• Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
  When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
  Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
  Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.  -John 6:1-13
• "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"  -John 6:9
  • Vision- To God small can be made much
• So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.  -John 6:13
  • 12 baskets for 12 disciples to spread the bread
    • Jesus is the bread of life
    • Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry"  -John 6:35
    • God's word is infinite, what better to devote ourselves to than living water that never runs dry & bread of life that doesn't run out.
• Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.  -2 Timothy 2:16
• Satan twisted scripture against Jesus. He still does so today to us with false teaching.
• Do we really have free time if Jesus has bought us?
• Our only responsibility is to love God all the time.
  • You'll love others when God wants you to love them if you're loving God

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  -John 1:1-5
• He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  -Colossians 1:15-18
• In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  -Hebrews 1:1-2
• to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ  -Ephesians 3:9
• We say we give our lives to Christ but Christ is the one who gives us His life to replace our life.

• The Proper Perception of Learning God's Word
  • Today's mindset of learning is to get knowledge or retain knowledge. Learners usually think of themselves as containers with space to be filled by information a teacher or book possesses - the from "jug to mug model." Learners look to be filled with "truth" that may or may not later make some difference to their own life. The learners' goal is to information into themselves. And our most common method of testing if someone has learned something is by written tests to see if the information can be reproduced in language or words rather than how the information actually affects their lives.
  • In Jesus' time the goal of a teacher wasn't to impart information, but to impact the life of the hearer, leaving a lasting impression without the benefit of notes or recorders. Whatever didn't make a difference in the hearer's life simply didn't make a difference. We automatically remember what makes a real difference in our life.
  • Knowledge of the word of God shouldn't be held as trivial knowledge which in no way relates to our 'real' day to day lives but being about God and who He is and what He has said in order for us to grow in love in our relationship with Him.
  • This is the difference between what is often called "head knowledge" and "heart knowledge"
    Head knowledge is information that doesn't make a change in our life except that it is just more information. With just head knowledge a person can easily become prideful and argumentative.
    Heart knowledge changes the character and a change in character effects everyday life.
  • We must not look at knowledge concerning God as trivial or a static list of memorization. Memorization can be good but knowledge for the sake of knowledge gets you nowhere. Knowledge for the sake of knowing a living God and to grow in a relationship with Him that knowledge can take you anywhere.
  • Jesus says in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
    • This is a proper perception of learning God's word
    • The Holy Spirit gives life & illumination.
    • The flesh is no help at all. Our flesh doesn't want to change for the better.
      • Paul says in Philippians 2:13, "It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
    • God's word is life
      • Jesus says in Matthew 4:4, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
  • God is not going to hand a written test to us when we get to heaven and say, "Here you go, you pass this test and you get in." No, God wants us to know Him before we get there.
  • Jesus is the Word of God
    • Revelation 19:13 says, "He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God."
    • Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
    • If our perception of God's word and learning it is less than this, seeing it as the way, the truth, and the life our perception is wrong
  • The Bible should not be treated as a book to learn but rather as a God to know.
• The Proper Purpose of Learning God's Word
  • As discussed the proper perception of learning God's Word concerns a change of heart and not a simple addition to the mind.
    • God wants to change our heart, our character, our day to day life not by changing what we do on the outside but by changing who we are on the inside.
    • Jesus prays to the Father concerning His disciples in John 17:17, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."
    • God's word sanctifies us. It changes who we are instead of just what we do.
    • A Proper Purpose of Learning God's Word is to become more like Christ
  • Our modern purposes of learning are almost purely selfish. We look for a blessing or a benefit and if we find one it stops & stays with us.
    • Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
    • Teaching, rebuking, & correcting.. none of those can apply to a single person.
    • You can't teach yourself but you can learn. You can't rebuke yourself but you can confess your sins. You can't correct yourself because in one's self there is no basis for correction.
    • So God wants us to not just learn His word for ourselves but for the sake of others as well?
    • Let's see what Paul says to Timothy right after what we just read.
    • I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
    • God wants us to share His word so that others may not only come to know Him but come to know Him better
    • How much value do we have in what we know if we do not shate it?
    • God wants us to teach not for someone to simply learn information but to learn to love God more and more.
      
