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Notes on Matthew 14, The Feeding of the 5000 Plus

I am teaching this passage tomorrow. Here are my speaking notes.  Four passages in the Gospels record this event. Otherwise, there are only a few that are repeated by all four, and those mostly around the crucifixion. The Last Supper is one, and it predicts this event. Matthew 14:13–21 , Mark 6:30–44 , Luke 9:12–17 , and John 6:1–14 . [ 1 ] Matthew 14:13-21. The four steps, took bread, blessed, broke, and distributed. Pointing toward the final feast (Rev. 19:6-9) Matthew 26:26 Luke 24: 30; 22:19; 9:1 “They knew him in the breaking of the bread.” The commonalities: Crowd of people followed him on foot while he took a boat to the location. It happened after miracles of healing. Took place later in the day. The disciples basically wanted to send them away. Jesus did not. They complain or show their lack of faith somehow. The basics of two fish and five loaves of bread. That there were more than 5000 (plus women and children) The disciples distributed it ( in an...
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September 4, 2026 - Meditation

 O. Alan Noble is a professor at Baylor University and a writer. He maintains a Substack blog and his wide reading as an English prof is helpful. Here he is writing about distractions that violate our interiority as believers. I struggle with this in prayer and elsewhere: way, way too many onslaughts, everywhere, to what I call quietude and reflection. And I am writing this in a (not busy at all) airport at 8:45, on my way to Atlanta and then Fort Meyers, FL for the weekend. Here is a quote: And roughly the same practice is applicable for intrusive thoughts, except I don’t think it’s necessary to ask for forgiveness for thoughts that are purely random and are actually undesirable. They aren’t coming from the heart as secret desires. They are coming from the mind as worst case scenarios. So I think your task is to acknowledge and return to the present moment. The other recommendation I have on lust is the prayer I’ve included in books and written about at length years ago here . If ...
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Random and Important Observations for August 29

Random observation. I am a fan of Silo. The silos are outside Atlanta. This week there was a nuclear explosion in Atlanta in the present time. According to Silo, a lot of us are dead. Hummm . In the real world, thousands are dead or displaced by a real flood. in Nepal. Please give to relief efforts. I will be doing so later today.  
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In reference to last post

I am heartsick about the floods in Nepal. God is there, in the flood and the fire, the song goes. This is a test of faith. We do not see God's presence there as that broken and melted glacier and mud multiply and tumble down the Himalayas, swiping at everything in its path. What can we do? Watching videos is too much.  
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Worship Song Lyrics and a Spiritual Struggle

Below I have posted the lyrics to a song we sung last Sunday. It is by Michael W. Smith. I am going to respond to it, but drop down and read them first.  I am a modern woman who does not dismiss that modernity is very young in terms of the span of history. So I am conscious that everything cannot be explained by scientific means or "our neural wiring." There is a spirit world that can affect us if we allow our minds to open to it. That is why we need a better theology of the Holy Spirit.  I have felt attacks by evil unseen beings lately. I am not proud to admit that. They tempt me to do fearful things (no examples) and to doubt God at a basic, existential level. I do not think this is unusual. Nor do I believe it does not have a chemical component either, or in my case, what I have inputted into my senses. Today I do not feel this oppression, but last week I did, for some reason.  It happened when we were singing this song. Some will say it was not a demon; I would tend t...
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MEDITATION ON BIRDS, AUGUST 25

 The house I bought in 2021, while I was separated from my husband, is very much the kind of house I always wanted, with some exceptions. The kitchen is a bit cramped and the back deck is not covered or screened in, but these are minor inconveniences. What I do like is that the central point is the spacious and welcoming dining room, and that the house can be divided into four parts and even separated by doors, or five if the deck is counted. These four are the bedrooms/bathrooms area, the “parlor” and entrance hall, the dining room and kitchen, and the 25 X 25 foot family room. Yes, it is huge room and it is my space, where I study, nap, watch television, write, and sew. By my makeshift desk, really an old table bought at a yard sale, in this family room is a large window, five by five feet, through which I can watch birds gather at the two feeders on the other side of the deck. Now that I am retired, I have found that the best part of this new phase is the slowly paced morn...
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More on Artificial Intelligence-Generated Writing

 Quoting Gil Crouch, Joel Miller writes: “The idea of the gift economy is fundamental in how we create social bonds, form and maintain relationships, deep or just transactional, such as with a brand through marketing activities like advertising,” says Crouch. “Writing poems, sonnets, novels, non-fiction books, articles, blog posts, all are forms of this moral and social gift-giving. The writer creates a book and publishes it because they want to tell a story. When we read the book, we are reciprocating the gift by reading it.” A piece of writing is a pact between the writer and reader. It’s a contract, and we feel betrayed or cheated when we discover the writer didn’t invest their work with the effort, intent, or skill we expected. It’s like buying a bag of chips and finding out the package is mostly air. We feel ripped off. Deepening this dynamic, Ruth Gaskovski and Peco recently discussed the “I” of the creator. “There is an ‘I’ behind a work of art,” they write. Ruth mentions ...
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