Ann Lee

I liked the contrast between God requiring the people to pick up their daily manna with Moses and the disciples being ask to serve the people. Food for thought. And a little more food for thought is, Did the disciples have to return to Jesus to refill the empty baskets or did they continue to stay full as they served the people? For me this is a word in due season and God is multiplying His revealation of Jesus to me. So often Jesus does show and tell, then and now to his disciples. Thank you Father for this study and the blessings that you are multiplying in this world. May we move from hesitancy, doubt and fear to a full and rich faith, fully expecting to see your hand at work in your Church and in our neighbors.

Thank those of you who have replied. I hadn't thought of the idea that Jesus was fully present to those he was with. I can do better. A. My thoughts ran along a contrasting line as we have family that does not care to be with us, who mock our faith, who expect us to be "perfect" (by their definition of perfect). I struggled with this for some time and finally felt that our response had to be forgiving, non-judgemental, loving when in contact and always leaving the door open to them if they chose to be involved. God has provided others who also are without close blood relatives but who value our faith and they are the family that we share or lives with. B. This tells me that Jesus was raised in a loving extended family that valued him. He had aunts, uncles, cousins as well as Jewish teachers and a community of believers that invested in him and he in them. Even though they were a small part of the general society that were a joyful people who had celebrations built into their faith. C. How can I apply the insights that these questions revealed to me? I can be family to believers and allow them to be family to me. I can make an effort to celebrate our beliefs and values by daily emphasizing the true meaning of the Christian celebrations and not getting caught up in the seasonal commercialized aspect of them. I can be more grateful and thankful for God's daily involvement in my life, and endeavor to be fully present to Him at all times. I can be kinder in thought, word and deed, not harsh, judgmental and complaining. May the Lord bless us with more powerful questions that we might see Him clearly.

The concept of a triune God can be confusing but this helped me. God is a God of intention. When He speaks His Word reveals His intention then His Spirit activates and His intention becomes visable in time and space. All 3 parts of the trinity are shown in Genesis. Christ is God's intention made flesh and Jesus makes a way for God's Spirit to be active in believers. When God Spoke His intention to reveal light, light was revealed, etc. through the Gensis account of creation. In Jesus God spoke His intention to reveal Himself as flesh and Spirit in time and space that we might know we have eternal life in God's reality.

Other than what I receive from this link I have no human help with this study. I depend only on Holy Spirit. I do the lesson and then come look at the comments of other witnesses. When I got to this question John 17 came to mind. In vs 6-19 Jesus is praying for those who have seen him and been with him. In vs 20-25 he is praying for those who will believe in him in the future, those who will never experience his physical presence. In these passages I see him showing the purpose and intention of God in Christ's sacrifice. We understand today and tomorrow but Jesus is opening our minds and thoughts to eternity.. The Last Supper is a pivot point in God's promises. The symbol of bread was one of remembrance of Passover and manna. Now the symbol changes from past to future, from Jews to world, from past to perpetual completion of Gods promises daily into eternity. In todays language this is the tipping point when we come into a great new understanding of and relationship with God.

I have never understood this passage as the imagery of Christ is so strong. The Jews would have understood eating the sacrificial meat but not the blood. The first Scripture that came to my mind was Matthew 5:6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Then Psalm 23:5, You (God) prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You annoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The next was the parable of the great banquet, Luke 14-15-24, those who refused to come would not even get a taste of it. These three scriptures reflect an all or nothing idea to me. God offers a banquet, not a happy meal to go. My belief is that when I accepted Jesus and chose to follow His teachings and allow the fullness of His Holy Spirit to indwell me eternity began to inhabit and inform my physical, finite life. Again Psalm 23 gives me a picture of what physical life with my Shepherd looks like. The Shepherd does all those things because He knows we need what only He can do. Thank you Dr. Wilson for this study and thank you Holy Spirit for using this to open the Word to me. Thank you to all who respond, you are a cloud of witness to me.

To me, this is a study of God's Legacy to mankind. These questions are really provoking me to dig deeper into my relationship with Christ. We were led to pray for a group of Christian leaders to gather together each week to pray for Christ's church and to study the Last Supper for 1 year. The senior leader didn't think he could get a 10 week series of messages from that study. As I dig deeper into this study I see that God's legacy of love for His people, as revealed in the Bible, is summed up right here and followed by God's proof of His authority over life and death. What more could He do to reveal His love for His people? If we fail to honor God's sacrifice of Himself for our eternal destiny we become worse than animals, for we have a baser nature than they do. What if the only question God asks us at the judgement is; "What legacy of Me did you leave behind?" As believers we become responsibe for every breath He gives us. May we truly reflect the love of God with each breath out, each thought, each smile. Thank you for this study and thank Holy Spirit for His work through it.