Another Big Feed but Different...Matthew 15:29-39...Another big Monday hike for me

 



The goal was to make it all the way up the East Inlet trail to complete the whole trail system.  I would start at 8300 ft where the East Inlet dumps into Grand Lake to 10 miles up to where it feeds 5th Lake at 10,900 ft.  I would start at 6 am and get back to the van at 4:15 pm.  6 lakes in total that would be involved in this trek, Grand, Lone Pine, Verna, Spirit, 4th, and 5th.  The trip included seeing many deer and fish and also an unexpected visitor at the final destination.  You would expect not to see anyone this deep up a trail but after about 30 minutes of alone time at 5th Lake, another hiker came over the rise to the edge of the lake.  Solitude is great but sharing the event with another has great value too.  It proved again that we live in a small world as we connected with someone we both knew.

The passage this Sunday magnified the point that it is not what is external that defiles you but what is internal.  It is not the unwashed hands but rather the unwashed heart.  The Canaanite woman showed this with her answer to Jesus about wanting even the crumbs that come from His table.  She had many external strikes against her but what mattered was the internal that kept coming back to Jesus and desiring what He had for her.  This passage deals with 4000+ more Gentiles that would have externally been deemed unworthy of God's attention but internally they stayed with Jesus 3 days feeding their souls with His words and ways.  Jesus commended the woman for her great faith and He commended the crowd with their devotion.  

Jesus is fulfilling the Scriptures that He would be light to the nations.  He was a Messiah for all who would call upon His name.  He came first to the Jews but then also to the Gentiles.  Jesus is also showing His Messiahship to both Jews and Gentiles by performing some of the same things with both groups.  He is preaching, teaching, and healing to both Jews and Gentiles.  He is not showing partiality even though there was an order and a plan (God's will) that He was following.  It was just unfolding in time.

Am I patient enough for the unfolding plan of God in my life?  Am I realizing that all things for my good don't come all at once?  Am I praying through these times of waiting so I keep in step with Jesus rather than running ahead in the wrong direction?  Am I looking for how God is using this in between time that I think should be over already?  I expect the finish product now but even the Bible has a book of Revelation that hasn't seen its final fulfillment.  Jesus had a 1st coming but now we must wait for His second.  I think of those names and faces I have yet to know and meet that will become part of the family of God, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who would be lost if I was in charge.  

Jesus is in charge.  Jesus will leave the Gentile territory to come back across the Sea of Galilee into the Jewish territory.  The response will not be as favorable.  Will it deter Jesus?  No.  He will keep going forward with the plan even though prominent people of the day are opposed to what He is doing and saying.  Resistance doesn't mean stop in Jesus' book.  I think this is so many times what we do.  Resistance means stop in our book.  We look at how it is affecting us rather than what Jesus might be doing through it and in us because of it.  

On the trail, the path is rarely straight.  It would have been a lot shorter if it had been a straight line but you realize that it is not possible until you swam across lakes and could walk through trees.  Those curves and diversions are there on purpose to help us reach the destination in time.  They cause us to take more steps but those steps are needed.  I think this is true with our Christian walk.  As long as we are on the path that He has created, we will get to our final destination.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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