SEASONS - DID THANKSGIVING COME FROM SUKKOT?

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The Hebraic harvest celebration of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) is close to the time that Americans call Thanksgiving.   The two feasts have similar qualities.  We always hear the details of why we celebrate Thanksgiving in America, but why would anyone celebrate The Feast of Tabernacles, or as the Jewish people call it:  Sukkot?

There are many good reasons that compel both Christians and Jews to celebrate these Holy Days.  Part of the reasons pertain to the future and part of the reasons pertain to the past. 

                                  

 Jesus was very bold in going to The Feast of Tabernacles to teach.  There came a time when this actually meant risking His life to do so.  Most of the religious rulers of the day were not at all happy when He showed up.  He distracted from their personal glory, politics and profit margin.  The common people admired Jesus for His boldness, and His assurance of the ways of The Kingdom.  They drank in His every word.  His enemies, the rulers of the day, were not prepared for his boldness, his courage, or his lack of fear.  

On the last and greatest day of the feast the rabbi’s always held a water ceremony.  It was then that Jesus stood and loudly proclaimed that He was The Fountain of Living Water. (John 7:37-38).  The traditions that the common people had so rotely observed for years came alive when Jesus explained them at the feast.  The Feast of Tabernacles, as well as the other feasts and festivals all prophetically scream of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior of The World.  

As a Christian I celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles because I am following the example of Jesus Christ, The Messiah, and I know the feast speaks of God's people in the past as well as our future with Christ when He returns again.  



 
So what is most important, the past or the future?  Both are equally important when you consider the facts.   We know that the Feast of Tabernacles was a week long harvest festival.  God commanded it to be kept through out the generations of Israel.  This was to be a time to remember how God brought them out of the wilderness into a promised land.  It was much the same for the pilgrims coming to America.  They came from what they considered to be a wilderness of sin and hoped that the new land would be a place where they could worship God as they chose and that God would bless them for doing so.   


The ancient people built temporary dwellings to remind each other of how they dwelt in tents or temporary dwellings for 40 years in the wilderness.  Possibly the American pioneers did the same.  Have you ever examined the part of old log cabins called the "lean-to"?  It was often used as a temporary place to sleep for guests traveling through the area.  It might have been a pilgrim's design of a sukkah.   Most of the pilgrim settlements had these structures on the sides of their houses.  Not to mention the fact that they also had to dwell in "temporary dwellings" until they had the resources to build their permanent homes once they arrived in America; the land of the free.

The Israelites were poor slaves and had nothing, but God brought them to The Promised Land and provided them with great blessings.  The pilgrims had been slaves to their oppressive government and they had come to America to escape this.  They had come hoping to be able to achieve a better life full of blessings.



 
Much like the Jewish people, the pilgrims chose this time to remember that all blessings come from God.  The ancient Hebrews were to remember that God came down and dwelt among them in the tabernacle that He had them to design.   The pilgrims remembered how God led them safely across the ocean to another safe place where they could worship Him in freedom and peace.   

God journeyed with the Israelites through the hard times in the dessert. God journeyed with the pilgrims through the hard times of crossing the ocean and beginning to establish settlements in America.    

God fed the Israelites and clothed them and protected them from their enemies.  God did the same for the pilgrims as they settled in a new land with different customs.

God provided water for the Israelites from a rock.  He also provided water for these pilgrims.   

Both people groups experienced the physical and spiritual blessing of God because they stepped out on faith and obedience and moved in the direction that God was showing them.

On the eighth day of The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)  the Israelites would leave their temporary dwellings and go back to their houses in the promised land.  This would remind them of how God had kept His promises to provide for them and bless them as a nation.   They were told to keep the holiday before God in thankfulness for the year’s blessings and abundance.   In the same spirit of thankfulness the pilgrims offered up their thanks to God who had kept His promises to them and was beginning to bless them as a nation, and for the time and space that our nation honored God and kept His ways, we flourished in the land!


