Resources

Do you know where I can find some Hebraic insights on ___ ?

Lois Tverberg

Dear readers,

Over the years, one of the most common questions I’m asked is, “Do you know where can I get some insights on ____ from a Hebraic perspective?”

…the Lord’s Prayer?
…Jewish wedding traditions?
…Paul’s words about being a “fragrant offering”?
…the parable of the Ten Virgins?
…Psalm 23?

If I’ve got time, I try to respond and share a link or two from my writing or from a good source I’ve read.

One day I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I could give people a “Hebraic Studies Search Bar”? There are about a half-dozen sites that are my short-list when someone asks me a question like this. They have an abundance of articles that specialize on the Hebraic context of Christianity, but are quite readable for non-experts. Of course they include ones with my own writing, but some of my colleagues and mentors have shared a lot of material too.

Well, I have a little gift for you. I made a “Google Custom Search” bar that does this very thing. If you go to the EnGediResourceCenter.com search page, the bar searches just the short list. (The sites are listed on the EnGedi search page.)

Try it out!

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I thought it did quite a good job of pulling up pertinent articles, and I like to use it myself. It’s not comprehensive, but you can always go back to Google.

~ Lois

Give Us Our Daily Bread

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

He will give the rain for your land in its season, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil, and you will eat and be satisfied. Deuteronomy 11:14-15, edited.

The line from the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread” is a line that most Americans can hardly relate to. We may guess that “bread” was representational of food in general, so the text is talking about the provision we need for life each day. But we are so amply supplied that we can’t imagine praying that prayer.

Rev. Stephen Kaziimba, who came to our area from Uganda has been teaching us otherwise about how much of the world hears these words. After he had been in Michigan for a year, he was asked what he would remember longest from being here. His reply was, “All my life, I will never forget having this one year when I did not need to worry about food.”

I was dumbfounded by that statement, that a good friend could come from a place where such basic necessities were unmet. He pointed out that in America we have food but no appetite, but where he comes from, people have appetite but no food. In his country, “Give us our daily bread” is a heartfelt prayer, expressing the continual worry of most people.

Now, when I read the Scriptures, I see that his perspective is more close to that of the Bible than mine is. One of God’s promises that the Israelites would have heard as a great blessing was that they “will eat and be satisfied.” To have enough to be full was a blessing from the Lord, and to be fat was a sign of beauty and bounty. As one who is a little overweight, it shows me both that God has abundantly blessed me, and that I’m not doing enough to share the blessings with others in need.

Sometimes the best way to pray a prayer is to live the prayer. Now, whenever I hear the words “Give us our daily bread” it will remind me to to not overbuy food when I go shopping, to not order huge portions in restaurants, and to eat my leftovers before they go bad. And most of all, it will remind me to be thankful for the abundant food we have and to be mindful of the needs of others.

Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash