What If God Gives You No Bread?

"Give us this day our daily bread." So you prayed today, fully expecting that God would grant you what you need for today. But . . . what if disaster strikes? What if you suddenly learn that you have cancer or that your mother just died from a heart attack? What if your house burns down after being struck by lightning or is burned up in an unstoppable forest fire? The what ifs can be multiplied.

What then? Can you still pray and give thanks as the Apostle instructed in yesterday's post?

. . . give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1Th 5:18 ESV

In ALL circumstances? How is that possible? Surely Job's wife was correct when she advised,

Job by Leon Bonnat, c. 1860

"Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." - Job 2:9 ESV 

Mrs. Job spoke with deep irony, for her word for curse is used in most other contexts of the Bible as the word for speaking a blessing, e.g.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ... He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. - Gen 9:1, 26 ESV 

Yeah, right. So when God knocks me down and takes it all away, I'm supposed to say thanks and bless Him? You've got to be kidding! You've already damned me, God! You've taken everything precious away and I will not thank you for that.

What's the lesson for us when we're poor, beaten down, filled with fear, loss and sorrow? How can we give thanks in those circumstances? How indeed?

Job's answer to his wife is most instructive.

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. - Job 2:10 ESV

As hard as it may be in that moment, consider again how it is that you even dare to call yourself a child of God. Remember again that you are a member of God's family only by the grace and mercy of God freely displayed in Christ. Remember how you were called to faith, brought out of the certain eternal death we all deserve by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus took you with Him into death and hell and from there to new life. Do not return to that foolishness that says that you deserve to have a perfect and wondrous life in the here and now. Too many name-it-and-claim-it false prophets teach that drivel.

Learn again what Job knew: "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"

But why?

Here we turn to Hebrews 12:1-13. Read over carefully the entire chapter several times. Ponder its meaning for you when you face adversity, suffering, sickness and loss. The writer makes several very important points.

• In Christ Jesus we truly are God's children and loved by Him. Already we have eternal life and we shall certainly share with Him in the imminent resurrection and renewal of all things.

• In the meantime we remain in this world, a world filled with dark powers, temptations, idolatry and evil. Our sinful flesh is constantly pulled toward them. 

• We truly need discipline and training in our struggle against sin. Who better to provide such discipline than our heavenly Father? If He were not to discipline us, then we would have to consider ourselves as illegitimate children and not His sons and daughters. 

• As we grow up, we eventually learn to respect our earthly fathers and mothers for their discipline and training. At the time we may not have. It was most painful and not at all pleasant to be denied and forced to do what we did not want to. But later on we learn how important it was that they did care enough to discipline us. 

• So should we not much more be willing to accept the discipline of our Father in heaven, the Father of all those who have gone before us into heaven? 

• Therefore pick up those hands that are clenched or have fallen helplessly at your side. Stop complaining and wobbling on your knees. Stand up, straighten your back. Take a deep breath and let out a prayer of thanks—yes even for this. 

• And then get on with what stands before you. Pull out that noxious "root of bitterness." It is very toxic and can only bring further suffering and sorrow. 

• Before us is the kingdom that cannot be shaken. And beyond this world's dark valley the Father's house awaits. The door is open and your room is already prepared. 

Our Father in heaven . . . give us today our daily bread!

The Ashes of Ash Wednesday

Today Christians around the world begin the 40 days journey leading to Holy Week, Good Friday and on to Easter and the celebration of Christ's resurrection. This day has a very strange name, Ash Wednesday. It is a day when many worshippers gather to have their foreheads marked with the sign of the cross by ashes. The ashes are from burning the palms of the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration.

When and how did this strange practice begin? The Bible refers to the use of ashes as a sign of repentance or despair. The LORD commanded Jeremiah to call the people of his day to repent lest they suffer disaster and ruin for their idolatry and greed. Inevitable judgment is coming, he says. Then you will truly feel sorrow and pain.

O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. - Jer 6:26 ESV

The best example of true repentance is found in the book of Jonah. After he had been vomited from the belly of the great fish who swallowed him during a storm at sea, Jonah finally went to Nineveh to command the people to repent. Word of his preaching reached the king of Nineveh . . .

. . . and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." - Jon 3:6-9 ESV

In the New Testament we hear Jesus proclaim sackcloth and ashes as signs of repentance.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. - Mat 11:21-22 ESV

More about the actual history of this practice is found in the American Catholic website.

Despite all these references in Scripture, the use of ashes in the Church left only a few records in the first millennium of Church history. Thomas Talley, an expert on the history of the liturgical year, says that the first clearly datable liturgy for Ash Wednesday that provides for sprinkling ashes is in the Romano-Germanic pontifical of 960. Before that time, ashes had been used as a sign of admission to the Order of Penitents. As early as the sixth century, the Spanish Mozarabic rite calls for signing the forehead with ashes when admitting a gravely ill person to the Order of Penitents. At the beginning of the 11th century, Abbot Aelfric notes that it was customary for all the faithful to take part in a ceremony on the Wednesday before Lent that included the imposition of ashes. Near the end of that century, Pope Urban II called for the general use of ashes on that day. Only later did this day come to be called Ash Wednesday.

