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Dependency? What do we depend on? Dependency, is it a big deal? If we were walking down through life's journey do we recognize what makes us, us? What does it mean, anyway? Why do we need it? What’s the big deal? Aren’t we educated capable competent individuals? Do we have to keep going back to square one and talk about dependence? On what or whom we are dependent upon?What are we leaning on for our strength, our support, our identity? I sometimes want to just learn this and get on with it…The disciples seem to have been on this same train of thought in Mark 6. We find that they asked a few questions of Jesus themselves. As we enter into the text of Mark 6:30 we notice that the disciples have come back from a journey and they are tired. Jesus beckons them to “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.” And they proceeded to climb on a boat and head for a lonely place by themselves. Seeking Rest – how many of us can relate to that? The multitude follows Jesus, running to meet Him. Some recognize Him. Recognize. What a powerful word. Recognize – to be familiar with, to know, to identify. Do you think that the disciples recognize Jesus? Truly recognizing requires relationship. Our text makes it clear that Jesus recognized the multitudes. He likens them to sheep without a shepherd. He has compassion on them and began to teach them many things. In verse 36 the disciples confront Jesus and request some relief. “send them away… so that they might get something to eat.” Now, my first thought has always been that the disciples were a bit frustrated with the whole multitude situation; however, I wonder – could it be that the disciples were actually feeling some compassion for the multitudes as well? Think about it. They had come in from a journey, were excited about telling Jesus of the results of ministry, but they still hadn’t gotten anything to eat. They knew how hungry they were. Could it be that they were concerned about how hungry the multitude might be? Could it be that they too were feeling a bit of compassion for the multitudes? Could it be that they were frustrated with Jesus for not seeing the need and taking care of it? They make this request and Jesus challenges them, “You give them something to eat!” Stop for a moment and step into those disciple’s shoes. They are trying very hard to solve the situation. They don’t want to spend money. Wow! I wonder if they were having difficulty raising support? It could be that they don’t want to accumulate one more transportation story to share around the campfire later on during the evening… who knows. The inadequacy overwhelms them and they break. They retort with a short curt answer. Let me be very clear about this: They retort to the Master of the Universe with a short curt answer. They obviously don’t recognize who He really is. But, they do have a relationship with Him. They know Him well enough to feel comfortable to question. They know Him well enough to feel free to question. And as soon as they do, Jesus guides and directs. How many loaves do you have? Go look!” What are your resources? This seems to be the question that He keeps asking me. Robyn Rochelle Eubanks-Cox, what are your resources?????? And I like the disciples come up short. They return with five loaves and two fishes. Five loaves and two fishes to feed a multitude. I think it is quite interesting here that in verse 38 the disciples gather together five loaves and two fishes and then Jesus commands them all to recline on the green grass – and after reclining they are in companies of hundreds and fifties. Does Jesus want us to know in our present time how drastically low the available resources were for the need? Let’s read verse 41. And He took the five loaves and two fish and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them and he divided the two fish among them all. Jesus took the opportunity to model dependency on God. He could have given the multitude a feast without asking for a blessing, my goodness! He could have given the multitude a feast without giving them food!!!!! He could have turned His hand and each one of those people could have had their bellies filled to overflowing. He could have. But He didn’t. Instead, He began to break the bread up and the fish up and the disciples carried the baskets out amongst the multitudes and Jesus KEPT giving them to the disciples. They kept coming back for more and more and more. Feeding five men is a task. Stop and think about feeding five thousand. The resources were insufficient. But were they really? Or was this just that the disciples were depending on the wrong resource? WHO is our resource? Jesus reveals that He is the final and full resource available. When we keep coming back to Him, He keeps giving us what we need to live. But wait. In verse 42 we read, “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces and also of the fish.” Jesus is such a gracious teacher. He takes this opportunity to allow the disciples to enter into ministry with Him, to learn to depend on their true resource, to open one more door to understanding who He really is, and to feeding the five thousand with His words and food. But He is more than just a gracious teacher. He is the all sufficient God. And He tucks this story in the pages of His book for us to understand that today as we are moving down our journey, we too will become frustrated with being tired, being money conscience, being hungry physically and spiritually, but the dependency issue will never be a past issue. It is one that He will continue to use to reveal Himself to us. He so wants us to depend on Him, to Really Recognize HIM!  Because He is the I AM,
i am robyn rochelle cox Robyn & Biff Cox pray that He becomes your ALL. RR&BC,LLC © all writings are protected by copyright laws Please contact the author for any reference. Thank you El Roi.
