Holidays v. Feasts – 11:3 Restoration

Taste and see that the Lord is good!!

While generally understood in a metaphorical sense, yesterday, I was reminded of the real physical sense that our Father expects us to understand His Word when it says,

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Ps. 34:8

We gathered with a dozen or more families yesterday to participate in a mock Seder (Passover) meal. Most all of us will celebrate Passover in the coming day or so, but we had guests and visitors who had never experienced a Passover and, planning to celebrate with families in their homes for the first time, needed to ‘see’ and experience in order to more fully understand the meaning of the feast and how to lead it.

This will be about our sixth Passover and each is more rich than the previous as I learn and understand more fully the great depth of YHVH’s Word. Yesterday was no different as I made new connections with Scripture and even this morning, I woke thinking, ‘Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!’

It is so easy to fall into the trap Continue reading “Taste and see that the Lord is good!!”

Matzah Truffles and Pesach Delicacies…

Two years ago, I offered a terrific compilation of delicious Pesach recipes using matzah.

Well, the truffles have been so well received the last two years that I thought I’d kick the dark chocolate and sea salt truffles up a notch… Here is a selection of what I made late yesterday a I relaxed in the kitchen.

Dark chocolate truffles made with matzah. Clockwise from top left: Coconut, Raspberry, White Chocolate with Macadamia Nut, Manischewitz Glaze, Fireball Whiskey Glaze and Cappuccino. (Poor photography: mine.)

Because we have been improving our diet and have been particularly intentional about adding coconut oil to our diet (google: health benefits of coconut oil!!), I made a few little substitutions to the base recipe. Continue reading “Matzah Truffles and Pesach Delicacies…”

Being without excuse..

I know. People would rather not be faced with truth, but sometimes, it is so blindingly obvious that it can’t be avoided and we are therefore without excuse.

Our local TV station ran a story on their website, and maybe in their visual media as well, two days before Christmas. On searching for it to save the link a similar I stumbled on a link for an even more direct story that was run on the same day in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. Amazingly, the Baltimore Sun article claims that they do this every year to insure truth is being told…

Here are two headlines and links to prove that the masses are without excuse on the matter! Continue reading “Being without excuse..”

FOREVER. (Chag Sameach)

At least a half dozen times we are told that Passover is a statute to be kept ‘forever’ in ‘all your dwelling places.’

Does your preacher affirm this?

Worth asking the very hard questions!! What a blessing last night and today fellowshipping with families as we celebrate God’s Feast in God’s way.

If this is bondage, lock me up and throw away the key!! 🙂

http://bible.com/59/exo.12.14.ESV

Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

No reading of the ‘Christmas’ story is complete without John 1, yet these verses pose a sizable challenge to Christian theology if we stop and really take a look at them.

Have you ever considered the implication of these verses? Jesus, or by His Hebrew name, Yeshua, was with God in the beginning and was (is) God. Easy, right? Not so fast, my friend!

What are the implications of the Messiah being present from the beginning? Continue reading “Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.4”

Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story… p.2

Yesterday, we began a short series considering some verses from the ‘Christmas’ story that challenge the traditional theological narrative of Christendom. As I implied yesterday, these verses should pique our interest in a search for truth. I don’t know about you, but I don’t care what men say, I want to see what Scripture says….

Thy Kingdom Come

When someone talks about the Millennial Kingdom or the future eternal Kingdom, what comes to mind? Whose Kingdom is it? Who rules over it? Who was it promised to? Who actually gets it? Etc…. At the end of the Book of Revelation, what does the Kingdom look like and who is in it?

Scripture gives a very unified story that often does not match the narrative I was taught growing up. At least, the focus I heard in church was quite different than what Scripture says.

A beloved part of the ‘Christmas’ story is the angel’s visit to Mary. Here is part of the encounter and a difficult verse.

Gabriel, a messenger of God, visited Miriam (Mary’s real Hebrew name) and said,

^{Luke 1:31}And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus (Hebrew = Yeshua). ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Here, the messenger Gabriel affirms multiple prophecies that seem to get lost in the Christian perspectives of this promised Kingdom. This Son of the Most High will,

sit on the throne of David,
reign over the house of Jacob (aka, Israel),
forever.

What surprises many when they dig into these verses is that they lead directly to Ezekiel 37, a chapter most are at least partly familiar with. The first part of the chapter is Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones that leads to the mid part of the chapter on the two stick prophecy followed by a detailed account of this Kingdom the Messiah will rule over. Those shocking closing verses say, Continue reading “Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story… p.2”

Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.1

This is the time of year when most of Christendom is focused on the advent of the Messiah of Israel, commonly called Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ. In churches and in homes Scriptures from the Old and New Testament will be read that detail the coming of the Long Expected One. Most of us have heard these verses so many times that they almost flow off of our tongues as they are being read to us… We know the flow and the rhythm to the point that they offer incredible comfort. A halcyon warmth embraces us and we float on the river of sweet memories and blessed promises. But, do we really pay attention?

