Good Afternoon!
As you know today is Good Friday and the Lord led me to write the other day about Passover. I have celebrated Passover for two years now and I look forward to it every year. I do the full Passover supper which is the grape juice, the matzo or cracker, the bitter herbs which is horseradish, the charoset, a very delicious concoction of apple, cranberries, raisins, nuts, a little grape juice, and cinnamon! Also I use lettuce leaves to dip in the salt water or you can use parsley. I also like to light a candle as a reminder that Jesus is the light of the world and I am supposed to reflect His light. This is very basic I know, but I enjoy it and always pray right before I partake in the feast. As a Christian, Passover is for everyone, Jews and Christians, whoever has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Passover is for you! So without further a do, lets dig into the feast of Passover!
Passover was first established in the Old Testament when the Jews were slaves under the Egyptians. They were under a cruel government where the Jews were to work under some hard conditions and hard labor. After a while, they had come to a point where they had enough of the extreme working conditions so they began crying out to God for help. Now God knew what they were suffering, He saw everything, but it wasn't until they cried out that God began to move on their behalf. So He sent a man named Moses or Moshe (Hebrew name) to help them. The entire story is in Exodus chapter 12. The Egyptians suffered 10 plagues, the last one was the death angel and this is when God commanded the Jewish people to kill an unblemished lamb and put the blood on their door posts so that the death angel would pass over them.
So now we get to meaning of the different foods: matzo represents no sin, bread has leaven in it except for this type of bread or cracker. The Jews had to get rid of all leaven in their homes, all sin. Grape juice represents the blood of the Lamb, no disease, evil, harm, pain would come near the Jewish people. The bitter herbs represents the bitterness of their suffering under the Egyptians. The charoset represents mortar that they used to make bricks for the Egyptian monuments. The salt water represents their tears of suffering. Also there is a hidden mystery of the Matzo, there are three matzos used for Passover, one of them you break apart and hide one half. This represents the Messiah's body being risen from the grave. Interesting isn't it that this has been going on for thousands of years and it was a foreshadow of the things to come!
Now we fast forward to the New Testament when another Lamb came, but He came as a man and was completely perfect. No spot nor blemish. Heaven was brought down to us to save us from not only death, but from hell because of our sins. God had provided yet again salvation, but this time it was for all who believed! First time, it was for the Jews to save them from bondage in Egypt and this time it was for all from eternal destruction from our sinful nature. God called out Moses the first time, but the second time, He brought a Child all the way down the Jewish bloodline to give us salvation. Only God can do something like that! God performed miracles in the Old Testament and He performed another in the New Testament. The prophets spoke of a Messiah who was coming to take away the sin of the world and bring it upon Himself. He did that on the way to the cross, on the cross, and then rose from the grave. "The Lord watches over His word to perform it." Jeremiah 1:12 "God is not a man that He should lie." Numbers 23:19 Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice so that we wouldn't have to depend on sacrificing animals anymore. God made a way for you and I and it was because He loved us so much! Love is what propelled Jesus to become a sacrifice for us. He thought of us while He was on the cross. Every drop of blood was shed for you and I, none of it was wasted.
Friends, this is why it is so important to celebrate Passover, to remember what He did for us. To remember the cost that can never be repaid. He loved us that much and I pray that you will take a moment to remember all that He has done for your life. Let us not take our freedom in Christ for granted. Let us take time to remember the costly sacrifice. Happy Passover, Happy Good Friday, and Happy Resurrection Day! May God bless and keep you friends!
Good Evening Everyone!
I am back with a new blog post and just in time for the Sabbath! What is the Sabbath and why is it so important that our heavenly Father would mention and establish it in His word? Why are we commanded to keep the Sabbath? You may be saying to yourself, that's old testament stuff and that doesn't apply to me for today. My question is why do we take vacations or get away or travel or take sick days from work? When we are stressed out, the doctor recommends us to get some rest. My friends, God knew what He was doing when He established the Sabbath. If you are interested in learning more, keep reading, if not, you may leave and go back to whatever you were doing. Before we dive in, I have my cup of tea sitting beside me so go fix yours and let's get started!
