{"id":41147,"date":"2026-07-29T22:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=41147"},"modified":"2026-07-29T23:07:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:07:01","slug":"2026-source","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2026-source\/","title":{"rendered":"The Source of Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Each week in synagogue, Jews read through the\u00a0<em>Torah<\/em>\u00a0from Genesis to Deuteronomy.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>The\u00a0<em>Torah\u00a0<\/em>portion for this week is\u00a0<em>Eikev<\/em>, which means \u201cBecause,\u201d from Deuteronomy 7:12\u201311:25.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41148 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-1-e1785391556201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Soon after each of my children learned to talk, my husband and I began teaching them Jewish prayers and blessings. Like Christians, we teach our kids to thank God for our food before we eat. However, in the Jewish tradition, we have specific blessings for each particular food group. There are distinct blessings for vegetables, fruit, bread, and more.<\/p>\n<p>One of my children asked a very good question when I taught her the blessing that we say before we eat bread. The blessing recognizes God as, \u201cHe who brings forth bread from the land.\u201d But, as my daughter pointed out, bread doesn\u2019t grow from the ground like vegetables, or grow on trees like fruit. Why do we thank God for bread? Don\u2019t people make bread?<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41149 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-2-300x209.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-2-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-2.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In this week\u2019s\u00a0<em>Torah<\/em>\u00a0portion, we read that God fed the people manna in the desert \u201c<strong><em>to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD<\/em>.<\/strong>\u201d When the Israelites ate the miraculous manna, it was easy to appreciate the food as coming directly from God. It literally fell from heaven and had supernatural qualities.<\/p>\n<p>However, when it comes to bread, God\u2019s role is not as obvious. The manna was intended to teach all generations that while it may appear at times as though we are sustained by our own hard work or a stroke of good luck, the source of our sustenance is always God. His will and His benevolence are what sustain us.<\/p>\n<p>This is why we acknowledge God for bringing bread from the ground. It is God who gave man the ability to take wheat from the ground and turn it into bread. Ultimately, God is still the source of the food.<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41150 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-3-e1785391373638.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I want to encourage us all to give praise and thanks to God today for all that we have, all that we can do, and all of the amazing achievements that God has allowed us to accomplish. Let\u2019s recognize God as the source of it all and give glory to His great name.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Deuteronomy 8:3<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41151 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/source-4-e1785391475398.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each week in synagogue, Jews read through the\u00a0Torah\u00a0from Genesis to Deuteronomy.\u00a0The\u00a0Torah\u00a0portion for this week is\u00a0Eikev, which means \u201cBecause,\u201d from Deuteronomy 7:12\u201311:25. Soon after each of my children learned to talk, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-41147","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41152,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/41147\/revisions\/41152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41147"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=41147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}