Gospel of John: Reflection Question

this is a paper i wrote for my gospel of john class while at Harding University. enjoy.

What is the implication of Jesus' statement "I am the bread of heaven"? What did that mean to his original audience? What does it mean to us?

Exodus 16:11-15, 31, 34-35

The Lord said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God. That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. The people of Israel called the bread manna. The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

Joshua 5:11-12

The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites.

As a little girl, the story of the manna was my favorite miracle. I wondered what it looked like and how it tasted. I imagined that it was white and crispy, sort of like communion bread. My parents taught me that manna tasted good because it was sweet like honey. I don't like honey but as a little girl, I was sure I would like manna if I ever got the chance to try some. I remember being very small when I began to pray that God would let me eat some manna when I got to heaven. I continued to ask for many years. After all, God made manna for the Israelites. Maybe he would make some more for me.

I am not alone in my desire to taste manna. The Hebrew nation held the gift of manna as the greatest of all miracles. The Jews of Jesus' day longed to eat the manna of their forefathers. As Jew looked forward to the coming Messiah, they anticipated the return of manna. The Messiah was expected to be a second Moses, sent to free his people. Like the first Moses, the Messiah would feed his people with bread from heaven.

In the beginnign of John chapter six, the crowds have been following Jesus. They have been watching his miracles and hearing his teaching. Many are becoming convinced that he isthe Messiah. The time of the Passover is near. For the Jewish listener, it is time for the manna to come again. If Jesus is the Messiah, n ow is the time to prove himself. Now is the time to call forth the bread of heaven.

Jesus calls his disciples to find food for the crowd. On little child hands over the barley loaves. Jesus takes the bread of a poor peasant boy and broke it to feed 5,000 people. Todays's readers are impressed. "Surely this was enough for Jesus to prove himself! Surely this was enough for Jesus to prove himself! Surely the Jews will see Jesus for who he is!" Yet, the Jews don't. They were looking for a Messiah with manna, not a fanatic with barley loaves. A Messiah who cannot give them the bread of heaven is no Messiah at all.

In the later part of John chapter six, we find the Jews questioning the validity of Jesus' claims. They demand that he prove himself, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?" (vs. 30). Revealing their desire to see manna, they suggest a miracle, "Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat'" (vs. 31). Jesus is not impressed, nor is he threatened. He demeans their trust in the manna. The forefathers may be been lucky enough to eat manna, but manna did not save them. Though manna is from Gold, it is only physical food. Manna cannot save.

Jesus discredits their demand for manna. He is not threatened by their demands that he prove himself. Jesus never proves himself. Instead, he claims to be who he is. Without hesitation, he asserts "I am the bread of heaven." What?! The listeners want a Messiah who will feed them with manna and fill their physical needs. They want a second Moses. God did not send a second Moses, he sent himself. This Messiah is not worried about how the physical needs of his followers. He concerns himself with their spiritual hunger. No longer will God's people survive on honey flavored wafers. They will feast on the salvatoin that is Jesus Christ. Verse 47-48 of chapter six promise eternal life for the one who will accept Christ as the bread of heaven. This is not food from God; this is food that is God. Christ failed to live up to the Jewish expectations for a Messiah. He immeasurably surpassed their expectations.

How do I respond? As a little girl, I longed to taste the manna that God provided for his people a long time ago. I don't have to hope to someday taste manna. Jesus is the bread of life. He isthe manna that came down from heaven. He sustains our spirit and gives eternal life. The gift is greater than any I could have wanted or imagined. Just like the Jews of Jesus' time, my expectations have been greatly surpassed by God's goodness to me.

So Much Time, and So Little to Blog!

Strike that. Reverse it.

Name that movie. Better yet, quote your favorite line from that same movie. Or another favorite movie. Or not. Whatever.

So, here is our spring in review:

My mother-in-law came to visit South Carolina. She came before my due date and stayed for three weeks. She did a great job with the house and the kids. She kept the kids in line and the laundry washed.

Daniel's birthstory = AWESOME. In short, I delivered him quick. The midwife was on her way but missed the actual delivery. Jesse caught the baby, making him possibly the coolest dad/ husband ever. After much deliberation, we named the baby Daniel, "God is my judge."

Update on our Philippine plans? Yes, the Philippine plans are moving along. We have a website www.9goats.com detailing more about our goals. We are going to be overseeing the children's home on the island of Cebu, near the town of Bogo. Right now we are raising money. We need monthly support, along with an initial sum to get us established. So, give me your money!

I have about a dozen other blog posts swimming in my brain. Maybe (just maybe), I will be able to tweak my schedule to include some blog time? If it's on the to-do list, I will remember to do it.

The New and Improved Mook Family

Overheard

This morning I turned on a Christmas DVD so I could take a shower. This is the conversation I overheard before leaving the room.