What is the Sabbath, it simply means a day of rest and day to worship our Lord and Savior! When God began creating the universe, He took a break once He was finished by resting. Jesus said in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." So God blessed us by giving us a day to rest from work whether it be at the workplace or house work. God knows that we are human and we become burned out and tired so He gave us a day to rest so that He could refresh us. Now praise the Lord we have the weekend and we not only get one day to rest, but two! We also have holidays as well to rest! God is so good!
So you may be saying to yourself, okay so how do I keep the Sabbath if it's so important? Good question, on Friday when I get home from work, I like to tidy up my desk and room and get rid of any clutter that may stress me out. Cleaning up always makes me feel better because I can breathe and think clearly without seeing piles of stuff here and there. I like to get a good bath or shower in the evening. I also will play some praise and worship music to allow me to focus on the Lord. After dinner, I like to pray and partake in communion as a way to end the week with the Lord. I like to light candles or use my diffuser. Before bed, I like to read a passage of scripture before I drift off to sleep. Also, this should be no surprise, but I like to have a cup of tea!
So with that being said, I still dedicate my Sunday to the Lord after all it is the Lord's day. I try to prepare my heart that morning with prayer, reading my Bible, and praise and worship. I will go to church and for the rest of the day, it's usually pretty relaxed and slow. Toward the evening, I will prepare for the next day by laying out my outfit, preparing lunch, my bag, etc. So even though God told us to rest, He meant from the stresses and cares of this life. So please know that I am not saying you have to nothing all day. I understand that if you work a full time job, Saturday is usually the day to catch up on laundry, grocery shop, pay bills, etc. Saturday is usually the day that I will go in the morning to grocery shop, put gas in my car, etc. God knows that I need to have food during the week and gas in my car. What I try to do is while I am on my way to run my errands, I will either listen to a sermon, play worship music, or pray. God and I have a wonderful conversation in the car, I look forward to those times with Him because I am away from distractions. So my friends, I pray that you will be encouraged to treat your day of rest as a blessing from God and that you will bless God for giving you a day to rest! May God bless and keep you friends!
I hope everyone is doing well today and I hope you have had a good week! I have a brand new post that is going to be a series however the Lord leads me. I am very excited to write this series because it's a topic that is very dear to my heart! I have been waiting on the Lord to give me the words to tell more about discovering my Jewish roots. Now in this post, I am going to explain what Jewish roots are and why they matter to you. Now I know some people may not agree with this post, but I tell you that this is the truth and I only tell the truth as the Holy Spirit leads me. Before we go any further, I hope you have your cup of coffee or tea with you! Take a seat, put up your feet, and let's get started!
What are Jewish roots? I want you to picture a tree and think about the different parts of a tree. A tree has roots that go deep under the ground. When a farmer plants a tree, it starts with a seed and the seed begins to sprout and grows roots. Roots represent the beginning, but it starts with a seed so lets go back to the book of Genesis. In the beginning God created the earth and the entire universe and everything in it. He also created the first man named Adam and the first woman Eve. So there's our beginning, our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. Now fast forward a few chapters and we meet Abraham. Abraham lived in the land of Ur which is modern day Iraq/Iran area. God gave him a promise that He would have children as many as the stars. That includes you and I friends, he would have children that weren't just Jews, but also gentiles, the grafted in ones. Now at this time, this is where God confirms His promise to all humanity.
Okay, now we are fast forwarding to the time that Jesus was born. Jesus was indeed a Jew. How do I know that, His mother was Jewish and He grew up learning the Jewish customs such as going to school to learn Torah (the first five books of the Bible). He celebrated the Jewish festivals that include Passover, Feast of Trumpets, Pentecost, etc. God chose the Jewish people and through their lineage came the Messiah Jesus to come to save all humanities sins. When I read the different passages of scripture throughout the Bible, all I can think of is a wonderful love story between the Creator (God) and creation (you and I). You see God chose the Jewish people and then He chose the gentiles and we were grafted in His family tree. How are we grafted in you ask? That's a great question! We receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior and ask Him to come into our lives, through His precious blood, we are grafted into the family tree.
