Flight Paths

Just so you know, I am now writing for an e-zine called Pressing On.  Other writers include Mark Roberts (also editor), Dee Bowman, Wilson Adams, and Doy Moyer.  It is a monthly electronic-only periodical.  It will work with any device you might have.  Go to www.PressingOnMagazine.com and you can download a free sample and/or subscribe.

Dene Ward

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            I have read those headings in the book of Psalms for years—“To the Choirmaster”--but it has only been recently that it dawned on me that in the Old Testament specially trained Levites led, and usually sang, in the Temple worship.  If Romans 15:4 means what it says about learning from the Old Testament, we have the perfect authority for song leaders in our worship services today.  Song leaders—choirmasters.  The entire church, of course, is the choir now, but even non-musicians need a leader.

            My own father was a song leader in the church for nearly as long as he was a Christian.  All that stopped him was his health—he could no longer get enough breath or stand up long enough or wave his arm high enough to continue those last few years.  He had a clear tenor voice in his youth, not the easiest part to sing.  He knew and had led songs from a dozen hymnals.  Not only did he lead in the church, but he sang at funerals and weddings as well.  He always sang.  I do not remember a time when he was outside working on a sick car or a chugging lawn mower or a broken shelf that he was not singing—hymns, mind you, nothing else.

            We moved a few times in my youth, but even when we stayed in one place for a few years, it was not unheard of for a preacher from another congregation to show up on our doorstep asking him to consider changing his membership because they needed a song leader.  And he usually did.  Leading the song service was his bailiwick and he fulfilled it better than any man I have known before or since.  Why?  Because he viewed it as God meant it to be viewed—service to Him.  When he died my mother buried him with a Bible in one arm and a songbook in the other.

            As a music education major in college, I took classes in choral directing.  Guess what I learned?  Hardly anything new—I had learned it already from my daddy.  What I got was a new appreciation for a man who had set about to be the best he could be for his God.  Let me share a few tips with you.  Some of the details come from my choral directing professor, but the concepts I saw every Sunday of my childhood.

            1) If you call yourself a song leader, then be one--lead!  That means a host of things as you will see below.

            2) Your job as a song leader is not to show off how well you can sing by singing the most difficult songs in the book.  It is not your chance to sing your favorite hymns. Your job in the church is to enable the group to worship God in song, according to their ability.

            3) That means you need to know your group.  If you have an untrained group, few among them who know anything about music, don’t lead songs that a professional choir should be singing.  Don’t specialize in songs that require a roadmap and a compass to figure out what to sing when.  Don’t major in modes and polyrhythm.  If you do use some of these songs, then be realistic.  Untrained ears will never manage the blue notes in “Sing and Be Happy.”  Don’t be arrogant about it, as if all these ignorant people are beneath you.  A lot of them can probably do things you can’t do.

            If you have a predominantly older group, lay off the syncopated music.  They simply don’t get it.  Anyone listening on the side will think they are hiccupping as one manages it here and there, but 90% sing it straight.

            Another thing about older groups—they do not have the breath capacity of younger people.  Don’t sing songs so fast they have no time to catch a breath.  They may all pass out on you, but more than that, they simply won’t be able to worship God, which is what you are supposed to be helping them do, not hindering them.  Good leaders do not insist on what they want to do.  They do what is best for the group they are leading, whether it is what they want to do or not.

            4) Remember—this is not about you.  If you are a bass, resist the temptation to sing only low songs or to pitch them lower.  If you are a tenor, try not to pitch them too high.  Either way, you will completely fail in your mission—enabling the whole group to sing, not just you.  In fact, it is entirely possible to injure voices by having them sing a poorly pitched song.  If you cannot sing a song where it is written, then you probably ought not to be a song leader.

            5) And if you claim to be a leader you must of necessity do three things:  stand where you can be seen, beat a clear pattern, and sing loud enough to be heard.

