THE PRINCIPLE OF GATHERING CRUMBS.

THE PRINCIPLE OF GATHERING CRUMBS.
Scripture: John 6:12
Topic: The Principle of Gathering Crumbs. 

Jesus taught a great lesson when He gathered the crumbs after feeding the multitude on the mountain. During one of Jesus’ evangelistic tours, there were more than five thousand people He needed to feed. Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples pointed out that even two hundred penny worth of bread would not be sufficient to feed them. A small boy’s lunch of five barley loaves of bread and two small fish was blessed by Jesus, and He fed them all.

"When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."

John 6:12

Instead of just sharing the grace and leaving, He collected twelve baskets of crumbs. I am sure every one of His twelve disciples took a basket home! If you want to follow somebody, follow Jesus. He is the express image of God Himself. To see what God Himself would have done, look at Jesus—He gathered the crumbs after He had taken five thousand people to the restaurant. Why would someone who could afford to take five thousand people to the restaurant be interested in crumbs? The answer is simple: frugality! I can say from my little experience in this life, that it is often rich people who gather crumbs. If you do not develop to the point where crumbs are important, you will never be rich, neither will you prosper.

The Lord told me when we started the Lighthouse Cathedral project, “If you count your pennies, you will go very far.” I have found God’s words to be true. In our church we don’t have any big business tycoon who sponsors our building projects or any other project. Many people are just average. Yet, we have gone very far and completed our multi million Cedi Cathedral. We gathered the crumbs! Most people in poor developing countries do not respect the crumbs. Lights which are not in use are left switched on; water could be dripping from the taps but everyone would ignore it—these are just two classic examples of the waste in our system. When I visited my grandparents in Switzerland, I realized the waste in my country, Ghana. Like a typical Ghanaian, I used to leave my lights on all the time. In Switzerland only the rooms in which we were present had lights on. Every other room was in darkness to save electricity. My grandfather would come with his walking stick and say, “You! You!” Then he would shake his stick, and I would immediately turn off the extra lights. Sometimes you wonder why certain people prosper and some do not. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world. In 1993, the GDP of Switzerland was 219 billion dollars while that of Ghana was only about 6 billion dollars.

In poor Ghana, we waste electricity and become poorer. In rich Switzerland, they save electricity and become richer! It is the crumbs that make up the whole meal. When you add up all the crumbs, you will become rich. There’s a saying that “little drops of water make a mighty ocean”. Well, that’s not in the Bible, but it’s true. (As Christians, we must know that there are many things that are not in the Bible but are still true.) Identify the few things that God has given you, and consider them to be important. The population of the world has been on a steady rise since 1900. Before the turn of the twentieth century, the world’s population had been steady at about the same figure for many years. Suddenly it began to rise dramatically, and now we are striving to have fewer children. What happened to make the number of people in the world increase so much? It is largely due to the great breakthroughs in medicine. There are now cures for most of the killer diseases that could have killed us when we were children. When the death rate went down, the number of people went up. If you reduce the amount of deaths (dropouts or waste) your wealth will rise. If only you can stay at the same income level and reduce the waste, suddenly you will increase and become rich. 

Credits: Excerpt from.

Frugality,

Bishop Dag Heward-Mills.