In the early days of my ministry there sat on my desk a small note pad with the word, \u201cMemo\u201d on top of each page (short for Memorandum). It was a means of communication. Under the word \u201cMemo\u201d were the words: \u201cTo\u201d and \u201cFrom\u201d and \u201cDate\u201d and \u201cRe:\u201d (short for Regarding). In those days I was a university campus minister with students serving each summer as Summer Missionaries. I began to send them a Memo every Monday morning of their summer, as a spiritual jump-start for the week. It became known as \u201cDan\u2019s Monday Morning Memo.\u201d So now you know the origin of what is now known as \u201cDr. Dan\u2019s Monday Morning Memo.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the coming of E-mail, Facebook, Text Messaging, etc. very few people use a Memo pad any longer. So it is time for a name change. But as I looked for a new, modern, current word, I was drawn back to an even older word. In the Old Testament days, as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God provided daily nourishment for them, called \u201cManna.\u201d
\nManna was provided each morning, enough just for that day, except on the sixth day when two days\u2019 supply was provided, so as not to violate a Sabbath law (Exodus 16:23-24). \u201cManna\u201d is a Hebrew word described in the Bible as \u201ca small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground\u201d (Exodus 16:14) and further, \u201cit was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey\u201d (Exodus 16:31). Its provision was described as, \u201cwhen the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it\u201d (Numbers 11:9). The Scripture says, \u201cthey gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted\u201d (Exodus 16:21). Numbers 11:8 adds, \u201cPeople went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it.\u201d Exodus 16:15 tells us that \u201cwhen the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, \u2018What is it?\u2019 For they did not know what it was\u201d. The word \u201cmanna\u201d is believed to have been derived from the question \u201cman hu\u201d meaning \u201cwhat is it.\u201d Moses informed them, \u201cThis is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat\u201d (Exodus 16:15). This provision of manna continued for forty years until the Israelites reached the promise land (Exodus 16:35) after which a small amount was kept in a golden pot in the Tabernacle (Exodus 16:32-34).<\/p>\n
In the biblical days following, the Psalmist wrote that God, \u201crained down manna on them to eat, and gave them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels\u2019 food\u201d (Psalm 78:24-25). The disciples reminded Jesus, \u201cOur fathers ate the manna in the desert\u201d (John 6:31). The writer of Hebrews wrote of \u201cthe ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna\u201d (Hebrews 9:4). Through the years of Christian history, manna has been a symbol of God\u2019s divine provision of spiritual nourishment.
\nThus, \u201cDr. Dan\u2019s Monday Morning Memo\u201d has become \u201cDr. Dan\u2019s Monday Morning Manna.\u201d Changes are coming soon to the web and blog sites. It will be provided only on Monday morning rather than daily as in Exodus, the reason being partly because I do not have enough manna for daily provision and partly because I do not have time to prepare it on a daily basis. Eventually I hope to compile these writings into a book of 365 daily meditations, possibly entitled, \u201cMorning Manna Meditations.\u201d But that\u2019s for another day. Today, enjoy your manna.<\/p>\n
Join me in praying for the following global concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for Lew and Brandi and their possible 2 week trip to Morocco this month.
\n\u2022 Pray for Patricia as she continues her Scripture translation work in Cameroon, West Africa.
\n\u2022 Pray for Mike and Pam as they continue language study and seek to encourage believers in Serbia.
\n\u2022 Pray for Trey and Elise as they serve as missionaries-in-residence at Oklahoma Baptist University before returning to Slovakia in the summer.
\n\u2022 Pray for this week\u2019s Vision Tour in Vancouver, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the early days of my ministry there sat on my desk a small note pad with the word, \u201cMemo\u201d on top of each page (short for Memorandum). It was a means of communication. Under the word \u201cMemo\u201d were the words: \u201cTo\u201d and \u201cFrom\u201d and \u201cDate\u201d and \u201cRe:\u201d (short for Regarding). In those days I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}