{"id":6583,"date":"2020-07-26T15:25:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T05:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6583"},"modified":"2020-07-26T15:29:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T05:29:28","slug":"a-life-of-fulfilment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/a-life-of-fulfilment\/","title":{"rendered":"A Life of Fulfilment"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A Life of Fulfilment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Passage:\nLuke 9:10-17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We read\nabout the enlightenment the disciples experienced when the Lord multiplied the\nfive loaves and the two fish. This story is mentioned in all four gospels and\nis recounted on numerous dates in the church\u2019s calendar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the blessing, we read an important encounter between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus sends the disciples out to preach, to heal the sick and to proclaim the Kingdom of God. He tells them not to take anything with them- just go and preach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do as\nthe Lord says and they return excited from what they had seen and witnessed in\nthe ministry. And the apostles, when they\nhad returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside\nprivately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida <\/em>(Luke\n9:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then we\ncontinue into the story of the five loaves and two fish. When the people of\nBethsaida knew that Jesus had entered their city but was in a deserted place,\nthey travelled to see Him. Jesus spent the whole day with them healing the sick\nand preaching about the Kingdom. The day wears away and the miracle follows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What takes\nplace here is like a sandwich. You have preaching and healing in the beginning,\na day full of ministry and high activity. This is followed by the next layer,\nof more people flocking to Christ and more healing, preaching and ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the middle, we find Jesus takes the disciples away privately to a deserted area. This is the meat in the sandwich of this story. Oftentimes, we can forget this vital part. Imagine eating a sandwich that was just bread. No one eats a bread sandwich, there must be something to give it flavour. Our lives become as dull as a bread sandwich if we go from activity to activity. Bread on bread. There\u2019s no meat, no filling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nimportant that we learn to apply this to our spiritual life. After every activity,\nthere needs to be a layer where I spend time with God. I tell Him about all\nthat I have done and He takes me away to a private place. It is a very beneficial\nspiritual exercise to meet with Christ at the end of each day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learn to\nimitate the disciples that came to Christ at the end of their ministry and told\nHim all about what they had done. In our evening prayers after we have prayed\nour formal prayers (e.g. from the book of hours\/Agpia) that we tell God about\nour day. It is good to give God a run-down of all that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis morning I woke up and everything was okay\nbut then I got frustrated with one of the kids, I could\u2019ve been gentler. I got\nto work and had that meeting, thank You for giving me the strength and wisdom\nto navigate through what was so daunting before I entered. By the time I got to\nlunch, I forgot that I was meant to be fasting, sorry, God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, \u201cI went to school today and I got my results\nfor a test, thank You for helping me. When I was in the playground with the boys\nand I guess, I was a bit rough.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you give God a run-down of your day, you will quickly see the areas where you give thanks for His providence and guidance, or repent and need change, and then, it is as if God takes you away to a deserted place away from this world and it troubles. From there, I can start with my next job, ministry, or activity. Between each layer of activity, we need to give it substance, we need to have quiet time with Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newly\nmarried woman once told me that her husband has a habit of waking up at 5am to\nspend time in prayer and reading the Bible. He then starts getting ready for\nwork. When he comes home from work, the first thing he must do is to go his\nprayer room and spend time with God before anyone else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After each\nactivity, I make time for the Lord and tell Him about all I have done and He,\nin turn, takes me to a deserted place away from the world. This provides the\ncontext of blessing. This is where we draw near to the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him<\/em> \u2013 Psalm 145:18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We draw\nnear to the Lord when we tell Him about all that we have done and that provides\nblessing and enlightenment to our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Life of Fulfilment Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily Passage: Luke 9:10-17 We read about the enlightenment the disciples experienced when the Lord multiplied the five loaves and the two fish. This story is mentioned in all four gospels and is recounted on numerous dates in the church\u2019s calendar. Just before the … Continue reading “A Life of Fulfilment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[386,385,384,35,383,60],"class_list":["post-6583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-enlightenment","tag-fulfilment","tag-ministry","tag-prayer","tag-quiet-time","tag-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6583"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6586,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6583\/revisions\/6586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}