I think of this every year as I sit in my own temporary dwelling (my physical body as well as the physical sukkah we build as a family) and look at the evidence of the abundant blessings in my own home and my beautiful family who sit as a pleasant harvest all around me.  There are no words to properly describe my joy!   One cannot come to Sukkot without being thankful, nor to the American Thanksgiving.  I chose to keep them both and just let one be an extension of the other.  It is thankfulness multiplied by two!  How could that go wrong? 

There have been many wilderness experiences in life, but God has blessed us in every journey.  These two holidays are the time to notice and give thanks for the abundant ways that He always provides for us in every circumstance.    

Christians truly believe they should conform to the image of Christ.  That means doing the same things that Jesus did, and living as much like Him as possible.  Imitating Jesus would mean keeping The Feast of Tabernacles.  Imitating Jesus would mean being thankful such as we are at Thanksgiving.   Perhaps all of this is part of the reason we call The Holy Eucharist The Great Thanksgiving.  God's blessings are so great in our land and they tend to multiply when we take notice of them and thank God for them.  

It is a well known fact that Jesus Christ celebrated Sukkot.   Scriptures clearly state that Jesus taught from the Temple on The Feast of Tabernacles.  People looked forward to hearing from Him.  They wanted to know His teachings.  They gathered around him eagerly, especially on feast days.  Some of the pilgrims to Jerusalem had come from miles away, just hoping to get to see Jesus, to touch Him, to hear His words, to be near Him.  He did not disappoint them.  He taught on Solomon’s Porch and in other areas around the Temple. 

So why do the Jewish people celebrate?  They do not yet recognize Christ as the Messiah.

While we Christians are more focused on the future, the Jewish people are more focused on remembering the past and the lessons God showed them through history.  They bring these lessons into the present by remembering and honoring God on the days He has proclaimed.    Sukkot for them is a week long harvest festival.  It is a time for giving thanks to God for his abundant blessings.   They recognize that God commanded these days to be kept through out all their generations. This was to be a time to remember how God brought them out of the wilderness into a promised land. They were told to build sukkahs, or temporary dwellings, to remind each other of how they dwelt in tents or temporary dwellings for 40 years in the wilderness. They were poor and had nothing and God brought them to The Promised Land and provided them with great blessings. 

This is a time to remember that all blessings come from God. 

They remember that God came down and dwelt among them in the tabernacle that He had them to design. 

He journeyed with them through the hard times in the dessert. 

He fed them and clothed them and protected them from their enemies. 

He provided water for them from a rock. 

On the eighth day of the feast they would leave their temporary dwellings and go back to their houses in the promised land. This would remind them of how God had kept His promises to provide for them and bless them as a nation. They were told to keep the holiday before God in thankfulness for the year’s blessings and abundance.

As Christians watching the Jewish people celebrate the past and learning from it, we can clearly see that God was showing them the future by commanding them to remember the past.  God is like that!  He shows up in unexpected ways and speaks without speaking.

All believers of God have much in common on this feast day.   When we study the scriptures with open hearts, the balance comes.  We begin to realize that all of God's people have a lot to learn from each other. 

Israel and America are both great nations with so many of their native people being servants of God.    Long ago the natives of Israel wanted to please God with all their hearts.  They wanted this enough to leave all that they found familiar.  They were willing to cross the sea and go out into a strange and dessert land in order to worship Him in the way that He chose to be worshiped. 

In such a similar way, the pilgrims in coming to America wanted to imitate Christ as much as possible and they loved Him with all their hearts.  They wanted this so much that they were willing to leave all that was familiar to them and cross a sea and go to live in an unknown wilderness-like place.  

Perhaps those early pilgrims who crossed the sea to come to America chose to celebrate the first Thanksgiving because they too had read about a great God who commanded His people to honor Him annually with their harvest. 

 More and more people are beginning to realize that our traditional American Thanksgiving very likely had its origins in this historical fall festival called Sukkot.  

