Posts
Freedom isn't free, and I have found a greater understanding of that statement.
Last weekend I decided to clear out all the Christmas decorations that have been more than a lifetime of collecting. Some things were from my mothers childhood, my childhood and my children s, so there was a whole closet full of 'things.'
There was a large Angel collection and several Nativity sets of various designs. Some things I had set as treasures in my mind. But....they are all gone now. I am freed from the bondage of having to perform because it is expected of me, (decorating my house).
I am freed from the clutter of a collection I really had no room for. (Now I have a closet to store clothes in). I am freed from feeling that my possessions were crossing the line to becoming idolatry. I AM FREED!! I can't explain this feeling of being lighter, but I have shaken off a burden I didn't realize I was carrying. It is fantastic!
I still love what Christmas stands for but I'm not bound to one day of one month of the year. Christ should be celebrated every day and I intend to do just that.
I have much to celebrate. God's gift of His Son, Christ's taking my punishment on himself, His resurrection and the Holy Spirit's prompting me to accept it all.
Praise God for His Salvation!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This morning I finished reading about Hanukkah and really loved your paragraph about "religion." That is so good, and I've never heard it described like that. I used to cringe when a friend would call me 'religious' and wish I could have shared that thought with her. Thank you for the insight.
I must say that I cried through some of it as God spoke to me. I guess I have never understood praying for Jerusalem before. I'm not sure my brain can handle all the directions God is taking my thoughts in such a short time. WOW!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
First Installement -
Hanukkah - The Miracle of God's Love
Part 1 - http://EzineArticles.com/?id=3375280
New Booklet: Celebrating God's Love, Hanukkah & Christmas, Fact & Fiction
Part 1 - http://EzineArticles.com/?id=3375280
New Booklet: Celebrating God's Love, Hanukkah & Christmas, Fact & Fiction
Monday, October 19, 2009
People are saying....
Have just started reading the book and am so blessed by it--it is the type of book I will read over and over and study various portions, looking up the scriptures. There were stunning insights in it, am particularly enjoying the chapter on New Moon,... which is all new. It is enlarging my vision and understanding of our God, Christ, and the Kingdom! LR (Portland, OR)
Hi Joan: Just getting into the book. Lots to think about. CS (Portland, OR)
Wow! I had some quiet time last night to sit and read... Wonderful! I laughed and cried! I love how you have interjected your own experience and humour! I so much enjoy the presentation, the writing style and the organization, including the divisions, fonts etc. Makes it so easy to follow and to learn from. After the intro chapters I decided to go right to the 'season' we are in and read all about the King fulfillment... Shabbat Shalom sister! NS (Canada)
Hi Joan: Just getting into the book. Lots to think about. CS (Portland, OR)
Wow! I had some quiet time last night to sit and read... Wonderful! I laughed and cried! I love how you have interjected your own experience and humour! I so much enjoy the presentation, the writing style and the organization, including the divisions, fonts etc. Makes it so easy to follow and to learn from. After the intro chapters I decided to go right to the 'season' we are in and read all about the King fulfillment... Shabbat Shalom sister! NS (Canada)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Feasting Around the World
PUBLISHED IN THE CHRISTIAN EDITION OF THE JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 2, 2009
FEASTING AROUND THE WORLD
-by Kasey Bar
Across the globe – in Chatsworth, England; Panajachel, Guatemala; Devenport, Tasmania; Hyderabad, India; Melbourne, Florida, and hundreds of other locations – Christians are gearing up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in a town near you.
Jerusalem is of course the most coveted location for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot, and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has been sponsoring a week-long spectacular there each year since its inception in September 1980. That ground-breaking celebration quickly grew into Israel’s largest annual tourist event, with more than 5,000 Christian regularly attending, coming from over 100 nations of the globe.
The success of that event appears to have spawned a growing number of Feast gatherings worldwide that today involve tens of thousands of Christian celebrants, some of whom may never have the privilege of pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
“Being in the body of Christ... enables us to experience the Feast of Tabernacles in unity, harmony and joy as if we were all at one site,” said Ryan Denee of the Restored Church of God, which will be holding a Sukkot gathering again this year.
