Tag: pagan holiday

Plans for December 25th?

Most of the world has a pretty good idea what they will be doing December 25th, but I don’t.  Since we stopped celebrating that holiday, due to its myriad pagan rituals and connections, we have spent the last several December 25ths with friends doing various things.

Last year, a group of friends helped us with finishing a barn, the year before we hosted a bunch of Messianic friends and I taught a cheese making class, etc…

Well, it is time to start thinking about what we will do this year.  While we could simply stay home and do nothing, and I am fine with that, I know many other recovering former Christmas celebrants who need some activity as a way of avoiding the day’s traps.  So, I am pondering co-hosting a shofar making class in a friend’s shop….  Is there anybody in the SC area that would be interested in a day of fellowship and shofar-making??

And, if you are not in this area, maybe you can plan a December 25th gathering for a bunch of Messianics to do something other than what the world will be doing….

The time to make plans and preparations is now…

Shalom!

Fencing the Commandments

One of the unfair charges often leveled against Rabbinic Judaism is that they added to the Word of God by ‘fencing the commandments.’  And, while the charge may be true, it is fence commandmentsgenerally leveled as if no one else is guilty of the same and the Jews have therefore committed some dastardly crime.

While reading a paper written by Messianic Jewish friend and midrash partner, Jonathan Krause, a section really caught my eye.  He wrote,

When did sin occur on earth?  Many scholars will say that it happened when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  However, in Deut. 4:2 G-D tells us not to add or take away from his word(s).  Since words were added to what G-D said, it created a door to sin.  But, Adam had the roots of sin in his heart when he added to the words of G-D.  Perhaps he did not trust G-D in that he had to instruct Eve further by telling her she was not only not to eat of the fruit, but not to touch it.

I looked up from the paper and said, “Adam fenced the commandment!”  Continue reading “Fencing the Commandments”

Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!

snow in JerusalemThey say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Well, an acquaintance sent me a picture from Jerusalem, and it tells about a thousand words…

It may be hard to get the message just from this pic, so, here is another of the beautiful snow a couple days ago in Jerusalem.

snow3Here are a couple more interesting and glorious pictures that illustrate the same story, and of course…  the story. Continue reading “Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!”