Now if you don't know how a tree is grafted in with another tree, let me explain this process. I actually learned this the other day and when the Lord spoke to my heart to begin writing about my Jewish roots, I knew He had been preparing me because everything fell into place over the last few days. So in my grandparents front yard, they have a beautiful persimmon tree. Little did I know that it is two trees grafted in together! She showed me the original tree that was already there, it grows persimmons, but smaller, but the one that they grafted in grows bigger persimmons. Even though the fruits are different in size, it is still the same fruit. Now picture this, the Jews are indeed a tree, but they are the original tree, our beginning and then here comes the gentiles, the grafted in tree, we are both growing together with the Lord and loving one another as we should. Isn't this amazing?! Oh it makes me excited to think about this because I know only God can make this happen!
My dear friends, if you have been wanting to dive deeper in the word of God concerning your Jewish roots, I encourage you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth because He certainly will! If He shows you something new, do not be afraid or ashamed, be open and excited on your new journey! Friends, it has always been God's will for Jew and gentile to come together as one. They are a people that have suffered greatly, but have also shown much kindness yet have been mistreated. I am not ashamed to say that I love the Jewish people, I have grown to love them more and more every day because of what God has shown me. They are truly a precious people and I am thankful that God developed a plan so that I can be grafted in to the great family tree! My friends, as I have said, there will be more posts to come about this topic and I pray that God will open your heart to His word to learn more about the Jewish people and your roots. I pray that this post blesses you and has opened up your heart to something new in the Lord. May God bless you and keep you! Until next time!
Good Evening Everyone!
I pray that you are all doing well today. I have been busy this week, but one of my goals for today was to get alone with the Lord and spend time with Him. I did that today for about an hour and let me tell you, I feel so refreshed and revived! I was caught up in all the troubles of today, but as soon as I got away to meet with the Lord, my countenance was changed! I want to encourage you today that if you are feeling down and out or about to throw in the towel, go find a quiet place somewhere and get alone with God. Take your Bible with you, a notebook, and a pen in case you need to write down anything He tells you. Today I wanted to hop on here and write about one of the fall feasts; Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah. Now you may thinking, what in the world is that? Oh I am so glad you asked, it means feast of trumpets! It's a feast where the trumpet or the shofar is blown 100 times in one day! A shofar is a ram's horn that the Jewish people blow every year on this special feast. Now I know we do not hear a lot about the fall feasts, but we need to hear more about them because they pertain to everyone who belongs to Jesus. In this post, I want to not only tell you what this special feast is about, but why it is important for you. Are you ready to dive in? Let's begin!
As I said, Rosh Hashanah is the feast of trumpets, the shofar is being blown all day long. Now I want you to think with me for a moment. Why would someone need to blow a trumpet? Well a trumpet is a loud instrument and in history it was used during war. If the enemy was closing in on the camp site, they would blow a trumpet to wake up the soldiers. In God's word, it says that when the rapture takes place, the trumpet will sound. Why? To wake people up, to let them know that the Lord is coming and to be ready for His arrival. Rosh Hashanah is all about waking people up and calling them to repentance. I am reminded of what John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matt. 4:17 Friends, I want you to know that it is time to get ready for our departure from this world to God's kingdom. I don't know about you, but I am glad that this world isn't my home and that I am just passing through. Do you not find it odd that in the past two years, the Lord has been shaking up everything that can be shaken? He says in His word that He will and He has been doing it frequently over the past two years.
Why is He doing this you ask? To let us know that this is not our home and to get ready for His arrival. He is calling us all back to repentance, to His altar, to make sure that our hearts are ready for Him. Rosh Hashanah started this past Monday evening and ended Wednesday evening. The shofars have been sounded, my question is can you hear the Lord's call? Can you hear Him calling His people back to holiness again? Can you hear Him pleading with the hearts of His people to return to their first love? He loved us first and if we are running after the lovers of this world which would be anything that has taken His place in your heart. Friends, I have been wanting to write a blog post about this wonderful feast and today, He allowed me to write it. He is calling each and every one of us back to His bosom. I know it's the popular vote of this culture, but I would rather be right with Him than man. If God is for us than who can be against us? Romans 8:31 Friends, eternity is a long time, where are you going to spend it? Are you going to spend in the heavenly courts of our Lord and Savior or are you going to spend it in eternal destruction? The choice is yours, choose life for it says in John 14:6, "I Am the way, the truth, and the life."
