Five Loaves and Two Fishes<\/b><\/p>\n
God uses what you have to fill a need which you never could have filled.<\/p>\n
God uses where you are to take you where you never could have gone.<\/p>\n
God uses what you can do to accomplish what you never could have done.<\/p>\n
God uses who you are to let you become who you never could have been.<\/p>\n
Philip Clarke Brewer<\/p>\n
Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel, 1987, Word Books Publisher, p. 25<\/p>\n
The Epitaph<\/b><\/p>\n
While waiting in a cemetery to conduct a funeral service, Charles Simeon walked among the graves, looking at the epitaphs. He found one that arrested him.<\/p>\n
When from the dust of death I rise, To claim my mansion in the skies, E\u2019en then shall this be all my plea– \u201cJesus hath lived and died for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was so impressed with that gospel message that he looked for someone in the cemetery with whom he might share it. He saw a young woman, obviously distressed, and called her over to read the epitaph. He took her address and visited her the next day. The home was a scene of poverty and squalor. The woman\u2019s old mother was dying of asthma, and two little children, very dirty, were trying to warm themselves by a small fire. Simeon prayed with the family, visited them again, and found assistance for them. <\/p>\n
Later, the young woman told Simeon that she had been in the cemetery five hours and was contemplating suicide when he called her to read the epitaph. Because of his concern she trusted Christ and the family situation was changed. <\/p>\n
Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 217<\/p>\n
The Pianist<\/b><\/p>\n
An elderly widow, restricted in her activities, was eager to serve Christ. After praying about this, she realized that she could bring blessing to others by playing the piano. The next day she placed this small ad in the Oakland Tribune: \u201cPianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and despondent–the service is free.\u201d The notice included the number to dial. When people called, she would ask, \u201cWhat hymn would you like to hear?\u201d Within a few months her playing had brought cheer to several hundred people. Many of them freely poured out their hearts to her, and she was able to help and encourage them.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Quote<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 I used to ask God if He would come and help me. Then I asked if I could come and help Him. Finally I ended by asking God to do His own work through me. – J. Hudson Taylor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five Loaves and Two Fishes God uses what you have to fill a need which you never could have filled. God uses where you are to take you where you never could have gone. God uses what you can do to accomplish what you never could have done. God uses who you are to let … Continue reading “Availability”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}