In that first American Thanksgiving the very religious puritan pilgrims came before God to give thanks for helping them to survive their first very hard year in America.  Don’t you know they thanked God for the fact that they had food, had shelter and had been able to survive the very harsh conditions of the pioneer life that they had needed to live when they arrived on those golden shores?  It seems a lot like the children of God remembering their time in the wilderness and giving thanks for the Promised land.  As they were giving thanks for the first year of survival it is quite possible that one pilgrim might have pulled out a bible and read Leviticus 23: 39 and had a lot of heads nodding around the table and thinking they would follow the example of those brave Israelites and give God the glory for bringing them to the day of thanks and for furnishing a harvest from a harsh year in the wilderness that was America.

And so we come to The Season of Joy to begin our Thanksgiving.  We will worship God with all of our hearts and this will carry over to the time of thankfulness that our nation calls Thanksgiving.  It is an American holiday.  It is a good holiday.  It is a time to confirm all that God has shown us at The Feast of Tabernacles.  

SEASONS - PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES - THE JOY OF BUILDING A SUKKAH

PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God is happy to meet us where we are, but once He shows up; you must be willing to take the journey!

Late September, early October brings the seven fall holy days we call Sukkot, or if you prefer English; The Feast of Tabernacles.  It is called The Feast of Tabernacles because we dwell in temporary booths or shelters during this time.  These temporary booths are called sukkahs.  The word “sukkah” actually translates from Hebrew to English to mean “temporary booths.”  

For some people, learning the name of the shelter and building it is about as deep as the meaning goes.  For others there is SO MUCH MORE to the whole experience.  For those willing to open their eyes and see, there are awesome surprises waiting in the sukkah.

If you actually participate in building a sukkah for Sukkot you will more than likely realize there is a lot of hidden meaning to the simple building process.  You really won’t get this unless you DO this.  The doing has a lot to do with obeying God just because He is God.  Obedience is the first step toward growth in any part of God’s Kingdom.  It is also a straight path toward joy!  You can be happy from using your human reason and doing what is logical, or you can have JOY from having faith in God and doing what He says.  He knows the difference.  He looks on the condition of our hearts.

Those of us who have enJOYed our Sukkah’s at the feast have realized after building the first one that there were many reasons God asks us to do this.  It is all about stopping to savor the journey, remembering the past and moving on to the future, and it is spiced with love, worship, compassion and mercy.  All of these things come filtering through to us from building and living in a sukkah. 

At first though, it is all about obedience.  This is the scripture that we are obeying:

“Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath, and you shall take on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.  And you shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year.  It shall be a STATUTE FOREVER in your generations; you shall celebrate in the seventh month.  You shall DWELL IN BOOTHS SEVEN DAYS; all that are Israelite born shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD thy God.”  (Lev. 23:39-43)

So if you are wondering if you REALLY should obey this because you might not have been born Israeli; think again.  Are you a Christian?  Then you have been grafted into the family of God and you are an adopted Son of God.  That gives you the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as the natural born children.  The other Christian customs you observe came from the Children of Israel, such as baptism and communion, so why would this be different?  God commanded them all for The Children of God.

Building the sukkah and observing the Feast of Tabernacles makes  us consider many things in a more careful manner.  God always shows us something new!  It never gets old or boring.  Each year our lessons are layered on top of the last year’s lessons until we are full of the knowledge of what God wants us to have inside our hearts and minds at this feast.  Like everything else in life it is a process.  When you begin any process you have to make a conscience decision to begin, carry on and finish the process.  Every phase carries a different meaning,and each season the meanings deepen.  Please don’t take my word for it, test me and find out if what I am saying isn’t true.

God knows we humans have short attention spans.  Sometimes just hearing words isn’t enough for us.  When we are involved in the process of building something, we consider what we are doing and grasp the meanings that correspond with our actions.  Our attention span last longer and we are able to retain the lessons learned much longer.  They also mean more to us because we were “hands on” with our first memory of the event.  We have a visual image in our brain of what we were trying to accomplish.  It is like a photograph that we can pull back up and look at closer whenever we decide to ponder our actions deeper at a later time.