“Due to the socio-political situation in Honduras, we are not going to be able to attend this year’s Feast in Jerusalem,” said Fabiola Radriguez de Vieytez of Honduras, who has missed only two Feasts in Jerusalem since 1984. “But we think that is it important to never forget the faithfulness of our God, through every situation that we pass in our lives and we will be celebrating the Feast locally with Pastor Evelio Reyes of Vida Abundante [Abundant Life] in Tegucigalpa,” she recently told The Christian Edition.
How many feasts will there be this year? According the Web site www.feastgoer.org, there are at least 200 public Christian celebrations of the Feast in nearly 100 different countries spanning the breadth of the globe. This statistic represents only organized events that have been widely advertised. The number of locations is likely much greater when one includes informal celebrations and unpublicized observances by churches and ministries throughout the world.
FeastGoer is a Web venture dedicated to connecting Christians with biblical Feast celebrations in their respective areas. They state that they “believe the God-given feasts are entirely relevant to the Christian today and teach so much about God and Jesus Christ that they cannot be overlooked and relegated to the past.”
But for centuries of Christian history, that is exactly what happened. Both the Old and New Testaments reveal the Feast of Tabernacles as a corporate celebration. However, in the Fourth Century, when Constantine became emperor of Rome, he forced both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus to give up any ties with Judaism, Jewish practices and the Hebrew calendar under the threat of imprisonment or death. All of the biblical holidays and feasts were either replaced by separate holidays or rejected entirely.
Over the ensuing centuries, Christians drifted further and further from their Hebraic roots to the point that contemporary Christianity had lost touch with the Biblical feasts that Jesus himself had faithfully observed.
It was in the 19th century that certain Christian leaders were moved by a deep desire to reconnect to Israel and in fact they had a great impact upon Zionism. In the US, Protestant minister William E. Blackstone circulated a petition in 1892 to urge the US to reestablish a Jewish state in Palestine. Meanwhile in Europe, Rev. William Hechler, chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna, became a close friend of Theodore Herzl, the father of the modern Zionist movement. With the establishment of the state of Israel, Christians began looking at Biblical references to Israel more practically, including the Divine call to keep the appointed feasts “forever, throughout the generations” (Leviticus 23:41).
For example, noted writer Basilea Schlink, co-founder of the Evangelical order of the Sisters of Mary, arranged to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in 1946 with local Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in her hometown of Darmstadt, Germany. But the practice did not become a mainstream Christian event until the early 1980s when the Christian Embassy began hosting their international Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
Since its inception in 1980, the ICEJ has faithfully encouraged pilgrims from all nations to join them in Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical feast of the Ingathering. This is in anticipation of the prophecy spoken of in Zechariah 14:16 that all the nations will one day come up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
This event has become the signal Christian Zionist gathering in Israel each year, and what began in Jerusalem 30 years ago has now spread throughout the world. The ICEJ’s Feasts have always featured not only strong biblical messages on Israel and the Church, but also Hebraic worship, Davidic dance, artistic banners and other innovations that have now been duplicated far and wide.
“It's really not a tourist event. It is indeed a celebration of God's love, an expression of the diverse and united Kingdom of God, and a statement of God's faithfulness to Israel,” said Rev. Malcolm Hedding, Executive Director of the ICEJ.
It is true that there is no other site like Jerusalem, yet the message of Sukkot reverberates across borders and continents, demonstrating that no matter where Christians are located, they indeed share the same inspirations.
Vieytez says what she enjoys most is the Communion services conducted at the Feast celebrations in Jerusalem and now in her native Honduras. “We have the opportunity to share in unity no matter our language, or race, or anything else,” she said.
“A corporate celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles is an acknowledgement that all of us together represent the 'tabernacle of God' among men,” said Pastor Bob Summerville of Hunstville, Alabama, who has a long-time teaching ministry on the Hebraic roots of Christianity and conducts observances of Jewish festivals for Christians.