Have you ever noticed that there are some verses in these beloved Scriptures that really really challenge the historical understanding of the story and at times confront even major tenets in the theological narrative of Christendom? Over the next week I hope to explore a few of these difficult verses, not to be antagonistic, but to ask, ‘shouldn’t we look a little deeper, and through an Hebraic lens, to understand the context of Scripture and rightly understand who we are in the Messiah?’ Please take a few minutes and ‘walk with me’ as we consider some of these verses over the next few days.

Blameless

Christendom generally teaches that the Law (Torah, God’s Instructions) was too heavy a burden for people to bear and since nobody could keep it this created the need for Jesus to come ‘fulfill’ it for us. Then, we read in the ‘Christmas story,’

Luke 1:⁵There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. ⁶And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Have you ever noticed that last bolded phrase? Continue reading “Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.1”

Bridges to Ba’al: How Satan Uses the Canaanite Influenced Christmas and Easter to Ensnare the Children of the Household

Following is part one of a series that friend Peter Vest is writing. These are not easy words to hear, but much needed if we are to truly seek truth.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Bridges to Ba’al: How Satan Uses the Canaanite Influenced Christmas and Easter to Ensnare the Children of the Household

The beautiful tree, bedecked with silver and gold, warm glowing lights, beside a roaring hearth, a host of shiny presents–what’s not to like? Christmas is beloved especially by children because of all of the beautiful traditions, the celebration of family, the feeling of security with the hearth with the promise of food nearby (“visions of sugar plums”) and especially the presents!

And since, as Christians believe, the day of Christmas has been devoted to the G-d of Israel (i.e. Yeshua) then Christmas is all the more special, right?

No. Here’s why:

A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT CANAANITE FIRE [g]ODS:

Allow me to briefly connect several dots showing the evolution of the Canaanite religion, it’s overt beginnings with child sacrifice to the fire gods Ba’al and Asherah, to the fire gods Jupiter and Vesta, to the modern vestigial remains as observed in certain customs of Christmas and Easter.

Thanks to modern discoveries of Ugarit texts, Ugarit being one of the ancient city-states of Canaan, we now know a little bit about some of the major players in the Canaan pantheon:

Asherah, was the fertility goddess, the “Queen of Heaven” (now immortalized with fertility symbols on Easter), married to El, a senile god who was eventually replaced with Ba’al. The people believed that Asherah was best appeased with sexual rites, often symbolized with a pole (the “May pole” being a modern vestige of this phenomenon) and that Ba’al was best appeased with a fire and a “green” tree.

[Continue at original post…]

A Messianic perspective on the 4 cups of Passover

Shalom fine Kineti reader, and chag sameach. Here are some notes I jotted tonight for the significance of the 4 cups of Passover for Messianic believers. I hope you enjoy!

-Judah

Why do we drink the 4 cups of Passover?

The Jewish people have several traditions around the 4 cups. One prominent tradition is that the 4 cups correspond to the 4 “I will…” statements of Exodus 6:

I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will save you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people…

We take these 4 cups remembering the works of God, aspects of his saving Israel, facets of his salvation:

“I will bring you out” – sanctification
“I will save you” – deliverance
“I will redeem you” – redemption
“I will take you as My people” – restoration

We also take these 4 cups in remembrance of Messiah. At Passover, Messiah commands us to “do this in remembrance of Me” – but what are we remembering about Messiah?

Continue reading “A Messianic perspective on the 4 cups of Passover”

Blood moons… Signs in the heavens!

Joel 2:30-32: “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
³¹“The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
³²“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of Yahweh Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

One of the interesting signs we are given as to the Day of the Lord is ‘the moon into blood.’

It is interesting to note that in 1947 and 1948 there were four blood moons associated with the formation of Israel as a nation.

In 1967 and 1968 there were four blood moons associated with the capture of Jerusalem.

NONE of those blood moons fell on a feast day….

The last time there was a blood moon tetrad was in the 1500s. After the one below, it won’t happen again for over a 100 years!!

Now, see this:

Notice also, the sun is turned to darkness on ‘new year’s day,’ according to the Hebrew calendar, AND, four blood moons ON Feast Days. Ask yourself, ‘is it significant that these all happen ON feast days?’ Why does Scripture say the Feasts of YHWH are to be celebrated forever, but the church says they are ‘abrogated/annulled? Zechariah 14:16-19 says we’ll celebrate some of these in the Millennium…. They are prophetic rehearsals for things yet to come… And, they are what the Father has connected the Blood moon signs with…

Might be a good time to be paying attention and drawing close to Messiah!! Read more on this blog to see what He really expects… What the Roman Catholic Church did away with and what Protestantism, the daughter of Catholicism is still missing…

Shalom!