Month: March 2024

“All who see me mock me;
 they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
 “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
 since he delights in him.”

Psalm 22:7-8 (NIV)

1,000 years before Jesus ever appeared, David wrote of the mockery that the Messiah would suffer. The description in the Psalm above fits with the gospel of Matthew’s description below:

“Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:39-49)

Jesus suffered intense mockery from the time of His arrest to His death on the cross. I have always been affected by watching the crown of thorns placed on His head in movies.

The crown of thorns was a laughing matter of mockery to the soldiers, as sharp thorns pierced his scalp with violent blows. It was such an intense form of both mockery and physical abuse. Jesus, the King of kings, has always been ridiculed by those He came to save.

Mockery and ridicule of anyone is a violent blow to a person’s God given dignity. It is also an insult to God, in the same way mocking artwork is an insult to the artist. 

I learned a lesson last week, as I was visiting with the group who sit at the table next to Jon’s chair. They started telling me stories about bizarre things that some residents at the Nursing Facility do. They told me about one person who occasionally walks out of their room completely naked, and another person who spits on people with no warning and for no reason. 

They were laughing as they related different stories to me. My first reaction was to laugh along with them, until I realized we were laughing at people who cannot help themselves. 

I quickly felt bad and determined not to participate in a conversation that mocks residents, ever again. 

Despite their state of mind, they are all created in God’s image, and like the rest of us, we’re all meant to live life with dignity and faith in Christ. People lose their God given dignity and their faith, for various reasons. Even though they don’t have sound minds, they do not deserve to be mocked. 

Each person in that Nursing Facility has their own story. Some have a substance abuse history and some have brain injury, either from birth or from trauma. God knows every person’s story from the beginning. He knows what led to the state of mind they are in, and He wants to restore human dignity to every outcast of society. I do not judge them, but I’m not going to mock them either. 

As I thought about the conversation later that day, I came to a conclusion that mockery is very diabolical. The mockery that Jesus suffered was incited by Satan himself, and so is the mockery of any human being. Satan’s scheme is to continue to make a mockery out of the pearl of God’s creation, humanity. 

Paul warns us not to be ignorant of Satan’s schemes, and one of his schemes is to steal from, kill and destroy what God made. If he cannot do it in a physical way, he attacks their dignity.  (2 Corinthians 2:11)

It’s amazing how much dignity has already been robbed from humanity. We see it each time we observe a homeless person who has been living on streets for decades. We see it when we hear of a drug addict, so desperate for the next fix, that they will do or sell anything. I see it in some residents of the Nursing Facility, who have confessed to years of substance abuse, and now are abandoned by their adult children. Some others are the wounded victims of abuse, by factors outside of their control. 

Whatever the story and whatever was robbed or lost, I believe that there is a fountain of mercy that flows from the throne of God, to gather, cleanse and forgive every person, whatever they’ve done, turning no one away. Jesus paid a great price to restore our human dignity. 

He knows what it is to be mocked and abandoned. He told the story about going out into the highways and byways to invite every outcast to the banquet of a great king. We all know a person, who is living on the highway or byway of an estranged life, who doesn’t yet know that there is a king or a banquet. They have been separated from society by a gap. That gap is the distance between the life they are living and the life of dignity that God intended for them.

The Lord once said: “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap…” (Ezekiel 22:30)

God is looking for people who will stand in the gap for Him and pray for those outcasts. As we recognize the schemes of the devil, and the ones who were robbed of their dignity, we will know what God is leading us to do, while we are standing in the gap for them. I know now, who the Lord is asking me to pray for. 

Lord, you have touched our hearts, as we read how you were mocked, abused and abandoned. Help us to stand in the gap for those who need to find their dignity in you. We pray today for all the outcasts to discover your redemptive love and endless mercy. Amen

“Then the Lord said to Moses: I am going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion…”

Exodus 16:4 (NIV)

There was a specific portion that God sent to the Israelites, which appeared on the ground each morning. It was the perfect portion that could fill their stomach for a day and fully nourish their bodies as well. They were camping out in a barren wilderness with no other food to eat, while passing through to a better land, promised to them by God. 

In that new land, there would be an abundance and variety of food available to them. There, they would dwell in their promised land, with all the conveniences and comfort of home. Joshua and Caleb even brought samples of the huge grapes that grew in that promised land, but for the time being, God sent His people manna, a highly nutritious daily bread from heaven, to sustain them.

There is so much for us to learn from this miracle of sustenance, sent from heaven. Whenever I read this story, I learn something new. God’s word is inexhaustible, and so is His grace and love for us. I see it throughout scripture, but especially in the story of the manna, sent to the Israelites. 

All that the Israelites went through collectively as a people, we go through individually in our personal walk of faith. Every believer experiences some type of wilderness period. It’s a part of our journey in life, but not our permanent dwelling. They were saved from their enemies and freed from the oppression of slavery in Egypt. God saved and fought for His people then and He still does today. They had many good times of dancing and rejoicing with thanksgiving for that miraculous deliverance.

We have had good times and given God thanksgiving for the deliverance and blessings we received. We have danced and rejoiced in the joyful times of our life, but we have also faced trials, similar to being in the wilderness, where we hunger for God’s provision in many different ways. God sees everything we go through, He hears us every time we call upon Him and with abundant compassion, He answers His people. 

It’s the way God sometimes answers us, that is hard to understand. The Israelites asked for food, but God sent them manna. It wasn’t the food they imagined. It wasn’t the roasted lamb with herbs, fresh veggies, or the breads they used to bake. It was a strange looking thin sweet wafer that appeared on the ground each day. They were instructed to gather as much as they wanted to eat, as their daily portion of food. 

God knows what we need, and can do anything, so His daily provision is always what we need. The manna tasted good, satisfied their hunger and contained every nutrient the human body needed for the day. Some have called it the bread of angels, and Jesus referred to it later, calling Himself the new bread from heaven. 

The miraculous manna sustained them, but they were warned against hoarding it. Some people tried to store enough to last longer than one day, but whatever they hoarded, became rotten. God intended for them to gather it once a day, as much as they could eat, but only day at a time. It was their daily portion, provided by God, who loves His people. 

We are also expected to gather our daily portion from God. The daily portion can be applied to so many areas of our life. We see this message of daily provision throughout scripture.

In the story of the widow who received a miracle provision of oil and flour, she also received it one day at a time. Jesus taught us not to worry about tomorrow because each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34) 

He was basically reminding us that our needs will be met, one day at a time. 

One day I asked the Lord why I have to ask each and every morning for that day’s inspiration, to write a meditation. Couldn’t He just give me a week’s worth of ideas at once? After I asked that question, a thought came to my heart saying, 

“I want you to come back every day.”

I learned through the stories like the manna and the widow’s oil and flour, that God wants each of us to come back and talk to Him every single day. He is saying to everyone, 

“I want you back.” Whatever God provides for us, He wants us to return to Him for more the next day. When we ask for our daily bread, we will receive our portion of His provision for that day. 

It can apply to whatever we need; a daily portion of physical well being, or peace of mind, or our spiritual nourishment for the day, and even meeting our financial needs. We also receive the daily portion of patience, mercy and endurance needed for the day. 

God loves us too much to give us a lump sum and have us come back once a week. He loves us so much, He wants us to communicate with Him every day, as He provides us with our daily bread.

Lord, thank you for our daily portion of sustenance and for loving us and providing all that we need today. We will come back each day and stay in communication with you, our daily bread. Amen