 

By the time we begin building our sukkah for Sukkot those of us who keep all of God’s holy days have already passed through a process of examination of our lives for the past year.  We have found ourselves unworthy and lacking and we have asked for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  We have received atonement and cleansing for our mistakes over the last year.  This all happens through The month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, The Days of Awe and The Day of Atonement that lead us up to Tabernacles.  By the time we are finished with all of those days and their processes and we come to the place of building our Sukkah for Sukkot; we approach the building process with clean hands, hearts and lives.  By entering the temporary shelter after it is built on good instructions from God we come to a new place in life, a new beginning again of the rhythms of life with everything in sync with God and ready to make a glorious new song for all the world to hear.  We don’t have all our “stuff” in the sukkah, so we feel much less inhibited and a lot less stressful because we have been reminded of what we REALLY need and dropped off the extra baggage before The Day of Atonement and we are refreshed from not having to carry it around anymore.

To build a proper sukkah, you need to be willing to follow God’s instructions for doing so.   It isn’t hard, but God wants things the way God wants things.  After all, He IS God.  His way is the way to go when building and using the sukkah.  It does seem that most Christians today have either forgotten or are not inclined to follow God’s instructions.  It was this way during the days of Nehemiah too.  The people had been in captivity so long they had forgotten God’s customs and how important they were to God.  Ezra had to remind them by reading the scriptures and repeating what they had been forgetting to do.  We can read about this in Nehemiah 8:1-8 and Nehemiah 8:14-18.

“All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate.  They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.  He read aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, woman and others who could understand.  All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.  Ezra the teacher of the law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion.  Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedajah, Mishael, Malkjah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.  Ezra opened the book.  All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.  Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded “Amen!  Amen!  Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.  The Levites – Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah – instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there.  They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. 

They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem:  “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees and from

myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters” as it is written.

So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in  the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim.  The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them.  From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this.  And their joy was very great.

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the book of the Law of God.  They celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.”

 So you see the people in the days of Nehemiah were a lot like the people of today.  They had been away from God’s laws and God’s Holy Scriptures so long that they had forgotten He said to keep the Feasts!  Those wise people corrected their nation and God had mercy on them for the time that they remained faithful.  Can ours do the same?  Have they even considered this, I wonder?  I’m not just speaking of just Holy Days here, but a million subjects where America has forgotten to chose to follow the ways of God. 

But I regress, I was telling you all that God shows us when we begin to build a sukkah and keep Sukkot simply out of obedience and respect for God’s word and commandments. 

We begin to think about many things in the building.  The family becomes a team and works together in the building.  We all want to make our sukkah special and bonds are formed among family members that might never happen otherwise.  Father’s teach sons, Mothers teach daughters, grandparents pass down their stories and everyone learns history and how to get along well together. Memories of being family are made!  Everyone learns if they work together they can accomplish more.  Abilities and talents shine forth from some that had never been noticed previously in the day to day struggles of family life.  Confidence is built.  People are bonded together in love and respect.  People are more appreciated for what God made them to be here at the feast while building the sukkah.  This all happens like in the days of Nehemiah, where people learned a lot about each other from simply building walls and gates.

Then comes the “MORE” part.  There is an element of the sukkah that makes it more than an agricultural shed, that element is the structure of the roof.  There are several reasons that the builders learn that make the roof special.  First, because it is a canopy made from stalks or branches everyone appreciates the shade that is given by the roof.  Then when night comes everyone realizes it is special because they can see the stars through the leafy holes in the roof.  You grasp for the first time that by looking through something grown by the earth you can see glimpses of heaven!  Now how do you think that helps the relationships of different types of family members to improve?  Even better, how do you think that type of thinking improves us when we leave our temporary shelters and go back to a more permanent structure of day-to-day life? Have you ever caught a glimpse of heaven by looking into the eyes or seeing the actions of another person?  This is yet another lesson of the sukkah. 

We also learn that the roof acts as a covering.  This is the most important element of the whole structure.  It reminds us of how God covers all of our needs, both spiritually and literally.  He provides a covering for us.  The covering of the blood of Christ.  That roof over our soul provides us salvation.  

We are also reminded to remember that God COVERED all of the needs of the people as they wondered through the wilderness in their temporary shelters.  They did not want for a thing because they had a mighty God looking after them.  Each night that they looked up through the covering of the roof and saw the stars of the heavens they were reminded of God’s provision for their every need.  We too, remember when we build and dwell inside our sukkah!