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 Zephaniah This is a book of the bible many glaze over, if not for the odd sound of the name, for the brevity of the verses. It is a small book. Only three chapters, after Habakkuk and before Haggai, at the end of the Old Testament. Who needs it? The first time that Zephaniah became introduced to me was at my commissioning service with a European mission organization. I was Forty-Nine years young and they read Zephaniah 3:14-20 It was read over me after the actual commissioning, as a sending verse. The woman that read it over me had spent a great deal of time finding out about my life history. The first verses she read, 14 and 15 were like a warm oil being poured over my head. 14. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, oh daughter of Jerusalem! 15. For the LORD will remove his hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy. And the LORD himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over and you will never again fear disaster." Zeph 3:14,15 NLT Doesn't that sound empowering? And it was. Until I had troubles. Of course! Trust me as a foreigner in a country that I didn't know either the culture nor the language, there was trouble and it did not take long for it to find me. My first few days in Germany, the woman that was to be over me let me stay in her home. But, she left the country after only days. Her husband left, Her daughter left. I was in a place I could not drive, I could not speak, and I could not read signs, papers, AND, I couldn't write. I'm a writer. And I know this sounds incredibly trite - I could not write. I had no pens. I have a fettish — pens. Yes, that is my fettish. I love great pens. My pet peeve is a poor pen. What makes a poor pen? 1) the flow, 2) the feel of it in my hand, 3) how much time does it take to dry on the page? If anyone understands this fettish, you get where I am coming from. I arrived at this woman's home and got a tiny bit acquainted with the way things work there in her home in this foreign place. Things like, don't use the bathtub, the water costs too much, to open the windows every day for 10 minutes to Luft (let the air in) the apartment. I set up a checking account with the help of the woman. She drove me around town. I was in a complete fog. I know she was doing the best she could. But, I was lost. Unwilling to cry 'I give' I muddled through. The woman and her family left and I began roaming their home without any anchor. I looked outside. It was snowing. January is not such a great time to move to the Black Forest mountains. A woman from an American school came by for tea once and a sweet young girl took me under her wing, checking on me more often than that. As a writer, I both wanted and needed to write everything I was experiencing in a journal. ALAS! I was days behind. My exit off of the plane in Switzerland had not been an easy one. Exhausted and befuddled from the long journey and time change, I arrived and exited the plane in in the wee hours of the morning, In my confusion of exiting the plane, I left my pens in the pocket of the seat in front of me. My entire pen bag. L.e.f.t.! Lost - gone forever, these pens I had thought about taking, these pens I had kept out of my baggage so they wouldn't break their cartridges, these pens that were my babies. GONE! I didn't even realize I didn't have them until the family was gone. Then I scrummaged through cabinets, drawers, everywhere to try and find a decent pen. There were none. This family obviously did not have a fettish for pens. And I was lost. Now, how silly was that? I knew there was a store down the road a mile or so. A few days into my stay, the snow stopped falling and I decided to venture out and go the the PENNY (a grocery store) and buy a pen. Easy, right? Not so much. I walked to the store. It was cold, but, I had dressed well. I got to the store with red cheeks and runny nose. Nothing could have prepared me for a German grocery store in rural Germany. Small, quiet, and selective. I searched for a pen. I went up and down the aisles. There were less choices than I had ever seen. Only a few products available of each brand. And the prices were confusing. I picked up some snacks I hoped would be what the pictures on the labels showed, because I could not read the labels. I walked to the cashier, swallowed my fear and asked, do you have any pens? I asked this in English LOL! The cashier was blank-faced They called a young girl over that was stacking groceries close by. She translated for me (as I used a miming of writing in front of her). And then...the answer. Oh no we don't sell those. You have to go to a special store for those, we don't have them here. "Which store? Where do I go?" Her response, "No we don't have that kind of store in our town." I was stopped. I was more than whipped. I was shaken. No pen, no way to buy a pen, my culture shock had just begun. It is such a small thing, but as I was told beforehand, it's the small things that come up and bite you in the face in a foreign culture shock. Why you ask? It was a pen, not anything of any importance. Why was this little thing sending me over the edge? I was supposed to have no troubles, my troubles were supposed to be over. Now, even though I had received these verses, I still didn't embrace them unto myself. I had not really understood what God was saying to me. I didn't really get what God was trying to teach me until later. We will always have troubles. Until the end days are