Heaven's wonder bread

When my children were home, they both savored being able to eat the crusty heel off the freshly-baked loaf of bread. Hmm, good, with homemade raspberry jam. I remembered that the other day when I baked bread for dinner. I also thought of what Jesus, who called Himself the Bread of Life, did by the Sea of Galilee long ago when surrounded by thousands of famished people. Some had walked two hours from home to hear Him and to seek healing.

Actually, the New Testament records two separate occasions when He fed multitudes. But His feeding of 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. For several reasons, it’s become my favorite miracle. These are the teachings it fed into my life:

*If God wants you to do something for Him, He will put it right in front of you. Jesus didn’t have to look far to see 5,000 men plus women and children needing Him. My circles of relationships include many with baffling and frustrating needs, some of which He wants me to tend on His behalf.

*If you feel inadequate, you’re probably qualified. The disciples wanted to send the crowd away because they didn’t feel they could handle it. Similarly, the expectations of schooling, job, relationships and ministry always look bigger than we think we can handle. When God allowed overwhelming challenges into my life, I didn’t feel that I was the best candidate for His work. I wanted to echo Moses and Jeremiah, “Who me? I’m just a nobody.” But God wanted me to learn that He would help me do what I considered impossible.

*If the task is impossible, it’s just the right size for God. Andrew was the math whiz of Jesus’ followers, and he just knew that five loaves and two fishes wouldn’t even give everybody a crumb. When I left the comfort zone of my first job for mission service, I wondered how I would ever survive on what the mission considered “just enough.” Yet I always had “just enough,” and never had to dip into my personal savings, which eventually paid for a year at Bible college. I even had “fragments” to share with others.

*If God has a task for you, He has a method to get it done. Jesus didn’t randomly throw crumbs and fish bits at the crowd. He had them sit in orderly picnic groups. As the baskets were passed, the miracle of multiplication took place. I saw that happen every time I wrote a book. Yes, I had done my research and had files of loosely organized notes. But the raw form of a book emerged only through prayer-saturated seat-in-chair, one page at a time.

*If God is in it, He will get the glory. The little boy who gave up his lunch didn’t get paraded around the hills as the hero of the day. All eyes were on Jesus. That’s the way it should be. Years ago I had the privilege of hearing Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom. The church was packed for the visit of this simple Dutch lady. I’ve been to “speaker training” and learned that speakers should “power dress” and begin with “power stories” to reach an audience. Corrie did none of that. She just came in her cotton dress and spoke about the Bible, God’s care, and the love of Jesus. And when the applause came, she pointed to the ceiling—that is, to Heaven, to give God the glory.

There’s another detail from this feeding miracle worth considering. It took place right after Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist was beheaded. Matthew 13:14 says that Jesus, upon hearing this horrific news, “withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” In His humanity, He sought aloneness to grieve. I think God is telling us that when we go through a traumatic time, it’s okay to pull back briefly to heal. But that’s not to be a permanent condition. In Jesus’ case, word of mouth quickly moved the crowd to His new location, and He resumed His role as Teacher, Healer and Savior—the Bread of Life.

The bread I bake from scratch needs to be eaten up within a few days or it will mold. Spiritual riches left unshared by excuses like “I can’t do it” also go stale. Feel you have too little? Remember, Jesus multiplied crumbs.

Arthritically-correct Hymns

Some of the old, standby (pun intended) hymns just aren’t what they used to be for me. I blame a broken ankle that healed into a weather prediction station. Along with an aging back, both have become hangouts for a nemesis named Arthur-ritis. At my church, we start out upright and at full attention when worship begins with hymns and choruses. But by the time we’re into some chorus’s 18th refrain, sometimes I’m ready to refrain from standing and fold my posterior into a pew.

I do so with great guilt, no thanks to the tradition of hymns built off stalwart verses like “Stand firm” (2 Thess. 2:15). For those of us with lesser endurance who “sit firm,” I propose some arthritically-correct hymns:
1.“On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Sit and Cast a Wishful Eye.” Outdoor worship? Just give me a lawn chair and warm blanket
2.“Sit Down, Sit Down for Jesus.” Even when I'm good to stand for a while, I might be next to a truly needy sit-downer who needs a friend at his or her level.
3.“I Sit Amazed in the Presence.” That sure fits the morning devotional time—good, quiet, seat-in-chair-with-Bible moments.
4.“On Christ the Solid Rock I Sit.” It worked for the house built on a rock. The one on sand should have had flood insurance.
5.“Sitting on the Promises.” That’s better than pacing around and wringing your hands in worry.
6.“Lord, Lift Me Up and Let Me Sit.” Though I may not see the words on the overhead through the six-foot-four, 280-pound guy in front, I can still feel spiritually lifted.
7.“Sit down and Bless the Lord.” We do this anyway before passing the chicken and veggies.