            If you use a pattern, people need to see it in order to stay with it.  For those who do not understand the beat, or if you do not beat a pattern, they must be able to see your mouth.  That also means you shouldn’t be asking people to stand very often, particularly if you have a lot of elderly folks.  Yes, they have the option of staying seated, but guess what they see when everyone else is standing?  A row of backs—you will be hidden behind them.  How can they possibly follow you?

            As to the pattern, don’t get too elaborate.  The point where the beat actually occurs (the ictus) must be obvious, and at the bottom of the pattern, not at the top.  If you draw so many curlicues in the air that no one knows where the 1, 2 and 3 are, don’t get upset if they lag behind—it’s your fault.  

            And they do need to hear you.  If you can’t sing loud enough, stand in front of a microphone.  Don’t get “humble” and think it makes you a better servant of God not to be heard.  Leaders of necessity need to be heard—any kind of leader.  If all you do is start the song, you may as well sit in the pew.  (And if you are in the congregation, then monitor your own voice and do not try to out-sing the leader.  There is more than one way to usurp authority!) 

            6) This is worship to God, remember?  That means you should give some thought to your selections.  Would you ever walk into a Bible class, sit on the front row, scribble down a few passages and expect to teach a good lesson?  Your song service should do one of two things—either complement the sermon of the day, or teach its own lesson.  Some preachers like the songs to match their sermons; some don’t.  If he does, call him and find out what the lesson is about.  If the latter, then choose a topic yourself, or maybe a line of thought, and choose songs that teach about that topic or lead the singers in a logical progression of thought that will edify them.  Both of those take preparation.

            I could probably go on.  Just reminiscing about things I heard my daddy say over and over has already made this a bit long, though.  Here is the key--this is about your service to God.  If you remember that, you cannot help but be the best song leader you can be.
    
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise, Heb 2:12.

Dene Ward

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            Many years ago on one of our camping trips to the mountains, Keith and I visited a pottery barn, where a potter was busily working at the wheel.  We watched him try for several minutes to make a certain type of curve at the lip of the vessel he was making, but every time the lip collapsed.  Finally he shook his head and muttered something about the clay having a fault in it.  So he changed his plans and made another vessel.  It was still a useful pot I am sure, but it did not have that intricate lip that would have made it more beautiful and unique.

            Suddenly, I understood a whole lot better all those passages in the Bible about the potter and the clay, and how God can use us without forcing His will on us.  God wants us all to be beautiful creations which He can use to accomplish His purpose, but when through our own freewill we rebel, He simply changes His mind and makes us into something else, something not quite as pretty, not quite as special, but usable nonetheless.

            We may become so rebellious that we actually think we can keep God from using us, but that is not the case. Some doctrines talk about foreordination in a way that actually limits God.  It makes Him need to control everything in order to accomplish his ends.  You do realize that notion came from Augustinianism, and Augustine got it from paganism.  Remember the doctrine of fatalism from the Greek goddesses called Fates?  The scriptures teach instead about a God so powerful that He can use us in spite of the fact that we are able to choose our courses of action.  He does not have to control us to bring His plan to fruition.  That is truly awesome power. 

            So make no mistake about it—God will use us, but it is up to us how He will use us.  Personally I would rather be a beautiful vase with an intricate, unique design, or even a plain, practical, but necessary and honorable cooking pot, than some sort of “second option.”  How would you like to be a spittoon, or maybe a chamber pot?  You see, we are all clay in the potter’s hand.  It’s only what He makes of us that we have any real choice about.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth, and some unto honor and some unto dishonor.  If anyone therefore purge himself…he shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, prepared unto every good work, 2 Tim 2:20,21.

Dene Ward

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            Oh, so many years ago we moved up to the frozen tundra.  At least that’s what north central Illinois felt like to this Florida native.  Keith worked with a small church there and I experienced blizzards, snowmen, and sledding for the first time in my life.  I also experienced a grudge-holder to end all grudge-holders. 