Remember this, Jesus has already fulfilled the Spring feasts and He will fulfill the Fall feasts soon! Friends, I pray that you make Him your top priority today, I pray that you make all things right between you and the Lord. He's waiting for those to answer His call today, will you answer Him today? You will not regret this important decision in fact, you will reap peace, joy, and pure gladness! Rosh Hashanah is the first fall feast and then comes Yom Kippur, and the Sukkot. I will do blog posts on these two wonderful feasts soon! I will also explain how God put these feasts in divine order and they go hand in hand. I pray that this blog post has encouraged you and will help you to prepare your heart for the coming of our Great King! May God bless you and keep you! Until next time!
Good Morning Friends!
I hope everyone is doing well this week! This evening is the beginning of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. In this blog post, I want to explain what is Yom Kippur and why it matters to you. For Yom Kippur this year, I have decided to celebrate this sacred day by partaking in communion. Yom Kippur reminds me of a day of reflection of looking back over the year at what I have done, what I can do better and I usually set some spiritual goals for myself such as drawing closer to the Lord even more for the next year. We just celebrated Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish new year. Rosh Hashanah is a time to prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord and Yom Kippur is also a time to prepare your heart. If you would like to find out more about this sacred day, keep reading. I hope you have your cup of coffee or tea before we expound more on this topic? Let's begin!
Yom Kippur is considered a sacred day in the Jewish calendar. It always has been since the time of high priest in the Old Testament. Every year, the high priest would go into the Holy of holies on this sacred day. The high priest would have to make an atonement for the nation of Israel for all their sins and the priest would have to make sure he wasn't guilty of any sin. If he was and he entered the Holy of holies, he would die right there and they would have to pull him out by a rope tied around his ankle. Talk about major pressure, but when you are coming before the King of kings, you had to make sure all your P's and Q's were crossed. God would judge the nation of Israel according to their works every year. If they obeyed His commandments then they would prosper and be rewarded in the coming year. If they didn't, God would judge them and they would be humbled .
Do you see a pattern here? There is coming a great day for all of us on this earth that we will have to stand before the Father one on one and answer for our life on earth. God will judge us according to our works on earth? Everything we think, say, or do is recorded in heaven and unless we have asked the Lord to forgive us, we will answer for all those things. Now Jesus' blood was the atonement for our sins, praise the Lord! Otherwise, if it hadn't had been for Jesus, we would have to kill a goat or sheep for Yom Kippur. The Jews usually fast from sun down to sun down on the next day for Yom Kippur. Now what is the reason for fasting on this high and holy day? They believe that fasting can avert and atone for their sins. Now we of course have the blood of Jesus to atone for our sins, but if you are led by the Holy Spirit to fast, you most certainly can. I like to fast sometimes because it refocuses my attention on the Lord. I have nothing against fasting, I always try to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
So, you may be asking, what does all this have to do with me? I am so glad you asked! Friends, the Day of Atonement is a shadow of what is to come. There will be a judgement day for all, no one is exempt. The time we have left on this earth will determine our heavenly reward or eternal destruction. How we live on this earth and treat others matters to the Lord. He watches our every move, He sees every motive in our heart. Also, when we leave this earth, the only thing we are taking with us is our relationship with the Lord. Why is that the only thing we are taking? Our relationship with God is eternal and our knowing Him, truly knowing Him will go with us. This is why Jesus says in Matt. 7:21-23, "Depart from Me you worker of iniquity for I never knew you." How come He never knew you because you didn't take time to cultivate a relationship with Him on earth. Friends, this is so important to the Lord, He wants us to know Him and He wants to know us. After all, look at everything that He has done for us! He has done more than enough for us and for that I am grateful!