To be honest, the “arthritically correct” hymns just don’t sound right. But I’ll be happy to belt out the originals, as long as I have permission to eventually obey gravity’s pull on my aging body.

Winners and losers

I don’t remember this shirt, I said to myself as I hung up the wash the other day. My husband likes to shop for his own clothes, especially at clearance racks or thrift stores, so sometimes surprises show up. You’d think I would have noticed him wearing it, although he does have a lot of gray logo shirts. But this one was philosophical: “Winners train, losers complain.”

Immediately I thought of Paul’s counsel to his spiritual son Timothy: “Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7b-8). Some may have grown up with this translation choice: “exercise thyself rather into godliness.” The original text uses a Greek word, gumnazo, referring to the early Greek exercise or games in which participants wore their “birthday suits” (gumnos=naked). Try NOT to think of that next time you go by a modern gym!

Perhaps another way of saying this could be: “Get down to nothing between you and God. Strip away all pretense, all excuses, all fears, all whininess, all doubts, all barriers. Seek after the prize that God has for you and for you alone.” Hebrews 12:1 says similar things: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The respected Bible teacher William McDonald remarked that the weights represent sin in any form, but especially the sin of unbelief. Instead, we need complete trust in God’s promises and complete confidence that the life of faith will emerge victorious. The race isn’t an easy sprint, he said, and neither is the Christian life of faith. But God calls us to press on with perseverance through our trials and temptations to grow into all He intends us to be and have. (Believer’s Bible Commentary, Nelson, 1995, p. 2202).

In other words, winners train, losers complain.

Red-ripe jewels

It’s raspberry-picking time at the small “patch” in our back yard, meaning every couple days I pick the ripest red jewels and store them in the refrigerator. It takes several days to get the six cups I need to make freezer jam. But oh, how yummy.

I’m a raspberry-picker from w-a-y back as it was my first paid “job” in grade school. One of my dad’s co-workers also had a large berry farm, and was open to having youth come pick. Though I was only about nine, I picked alongside my teenage sister, earning enough to buy my school supplies. Long, hot, dusty days? You know it. But I preferred raspberries over the thorny blackberries we picked at another place.

The other day as I sat on an upended bucket, plying through leaves in search of hidden berries, I thought of how Proverbs 4:2 speaks of seeking wisdom from God: “Search for it as for hidden treasure.”

Like berries, scriptures don’t “ripen” in personal meaning all at once. A passage that seemed “not me” at one point in my life may come alive at a different time. Or, a verse in one chapter may blink like a neon light when I go through a certain hard time. Later on, another part of that chapter will be a guiding light. The other morning, for example, I was reading Psalm 56. In previous times of thinking on this psalm, I’d highlighted verse 8, about God taking special note of our tears. This time, the word “trust” jumped out at me
When I am afraid, I will trust in you. (v. 3)
In God I trust; I will not be afraid. (vs. 4, 11)
David wrote this psalm about being caught between two life-threatening negatives: the murderous rampage of King Saul, and the bloodthirstiness of the Philistines, Israel’s enemy. I’m certainly not running around with my trusty sword and shield, hiding in caves. But I do face invisible enemies of circumstances and relationships beyond my ability to solve or even appease. They’re God-size problems.

That’s probably why “trust” jumped out of this psalm. That word was the treasure with the sweetness of God’s mercy infused in it, ready for “picking” at just this time of need in my life.

Praying for college students

The store ads are full of things for college-bound students. It's been about a decade since I went through that--looking for extra-long twin sheets, making new patchwork bedspreads, and assembling a "first aid" kit in a plastic shoe box. And etc. etc. etc. Lots of etc.

The child-to-college transition hit me twice as hard because my son and daughter, 19 months apart, both left town the same year for a state college four hours' drive away. You can be sure I prayed for them! After a few months, I realized Paul's prayer in the first chapter of Colossians provided me with a Biblical outline for specific ways to uphold their needs. This prayer guide spreads the requests over two weeks.

TO BE FILLED WITH A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL (v. 9)
1. To find a Bible-teaching church at which to worship and to connect with campus ministries so their faith will grow.
2. To acquire a biblical world view and to reject temptation.
3. To identify sinful prejudice but to refuse the pull to condone perversion.
4. To discern God’s will for vocation and courtship. For future mates, for purity in thought and body and a growing faith.