            An older fellow, a corn and soybean farmer, invited us to visit and before we had time to warm the seats of the chairs in his white two story farmhouse, he proceeded to give us some “important information.”  Another family in the church, he proclaimed, was not the faithful, unselfish, godly family they claimed to be.  Then one by one he listed all the “wrongs” they had done him, most of which amounted to being more prosperous than he.  They surely must have sinned to get that way!

            Keith was older and more experienced than I.  He saw through the “helpful” manner this man had adopted, and before his list was complete, Keith had asked a few probing questions that left him flummoxed.  Somehow this was not going the way he expected it would.  When we left that day, he had not accomplished his mission at all, which is entirely as it should have been.  When someone comes running to pour garbage on you, step aside as quickly as possible.  The truth will out, and before long the fruits we saw in both families made apparent who was and was not “faithful.”

            If I had just finished the faith study back then, it would have been obvious to even me.  After all that research, the huge lists of passages I had, and the categories I eventually sorted them into, I found several mentioning circumstances that require “extra” faith to handle.  One of them made me laugh out loud at first, then it made me sit back and say, “Well, of course.”

            In Luke 17, Peter, somewhat proudly, asked the Lord if forgiving someone seven times wasn’t a “gracious” plenty.  No, Jesus tells him.  Not seven times, but seventy times seven.  I am positive Peter got the point—there should be no end to forgiving others; there must be no “last straw”--because he immediately exclaimed, “Lord!  Increase our faith!”  He understood that a failure to forgive is a sign of weak faith.

            I have puzzled over how those two things are connected for quite awhile now.  Finally I see two possibilities. 

            First, God says He will avenge me; I don’t have to worry about doing it myself.  Not to believe that is to question the love and care God has for me, a love He demonstrated in no uncertain terms when He gave His only begotten Son.  Of course He will avenge me.  If I don’t believe that, I may as well not believe the incarnation of the Lord.

            And then this:  do I believe that God will forgive me an infinite number of times?  I am supposed to be His child, striving to become like Him.  If I can’t forgive, then maybe I don’t believe He forgives, and if He doesn’t forgive, then my whole belief system is flawed.  Why do I bother?

            Our American culture tends to laud as strong those who fight back, take revenge, and hold grudges.  “That’s going too far,” and, “I just won’t take that,” has been uttered in countless movies by “the strong, silent type.”  And what do we all do?  We applaud the man who finally refuses to turn the other cheek.  We admire the man who fights back.  We approve the man who chooses not to forget the sins against him—the one who says, “I’ll never be hurt again.” 

            What if God said those things about us?  Aren’t you shivering in your boots to realize where you would be if God hadn’t said instead, “Your sins I will remember no more,” and “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.”  Aren’t you thrilled beyond measure to read the inspired words of John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?” (Jer 31:34; Isa 1: 18; 1 John 1:9) 

            Do you ever find yourself wanting to tell everyone about the people you think have mistreated you?  You and that old Illinois farmer are standing in the same shoes.  Take off those shoes for you are standing on the Holy Ground of a God who loves and forgives to an infinite measure.  If you want to stand with Him, you must forgive in the same way.

            “Lord, increase our faith.”

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Romans 12:19.

Dene Ward       

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            I was watching a ball game a few weeks ago when the school promos aired.  Evidently one of them now has the slogan “I can only count on what I earn.”  I must have heard it ten times in that thirty second spot.

            Every Christian ought to jump back in horror when they hear such a thing.  What I earn?  My life is a hopeless downhill plunge to destruction if I am counting on what I earn.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23.

            Okay, you say, but they are talking about getting along in life, not the afterlife.  Really?  I can count on my money, my career, my social status?  All these things can be taken away in a flash by an illness, an accident, a bad investment, a downturn in the economy, even someone else’s crime.  How can I count on those for anything?  You see, that is the problem when you don’t believe in God, as a good many professors no longer do.  What a miserable life to live. 