“God gave the holidays for His purpose, to both Jews and Gentiles, to help us see God and understand His plan of redemption,” said Joan Lipis, author of the new book, Celebrate Jesus: A Christian Perspective of the Biblical Feasts. She will be touring the US over the High Holy Days to encourage people to celebrate the festivals of Israel in order to better understand Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
Lipis told The Christian Edition that in the past, she tried to spend every Feast in Israel, but now wishes to share the message of the feasts with the world in their own area and with respect to their own cultures and traditions. This year she will be observing the Feast of Tabernacles in Portland, Oregon. “When we come together to celebrate the Feast in our different cultures and different traditions but according to God’s calendar, we are demonstrating to the world, and the powers and the principalities, our diversity yet unity in the one new man, Christ Jesus,” said Lipis, just as the prophet Nehemiah wrote that “all the people assembled as one man” at Sukkot. Thus for Christians around the world, it should be a natural step to assemble as one body in observance of the Feast, she said.
In her book Lipis explains, “The Kingdom community consists of people of every tribe, nation, and language. Like the Word of God itself, the Kingdom transcends any one culture. We are enriched as we share our various styles of worship and celebration.”
Sukkot, Tabernacles, Booths – the very name of the celebration represents the command to the ancient Israelites to build “temporary dwellings” to commemorate their times of wandering in the Wilderness, dependent on God for their daily sustenance and waiting to enter the Promised Land. For Christians today this expectation has again become very relevant, as they come together in anticipation of the day prophesied by Zechariah when all the nations will come up to Jerusalem and worship the Lord.
Even as thousands of Christians attend the Feast celebrations in Jerusalem this year, tens of thousands more will be gathering in locations throughout the world to join in this time of rejoicing in God’s faithfulness. They will be dancing to their own rhythms and singing and teaching in their own languages, but also worshiping with one heart and thereby demonstrating that the message of Sukkot is not lost in translation, but rather proven by it.
FEASTING AROUND THE WORLD
-by Kasey Bar
Across the globe – in Chatsworth, England; Panajachel, Guatemala; Devenport, Tasmania; Hyderabad, India; Melbourne, Florida, and hundreds of other locations – Christians are gearing up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in a town near you.
Jerusalem is of course the most coveted location for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot, and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has been sponsoring a week-long spectacular there each year since its inception in September 1980. That ground-breaking celebration quickly grew into Israel’s largest annual tourist event, with more than 5,000 Christian regularly attending, coming from over 100 nations of the globe.
The success of that event appears to have spawned a growing number of Feast gatherings worldwide that today involve tens of thousands of Christian celebrants, some of whom may never have the privilege of pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
“Being in the body of Christ... enables us to experience the Feast of Tabernacles in unity, harmony and joy as if we were all at one site,” said Ryan Denee of the Restored Church of God, which will be holding a Sukkot gathering again this year.
“Due to the socio-political situation in Honduras, we are not going to be able to attend this year’s Feast in Jerusalem,” said Fabiola Radriguez de Vieytez of Honduras, who has missed only two Feasts in Jerusalem since 1984. “But we think that is it important to never forget the faithfulness of our God, through every situation that we pass in our lives and we will be celebrating the Feast locally with Pastor Evelio Reyes of Vida Abundante [Abundant Life] in Tegucigalpa,” she recently told The Christian Edition.
How many feasts will there be this year? According the Web site www.feastgoer.org, there are at least 200 public Christian celebrations of the Feast in nearly 100 different countries spanning the breadth of the globe. This statistic represents only organized events that have been widely advertised. The number of locations is likely much greater when one includes informal celebrations and unpublicized observances by churches and ministries throughout the world.
FeastGoer is a Web venture dedicated to connecting Christians with biblical Feast celebrations in their respective areas. They state that they “believe the God-given feasts are entirely relevant to the Christian today and teach so much about God and Jesus Christ that they cannot be overlooked and relegated to the past.”
But for centuries of Christian history, that is exactly what happened. Both the Old and New Testaments reveal the Feast of Tabernacles as a corporate celebration. However, in the Fourth Century, when Constantine became emperor of Rome, he forced both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus to give up any ties with Judaism, Jewish practices and the Hebrew calendar under the threat of imprisonment or death. All of the biblical holidays and feasts were either replaced by separate holidays or rejected entirely.