 There is SO much to learn from building the sukkah.  So much that it cannot be contained in this one little article.  I will be writing more on this subject of building and living in a sukkah as time goes on.  

Do you have all that you need for your sukkah?  The Feast of Tabernacles will be here before you know it!

SEASONS AT-ONE-MENT

CHRISTIANS OBSERVING THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood,

and I have given it for you on the altar to atone for your souls,

for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.  (Lev. 17:11)

At sunset on Tuesday, October 11, 2016,  we will come to the holiest day of the sacred year, Yom Kippur, or The Day of Atonement. 

One of the scriptures that compells me to observe this day is found in Leviticus 23:27-32.  

Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.   And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.   For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.  And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.   Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.

As Christians and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we serve a God who was willing to give up His kingly status and become like us.  He loved us so much that He was even willing to die for us.  What other god out there in all of the religions of mankind has ever done such a thing?  This is evidence that The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is The One True God. 

So how does this tie in with Yom Kippur traditions? 

Isn’t the Passover more symbolic of Atonement? 

In some ways, for the Christian, the answer is yes, Passover is more about Atonement for sins, but Yom Kippur is more about realizing that time is drawing short for everyone to receive that atonement. 

Passover is more about our individual sins, and Yom Kippur is more about the sins of our nation and the world as a whole. Has there ever been a more urgent time for this?

Passover is more about mercy and forgiveness, Yom Kippur is more of a statement that Judgment Day is coming, and a warning sound to help us to get ready. 

The Lord is going to return soon!  

There are many out there who do not know Him.  They do not yet have atonement; not because it is not available and freely offered to them, but simply because they have not believed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and repented of their sins.  This is especially true of our nation, America.  

Satan has been very busy deceiving people because He too has a clue that the time is short.  He is on his usual favorite subject; himself.  He is worried that his time is coming to be put away forever.  He enjoys being loose and wrecking havoc on our world.  He has deceived the world with materialism, false doctrine, churches that want to entertain instead of worship, and “buy” their congregations, luke-warm worship, false worship, evil, death and lust.  His tools are always the same.  He rarely changes his techniques,

 yet the world falls for his tricks constantly. 

In the traditions of the Fall Holy Days it is said that on Rosh Hashanah the doors of heaven are opened.  This is God communicating with mankind saying, “Come closer to me.” 

In order to come closer to God you must be clean.  Those of us who have The Holy Spirit working in us are continually being led to come before God and confess our sins.  We have long ago repented and turned, trying to imitate Him more and more.  We have the good sense to realize and be constantly aware that we are not perfect, and that Jesus must keep us covered with His righteousness.  Yet, there are those who have not yet repented.  I am continuously shocked these days to find those who have never been taught the basics of repentance.  God is listening for them, waiting on them to begin a conversation, waiting on them to say “I repent of my sins, please blot them out of your book.” 

As a Christian I know my sins have been blotted out.  I totally understand that Christ died on the cross once for all.  But this is a time period when I am praying more for the souls of those who have not yet repented.  

As the ordinary priests, ordained after the Order of Melchizedek when we came to Christ, we Christians, as a holy nation and a divine priesthood, have the opportunity, just as the Old Testament Levitical priests did, to intercede for the sins of our people and our nation daily. 

The ordinary priests took the sacrifices of the people daily and offered them up to God.   Once a year the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and offered up the sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation.  Our High Priest, Jesus Christ STILL carries these intercessions into The Holy of Holies for us and God hears and receives our prayers.  Unlike the high priests of Levitical descent, our High Priest, Jesus Christ, is perfect in every way. 

So can you see how I have come to relate that Yom Kippur should be a strong time of intercession by Christians for the souls of the world?  

Judgment Day is coming.  

It is said that after Yom Kippur the doors of heaven are closed.  On Yom Kippur whatever God has written for the year is sealed.  It is finished.  It is done.  You will either be a sheep or a goat when you enter into judgment after the final seal is sealed.  

