Meat for the Hungry

timothy-eberly-wnrxQGBhbh8-unsplash YOU ARE NOT ALONE March 16 th will be week four of our all-church study on the Book of Job. It’s been great so far. Still, I can’t wait until we arrive at the final five chapters. In them, we will see the LORD’s resplendent and reassuring omnipotence. Nevertheless, the beginning chapters of Job are not comforting. They’re ominous, sort of how some think of March 15 th .  So, let’s take a short detour.   Did you know the 15 th day of March is also known as the Ides of March? Maybe “you’ve…heard the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s play of the same name: ‘ Beware the Ides of March …’” [1] immortalizing the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BC. However, originally, “…Ides simply referred to the first full moon of a given month. Since the Roman calendar was based on lunar cycles, a full moon usually fell between the 13th and 15 th . In fact, the Ides of March once signified the new year…” [2] ...

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God…. [1] You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh… [2] So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands… [3] Oh Lord God, we look to You for healing, comfort, and wisdom. For it is in...

Candlelight pierces the blackness of night creating a comforting glow in the darkness of heartbreak. The warm flicker of a single candle soothes our soul and symbolizes hope. Hope for a missing child, a killer convicted, a social injustice righted, or that someone somewhere will make sense out of a senseless tragedy. I don’t know when candlelight vigils and memorials first began or even who invented the concept, but I know a feeling of hope washes over us as we gather together with candles. Have you ever wondered why? Not why do we gather, but why do we use candles in the night?

Once again, evil rears its ugly head and we ask why. Why would anyone rig such vicious bombs? The intent was clear. They did it first to slaughter and maim. Bombs exploding at the finish line of the Boston Marathon were sure to take lives and cause optimal damage. What the second reason was we can only hope to learn. But will discovering their motive prevent this type of evil? With citizens and survivors reeling from the bombing, two days later a fertilizer plant explosion blasted Waco, Texas, killing even more. Now in its deafening echo, we see destroyed homes, altered landscape, and people forever changed. As if these two were not enough, we also received reports of dangerous flooding in the Mid West. Tragedy, catastrophe, and natural disaster all in one week and this is only in our country. Daily devastating news from around the world pummels our heart. Pain, sadness and fear secure a stranglehold that only God can break.