            What’s that?  You are not miserable because you can do what you want to do instead of answering to a higher power?  I suppose, but then you live a life without hope, without purpose.  One of these days that will hit you right between the eyes and you will be miserable.  All the intellectualism in the world has yet to find a cure for that. 

            I can only count on God, on His help, on His promises, on His love and grace and mercy.  A God by the way, who changes not, who has proven Himself to His people for thousands of years.  A God who is always there regardless of the balance in my bank account, the progress of my career, or my status in society. 

            What are you depending on today, a life of uncertainty, or a God who inhabits eternity and controls it all?

But now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom 6:22,23.

Dene Ward

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            In our last two articles, we talked about doing word studies, which can easily branch out into topical studies.  How about studying a certain passage of scripture?

            Events are much easier, so start with something in the gospels.  Begin by setting the scene.  Ask yourself who is there, where are they and what is happening?  What happened immediately before this event?  Was there a time lapse or is it the same day?

            Obviously you should gather all accounts of the same event from the other gospels.  But just reading them will not do you much good.  I have found that listing all events and dialogue in columns next to one another makes the differences more obvious.  Then make separate lists of things found only in one gospel, or of the differences, no matter how small, in similar accounts.  Each gospel writer had a different audience in mind, and thus a different purpose.  Often knowing those will make the differences more sensible to you.

            Start out every study of a passage by reading it several times.  As you read, note repeated phrases and words.  Pay attention to lists.  Sometimes they are hidden and you have to actively look for them.  For example, when I studied John 8:12-59, reading it through about three times, I began to notice several things happening again and again.  Finally I wrote down four headings:  accusations Jesus made about the Jews; questions the Pharisees asked Jesus; accusations the Pharisees made about Jesus; personal claims Jesus made about himself.  Then I went back and read the passage again making each list.  Do not try to make all of these lists in one reading.  Read through once, listing the first item, accusations Jesus made about the Jews.  Then read through once more for each other list you are trying to make.  If you try to do this in one reading instead of one for each list, you will miss some, guaranteed!  When you have finished this task, you will know in detail what that passage says because you have probably read it 7 or 8 times, and you will have a much better grasp of the tension and danger surrounding Jesus at that time.  It will also open your eyes to Jesus’ feelings about those people, which may surprise you.

            You can do similar things to passages in the epistles.  But you must be ready to spend some time at it.  Sometimes it takes me five or six readings to pick out the lists I am looking for.  Knowing the theme of each epistle will help.  Repeated words and phrases may be your key.  Another hint:  go by paragraph, not chapter.  Some chapter breaks are notoriously bad, but the paragraph breaks are usually well thought out.  If you are using a Bible that is un-paragraphed, look for the paragraph sign (that two-legged backwards “P”).  Many Bibles have them now.  If you don’t have one, find one in a used bookstore.  The 1901 ASV, the NASB, the ESV are all usually paragraphed the same way.  Where they differ, the original paragraphing in the ASV is far superior to the others.

            I am not a fan of typing this out on the computer until I am ready for my final product, like a lesson or an article, or maybe a notebook I am compiling my studies in.  Actually writing things in longhand on a piece of paper helps my memory, just like taking notes in a class does.  Your mind is saying the words again, and your hands are forming them.  It could be that being brought up with a computer will make it work for you, but if you are having a difficult time retaining things, go back to pen and paper, and see if it doesn’t make a difference.

            So your assignment this time is an expositional study.  Read and read and read; then start writing.  Don’t be afraid to alter the method, especially if the text you have chosen does not quite fit the plan.  (But don’t do anything that will limit the number of times you read the passage!)  At first it will be difficult to figure out what you should be writing, but it will get easier, and you will learn more than you ever have before.