If you know Christ, you are covered by the blood of the atonement.  You are separated into the fold of the sheep; and you will be allowed to go into the Marriage Supper of The Lamb.  

If you do not heed God's call and believe on the name of Jesus and repent, you will be separated into the group called the goats.  You will not be allowed to go into the marriage feast, because you are not “covered” by the blood atonement of Jesus.  You will be sentenced to eternity in hell.  The DOOR WILL BE SHUT, and anyone without a wedding garment will not be allowed inside.  

Do not let the doors of heaven close on you.  

Repent and be saved by the blood of Jesus.

In the traditions of Yom Kippur the “books” of God are often discussed.  The tradition is that the destiny of the righteous is written down into The Book of Life.  

The destiny of the eternally wicked is written down in The Book of Death.  

If you have come to Jesus Christ and accepted His blood atonement to cover your sins, you are written in The Book of Life.  Every sin you have ever committed will be blotted out of the heavenly records.  It is His blood that covers the sins.

It is ONLY all that Jesus did that allows you to stand clean before God on The Last Day.  It is nothing that you have done.  

There is a period of 10 days during The Days of Awe, from Rosh Hashanah until the end of Yom Kippur where you can be reassured (by talking to God) that your sins have been covered and you can pray for those that you love that do not have this blessing.  

The tradition says that many people are not yet written into either of the books of heaven.  This is because God gives us free-will and many have not yet made a final decision.  

You can plead with God for them, to do whatever it is that will change their hearts, open their eyes, help them to see the truth.  Our Jewish brothers and sisters fall into this category, but God has promised that many of them will one day wake up and believe.  There will come a day when their eyes will be opened and they will mourn for the One they have pierced.  This tells me they will repent and turn to Christ as The Messiah. 

Our prayers of intercession are important for everyone who has not made a decision to follow Christ.  This is an important time of intercession.  

The 10 Days of Awe are comparable to the period of grace that the church is living in today.  There will come an end to these times.  Judgement Day will arrive, whether the world is ready or not.  Yom Kippur is all about getting ready for Judgement Day.  It is a time to be purchasing oil for your lamp.   

Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, is returning to this earth.  When He does, there will be a great battle.  It is our place, as Christians to be ready to join in with Him.  All Christians will be right there with Him, riding on white horses into battle, riding by the side of our Groom.  We must be ready and prepared for that battle.  Yom Kippur is a reminder of this fact.  

When the last person that is going to repent has done so, the doors of heaven will be closed.  The writing in the books will be finished.  Christ will return for the final battle that will destroy all evil and usher in His 1000 year reign on earth. 

Are you ready? 

So many of my Christian friends are saying we MUST heed II Chronicles 7:14: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

Isn’t it ironic that we speak these words continuously in our congregations and sermons.  We clearly know the answers; yet many Christian churches still turn away from acknowledging or observing Yom Kippur, the very holy day that God, Himself set aside for all nations to do the very things that we are always so loudly proclaiming should be done?  

God doesn’t change.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  If He said it to the nation of Israel, He meant it for everyone.  He isn’t just the God for the Israelites, He is God of ALL.  

If every Christian church in America would put aside their politics of the world for the period of time called The Day of Atonement and devote that time to prayer and fasting and intercession, as is the tradition for Yom Kippur, and begin praying for our nation and praying for the deliverance of our brothers and sisters who are still living in sin; we would fulfill the commandments of God.  

God would hear us, for this is the time that He has proclaimed that He will be listening with attention and deciding.  He would save us from ourselves and heal our land, just as He promised.

God says what He means and means what He says.

He always keeps His promises. 

As fall brings it's beautiful red covering to the trees across our land, it is my earnest prayer that  the people of our nation turn to Jesus and receive His precious atonement covering. 

May God heal our land and bring peace to the earth.

G’mar Chatimah Tovah!

SEASONS - THE KING IS IN THE FIELD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Oh, how I love the writings of King Solomon in The Song of Songs! In Chapter 6, verse 3, I can read my favorite words from his writings; "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine."  

When written in the original Hebrew language the first letters of each word form an acronym that spell the month of Elul.  This is the Hebrew month that will be coming up in 2016 beginning with the civil calendar date of September 2nd.  