So, friends, as the Yom Kippur is approaching, will you prepare your heart for this holy and sacred day. God may be calling you to do something and He's waiting on your answer. Do you hear Him knocking on the door of your heart? He said, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him. Revelation 3:20 Don't miss your invitation today. Will you open the door of your heart to Him, will you let Him come into your heart today and change the things that need to be changed? Friends, He is waiting on our response to His call? Will we answer His call with a yes? Let Him come and do what you cannot do, let Him have your whole heart fully committed to Him. He loves you child of God and He wants to give you life today. I pray that this blog post has blessed you and encouraged you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Until next time!
Chag Sameach Sukkot Friends!
Hello Friends, Happy Festival of Sukkot to you! Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles began Monday evening and it is celebrated for 7 days. I absolutely love the Jewish feasts and I love learning about them. Every year, I learn something new and this year, I definitely learned something new about Sukkot! Sukkot is a feast about joy and celebration and I will explain why in a few paragraphs. Sukkot is of course one of the fall feasts and it hasn't been fulfilled by Jesus yet. Just as He fulfilled the first 4 Spring feasts, He will fulfill the 3 fall feasts. (I plan to do a blog post on the Purim a little later, I have do my research and study a little bit more before I begin writing about it.) If you cannot already tell, I am excited about writing this blog post! So I hope you are ready to learn with me as we journey through the Feast of Tabernacles! By the way, you may want a cup of tea or coffee. So without further ado, let's begin our journey!
So, if we go back to the Old Testament to Leviticus chapter 23 verses 40 and 42-43, we see where God is commanding the children of Israel to build sukkahs. Now what is a sukkah? A sukkah is a tent made of palm branches, willow branches, and fruit. I have seen some pictures of impressive sukkahs over the last few days. The Jewish people will live and dwell in the sukkah for seven days. They usually have a table in the middle so they can dine and eat together enjoying each other's company. Sukkot is a time of joy and peace, rest from their hard labor from the harvesting the wheat, the last of the fruits and vegetation. Friends, there's more to this feast and it definitely matters to you! God made a promise to the prophets and it's stated throughout the Bible. In Acts chapter 17 verse 24 He says, "The God who made the universe and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth and He doesn't live in temples built by man's hands." Okay friends, I really want you to pay close attention to this verse. If we look back to the old testament, God dwelt with man, but in tents or sukkahs. Now that Christ has come and made the ultimate sacrifice, God doesn't want to dwell in tents like in the wilderness anymore.
There is a clue in the beginning of Genesis. When God created Adam and Eve, He walked and talked with them daily. Did they dwell in tents? Not that we are aware of, God says, He walked and talked with them daily. Genesis 3:8 God's greatest desire has been and always will be to dwell with us. He wants to be close to us, but this time not in a tent. He wants to be closer than that, He wants to dwell in your heart, your mind, your entire being. That's pretty much up close and personal don't you think? Do you see a pattern in these feasts? God wants to be close to us, to dwell in us, to commune with us. He longs for that up close and personal relationship with us. It's His biggest and most precious desire. Oh don't you just love God, He always goes above and beyond anything we could ever think of or ask! Friends, won't you let Him open the door to your sukkah today? Your sukkah which is temporary dwelling is your mortal body. That is your tent, you will not take your body with you when you leave this earth, you will be given a new body. A new sukkah, an eternal sukkah! I can't even begin to imagine what that day will look like, pure joy and peace!
Now let's bring this feast home! When the angel of the Lord blows the trumpet on that great day, we will go and be with Jesus in heaven. Then we will be judged according to our works on this earth and then here comes the best part! We will celebrate, rejoice in the Lord. We will come to His supper table and dine with Him! Sukkot is a picture of the coming wedding feast with Jesus! Think about a wedding, it's joyful day, a day of celebration of the bride and groom, so will be the heavenly wedding feast. Friends, God is saying to us today, this is my love story and I want you to be apart of it! He has such a love for His people and He is writing this beautiful love story between Him and His bride! How can we not celebrate and rejoice! His greatest delight to be with His beautiful bride!