Over the ensuing centuries, Christians drifted further and further from their Hebraic roots to the point that contemporary Christianity had lost touch with the Biblical feasts that Jesus himself had faithfully observed.
It was in the 19th century that certain Christian leaders were moved by a deep desire to reconnect to Israel and in fact they had a great impact upon Zionism. In the US, Protestant minister William E. Blackstone circulated a petition in 1892 to urge the US to reestablish a Jewish state in Palestine. Meanwhile in Europe, Rev. William Hechler, chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna, became a close friend of Theodore Herzl, the father of the modern Zionist movement. With the establishment of the state of Israel, Christians began looking at Biblical references to Israel more practically, including the Divine call to keep the appointed feasts “forever, throughout the generations” (Leviticus 23:41).
For example, noted writer Basilea Schlink, co-founder of the Evangelical order of the Sisters of Mary, arranged to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in 1946 with local Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in her hometown of Darmstadt, Germany. But the practice did not become a mainstream Christian event until the early 1980s when the Christian Embassy began hosting their international Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
Since its inception in 1980, the ICEJ has faithfully encouraged pilgrims from all nations to join them in Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical feast of the Ingathering. This is in anticipation of the prophecy spoken of in Zechariah 14:16 that all the nations will one day come up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
This event has become the signal Christian Zionist gathering in Israel each year, and what began in Jerusalem 30 years ago has now spread throughout the world. The ICEJ’s Feasts have always featured not only strong biblical messages on Israel and the Church, but also Hebraic worship, Davidic dance, artistic banners and other innovations that have now been duplicated far and wide.
“It's really not a tourist event. It is indeed a celebration of God's love, an expression of the diverse and united Kingdom of God, and a statement of God's faithfulness to Israel,” said Rev. Malcolm Hedding, Executive Director of the ICEJ.
It is true that there is no other site like Jerusalem, yet the message of Sukkot reverberates across borders and continents, demonstrating that no matter where Christians are located, they indeed share the same inspirations.
Vieytez says what she enjoys most is the Communion services conducted at the Feast celebrations in Jerusalem and now in her native Honduras. “We have the opportunity to share in unity no matter our language, or race, or anything else,” she said.
“A corporate celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles is an acknowledgement that all of us together represent the 'tabernacle of God' among men,” said Pastor Bob Summerville of Hunstville, Alabama, who has a long-time teaching ministry on the Hebraic roots of Christianity and conducts observances of Jewish festivals for Christians.
“God gave the holidays for His purpose, to both Jews and Gentiles, to help us see God and understand His plan of redemption,” said Joan Lipis, author of the new book, Celebrate Jesus: A Christian Perspective of the Biblical Feasts. She will be touring the US over the High Holy Days to encourage people to celebrate the festivals of Israel in order to better understand Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
Lipis told The Christian Edition that in the past, she tried to spend every Feast in Israel, but now wishes to share the message of the feasts with the world in their own area and with respect to their own cultures and traditions. This year she will be observing the Feast of Tabernacles in Portland, Oregon. “When we come together to celebrate the Feast in our different cultures and different traditions but according to God’s calendar, we are demonstrating to the world, and the powers and the principalities, our diversity yet unity in the one new man, Christ Jesus,” said Lipis, just as the prophet Nehemiah wrote that “all the people assembled as one man” at Sukkot. Thus for Christians around the world, it should be a natural step to assemble as one body in observance of the Feast, she said.
In her book Lipis explains, “The Kingdom community consists of people of every tribe, nation, and language. Like the Word of God itself, the Kingdom transcends any one culture. We are enriched as we share our various styles of worship and celebration.”
Sukkot, Tabernacles, Booths – the very name of the celebration represents the command to the ancient Israelites to build “temporary dwellings” to commemorate their times of wandering in the Wilderness, dependent on God for their daily sustenance and waiting to enter the Promised Land. For Christians today this expectation has again become very relevant, as they come together in anticipation of the day prophesied by Zechariah when all the nations will come up to Jerusalem and worship the Lord.