over. I knew that. This wasn't even about that. God was teaching me a very simple truth. What God showed me during those next ten years on the mission field. Be Glad! You will never again fear disaster. Since 2006, when I sold everything and left my career and my adult children in the United States. I have found that I wallow less in the fear of disaster. Am I over that? No, not completely, yet. Fear is stagnating. It is overpowering, It is the beginning of the end of any valuable project. Satan plays with it. He slams it in our faces. He uses it to manipulate us to stop what we are called to do and succumb to not doing much of anything. No not much of anything at all. Does that mean our calling must be some great over the top mission? NO. Does that mean our calling must be famous? NO. It simply means our calling, whether that is to take care of little ones at home, or build a business of public influence, must be ours and cannot be anyone else's. God set that calling aside for you. I've heard some people say, God doesn't need us. And He doesn't. He can grow someone else into the person that will do whatever He has needed to be done. But, with that said. It will never be what He planned for you to do. It will have a different flavor, a different look, a different feel. It cannot be the calling that He called you to, because you are not a part of the recipe that completes the call. You are unique. He made you unique for a reason. He wants you that way. Only your personality, gifts and genius can be applied to your calling. If someone else does it, it is their calling, not yours. I'm 63 years old. I have lived much. I have lived many places, and worn many hats. But, as for my calling? Here it is: Share with the world the Joy of intimate relationship with God. Invite them to come with me and to spread the Good News. God gave me that call when I was 30. He has been honing it for 33 years. Learning not to fear disaster gave me courage, to raise my kids by myself with the help of the LORD, and a very gracious loving church body, to sell everything and go onto the mission field trusting that God would provide the finances to do so, to stay chaste in this world where chastity is not valued, and to give my all to the one man that He brought into my life (at 58) to be my forever love. With these words from Zephania I've learned to refuse to fear disaster. I embrace the JOY of His delight in me. The LORD lives among us. He is right here with Biff and I at BlueMoon (our little haven.) His calling is constantly morphing me bringing a deeper and deeper walk with Him into adventure. And as I step out in faith to follow (i.e. continuing providing a place for people to gather and share His word, as well as, write novels that confirm that true love happens.) I will find Him smiling down upon me and Him keeping the fear of disaster away. I hope you will find this place of JOY as well. Fear is not of the LORD! Because He is the I AM,
i am robyn rochelle cox Robyn & Biff Cox pray that He becomes your ALL. RR&BC,LLC © all writings are protected by copyright laws Please contact the author for any reference. Thank you El Roi. When faced with the brevity of life, one begins to count the moments. As you might have read, I had a heart attack a few months ago. I am finally in the afterglow of the ordeal. No, mine was not as bad as some of those who have gone before, but it was a major heart attack brought on by extreme sadness. That happens sometimes after a long drought. In these months since this heart attack, other things have caught us off guard. Our kitchen had a tiny leak in the ice-maker hose. It collected behind the wall and filled the floor, dropping our workroom ceiling in the basement on the floor! This was over months. Consequently, we've been without anything in our kitchen since end of May. Cooking with no sink, counters, cabinets, stove, microwave, is quite impossible. LOL! Due to these life issues that have eeked into our world. We have been delinquent in our blogs. We will return soon. Please remember if I'm not here. Please pray for me and my wonderful husband Biff when we are not here. Trust me - something is happening to keep me away. I will return SOON! I miss our time together. As for our community, we have continued daily. We reached 1,000 days of reading the bible and reflecting on it together this week. What a joy! I am looking forward to feeling better and writing and contemplating the Word with you here, soon. I am not as bad as I was, however, I am also not as good as I will be. I am amazed at how God is healing this body. Heart attacks are not fun, and not easy. But, God seems to have a reason for me to be on this earth still. And one of those is for me to be here, sharing about His greatness, mercy and love. I would appreciate your prayers and your support. Come and join us on our daily log in page and read the word with several of us every day. Letting the word change our hearts from inside out is an exciting and powerful journey. Thank you for stopping by. Come back soon to the blog. But consider joining us on our third year in this endeavor to read and reflect on the Word of God every day within a community designed for unity, growth and support.  Because He is the I AM, i am robyn rochelle cox Robyn & Biff Cox pray that He becomes your ALL. RR&BC,LLC © all writings are protected by copyright laws Please contact the author for any reference. Thank you El Roi. |
Robyn Rochelle Cox
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