My friends, I have truly cherished the time to study this feast and to write about this feast! It has been a true delight and it I give all the glory and honor to God because He is the One who inspired this blog and all the blog posts I have written. Without Him, I can do nothing, without Him, I wouldn't know anything about the wonderful feasts that I have written about. I pray that this blog post has blessed you, encouraged you, and inspired you to move forward in your relationship with God. I pray that you will go deeper in Him, in His love for you. I pray that you will want to know Him more and more! I pray that He will give you a great hunger for Him and that you will begin to tell others about what He has done for you. May the Lord live and reign in your hearts forever more! May the Lord bless you and keep you and may you rejoice in the Lord during Sukkot and even afterwards! Chag Sameach Sukkot friends! (Happy Festival of Sukkot!) Until next time!
* I am planning on writing another blog post about the celebration of the Torah and explain what this means to us so be looking for that one!
Good Morning Everyone!
Praise the Lord, it is Friday and I cannot believe we are already in October! My goodness, this year has really zipped by! I have a new blog post for you today and it's about a special day where the Jewish people celebrate the Torah! This special day is called Simchat Torah which means rejoicing with the Torah. This day started on Tuesday Sept. 28 and then ended on Wednesday Sept. 29. On this day, the Rabbis will bring out the Torah scrolls and walk around with them at the synagogue 7 times followed by children waving flags and people dancing behind them. It kind of reminds me of a parade, but there is lots of singing and dancing, a lot of joy! You may not know this, but they read the parsha which is torah portion every week each year and it starts over on this day every year. A torah portion is a few chapter readings out of the Old Testament which is the Law of Moses then the prophet readings which is Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc. Then there's a portion that the messianic Jews will read in the New Testament. I choose to follow the Messianic torah portion which is reading the Law of Moses, the prophet readings, and the New Testament which piggybacks off each other. So why should we know about this special day? What does it have to do with us? Well if you would like to read more then read on to find out! Oh and I hope you have your favorite cup of coffee or tea, let's begin!
Friends, as I began researching this special day, it hit me, this special day includes me too. Why, because I also read God's word and I treasure my quiet time every day to go and spend time reading my Bible! I will usually read one of my devotionals in the morning with my Bible drinking my cup of coffee. Then in the afternoon or evening time when I get home from work and after everything is finished, I will fix me a cup of tea and pull out my Bible and begin to read. Friends, I cherish this time with the Lord, it's one the things that I look forward to and can't wait to do especially after a long day! The Lord began showing me that every time we open up His word to read, it is a celebration because His word is living. The more His word gets on the inside of us, the more joy we will have and then we have to tell someone about it! Have you ever read a scripture that pertained to you or something you were dealing with? Did it catch you by surprise? If the answer is yes, then friends, that is truly something to celebrate! You will want to tell others about what you are reading and you will want them to relish in the joy with you!
God's word is truly a celebration every day even if you are expecting it or not. God's word is eternal and everlasting, it has lasted for thousands and thousands of generations and it is still here today! Now that calls for a celebration! Think about all the civilizations or governments that have not survived because of the lack of God's word in their lives. When we are reverencing God's word, He will honor His word and preserve and keep us. Now as you know, God's word is not popular today, we are too busy trying to be politically correct and we are trying to fix problems that only can be fixed with God's word. The problem that you are seeing in our world today is not social, political, or anything of this world, it's spiritual. What do I mean by this? I am saying because we have placed God on the back burner and His word, our world has been on the brink of disaster. Why, because we have not kept first things first which is our relationship with the Lord and we are not allowing His word to govern our lives therefore our world is crumbling bit by bit.
So friends with that being said, let us begin thinking about how God's word should be a celebration in our lives and not a duty. It should be a joy to come and read His word for without His word, we would all be nonexistent. He is the One who spoke us into existence with His word. We have so much to celebrate, His word, our salvation, our relationship with Him, His mercy and grace! Let us give praises and adoration for giving us His word to study it, speak it, and use it for the glory of God! May the Lord bless you and keep you. Until next time!
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