The Feasts of the Lord: Going Through the Motions
Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles – lots of Feasts, each with different instructions for observing them. Sometimes when we’re just starting out observing the Feasts, or approach a new season of Feasts, we can easily think of all the instructions and do’s and don’ts, and forget the richness of each Feast. It can feel – and in fact become – like we’re just going through the motions.
I can imagine that’s how the Hebrews must have felt when they heard the instructions for the first time as well. Exodus 12 is 50 verses full of instructions for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the instructions are not exactly intuitive or logical. What were they to make of killing a lamb and smearing its blood on their door frames? Had that ever saved them from death before? Was this a common practice? And what’s so bad about leavened bread? What does that have to do with saving their firstborns? (more…)
Resting in God’s Faithfulness: Faith for Fear
In an earlier post, I shared how God had helped me identify six idols in my life – those things I put my trust in either in addition to Him or instead of Him. After a 40-day examination of my attitudes toward them, I realized they were borne out of fear—fear of losing those things I depended on for security. During that time God provided me a new perspective more closely aligned with His desire for my abundant life and which helped me to stay in his place of peace and rest.
A year later, I still kept God’s word to me on my desk: (more…)
God’s Blessing and Provision, Part 1: There’s More Where That Came From
With today’s fears over Covid 19, economic instability, civil unrest, random violence, political mayhem and natural disasters, it seems the Bible’s prophecies are now daily headlines.
Fear of the possibilities, or even fear born from first-hand experience, can creep in and begin to change our mindset and our focus. It’s easy to start making a plan for our security: saving more money, storing up food and supplies, buying additional insurance, making plans for various disaster scenarios, and the list goes on — all good considerations and wise counsel.
But there’s a danger even in our planning: pursuing our own plan for security can take us away from God’s. The very things we amass to keep us secure can begin to replace the true source of not only our security, but the source of all those things we’re gathering. When we take our eye off the Source, the result is more fear of the unknown and more worry about protecting it all. Before we know it, the provisions become our security instead of the One who provided them.
The key is balancing stewardship of our resources while remaining completely dependent on God for our security and provision. (more…)
The Surprising Results of Submission
Submission. It’s not a very popular word in our society. Normally we think of someone giving up their will in deference to one with more power. More recently it seems it’s come to mean someone giving in against their will. Webster’s defines it as “humbly obedient, ceasing to offer resistance, to defer to another’s wishes.” Even those definitions don’t sound as bad as the word itself – “submission.” At least that’s how I felt. Then I began to learn a simple saying, but a difficult lesson: “The way we submit to our leaders on earth is the way we submit to God.” (Rabbi Kirt Schneider) Hmm, how am I at submission? (more…)
Taking the Next Difficult Step is Easier Than I Thought
On a recent vacation, I decided to try rock climbing on the simulated rock wall. I had never done it, but watched several people in front of me, some succeeding to the top and some quitting part way up. With each one I could, I asked how they did it or what stopped them from finishing, trying to learn whatever might help me make it high enough to ring the little bell at the top, announcing my success.
When it was my turn, the attendant, Alex, roped me up and gave me climbing shoes to help me hold on. I took my first few steps on the holds and knobs. “This is pretty easy,” I thought. But like anything else physical, it got harder as I went along. (more…)
Faith is the Answer
Remember the story in Mark 5 of the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years? She touched Yeshua’s clothing and was not only healed, but captured the attention of Yeshua despite the throng of people crowding Him. While obviously a great account of Yeshua’s compassion and supernatural power, this story leaves me with a few questions:
- Why did the woman think if she touched Yeshua’s clothes she would be healed?
- Why did Yeshua feel the power go out from Him when she touched Him and not everyone else who was crowding around?
- And after a wonderful miracle, why was the woman fearful of Him? (more…)
Abiding in Yeshua
Not long ago I saw a documentary featuring the gray whale migration from Mexico to Alaska. A mother and her new calf, born just a few months earlier, were passing off the coast of Monterey, California, when they were attacked by a pod of killer whales. The story showed the hunting strategies of the six killer whales and the rare escape of the two grays.
Since an adult gray is far too large for a killer whale to overtake, the baby calf was the prey. The main strategy of the killer whales was to separate the calf from its mother. A brutal struggle went on for hours. With the two grays becoming weaker and weaker, I couldn’t imagine how the two whales would ever rid themselves of the strong and determined predators. (more…)
Nature Displays a Picture of Psalm 91
On a recent vacation, my husband and I stayed at a house beside the Wenatchee River in Eastern Washington. There were two families of geese, one with three goslings, one with four. The cute babies were very young, their feathers still fluffy yellow. We watched them in our small yard for nine days.
It quickly became obvious how completely trusting and dependent on their parents the goslings were. The parents did all the planning and leading. The goslings were only concerned with eating, sleeping and following their parents. (more…)
Messianic Sabbath 
