he broke it

The story of the feeding of the five thousand holds bukoodles of truth.  (“Bukoodles” is Tennessean for a number you can’t name.) Some are very evident, others are subtle,  My fear as a Bible teacher is seeing too much from a passage and passing it on as truth.  If you teach others from the word, you don’t want to teach less than is there and you don’t want to teach more than is there.  What I am about to say holds true to the Bible as a whole in the idea that God uses broken things and sometimes He is the one that does the breaking.

In Luke 9 He held up the bread and “broke it.”  Then after the people were fed, they took up twelve baskets full of “broken pieces.”  I don’t know why, but the word “broken” jumped out at me.  Jesus took what was whole and “broke it.”  I look back in my life and see some broken areas.  Usually those places of brokeness came from my own hands through choices I made.  When those things brought me to my knees, He gently took the broken areas and made them whole…sometimes like new, sometimes restored, sometimes with cracks and scars left on the surface.  Other times, He has broken me. He breaks me when His word cuts to the bone in conviction.  He breaks me to deal with my self pride.  He breaks me when He takes things I love out of my life to replace them with something greater.  He breaks me when my will is so strong that I ignore His call.  He breaks me….but it ends up being for my good. 

The broken bread fed thousands.  And besides that, the Word said they were “satisfied.”  What a precious word…to be “satisfied” through an act of God.  Who satisfies me when I have needs or questions?  Those who have been broken in the same way I have.  Those who have walked where I walked and got the t-shirt and the mug from their journey.  Those who blog about life’s past, present and future from their state of brokeness.  Honest souls that have been touched by the finger of God and lived to tell the story.  We all benefit from broken people who have that far away look in their eye that tells of a greater day, a greater joy, a greater passion, and even a greater today.  Who has not learned from the boiled covered Job?  Who has not learned from the jailed Joseph? Who has not learned from the hunted David? 

AND…….

Who has not learned from the crucified, broken Christ?  His body, broken for us.  You see, He will not do to us what He would not take upon Himself.  He drank the cup..the cross that satisfied a Holy God.  His brokeness heals. His brokeness delivers. 

When we begin to feel like He is pulling us apart into brokeness, we have to trust His heart.  Who knows, He may be preparing us to satisfy hungry souls.

Trust His Heart…by Babbie Mason

All things work for our good
Though sometimes we don’t see how they could
Struggles that break our hearts in two
Sometimes blind us to the truth
Our Father knows what best for us
His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim
And you just don’t see Him
Remember you’re never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When you don’t see His plan
When you can’t trace His hand
Trust His heart

He sees the master plan
And He holds our future in His hand
So don’t live as those who have no hope
All our hope is found in Him
We see the present clearly
But He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry
He’s weaving you and me
To someday be just like Him

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When you don’t see His plan
When you can’t trace His hand
Trust His heart