are accomplishing other’s mission because all of these are just preparations.
FOR YOUR BREAKTHROUGH IS COMING.
Maybe your counting other’s money, your breakthrough is coming.
Maybe your taking care other’s children aside from yours, your shift will come.
Like Joseph, setbacks are just doors leading to the next doors. A pit could be a door to a prison, another setbacks but it will lead you to a more and bigger door of the palace.
YOUR NEXT DOOR IS ABOUT TO OPEN. THE BREAKTHROUGH IS COMING.
Because our greatest failures teaches us to use our FAITH.
2. Our Setbacks Should Not Hold Us Back
The presence of setbacks does not man that we cannot bounce back.
Because set backs are just preparations and it is not our destiny.
There is far greater plan, a bigger mission prepared for us to accomplish and no setbacks shall hold you down.
Mr. Sanders of KFC did not allow setbacks and rejection to accomplish what he has to do. Despite hundreds of rejections he received from restaurants refusing his recipe, he managed to win at the end because now, he has thousands of branches around the globe.
When there is problems, there is also solutions.
We cannot rely on our setbacks experience to predict we cannot win.
Like Peter and the disciples, it does not mean that because they toil all night without a catch, means no more fish at all.
We should never give up. Knock the door until the door is open.
We should pray until something happens.
Never give up too soon. Maybe it’s not yet time but it does not mean it is not coming.
3. Maximize Our Resources to the Right Place
Leverage what we have to get what we need.
When God ask us to use our boat, he will give us the fish that we need.
We need to use our talent, our gifts, our skills and to increase our knowledge to harness that gift that are inherent in us.
We have to make use and maximize what we already have to experience breakthrough.
When we ask God for something, God will not give us exactly what we need but rather He will give us the resources to have it.
Are you asking for table? He will not give us round table but He will give us tree so that from tree we could have the wood to make it into a table.
He wanted us to be creative. He is the Creator and He created all things. We have that inherent gifts given to us. The gift of creativity.
We have to maximize our greatest potentials because the gift and blessings are just somewhere in what we have.
What we need is already there but why we cannot see?
IT IS JUST IN THE HOUSE.
Because we have to use our faith and creativity. It is ready available we need only to tap on the right spot.
It is not enough that we have the creativity but the ability to use it when at the proper time and at the right opportunity.
You want to retire and go for good then maximize your resources and cast it on the right spot.
Working as an OFW is already a privilege, a blessing that we have to maximize this opportunity that we have. We don’t just work and spend, learn to leverage and how to increase what you have.
Learn to invest because what you put forward will grow. What you spent is what you throw and never expect to reap anything in return.
Be creative with your gifts and talents, enhance it and nurture it so that it could become open to every opportunity that comes. Because if not, when the door is open, you will not see it. When an investment opportunity to start for a new business, you don’t have the capital you need. Why, because you never maximize your resources and your potentials.
If we manage what we have, we can have more in returns. Because there is a principle that God want us to understand, that God will take away the resources from those who don’t know how to maximize it and it will be given to those who have more.
It is sound unfair but this is what we called unfair advantage. God invest on people who know how to make it grow. God give more to people who understood the principle.
4. Be Ready to Follow if You Want to Receive a Breakthrough
In Jn 21:6 “ So they cast and then they were not able to haul it because of the great number of fish.
Be ready for a net breaking blessings because when it comes, are you prepared to handle it?
To receive a breakthrough, we should know how to follow instructions. We should know how to obey.
Disregard that you know everything, learn how to listen and obey the Word of Directions.
This is what we need.
We may be having the right people, the right net, the best boat but without following God’s principle and His direction, we cannot do nothing.
Because obedience to the Word is a sign of humility.
You allow God to operate in your business, in your family in your community.
Another things is to see what others don’t see. Never look on what eyes could see but rather look at what our eyes could see.
We may not see that the fish is there but because we trust we cast our faith in Him, the breakthrough is coming.
Be ready to receive a breakthrough because it will break your nets. We must be willing to accept help when we need to and share that blessings to others even though we are the one who toil for all nights.
You cannot say to yourself, its mine. I build is up. It’s from my sweat and hardships. Yes but remember that even it’s your sweat, the blessings does not comes from you. Share it so that the net shall not break.
Peter and the disciples ask others boat to help them haul it near to the shore.
Be prepare as some people will hate you when you are blessed. Like Laban, he was not happy for Jacobs blessings. He was envious.
Sometimes your breakthrough will create your enemy but do not be afraid, if God allows you to have it and it’s your to manage.
You can bless the world with our breakthrough.
“His Words are true to doubt that He could give us a Breakthrough”.
May you God open the door for your breakthrough always.
Mikesendon
Mikesendon's Sparksofwisdom 