Moldy Bread

"This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is."  Joshua 9:12, NIV

Dear Colleagues and Friends, 
 
Ever accidentally found yourself eating some moldy bread?  Not too long ago I made a sandwich, bit into it, and thought, "I didn't know we had sour dough bread in the house."  When I looked at the bag that the bread came out of I realized it wasn't sour dough bread.  It was MOLDY bread.

 

In Joshua 9, the Gibeonites deceive the Israelites and get them to make a treaty with them instead of risking going to battle.  They pretend that they are from a far off land, that Joshua and the Israelites have nothing to worry about.  "They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy (Joshua 9:4-5), just to make it look like they came from far, far away.  They, however, hadn't come from far away at all.  They came from right next door.

 

Anyone try to feed you a moldy-bread-sandwich lately?  Are you carrying any moldy bread in your knap-sack, albeit unwittingly?

 

Sometimes we ministry leaders end up carrying bags and bags of it.

 

Ministry can be the hardest job in the world.  We work with the best of humanity as well as sometimes the worst.  We can get hurt, frustrated, disappointed, discouraged, forgotten, overwhelmed and otherwise just plain bent.

 

Will you pray for God to show you your moldy bread?

• Bad feelings and frustrations for your church.
• Wounds and hurts from just trying to be like Jesus.
• Anger at the conference, the system, or our colleagues.
• The pain from broken relationships.
• A desire for justice that doesn't come from Christ but from a desire for just plain vengeance.
• A yearning for success, not for the pure joy of making disciples, but so we can look good in front of our colleagues and thus feel better about ourselves.
• Etc., etc., etc.

When all we carry is moldy bread we can't taste Christ's Living Bread.  The Bread of Life wants to replace what you are carrying in your bag.

 

I am truly praying for you: that your soul may taste God's goodness even in the most hurtful place, so you can better meet the true hurt of the world.  Every now and then I wake up and realize I haven't really come that far at all and have so much farther to go.