At first, clerics and men had ashes sprinkled on their heads, while women had the sign of the cross made with ashes on their foreheads. Eventually, of course, the ritual used with women came to be used for men as well.

In the 12th century the rule developed that the ashes were to be created by burning palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. Many parishes today invite parishioners to bring such palms to church before Lent begins and have a ritual burning of the palms after Mass.

Lutherans accept this history as their own and so many parishes follow the same practice.

Turn Your Valley of Tears Into A Place of Springs

"As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; 

the early rain also covers it with pools" (Psalm 84:6).

As I read that verse I wondered where the Valley of Baca was. A quick search revealed that this valley is unknown. It is rather symbolical, because the verb Bacah means to weep in Hebrew. The noun בכא - Baka means a balsam tree, a tree that grows in dry places and seems to weep (2 Samuel 5:23-24; 1 Chronicles 14:14-15). The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, translates it as the Valley of Weeping (κλαυθμῶνος).

In all cases the words suggest that the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem were filled with anticipation and joy. These feelings turned even the dry, desert valleys into places of joy comparable to what arises in our hearts when springtime returns and the early rains begin again. 

This brings to mind the familiar image of the valley of the shadow of death in David's psalm (Psalm 23:4). It also serves to remind us that we are all on a pilgrimage journey through the valley of tears and the shadow of death. But we have a certain goal. We move through this valley. At the other end the new Jerusalem awaits. In it is the Father's house where we will dwell in peace, hope and joy forever. All this is possible because of Christ who has cleared for us a way by the cross. He is, in fact, the way (John 14:1-6). 

Join me in this Lenten season, symbolical of our own valleys of tears and suffering. The Festival of the Resurrection awaits. In faith we shall turn this valley into a place of springs, springtime and new life. 

Big Boys Don't Cry

My Tears In His Bottle by Mary Meadows: "Thou countest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? - Psalm 58:8"

First, thanks to Ms. Meadows for her words: "Tear-bottles were small urns of glass or pottery, created to collect the tears of mourners at the funeral of a loved one and placed in the sepulchers at Rome and in Palestine where bodies were laid to rest. In some ancient tombs these bottles are found in great numbers, collecting tears that were shed with great meaning.


"As comforting as knowing God will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes is the thought that the one in heaven does not see our pain here as a pointless or empty occurrence. Just as our tears will be tended to in eternity, the psalmist reminds us that so our tears on earth do not go unnoticed. Our pain is not haphazardly viewed by the one who made tear ducts that spill over with grief and anguish. God has kept count of our sorrowful struggling; each tear is recorded as pain steeped with meaning. Like a parent grieving at a child's wound, God reaches out to you in your pain, speaking gently into your heightened sense of awareness. And with the Son who wept at the grave of Lazarus, God collects your tears in his bottle until the day tears will be no more."


However, Big boys don't cry. That was my upbringing. In one way or another I was taught to avoid crying. Girls like Mary Meadows might cry and write about it, but we big boys, never. How strange therefore to encounter these words in the writings of David, the warrior-king of Israel. He conquered the Philistine giant Goliath and killed many others. Yet here he is, openly admitting that he cries. How very unlike we who are descended from the northern Europeans, i.e. Germans and British. Stiff upper lip and all that.


OK, I'll admit it. I get teary eyed at funerals, weddings, syrupy movies, the birth of my grandchildren, graduations—oh, for goodness sake—in far too many ways. But, but then my childhood training kicks in and I try so very hard to cover it up: "I must be coming down with a cold, etc."


Hey, all you big boys, it's OK to cry! It really is. Jesus did it. He burst into tears  at the grave of his good friend Lazarus (John 11:35). There are all kinds of Bible references to men crying. Other examples: 

• Genesis 43:30 - Joseph wept when his brothers came to Egypt. 
• Job 30:25 - Job wept for men who struggled with hard times. 
• Luke 19:11 - Jesus himself wept over Jerusalem's refusal to accept his love and the impending doom that awaited them. 
• Romans 9:1-2 - Paul wept for his Jewish brothers who continued to reject Christ. 

We must not hide our feelings, bottle them up inside ourselves. This harms us in many ways. Read the link above. On the other hand, I know I won't change the attitude of many of us real men. We need to be strong, right? And tough, right?


OK, but know this. You still have feelings and Jesus understands them. He knows our griefs, our pain, our sorrows. Read again Isaiah 53:3 and Hebrews 2:17-18. He is like us men "in every respect." He understands even our reluctance to let our pain and sorrow show and is with us, nevertheless, to forgive and see us through them.