Katie: Wise man? I know about him. He built his house on the rock.

Hannah (without looking up from her activity): That's not the same guy.

Katie (ignoring Hannah): The wise man built his house upon the rock...

What Life is Like in the Philippines.

 As I read through the questions that we have been getting from our Facebook note, both the personal ones sent and the ones left for all to see.  I am reminded of something.  That is what was running through my head before I left for the Philippines three months ago.  I did not know anything about that country, could not point it out on a map, I did not know what kind of houses they had, if they had running water (and not the kind you send the young kid to run and go get for you).  I think you get my point.  I didn't know anything but, it was a 3rd world country and they were raising goats and we wanted to learn about that.    When packing I was not sure if I would be staying in a mud hut, or sleep on the ground, or what.  Then I get there and stay in town the first night and Salvador tells us to go to the mall and get supplies for while we are at the camp.  "What supplies do we need?" we ask.  His response, "You know, stuff you will want while you are out there."  Well that didn't tell us much.  But then we go to a 4 story mall!  Yeah, I had only been to one 3 story mall in my life and this one is in a "3rd world country"  Here is a picture of me in the mall.



You can see in the background the stairs going up and going down.  I think we were on the second level.  I am not sure I ever made it to the top level.  And you will notice I am holding a Myrtle Beach South Carolina t-shirt.  I had to get a shot of that.  I only live a few hours from there and I can now buy the t-shirt for about $7.  I digress.  So we go here and in the mall they have a full grocery store.  We buy snacks, drinks, toilet paper, stuff like that.  We are not sure we are going to a place that has even heard of toilet paper.

Well along the way we stop at several places to visit people raising goats and/or making beads. And we see this house.



I have shown this before, I wonder if this is how the people live where we are going?


Maybe it is something like this.



Well this is where they have kids Bible class.


So what does this camp look like anyway?

OK here it is!







This is the “Camp” that we will be staying at for the next week and ½.

There was one lady with us and she got “The Queens Room”, it was the only room that had air conditioning. The bottom half was still under construction, and the other room for sleeping had the female interns and a mother and her twin boys staying in it. So David and I slept on the porch. On the close up side shot of the camp you can see a few shirts hanging over the rail to dry. That is where we stayed.

So how did the people around the camp live? Most lived in places similar to the house we saw on the way there. But some had much nicer homes. Concrete walls, not just bamboo, and real windows, not holes in the wall. I was impressed by some of the homes I saw there. Then about 15 mins from camp is a town called Bogo (Not Buy One Get One) and they have more American style homes and apartments.

Where would we live and what would we stay in? Good question. After throwing around some ideas with Salvador, we feel that living with in walking distance to the camp would be important. This camp is also going to be an orphanage when it is done, and we would like to help with that. Salvador said that it would be good to have leadership out there full time since he is spread all over. And being that the orphanage is funded by a lot of U.S. dollars have us there would be nice for a point of contact between some of the American churches and the orphanage.
The kind of house we would have would be a lot more American than some of the pictures I have shown, but it would be a lot smaller than you are used to looking at as well. I have discussed that I would like to have a door that locks on our home. I felt completely safe staying out there on the porch for the 10 days we were there, but I didn’t have my family with me either. Also we have gotten used to sleeping and knowing that there is something big between us and the outside world and I don’t want to give that up.
Again, I felt no reason for alarm when I was there, but just because you go on the mission field, doesn’t mean you need to give up Everything that gives you comfort in order to minister to people.

Education. That is another thing that has come up several times. Well, Amanda and I home school our kids. Home school is not were you give your kids hundreds of books on how to be weird and different from everyone else. It is another way to educate children, and we have found a school curriculum that can be done in association with a larger private school so our kids will have the same education they would in several private Christian schools in the states. They also would get a diploma from them as well.
But side note on the “weird” thing. I wondered for years if home school kids were weird because they were home schooled or what? I knew several exceptions to the rule, but I also knew enough that it made me wonder. Then upon further investigation, I found weird kids that went to both private and public schools! After years of research I have determined that “most” kids end up like their parents. Where they go to school has little bearing on that. I said all that to say; if you think we are weird then you can count on our kids being weird, no matter if they are here in public schools or home schooled in the Philippines. Now if you think we are cool! (Listen both of you that fall in this group;) Then our kids will be even cooler! They will have much better stories to tell when we come home for visits.

Which brings me to the next question. How often are you coming home? Well, we were thinking every year for about a month. This would give us time to travel to see family and friends, and supporters. Right now I get 2 weeks off a year. I haven’t been back to Kansas City to see my family in nearly 2 years! And I have used up all my vacation time so it will be December before I even get a chance to come back again. And I have only stepped foot in Texas once since I left 4 ½ years ago. Point. Most of you will see me and my family more with us living in the Philippines then you do now. Unless of course you live in Charleston.

