Heralds Digest

  “ Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. ” John 6 : 26 - 27 KJV There is nothing wrong with the gifting of lifeless loaves to arrest the physical and material needs of the people. The only problem is that people hardly give lifeless loaves without ulterior motives. Like politicians who often give lifeless loaves to vulnerable populace for the conscience manipulative reasons, Jesus’ miracles of feeding thousands of people with five loaves of bread was misinterpreted as the offering of lifeless loaves. “ Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled ” implies that the motive...

  “ Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” John 6 : 27 NKJV When Jephthah told the king of the people of Ammon “ So whatever the Lord our God takes possession of before us, we will possess (Judges 11 : 24)”, he undoubtedly established the principle of labour that distinguishes between its life and loose version. It implies that while life labour is the possession of what the Son of Man gives, loose labour is the fruitless perseverance over what self or someone else promises outside the will of God. Obviously, the major challenge of life is the discernment of divine purpose and the courage to stick with this revealed purpose in the face of opposition and oppression. Jephthah, no doubt, gracefully faced his life’s opposition and oppression without distraction from home and abroad; and God delivered the king of Ammon into his hands. Unfortunat...

  ” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. ”“ John 6:­28-29, 40 NKJV If it is true that we can follow Jesus with a wrong motive, how can we categorize those who decide not to follow Jesus at all? Notwithstanding, those who had followed Jesus for the satisfaction of their belly’s needs have rightly responded with “ What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? ” And Jesus had apparently responded “ Believe in God’s will, way, and works ”. Unfortunately, the satisfaction of our personal needs has always driven our engagement in life, especially by losing taste in the sufficiency of God to meet our personal needs. And the enemy has been very smart, by using this spirit of covetousness ...