Our Shepherd's Abiding Bounty

As another week comes to an end, we continue with the Bounty of Jesus in His chosen Produce. We have already been assured of the Bounty of Room in the chosen place of our Good Shepherd. There is bounty in Room provided.

We left with hope, abounding hope that there was enough room for every sheep that was not yet in the fold, but would be brought in by Jesus. Whether it was for us, personally, or someone whom we know, who is yet outside the fold, we have received our spring showers of blessings, in the sure knowledge that there is room for all those sheep to come.

We now continue with the second area of bounty.

There is bounty in the Refreshments provided – We know that Jesus took a kid’s lunch and provided refreshing food for the massive crowd, who needed to be fed and refreshed. Jesus chose a small bit of food, but food that yielded bountifully, in His miraculously working Hands. There was refreshment for all, so that none would be left out, who would be coming to Jesus. My faith allows me to believe that the boy was not found by Andrew, but that he found Andrew, and offered his food. Are you also being made to see bounty in the boy’s giving? As the Holy Spirit works in His way and His style, are you, like me, being given more and more different understanding? I’m made to see the boy’s giving as abundant giving, giving his bounty to the Lord. Then my mind is taken to the two mites offered by a widow and what Jesus told His disciples about her offering, in relation to the large sums of money being offered by the rich. He said that she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on. Mark 12: 44b.

I believe that just as Jesus considered the giving of the widow’s mites as bountiful, in that she gave all that she had to live on, so too with the boy’s lunch. There is bounty in his offering, for he has offered to Jesus, all that he had to eat. Jesus received what was small to His disciple and to all of us, really, as bounty giving. He took what was bountiful and so multiplied it, that bounty was multiplied over and over again, so that all were adequately fed, with leftovers. In Jesus, our Green Pastures, there is always refreshment for all. There is no running out of food and no having to turn people away, because of insufficient food. And even more reassuring, there is absolutely never the procedure where, because more than the expected have come, there is rationing of food. Rationing in any shape, or form, is unheard of with Jesus. He feeds sumptuously, with more than enough.

Here is the third area of bounty. There is bounty in the Remainder provided. We know that Jesus multiplied that kid’s pack to feed satisfactorily, every single person present and have leftovers. Therein lies the bounty of our Lord in His Green Pastures. There is enough for us and more than enough. Have you ever stopped to think of this? So bountiful is our Jesus that what remained, after all the people were satisfied, was much more than what He had to start with, what He had been given, in the first place. What a Jesus we serve!

Here’s the recurring question for the final time, as the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces you. Will you believe, receive and resolve to live, this day as the beginning of your time of spring? This is only for those who have been living a barren, unhappy, burdened, and restless life of no satisfying peace. Your winter days are over and you are in the Bounty of the Provision of Jesus, our Green Pasture. You do not have to try and produce any good for yourself.

Be warned! Today is your time of spring and because you have not been faithful to the God you love and have offended Him, guilt has you in its cold and sweaty hands. You cannot live with guilt and grace at the same time. God abhors the proud and arrogant.

By faith, believe that you are the sheep and Jesus is your Shepherd.
In faith, accept that today is the time of spring for you.
With faith, receive the Beauty, Brevity and Bounty of the Green Pastures He has offered you.
Through faith, resolve to live as Jesus’ sheep in His fold, bearing perfect testimony to His grace and mercy.