Medical care. I have looked into health care there and here is what I have found with the help of others. Where we would be living we would have the town 15 mins away that could take care of almost anything we would need. Regular visits, broken arms/legs, most major and all minor surgeries, tummy ache from eating a bad coconut. Stuff like that. If we took the 2 hour drive to Cebu City we could get anything else done we needed. They have a lot of U.S. trained doctors there if we felt it necessary. It was described as living in the states a few hours from a metro-plex. You have local hospitals that can get 99% of stuff, but if you get some weird disease you are going to make the drive into town to get help from the leading hospital on (blank) instead of stay with your local doctor.

Keep the questions and comments coming! I have more to post but ran out of time. “Sorry for the long letter, I didn’t have time to write a short one” Benjamin Franklin

If you were thinking of moving to the Philippines what would you want to know?

As most of you know a few months ago I went to the Philippines for two weeks. I went with two other members of my church here in Summerville SC. We went to learn about goat raising and self-sufficiency programs in 3rd world countries. A few families from our church are wanting to move to Nicaragua to start self-sufficiency programs there like the one already going on in the Philippines.
Their are many reasons for doing this but it all comes back to spreading the Gospel. We want to teach people about God. These people are so poor they may not have eaten in a few days. Kind of makes it hard for them to listen to us. We don't just want to give them food because then they are relying on us to feed them and not themselves to work. Henry Ford said, "He that chops his own fire wood will be warmed twice." That is the idea of teaching them how to make a living instead of just giving them food for the rest of their lives. But by doing this it opens up the door for them to see that the church does care about them and wants to help them and makes them more open to hearing our message.

But back to the title of this note. I have been in contact with the missionary over there since I left and have thought about moving there. He believes that my family and I would be a huge assist to them and help the ministry grow in several ways. But if you were thinking about moving there what questions would you want to have answered before you signed the dotted line?
Please help us in this assist figuring this out.

Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

If you come up with a question please leave it on the comments, if you could help us in finding the answer to your question or others again that would be helpful.
And please pray that the choice becomes clear and God paves the way for our future in serving Him, doing whatever that may be, where-every that may be.

While I was in the Philippines they were well into their dry season. It was going to be about a month before they had a good rain there and this is what the wells were starting to look like.
Salvador told David and I about a cave not to far from the camp that had water in it, but there was not enough oxygen to breath down there. He had been down there multiple times and each time it became harder and harder to breath. The last time he went in he promised himself (and most likely his wife and kids) that he would not go back until he had a source of oxygen so he would not pass out.
David and I thought about this for days. He has had some experience in caves before and really wanted to go down there and find the water. I have never done anything like that before and was not sure that I wanted in, but I did want to help these people get water. This water could be used for their crops, animals, and eventually cooking. The used bottled water for drinking.
We thought about trying to map out the cave so they could drill from up above and get a good water pump going, but that would take way to much time and money.
We knew that we could rent oxygen tanks and have David and Salvador go in with a pump and hose but that only gave a little bit of time and one shot at getting it right. Then after a lengthy brain storming session, God used our ideas to come up with the solution. You see, I have been working at an Auto shop for the last four years (Gerald's Tires and Brakes:) and more importantly I have been working with air compressors everyday as well. We decided to hook up an air compressor to the hose that will eventually pump water out of the cave but first use it to put the air we need to work with in the cave.
David and Salvador went in to town and got the supplies we needed and we were off.

David loaded up a video on youtube of the cave process.
http://www.youtube.com/user/drhenniger#p/u



So off we go into the cave. Salvador had told me that nothing lived in the cave but a snake and the front end and a bunch of bats. I had learned not to believe everything he said. His favorite pass time is, "Pull tricks on the Americans" and let me tell you he is good at it. But this time was no joke. I did not see the snake, but after this photo opp. I knew he was there.
Oh and that young kid with me. That was our guide. He had been in that cave more than Salvador and the owner of the cave combined! I guess when you are that young you don't breath much, so it was nice to be working with him.



Salvador is a leader over in this community for sure. He was also helping organize this project. But he did not sit on the sidelines, he was all in with this work.




For instance, Salvador after he got out of the cave. Did I mention that there were hundreds of bats in this cave?
Yep! That is not mud on him. That is bat guano!
He has been down there before to harvest some of the guano for their crops. Now we were just slipping around on it.



They did end up harvesting a lot more of the guano so they could make a pool large enough for the water pump.
And within 24 hours of entering the cave they had water pumping out.



This is everyone that helped the first day. We had a little celebration for finding water. We were not 100% sure that water would be down there because it was so far into the dry season. But now we found it, and have the means of getting it out.

For an update on what happened after we left and better pictures than I have here, check out Salvador's website:
http://arapalchristiancamp.shutterfly.com/cave