TO BE FRUITFUL (v. 10)
5. To walk worthy of Jesus and to be a testimony among non-Christians and weak believers, “walking the talk” without apology.
6. To witness to a God of order and beauty in how they groom and dress, plus in how they keep and decorate ther rooms or living quarters.
7. To honor God’s gift of time through prudent management instead of procrastination.
8. To demonstrate Christ’s love through acts of kindness, goodness, and generosity, rather than focusing only on themselves.

TO BE FORTIFIED (v. 11)
9. To know God’s power in their lives and to articulate biblical standards of truth when they encounter controversy in class work or relationships.
10. To endure when faced with course work demands, financial challenges, or health issues.
11. To show patience, particularly with difficult roommates, college registration lines, upsets and delays.

TO BE FREE OF WORLDLY NEGATIVES (vv. 12-14)
12. To cultivate a thankful spirit when their peers set a tone of grumbling.
13. To dwell on the spiritual blessings of their inheritance in Christ.
14. To reject the darkness and see their God-ordained role in bringing the light of Christ to their campus.

Both have now graduated, are working, married, and active in church. They have good reputations, and that gladdens my heart. To borrow from 3 John 4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

A Tale of Three Women

Last week, I shared about the "Strong Woman vs. Woman of Strength" poem that has spread widely on the internet. Here are my own thoughts, but comparing three women. I don't think any of us are entirely one "type" of woman, but writing these out helped me evaluate my own failings in the life-long quest of seeking to have a heart after God. I'd welcome your feedback.

The World's Wonder Woman finds value in being admired.
The Weak Woman values being pitied.
The Wise Woman takes her value from being loved by the Father (1 John 4:9).

The World's Wonder Woman acquires things for status.
The Weak Woman hoards things for security.
The Wise Woman receives things for the eventual blessing of sharing (Proverbs 11:25).

The World's Wonder Woman wants to control the future.
The Weak Woman fears the future.
The Wise Woman trusts God with the future, depending on Him to be a refuge, strength, and help in trouble (Prsalm 46:1).

The World's Wonder Woman manipulates people for her gain.
The Weak Woman wants people to meet her neediness.
The Wise Woman gives of herself to others (Proverbs 31:20).

The World's Wonder Woman resists adversity.
The Weak Woman whines about her adversity.
The Wise Woman looks to God in adversity, giving thanks in all circumstances as helping her grow spiritually (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

The World's Wonder Woman drops people who offend or oppose her.
The Weak Woman broods over people who offend or oppose her.
The Wise Woman loves people who offend or oppose her, seeking to show that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

The World's Wonder Woman hurtles toward her goals.
The Weak Woman gives up on her goals.
The Wise Woman seeks God's counsel for her goals, then presses on: "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12).

The World's Wonder Woman considers time a commodity in her planner.
The Weak Woman fritters away time.
The Wise Woman invests her time in serving God and gaining a heart of wisdom (Psalms 90:12).
-- (c) 2011 Jeanne Zornes

Strong people or people of strength?

It was not an easy memorial service to attend—not that any are. My friend Karen, diagnosed about two months earlier with pancreatic cancer, had died at age 58. But as remembrances filled the hour, a pastor told how he’d asked her if she had any regrets to settle before her death. Her answer: none. If any, it would be missing her son’s wedding by a month.

As I listened, I thought of my own father’s memorial and the unusual verse that his pastor had used for the meditation: “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth” (Ecclesiastes 7:1). At the time, my hurt was so deep I didn’t know if I’d ever heal. My father had died just six months after my mother. He was 63, she was 59. I was 31 and still single.

Now, I see the wisdom of that statement. Our death is a statement, for good or for bad, of how seriously we have taken the gift of life. Karen invested for eternity in children she taught in a Christian pre-school and in her now-young-adult children, both serving God.

One of her teaching colleagues read a free-verse poem about “strong women” versus “women of strength,” found among papers in Karen’s Bible. I had received the same writing from someone via E-mail some years ago. As I heard it again, I realized it set the bar high for any of us who want to be women (or men) of godly strength.

In searching for it on the internet, I realized it is a copyrighted poem, so I will not quote it here. However, this site names the author and copyright date: http://www.motivateus.com/stories/strongwoman.htm

I think the strongest stanza is the last. It reminds us that when life throws us to the ground (and surely this happens when a loved one dies) we’ll never be “strong enough,” for it’s in going through those experiences with the help and love of God that we develop holy strength.

The Ecclesiastes verse comparing a good name to a fine perfume has its fuller explanation in 2 Cor. 2:14: “But thanks be to God, who...through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” It’s not just our good name, but how we honor the name of our holy and merciful God. And when a funeral brings us back to the basics—of trust in God for eternal life, which truly makes the day of death the best of all (for it’s the first day of eternal life)—then it is a good thing.

Next time, my own comparative list of characteristics of a woman of strength.