The Devotional

Papa “J” says

What if God were just a man, or a woman? Some seek to believe this and have no awe of God, thus the fool has no understanding because he hates wisdom! Proverbs 1:7

The Army Sargent became a friend, he and I hung out together a lot. I think he would have made a decent sailor. Our work caused us to know various things about Vietnam, China, Korea, and Laos that normally did not make public news. Some films that came to our unit were films of the war going on in Vietnam, other films were activities generated in other nations that aided or supported the enemies of the U.S. We had very few visitors, but to an outsider we looked like a computer support center. In those days these centers were very large with big machines that made a lot of noise. Our computer room which the Sargent ran was very noisy and that is about all it generated – Noise. When we had incoming messages and film, we all went into a quiet conference room and digested the available information. The only information that we did not get to see was those messages that the colonel kept in “eyes only” status. He would determine the next step to down grade the “eyes only” message and we would all get to see it. For whatever reason, I seem prevented to go into detail on these subjects even though it has been forty plus years since I was involved.

The Gospel of John

John 6:1-14 Don't you just know it! There are people out there that say that the feeding of five thousand men on the side of hill with five barley loaves of bread and two small fish is impossible. Some have even gone so far as to say that the bread loaves were small and made from a poor grade of barley flour and that the fish were barely enough to feed the lad who had them.

Then there are the fragments that were picked up by the LORD's disciples, enough to fill twelve baskets. What? Where did they get the baskets some would say! Faith calls Jesus a prophet at this point, unbelief calls Him a liar. What do you call Him. Well the truth be known, he did not feed five thousand. He fed more, only the men are counted, the women and children who were with the men were also fed. Even the lad who still had his lunch is not counted, he is a child.

Baskets in those days were common, people carried their needed items in baskets, some had been with Jesus a long time, no doubt they had eaten everything in their baskets at an earlier time. I have a grand daughter, no doubt if she had been on this trip, she would have been out of food before the noon lunch bell sounded and I am sure you have relatives like her too. Empty baskets – not a problem. Empty faith – now that is a problem. You can believe that Jesus fed 10 to 13 thousand people that day with five small barley loaves and two small fish and had enough left over to fed his twelve disciples too.