  • There are countless other more specific purposes for learning God's word so I'm just going to summarize.
    • Learning and knowing God's Word is for character building which is increasing in Christ likeness, spreading the gospel, & teaching others God's truths.
• The Proper Practice of Learning God's Word
  • First I must point out that Christianity is not about a practice to perfect but rather a perfecting person who is God.
    • It isn't about do, it is about who. Not about what we do but about what God has done, is doing, and will do.
    • No practice, curriculum, or method can be of any worth without the work of the Holy Spirit
    • The Bible is unique in that it is essential to know the author in order to understand it.
  • One Proper Practice of Learning God's Word is putting it into your heart.
    • Psalm 119:11 says, "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
    • Paul wrote in Romans 15:4, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
    • Deuteronomy 6:4-6 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart."
  • Another Proper Practice of Learning God's Word is putting it into practice.
    • James 1:22 says, "be doers of the word, and not hearers only"
    • Romans 2:13, "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified."
    • Jesus said in Luke 11:28, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
      
    • Paul said in Philippians 4:9, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice."
    • Being doers of the Word is obeying it. To obey God is to love God.
    • God doesn't want us to have what He called "the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees' They knew about God in their head but their hearts were far from Him.
        They tried to obey the law for the sake of obeying the law and impressing men rather than obeying the law because of their love for God
      

Already got the word I made up two days ago for my "How well do you know me?" quiz onto Urban Dictionary. Now give it the ole thumbsuparooney please

• Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.  -Proverbs 29:18
• The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  -Proverbs 1:7
• Isaiah 6
  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
         "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
         the whole earth is full of his glory."
  
   At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
  
   "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
  
   Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
  
   Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
        And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
  
  He said, "Go and tell this people:
         " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
         be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
  
   Make the heart of this people calloused;
         make their ears dull
         and close their eyes.
         Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
         hear with their ears,
         understand with their hearts,
         and turn and be healed."
  
   Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
        And he answered:
         "Until the cities lie ruined
         and without inhabitant,
         until the houses are left deserted
         and the fields ruined and ravaged,
  
   until the LORD has sent everyone far away
         and the land is utterly forsaken.
  
  And though a tenth remains in the land,
         it will again be laid waste.
         But as the terebinth and oak
         leave stumps when they are cut down,
         so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."
• John 12:27-43
  "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
  
     Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
  
   Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
  
   The crowd spoke up, "We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this 'Son of Man'?"
  
   Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
  The Jews Continue in Their Unbelief
  Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
     "Lord, who has believed our message
        and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
  
   For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
   "He has blinded their eyes
        and deadened their hearts,
     so they can neither see with their eyes,
        nor understand with their hearts,
        nor turn—and I would heal them." Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
  
   Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
• Not all hear God
  • Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.  -John 12:28-29
  • This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"  -John 12:38
  • Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  -Isaiah 53:1
• Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.  -John 12:42-43
  • We still do this now for fear concerning our relationships with others
• Witnessing is telling people about Jesus
• Discipleship is teaching people to be like Jesus
• Pray for wisdom & understanding before making decisions
• Isaiah saw was God's Position (Recognition)
  • I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple  -Isaiah 6:1
  • If you can't see God for who He is we can't see ourselves as we truly are (saved/lost)
  • We incorrectly teach/preach salvation before recognition of who God is.
  • No recognition of God, no repentance, no forgiveness
• Repentance
  • At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke."Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."   -Isaiah 6:4-5
• Forgiveness
  • Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  -Isaiah 6:6-7
• Surrender, service, lordship
  • Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"  -Isaiah 6:8
• God wanted everyone to believe through faith and not sight/hearing.
  • He said, "Go and tell this people: " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."   -Isaiah 6:9-10
  • Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"  -John 12:37-38
• Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."  -Isaiah 6:11-13
  • How long? Until there are none left to be told.
• Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."  -John 12:44-50
  • We give the truth but cannot judge those we give it to for the gospel is their judge.
  • We don't judge but point out what God will judge as written in His word.
  • Our duty as believers is to simply point to Christ.
• How much value do we have in what we "know" if we do not share it?