            A book my husband highly recommends is Independent Bible Study by Irving Jensen.  However, this book is out of print and hard to find.  Sometimes you can find used copies on the Amazon or Alibris websites.  Next week, he will tell you himself how he studies passages of scripture using his own variation of Jensen’s method.  I am not the scholar he is, but I have dabbled in the method a little and hope someday to become more adept at it.  Perhaps you could start with my suggestions, then work your way into his method as well.  A student never finishes learning to learn.

If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:4-5

Dene Ward

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          We heat with wood.  A thirty-two-year-old Ashley wood stove sits in the heart of our home—the kitchen and family room area.  Our boys grew up watching their father labor with a chainsaw, axe, and splitting maul, eventually helping him load the eighteen inch lengths of wood into the pickup bed and then onto the wood racks.  Every time a friend or neighbor lost a tree or several large limbs fell, the phone rang, and the three of them set off for a Saturday’s worth of work that kept us warm for a few days and the heating bill down where we could pay it.

            At first those small boys could only carry one log at a time, and a small one at that.  Wood is heavy if still unseasoned, and always rough and unwieldy.  By the time they were 10, an armful numbered two or three standard logs, even the lighter, seasoned ones.  They were 16 or older before they could come close to their father’s armload of over half a dozen logs, and grown men before they could match him log for log.  Even that is a small amount of wood.  In a damped woodstove, it might last half the night, but on an open fire barely an hour.

            So I laugh when I see pictures of an 8-10 year old Isaac carrying four or five “sticks” up Mt Moriah behind his father Abraham.  To carry the amount of wood necessary to burn a very wet animal sacrifice, Isaac had to have been grown, or nearly so, not less than 16 or 17, and probably older and more filled out.  In fact, in the very next chapter, Genesis 23, Isaac is 37 years old.  In chapter 21, his weaning, he is somewhere between 3 and 8, probably the older end, so all we can say for certain is he is between 3 and 37 at the time of his offering.  Our experience with wood carrying tells me that he was far older than most people envision.

            Do you realize what that means?  This may well have been a test of Abraham’s faith, but it also shows that Isaac’s faith was not far behind his father’s.  He could easily have over-powered his father, a man probably two decades north of 100, and gotten away.  He, too, trusted that God would provide, even as he lay himself down on that altar and watched his father raise his hand.

            How did he know?  Because he watched God provide everyday of his life.  He saw his father’s relationship with God, heard his prayers and watched his offerings, witnessed the decisions he made every day based solely on the belief in God’s promises, and his absolute obedience even when it hurt, like sending his brother Ishmael away (Gen 21:12-14). Isaac did not know a time when his family did not trust God, so he did too.  “God will provide” made perfect sense to him.

            When that young man carried that hefty load of wood up that mountain, he went with a purpose, based upon the example of his father’s faith and his Father’s faithfulness.  Would your children be willing to carry that wood?

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness. Isaiah 38:19

Dene Ward

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          A few years after we moved to this spot of country, I was startled one morning by a low rumbling that, over the next few minutes, grew louder and louder.  It seemed to come from above, but could not be a plane, I reasoned, because it was taking so long to pass by.  I stepped outside and there, to my amazement, flew the Budweiser blimp, so low over our field I felt like I could hold a conversation with the pilot. 

            We must be on a regular flight path because we have seen that blimp several times, along with all sorts of planes from props to airliners, and helicopters galore.  The military also uses our area for drills of some sort, sometimes in groups and other times a lone pilot putting his jet through the routine loops, leaving a tangled skein of contrails behind.  Except for the military planes, they all follow the same southerly course across our field, almost as if there were lane markings in the sky.

            I have spent a lot of time sitting on the shaded carport, itself in the deep shade of live oaks, killing time, day after day, waiting to see if this latest surgery has worked, and knowing that even if it has it will only last a couple of years.  This disease has a regular flight path, just like all those flying machines that pass over us.  The optic nerve in the left eye is now 60% destroyed.  Once gone, those nerve endings can never come back. That led me to contemplate the notion of fate or, as theologians call it, predestination.