Even as thousands of Christians attend the Feast celebrations in Jerusalem this year, tens of thousands more will be gathering in locations throughout the world to join in this time of rejoicing in God’s faithfulness. They will be dancing to their own rhythms and singing and teaching in their own languages, but also worshiping with one heart and thereby demonstrating that the message of Sukkot is not lost in translation, but rather proven by it.
To Order: http://www.celebratejesusthebook.com/store/
Feast of Trumpets - Memorial Blowing
The Biblical
We’ve been considering the significance of the simultaneous celebration of three of God’s feasts on Friday, September 18th. At sundown, all over the world, silver trumpets and shofars will usher in:
· The Sabbath
· New Moon
· Feast of memorial blowing (aka the feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah)
To the Jewish people, Rosh Hashanah begins what the rabbis call “The Ten Days of Awe.”
The Days of Awe
The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are traditionally designated as a time of preparation for judgment. It is believed that on the first day, God opens three books:
- The Book of Life
- The Book of Death
- The Book of Suspension
Into the first two books go the names of either the exceptionally righteous or the exceptionally wicked. The former are granted another year of life, whilst the latter are immediately sentenced to death.
Into the third book go the names of everyone else. On Yom Kippur, God once again reviews every life, passing judgment of life or death for the next year. Thus the Days of Awe become frantic times of reflection, repentance, and attempts at reconciliation.
The common greeting among the Jewish people at this time is:
May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life
But at the end of the day, there is only a hope of forgiveness and life.
The Name
Before we continue, there is another correction we need to address, that of the name given the holiday. The Torah (Leviticus
There is little else the Bible tells us about this feast other than to do no customary work.
But perhaps a word study on truah and it’s oft used synonym shofar sheds substantial information. Here is a sampling of the uses of these two words:
Alarm for war and a signal to march
Shout for joy
Praise to God
Call to repentance
In my opinion, in relationship to this holiday, the most significant use is the anointing of the king.
Could it be, that the reason the Bible is so silent about this holidays, is that in God’s plan of redemption, the most incredible event in all of history – the incarnation – needed no other explanation?
All About the King
As we look at the events in
That promise echoes through the pages of Scripture as God gives details like a clues to a wonderful treasure hunt.
When at last, the King is presented to the world, in a most unlikely way, all heaven breaks lose with shouts of joy never before seen or heard creating abject terror to its witnesses.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:13-14)
Would this not be the most appropriate feast for all earth to resound with similar shouts of joy praises to God?
I contend that the feast of “memorial shouting” not only looks back at the coming of the King, it also encourages us to look forward to the return and to the coronation of the King.
Next we will consider the significance of the second coming of the King and the ultimate cataclysmic event, the coronation of the King of all Kings.
On Friday, September 18 starting in
· Sabbath
· New Moon
· Feast of memorial blowing (aka Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah)
In this article we are looking at the personal and prophetic significance of the Feast of Blowing, especially this year of 2009.
All About the King
I believe that a major theme and focus of this holiday of the seventh month on God’s calendar is THE King – Jesus the Christ
· His first coming
· His second coming
· His ultimate coronation as King of all kings.
The number seven is often used in Scripture to indicate “fullness” or “completion.”
That this feast marks the beginning of God’s seventh month hints that God’s redemptive story will find it’s completion in the final cycle of Levitical feasts, all of which are in this seventh month.
As the trumpet sounds, we should not only look back at the first coming of the King, but look forward to the day when the heavens will be rent and King Jesus will return in might and majesty – so unlike the humility of His first coming.
The Bible describes that day:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
Who can imagine the sound and the glory of the Bridegroom calling for His bride? O what a day that will be.
· The trumpet will sound,
· The dead in Christ will rise first.
· The dead will be raised incorruptible,
· We shall be changed.
· For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
· Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
· And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
In that day, King Jesus will also be Judge Jesus. While the rabbinic “Days of Awe” have no scriptural basis, the truth is that there will be a day of judgment for which we all need to prepare.
Jesus affirmed that “all authority” to judge the living and the dead had been given to Him. The prophets had foretold that His judgment would be true, righteous and merciful.
Thus we who have been secured by faith in Him, need not fear condemnation at His coming, but we can rejoice and celebrate with eager expectation.