Elul's acronym, "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine", illustrates this concept; its first letter, aleph, stands for "I" (in Hebrew, "ani") – and the second letter, lamed, represents, "my Beloved's" (in Hebrew, "ledodi") - God. The meaning of this verse is that of being “face-to-face” in expressing one's love for another. This is the idea that the heart of the giver is entwined with the heart of the receiver and vice versa. There is a reciprocal relationship of this love. Each one has the other's heart.  One cannot help but think of the soon coming return of Christ and wonder how much longer it will be before He returns for His Bride, the Church.

On this last month of the Hebrew calendar, many of us try to focus on the past year of our lives.  

It is a time to bring before our Beloved our misdeeds, mistakes, and wrong actions so that He can show us how we can make changes for the new year to come.  

I have come to look at this act the same way you would look at preparing for a wedding.   How do these shoes work?  What veil should I wear?  Is my dress ready?  What should I keep?  What should I change?  What about all of this is in keeping with my heart for my beloved?  Have I spoken to the groom about everything?  

 If you are engaged to be married, you need to discuss all the skeletons in your closet before the wedding.  You wouldn’t want your loved one to discover these from someone else, or to be surprised and hurt by them after your marriage.  You need to confess everything that your future spouse might not yet have heard about you, so that you will know for certain that all past mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, and you are safe with the one that you have chosen to live your life with.  You MIGHT just be surprised at what they know that you don't know they know!  You would, of course, promise them never to revisit these things.  With the love between the two of you, it is possible to begin a fresh new page of life.

This is how I have learned to speak to my Beloved, Jesus, during the time of Elul.  He knows I am not perfect.  He loves anyway.   

In The Song of Songs Solomon speaks of the conversation that is held between two lovers.  

They are not afraid of one another.  

They are comfortable enough in their love that they can speak of their faults and mistakes.  

They are humble enough and so much a part of each other that one can come to the other and ask forgiveness for things done wrong because this one knows that anything they have done will have an instant effect on the other.  No sin is a sin all alone.  Every sin we commit hurts our Beloved.  

This is a time for the healing of this pain.  Healing begins with honesty and confession.  

Healing always comes before joy.

Elul is definitely a time to say “I want to change for you and never put you through such pain again.”   The honesty, love, truthfulness of this confession only makes the bond of love stronger.  The stronger the bond between lovers, the less likely it will ever be broken.  

It is a time of the weaker seeking strength from the stronger.  There will be encouragement that comes from the stronger lover that will change the spirit of the weaker lover from sadness to joy, from being ashamed to being confident and sure of their love.  

Together they will be capable of things they could never achieve apart from one another.  

All of the conversations in The Song of Songs seem to be very relational.  This is the state we should be in during Elul, a relational state, totally in tune to the desires of the One we love the most, looking to see what He will show us, listening to hear what He will tell us.  

If we are out of step, He will help us pick back up on the beat of the dance through the rhythms of life.   

It is a time of bearing our soul to the only One who truly understands our souls.  He truly loves us as we are, and accepts us with all our flaws; even enough that he would die for us and all our imperfections;  but He has a loving desire to help us change into the person that He created us to be.  

When we seek His face and ask His forgiveness, He loves us, flaws and all.  He reaches out to us to pull us up and help us to change.  

One secret to knowing how to change is that of dwelling on the words of the scriptures that tell us; "I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”  If you divide this sentence down into two parts you begin to see they each represent a different aspect of our relationship with God. 

The first part:  “I am my Beloved’s” alludes to our main thoughts during Elul, to cry out to God, to communicate our love and loyalty to Him.    This is our speaking.  

The second part; “and my Beloved is mine,’ hints to God’s activity toward us in this time, in which it is possible for a divine revelation to descend upon us from above.  This is our listening.  Good communications involve both speaking and listening.

We speak joyfully to our Beloved during this month, not simply because we are about to begin a new sacred year, but because God is shining forth his attributes of mercy toward us.  

We know that we need to use this time to atone and work on our selves, and God empowers us to do so when we approach Him seeking forgiveness.  