            Despite what the majority say, the Bible does not teach that God has already decided which of us He will save, and is now resting easy in His recliner watching the show He set in motion.  But one thing has been predetermined for a couple of thousand years now—the victory has already been won.  It is up to me to follow the flight path that my Savior created, that will inevitably lead me to share in His glory.  I must not be detoured by this world, either its pleasures or its problems.  Either one could lead to a crash landing far short of the goal.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, that are left till the coming of the Lord, shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord, 1 Thes 4:15-17

Dene Ward

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Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Jehoshaphat was a good king and not just a run of the mill good king, but perhaps the best king in Judah after David, excepting only Hezekiah and Josiah. Jehoshaphat's father had started purging Judah of idolatry and other wickedness and Jehoshaphat finished the job. He didn't just re-institute the proper worship of God and call on all Judah to follow Him, Jehoshaphat also sent out missionaries with copies of the Law all through Judah and had the Law read to all the people so that everyone would know of their responsibilities towards God.

Several times in his life he was out of his depth and cast all his hopes upon God and trusted Him to take care of things. His faith was astounding, his zeal for the Law was great, and his commitment to following God was almost unparalleled among post-Davidic Judean kings.

Yet for some reason this paragon of righteousness decided to make peace with Ahab the king of Israel. A more wicked king than Ahab would be hard to find. (Manasseh perhaps?) In fact, 1 Kings 21:25-26 says: "But there was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel."

As was the case with most treaties back then, the one between Jehoshaphat and Ahab involved a marriage between the royal families. Jehoshaphat married his son Joram to Ahab's daughter, Athaliah.  Joram had to have been very young, in fact not much older than 14 at the time of this marriage. The consequences of Jehoshaphat's decision to bind himself to the wicked Ahab were nothing short of disastrous, though he himself didn't live to see it. 2 Kings 8:16-11:3 and 2 Chron. 21-22 detail what happens:

1) Joram, being influenced by his wicked wife, becomes an idolater and rebuilds the idols and high places his father had torn down and led the people back away from God and into idolatry.
2) Joram murders all his brothers, who Elijah calls more righteous than he, to eliminate competition for the throne.
3) As punishment, all but one of Joram's sons are killed by marauding Arabians and Philistines and Joram is stricken with one of the most revolting diseases described in the Bible. He dies.
4) His youngest, and only remaining son, Ahaziah becomes king and is counseled by his wicked mother. He, too, is wicked and joins with Ahab's son Joram (confused yet?) to fight the Syrians. When Joram (Ahaziah's uncle, by the way) is injured, Ahaziah goes to check on him just as Jehu begins his God-ordered cleansing of Israel. He is caught in the rebellion and is killed along with Joram.
5) Other Judean royal kinsmen traveling to Israel to succor the injured king Joram are also caught by Jehu and executed as partisans.
6) Finally, Athaliah kills all of Ahaziah's children (except one who was hidden from her) and usurps the throne. She murdered her own grandchildren in a power grab!

Look what has happened to the house of David! For three consecutive generations every royal son save one was killed! Add to that 42 extra men who were royal kinsmen not of the direct line killed by Jehu and you have a serious pruning of the descendants of David. All that murder and death, all that idolatry, all that work by Jehoshaphat undone because he tried to make friends with an wicked man.

This made me think of 2 Cor. 6:14: "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness?" Paul continues like this for several verses before quoting Isaiah 52:11: "Come you out from among them and be you separate says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you." Who have I yoked myself to that might have the same type of impact on me that Ahab had on Jehoshaphat?

We need to be careful who our friends are. We need to be careful who we "hang" with. They WILL have an impact on our spirituality. They WILL bring temptations our way.

