What is hindering most of us from experiencing the supernatural wonders of God, is that our thoughts are held captive by what we see. We will not be able to enter into the deeper things of the Spirit with our carnal minds or our flesh. We all need to pray and ask God to open our spiritual senses to Him, so we can worship Him, spirit to Spirit. Retha McPherson
Scripture
The disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”
Observation
Another large crowd gathers around Jesus, and for three days, they listen to his teaching. Jesus becomes concerned for them. If he sends them home, they will faint on the way.
The disciples ask, Jesus how are they supposed to find enough food to feed them out in the wilderness?
Jesus asks them how much bread they have. “Seven loaves,” they reply.
Jesus has the people sit down. He blesses the bread along with a few fish that they find. Everyone has enough to eat and there are seven large baskets of food left over.
There were four thousand people fed, Jesus sends them home after they have all eaten.
Application
While this story has some similarities with the feeding of the five thousand, there are a few differences to be noted.
In the previous event, they were close enough to farms and villages that the people could have dispersed and obtained food. Here they are in the wilderness.
Just as the Lord supplied food for the people of Israel in the wilderness following the exodus from Egypt, He now provides food for this group.
The previous event had been in Jewish land, but this event seems to have been located in Gentile country, suggesting that the crowd may have been mostly Gentiles.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, God cares for your needs. He will provide everything necessary to sustain you as long as you are seeking His Kingdom.
Listen
Lord, what else do you want to say to me about this miracle?
Keith, you have experienced in your own life how I provide miraculously. When God’s people focus on me there is never anybody left in need, This was a powerful witness in the early church. Pepole’s hearts were so full of love for me and for each other that those who had plenty shared with those who had little.
I reward every act of generosity, with more opportunities to give even more. It becomes a cycle of virtue in which every need is met.
This must be done by grace. When it is commanded or required it becomes legalism, like socialism. The hearts must first be changed, so that sharing comes naturally, and so that those who receive help see it as a gift from me and not as an entitlement. Every man-made scheme will always fall apart Because of unsanctified human nature.
To hear the voice of His Spirit, we must first of all be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then consciously tune our hearing to His voice. Retha McPherson
Scripture
They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who who cannot speak.”
Observation
Jesus travels around the Gentile areas including Decapolis, the Ten Towns. A deaf mean with speech problems is brought to him, and the people beg Jesus to heal him.
Jesus takes the man away from the crowd. He’s puts his fingers in the man’s ears and puts spit on his tongue. He looks up to heaven and says, “Ephphatha”, which means “Be opened.”
Jesus tells the crowd not to tell anyone, but they spread the news. The man is instantly healed.
Jesus tells the crowd not to tell anyone, but they spread the news. They are amazed by what Jesus does.
Application
As much as Jesus was happy to heal people, His main concern was to preach the kingdom.
Some of the people were more interested in the wonders of the miracles than in the person of Jesus, or the message of salvation, They worshipped the sign rather than the person the miracles pointed to
We see that in the contemporary church at times. Crowds are attracted to the prophets and healing ministers. They want a “word” or a “miracle,” but they are less concerned with living for Jesus.
Some people, feeling under pressure from other people’s expectations, fake the prophecies and miracles. Then there is a crisis of trust in the church.
That could be avoided If we remembered that it is all about Jesus.
Overcast again, but pleasant enough to ride the bike. I rode to Jacks Creek and Gun Club Roads. #cycling #Narrabri
From Science Reports
A cleaner wrasse in front of a mirror. (Osaka Metropolitan University)
A tiny fish has shown signs of a remarkable level of intelligence in mirror test experiments, not only recognizing itself in the reflection but also using a piece of food to explore how the mirror works.
Mirror mark tests are a standard scientific experiment used to explore animal self-recognition, gauging how similar other species’ intelligence might be to our own.
Fixing your smudged eyeliner on seeing your reflection is a clear sign of self-recognition. You know the smudge on your face is out-of-place, and you can use the reflection as a proxy for pinpointing exactly where to wipe the smudge away.
In theory, a reaction to an out-of-place mark in a reflection is assumed to be evidence of self-recognition for other animals as well. Chimpanzees, elephants, and dolphins are just some that have passed this mark test, which many regard as a sign of intelligence similar to our own.
The cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) is a finger-sized marine fish that earned its name by eating the parasites and dead tissue it finds on other, larger fish. It was first reported to pass the mirror test in 2018.
It’s not hard to see why the cleaner wrasse would make for a good candidate. Its modus operandi is cleaning stuff off fish, so perhaps if it saw a parasite-like mark on its own body, it would similarly be compelled to use the mirror to ‘freshen up’.
Though the 2018 study reported that the fish had passed, the mirror mark test’s founder, evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup, told New Scientist he believed the fish in these experiments were mistaking the marks on their own bodies for parasites on other fish.
Now, a team from Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan and the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland has tweaked the experiment to test the wrasse’s self-awareness even further.
“In earlier cleaner wrasse mirror studies, the procedure was typically the fish see a mirror for several days, they habituate to it and stop reacting socially, and a mark is added,” animal behavioralist Shumpei Sogawa from Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan explains.
“In this study, the order was reversed; the fish were marked first, then the mirror was introduced for the first time. The fish were likely aware of something unusual on their body, but they couldn’t see it. When the mirror appeared, it immediately provided visual information that matched an existing bodily expectation, hence scraping occurred much faster.”
While it’s far from a perfect control, this goes some way to improving the initial experimental design, giving the fish time to identify the ‘parasite’ on their own body before encountering their reflection.
The scientists were surprised by how fast the fish reacted in these new experiments: on average, they tried to rub off the ‘parasite’ within about 82 minutes. This, they say, implies self-awareness before being exposed to the mirror.
After the fish had several days to get used to the mirror, the scientists noticed some performing an unusual behavior. They would pick up a little piece of shrimp from the bottom of the tank, carry it over to the mirror, and drop it.
As the mirror-shrimp fell in sync with the real thing, the fish followed the reflection closely, touching the mirror surface with their mouths.
Sogawa and team believe this is the fish’s way of exploring the mirror’s properties, using an object separate from themselves to better understand how the reflected images work.
This kind of ‘contingency testing’ and mirror tool use has been observed in several other species that failed the mark-based mirror test, including pigs, rhesus monkeys, manta rays, and corvids.
Related: Cephalopods Pass Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children
“The findings from this research will likely influence not only academic issues, such as revising evolutionary theory and constructing concepts of self, but also directly impact matters relevant to our lives, including animal welfare, medical research, and even AI studies,” says biologist Masanori Kohda, who was involved in both this new study and the original paper on cleaner wrasse self-recognition.
The team says these findings suggest self-awareness, once thought to be unique to great apes, is actually a skill that may have arisen in a much wider range of animals, including fish.
“Our results suggest that self-awareness evolved at a minimum with the bony fishes (450 million years ago) and is likely widespread across vertebrates,” they write.
The research was published in Scientific Reports.
New Life Narrabri 