This is the time of us expressing our desire for complete atonement.  At the end of the time, when we reach Yom Kippur, that is the time He expresses His complete desire to atone us, so much that He died to redeem us.  He inspires us and arouses our spirits to awaken to His desires.

There is a beautiful Jewish parable that speaks of this very act.   It is printed below for your reading and meditation:

THE PARABLE OF THE KING IN THE FIELD

A King returns to his city following a long absence. The city's inhabitants stream out to the countryside to greet him. When the king enters the field a new phenomenon occurs. The field equalizes everyone who is found there. Now, for the first time, virtually everyone is empowered and permitted to greet the king. All partitions which usually separate him from the populace are nullified. The king, in turn, graciously receives each and every one. This phenomenon does not take place outside the field. For, within the capital, and surely within the palace, only select dignitaries can access the king.

Is this parable not a beautiful portrait of how Jesus loves us? 

He went up to Heaven to send His Holy Spirit so that we could communicate better with Him and The Father.  So many times when we pray, we are looking up to heaven, seeing him on a royal throne, knowing His kingly power is at work constantly redeeming us, but often it seems we are at a distance, further away than we want to be from Him. We tend to see Him like a King of a city who went away.  We know He is still in control. 

We know He still exists and is coming back, but then one day He does come back!  He walks through the fields of the city.  These are the fields where the common workers toil and labor every day.  This is where they have broken the ground, planted the seeds provided by Him, watered them, weeded them, watched the crop grow to be ripe and ready for harvesting.  The citizens are so proud of the harvest that is just ripe for the picking!  They can’t wait to tell the Master about how beautiful and bountiful it is; then they look up and see Him actually walking through the fields!  They are overcome with joy!  It is Him, The One they have been laboring for all along!  He had returned!  They run to greet him.


As the everyday ordinary people run to great their King who has come down to walk in the field, they all seem somehow the same.  

Their differences are not showing.  

No one is more important.  

No one voice is heard above the other.  

All are equal in the field.  

It is not formal here, like it might be in the royal palace.  No one is announced, or proclaimed.  They all just come toward Him, one at a time, each one special and unique, yet everyone sharing the same honor of greeting the King and having the King recognize them and speak to them of their own particular tasks.

 Here all feel free and comfortable to discuss the physical aspects of the harvest with the King.  Who would know more about harvesting than a King who is also A Creator?  Who could possibly know more about preparing for a good harvest?  

They drink in His advice.  

They sit at His feet to listen to His instructions.  

They freely admit their mistakes and short-comings to Him because they can look into His eyes and see how much He loves them.  It is not hard.  They are not afraid.  They all feel safe. 

The King looks happier here, in the field among the people of His city, maybe even happier than He ever looks on His Royal Throne.  He is glad to be here.  Is it not what He has purposed to do all along?  He is smiling and gracious and generous.  He uses the ordinary existence in the field to explain to all the important principles of His Kingdom and here in the field the lowest realms of existence are transformed into a dwelling place for a King.  

Everyone is excited to know that The King is in the field! 

It is the strangest thing to think about, but even when the King is walking through the field, the primary mundane matters of life must still be carried out!   

It is a time for pausing, but not stopping.  

It is a time of reflecting while still working.  

In our daily lives we concern ourselves with many activities that are not in and of themselves holy, but these things are performed “for the sake of the King.”  Now when we see the King walking through the field, He may stop and talk to us of our activities.   We find out that “little things” are very important to Him.  

He has noted everything, every action, every task that we have done during the times of the seasons before the harvest.  They HAVE mattered to Him.  

He has not overlooked us, or forgotten us when we could not see Him or reach out and touch Him.  He has noticed every little thing!   Suddenly we recognize that in seeking His will in all things, we have made a part of our world His dwelling place, a place where He may come down and walk with us, even in our imperfections, even into the day-to-day activities of “the field.”

Hence, to continue looking after the field of The King in the best possible manner, during Elul we chose to put special emphasis on study of the Holy Scriptures and prayer, because even while The King is walking through His field, we recognize that it IS His field and we honor Him by continuing on with our work for Him.