Now, of course, Paul also said in 1 Cor. 5 that we aren't to withdraw from the world completely. Jesus told the Pharisees that as the spiritual doctor, he needed to be among the sinners who needed his help. However, if you read the Gospels, you will notice that while Jesus ate with publicans and prostitutes, those were isolated evenings on an occasional basis. He spent far more time with his apostles and other disciples. Much of that time he was alone with them. So, while Jesus spent time with the wicked in an effort to teach and save them, the people he yoked himself to were his apostles. That is the example we need to follow as we try to save our neighbors and acquaintances in the world. Shine your light among them, but prefer spending time with your brethren.

We need to be very, very careful who we join ourselves to, who we yoke ourselves to, or the consequences that befell Jehoshaphat's family might befall ours.

Lucas Ward

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         Have you discovered panko yet?  Panko is Japanese bread crumbs, an extra light variety that cooks up super-crunchy on things like crab cakes and shrimp.  They also cost more than regular bread crumbs, but in certain applications they are worth it.    On the other hand a chicken or veal Milanese needs a sturdier crumb to stand up to the lemony butter sauce, an oven fried pork chop needs melba toast crumbs that will cook to a crunch without burning in a high heat oven, and my favorite broccoli casserole needs the faint sweetness of a butter cracker crumb to really set it off.

            Although none of these dishes are the food of poverty, using the crumbs and crusts of food rather than tossing them out certainly grew out of the necessity of using whatever was at hand to feed hungry bellies for thousands of years, and now we all do it, even when there is plenty in the pantry.  Pies and cheesecakes with graham cracker crumb crusts, anyone?  Dressing to stuff your poultry?  Bread pudding on a cold winter night?  Streusel on that warm coffee cake in the morning?  Bread-infused peasant food has even shown up on gourmet cooking shows in the form of panzanella (salad) and ribolita (soup), both of which use chunks of stale bread to bolster their ability to satisfy appetites.

            That reminds me of a woman 2000 years ago who understood the value of leftovers.  Her little daughter was demon-possessed, so ill she could not travel, but her mother had heard of someone who might be able to help, who even then was in hiding from the crowds on the border of her country.  It took a lot for her to seek him out, first leaving her sick child in someone else’s care, then approaching this Jewish rabbi, a type who had either reviled or ignored her all her life; but a desperate mother will make any sacrifice to save her child.

            Sure enough, even though she addressed him by the Messianic title, “Son of David,” he answered her not a word, Matt 15:22,23.  Still she persisted, and this time she was insulted—he called her a dog.  Oh, he was nicer about it than most, using the Greek word for “little pet dog,” kunarion, rather than the epithet she usually heard from his kind--kuno, ownerless scavenging dogs that run wild in the streets, but still he made her inequality in his eyes obvious.

            This woman, though, was ready to accept his judgment of her, Even the dogs get the crumbs, sir.  Moreover, she understood that was all she needed.  This man, whose abilities she had heard of from afar, was more than just a man, and even the tiniest morsel of his power was enough to heal her child, even from a distance.

            Do we understand that?  Do we realize that one drop of God’s power can fix any problem we have, and more, do we have the humility to accept our place in His plan, even if it is not what we have planned?  Yes, every day I ask for more—more grace, more faith, more of His power to change me and use me, but do I really comprehend His strength?  I would say it was impossible to do so, except for the example of this desperate Gentile mother who, like a widow of her nation hundreds of years before her, had more faith, trust, and humility than the religious men of God’s chosen people (I Kgs 17, Luke 4:25,26).

            And for this, perhaps, God chose her to foreshadow in the Son’s life the crumbling of the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and the inclusive nature of the gospel which had been foretold from the beginning: in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed, Gen 22:17. 

            Do I have the faith and humility to accept God’s plan for me?  One thing is certain—this Gentile mother knew she had nowhere else to turn, and neither do we.

            Even God’s crumbs are enough to satisfy our every need.

For this cause I bow my knees to the Father…that you…may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God…him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…Eph 3:14, 17-20.

Dene Ward