New Moon of the Seventh Month
The Biblical
Announcing the Feast of Trumpets
We have been considering the prophetic and personal significance of the three Biblical feasts which coincide on sundown this Friday, September 18th. What makes this date so noteworthy is that we are entering into the seventh month on God’s calendar.
As the number seven usually represents “completion”, that we are entering the seventh month on God’s calendar portends important spiritual principles for our lives and perhaps for the greater world around us.
In this article, we will focus on the holiday of New Moon, to be ushered in by the blasts of silver trumpets. (Numbers 10:2, 10)
Despite not being a Levitical feast of the Lord, New Moon was a well established celebration of ancient
Even today there are various cultures and traditions that are celebrating the emergence of the new moon. Often the focuses of the celebrations are on the moon – the created- rather than on the Creator – God. The purpose of this article is to restore the original intent and focus of the holiday.
These are some salient facts of Scripture regarding New Moon:
· It’s Hebrew name, Rosh Chodesh means, “head of the month.”
· It begins with the first sighting of the moon after three days of darkness when the earth blocked the moon from the light of the sun.
· The New Moon was a family time of feasting (1 Samuel 2:5-6)
· The prophets were available to hear and pray for the needs of the people (2 Kings
· Eventually
· God promised to one day restore His feasts and receive pure worship (Zechariah
The order of Creation
New Moon prompts us to recognize God’s order of Creation.
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. (Genesis 1:14)
Consider the incredible accuracy of the placement and the rotations of the sun, the earth, and the moon. For twenty four days each month, the moon receives the light of the sun and reflects it back to earth. Then for three days, the earth moves into position, in alignment with the sun and the moon, thus blocking the sun’s reflected light. Finally on the third day, the earth has moved ‘out of the way” and the moon’s lesser light is seen and a new month begins.
God’s accuracy also recorded a variety of events which took place on the first of the month. Here are just a few:
· The flood waters receded. and then dried up
· The tabernacle in the wilderness was set up.
· The Israelites were first commanded to celebrate Passover, even in the wilderness.
· Aaron died.
· The altar was restored and sacrifices resumed.
· The Law was read.
If God takes such care in preserving the significance first of the month, shall we not do the same?
In Part II we will consider the personal and prophetic significance of this particular New Moon celebration.
The Biblical
Part 2
A New Beginning
How many times have we each said, “If I could only do [it] over.”? There is inherent in each of our hearts and minds the desire to be:
· Good
· Right
· Accepted
· Successful
Yet life seems constantly fight against us, leading, pushing, and/or driving us in a direction where do not want to go.
Whether in our personal or our professional lives, continued reassessment is necessary to keep us on track.
But it is a rare occurrence that allows us to retrace or correct our mistakes. Often the recognition of our failures leads to confusion, disappointment, shame, or discouragement. If not stopped, we can be bound and trapped by a never ending downward cycle of stress, anxiety, depression, or worse.
To stop the cycle and to give us a new beginning is the purpose and blessing of New Moon.
God delights in second, third and fourth chances. In fact, for the one who recognizes and admits his mistakes, there is no end of God’s willingness to forgive and restore.
The cycle of darkness and death is ended through the one in whom God’s light and life is made available.
Jesus said,
· I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
· I am the way, the truth and the life.(John
· open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in
The Promise of Rest
New Moon is a time to align ourselves with God’s plans and purposes for us. It is a time when we can align ourselves to receive and reflect his light into the darkness of the world. It is a time to realign ourselves with God’s love and promises of rest.
Rest is the promise Jesus makes not only on each Sabbath, and each New Moon, but every time the repentant and needy heart cries to Him.
The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.(Psalm 116:3-9)
Not coincidently, the Hebrew word for “rest” is nuach, which we studied in our previous article regarding the Sabbath.
Nuach is all about the final rest of our inheritance. It’s companion word, shalom, connotes the peace which comes through fulfillment of destiny.
This triple holiday in the seventh month, God is practically shouting through the trumpet blasts that before us is His promise of our futures:
· Fulfillment of our destiny
· Final victory over sin, pain and death
On Friday night, as the trumpets blast the start of a new week a new month and the season of completion may you truly enter into the rest of Christ.
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