Tuesday
August 1, 2023

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God's Gospel Truths

Mark 6:32-44

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

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Pondering Point

This section of the Mark 6:34-36 almost seems to contradict the compassion Jesus showed the disciples covered last week in Mark 6:32. There, out of compassion, Jesus took His disciples away from the needy crowd. This time He leaves them within the crowd and their needs, letting His compassion for the crowds influence His behavior. Hmm, go figure. While we may not be able to come up with a rule for every situation regarding how to express compassion, we do have the Spirit of Jesus to guide us in how to act out of compassion.

Prayer for the Day

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Spirit of Jesus,
lead us to live
out of compassion
like Jesus did,
not by rules,
but by You, the Holy Spirit,
the God of all compassion.
In Jesus I pray. Amen.

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