New poetical writing by me now on Piemerica.org

I need all of these things daily or very close to it

I only hung up one poster when I was growing up and it was the foldout poster from Mad Magazine's 400th issue

You have a need for other people to like and admire you
I don't need it but I'd like it, not sure what I'd do if I had never gotten it.

yet you tend to be critical of yourself.
Not true

You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage.
Probably because I don't know what it is

Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside
Sorta

you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside.
Not at all!

At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
Almost never

You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
yeah because normal things are boring

You also pride yourself as an independent thinker
Truly but not so much so that I won't strive to do everything Jesus has said

and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof.
Pretty close

But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
Yeah but also because I'm lazy

At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved.
That covers everything doesn't it?

Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.
Only the one where I hope internet people will frequently appreciate my create works

• After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.  -Luke 10:1-4
  • Sent two by two to
    • Be better witnesses
    • Encourage one another
    • Accountability
  • After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.  -Luke 10:1
    • They were sent to where Jesus would later go
    • Pray to go where God will be
  • Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.  -Luke 10:2
    • Discipleship grows harvesters
  • Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.  -Luke 10:4
    • Focus on the mission
• But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.  -Luke 10:5-12
  • For both positive and negative receptions they told the same message ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
• Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”  -Luke 10:17-20
  • Jesus gave an eternal kingdom perspective to replace their timely earthly perspective.
  • Judas had the same power but was not in the book of life
• In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”  -Luke 10:21-24

Psalm 18:3, 18:28, 18:30-32, 18:35, 18:46, 19:1, 19:7-9, 19:13-14, 20:4-5, 20:7, 21:13, 22:1, 22:7-8, 22:16-18, 22:22-23, 22:27, 22:29, 23:1, 24:1-4, 24:6, 24:8, 24:10

Psalm 25:4-5, 25:7, 25:9-11, 25:17-18, 25:20, 26:5, 26:7, 27:1, 27:8, 27:10-11, 27:13-14, 28:7, 29:2, 29:11, 30:2-3, 30:5-6, 30:11-12, 31:2, 31:5, 31:14-15, 31:18-19, 31:23-24

Psalm 32:1, 32:5, 32:7, 32:10, 33:2-6, 33:9-10, 33:15, 33:18-19, 34:1-4, 34:11, 34:13-14, 34:18, 34:22, 35:18, 36:5-6, 37:1, 37:3-8, 37:11, 37:18, 37:23-25, 37:27-28, 37:30-31, 37:34, 37:39, 38:18

Psalm 39:1, 39:4-6, 40:1-2, 40:4-5, 40:8, 40:12, 40:16, 41:1, 41:4, 41:13, 42:1, 42:8, 44:8, 45:1, 45:17, 46:1, 46:10, 47:1-2, 47:6-7, 48:14, 49:3-4, 49:7, 49:15

• Jesus fulfilled the passover
• New Covenant- Jesus blood is shed for us for remission of sins.
• Lord's supper is to bring us into accountability & have us focus on his sacrifice.
• 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
• You have to be obedient to be intimate with God.
  • Examine yourself
  • Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts  -Psalm 139:23
  • Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you  -1 Peter 5:7
• For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.  -Isaiah 54:10
• Let them exalt him in the congregation of the people  -Psalm 107:32
• I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  -Psalm 34:1
• Just agree with God