COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 125 - HOW GOD INSTITUTED PASSOVER AND THE FESTIVAL OF UNLEAVENED BREAD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Soon the Egyptians noticed that they were affected by the plagues, but the people of Israel were not; and they gained a deeper respect for the Israelites because of how their God protected them.  These pagan people were seeing that SOME God had favor on the Israelites.  They began to treat the Israelites nicer.  Moses was greatly respected by Pharaoh’s men, and secretly they honored him even though they were still Pharaoh’s officials.  They were afraid not to; the fear of the God of Moses had come to Egypt.

God had another plan for one more plague.  Before He sent that plague He told the people to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.  Since the Egyptians were favorably disposed toward the people by now, they quickly gave them what they asked for; being afraid that their God would return vengeance upon them if they did not.  When the Israelites had received the gold and silver from the Egyptians; God once again spoke to Moses:

“I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.  After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.”

So Moses told the people:  “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.  Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all of the firstborn of the cattle as well.  There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt – worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.  But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.  Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.  All of these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, “Go, you and all the people who follow you!  After that I will leave.”

Remember Moses had been told never to return before Pharaoh?  Moses must have returned ONLY because God had given him this word; but Pharaoh refused to see him.  Moses hot with anger, left without seeing Pharaoh, just as God had predicted would happen.  Moses must have proclaimed the word of God to Pharaoh’s officials instead of the stuborn Pharaoh.  The message was delivered even if it was delivered indirectly, and the time was set for every firstborn son in the land, from the lowest to the highest to sleep the sleep of death at midnight.  Everyone would be affected except the Israelites.  God had warned that no harm would come to them.

Note that God is very slow to wrath.  He could have easily killed every single Egyptian right from the start of this story; but instead He sent warnings in the form of plagues.  He gave the Egyptians time to repent, acknowledge that He was the One and Only God and he allowed plenty of time for them to treat the Israelites differently.  All the Egyptians had to do to escape these plagues was to obey God.  

Even when God did show his wrath, it was limited to only what was needed for the occasion.  He sent the death angel only to the firstborn sons; not the whole community.  God is always merciful.  He is always waiting on us to truly turn and follow Him and mend our broken ways. 

Today Christians must act as bravely and boldly as Moses did.  

Moses’ faith is remembered in the New Testament writings in Hebrews 11:27 and it says; by faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the kings anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.  Are we persevering in leaving the things of the world behind and following the ways of God?  We have known Him who is invisible and we have believed.  We must gather ourselves together and have the faith of Moses and come out of the Egypt of the world. 

Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, just as God had told Moses would happen.  God had warned him; and all Pharaoh’s people could do was prepare for the worst.  

At the same time that God warned the Egyptians, He also was lovingly preparing his people Israel.

God spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave the instructions for the very first Passover:  “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.  You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.  The animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.  Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.  Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.  That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.  Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire – with the head, legs and internal organs.  Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  This is how you are to eat it:  with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.  Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.   On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.  I am the LORD.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.  No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.  This is a day you are to commemorate, for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD – a lasting ordinance.  For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.  On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.  On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day.  Do not work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat that is all you may do.  Celebrate the festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.  Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.  In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.  For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses.  And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.  Eat nothing made with yeast.  Where ever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

Did you grasp those words from God speaking to His people?  Are we not His people today? Our Savior Jesus Christ has made us acceptable unto God and adopted sons of The Family of God.  Yes these instructions given so long ago have been fulfilled in Christ as our Passover Lamb, but did we forget what God originally instructed?   Did he not say this would be a lasting ordinance?  Did God not say to keep the seven day festival of unleavened bread and to remove the yeast from our homes before it started?  Yes it is all symbolic to us now of how the story has been fulfilled in Christ; but did God not give that command that it would be kept throughout ALL generations?  Do you not think He wanted us to do this so that we would NEVER forget how He showed us He was the One and ONLY GOD?  Do you celebrate Passover and keep the 7 day festival of Unleavened Bread?

Can we not have the faith of Moses and keep the feast in remembrance of how God by giving his firstborn son has given us freedom from bondage, first from physical bondage to false gods, and second from spiritual bondage from our own sins, and from Satan and his demons?  Surely we can keep a festival before God and remember as He commanded us to do so long ago!  Are we hard-hearted like Pharaoh?  

Each man must be accountable to God.  If someone is telling you none of this is important and it has all passed away; that person will not be standing before God in your place.  YOU are accountable to God for what you do in your own life; just as Pharaoh was accountable to God for making his country believe in false idols.     

One thing has changed in this observance and it's fulfillment.  Our hearts have been circumcised with the blood of Jesus.  The blood that the Israelites used to cover their door posts symbolizes the blood of Jesus that covers our hearts and blots our sins out so that God will not see them or remember them anymore.  They are no longer written down in the book of remembrance for those who have come to trust in Christ as their Passover lamb.  Praise God we are free at last!  Let us keep the festivals of freedom that God has decreed for us to honor Him with just as the Israelites kept them when they first gained their physical freedom.  

We now have spiritual freedom!  It is much greater and we have so much more to honor God with at our annual festivals now.  Let us honor Him with our whole heart by keeping his word and following his instructions; totally opposite to the Egyptians who did not listen to God’s instructions to Moses.  Let us not turn a deaf ear; but let us be hearing and doing!

Let us remove the leaven for seven days; just as God instructed in Exodus 12: 17-20!  Let us observe the Passover annually and remember that it is our God through Christ His Son who gives us freedom!  Whether we physically act this out or not; we will be just as saved because Christ died for our sins and if we are trusting and believing on Him we are forgiven.  However, it is the difference in cherishing and obeying what God has done and taking it for granted.  

So it was that Moses summoned the elders of Israel and said to them; “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.  Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame.  None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.  When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.  Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.  When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?  Then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians."

After Moses spoke this, the people bowed down before God and worshiped.  The Israelites did just as God had commanded Moses and Aaron. 

Midnight arrived.  God struck down the firstborn of all of Egypt, from the house of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as the firstborn of all of the Egyptian livestock that survived the plagues.  Pharaoh and his officials woke up during the night to the sound of loud wailing throughout Egypt.  There was not one house without someone dead, including Pharaoh's beloved firstborn son.

SEASONS - RANDOM THOUGHTS DURING THE SPRING HOLY DAYS

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Another Passover has happened, and we are approaching the end of the Seven Days of Unleavend Bread.  Again, as I have done for the last 25 years; I observed the days by honoring God in my home.    God has shown me so much in these past few days.

What has God shown you this year?  Is God speaking to your heart of new and different things?

I have found each time I observe the Holy Days God speaks to me in new and different ways, showing me things I’ve never seen before.  That is exciting to me!  I don’t know why I’m always surprised to find this out. 

There were several things that happened this year during the times of observance that felt different and new and unordinary to me.  I suppose the main thing I noticed is how much we didn’t miss using the regular bread this year.  We have taken extra steps all year long to improve our health and one of those steps was to almost eliminate bread from our diet.  So this year when I made sandwiches on flat unleavened pita bread, and left out the rolls for dinner, and forgot the biscuits for breakfast, and brought out the Matzoh tray with every meal; it did not feel like we were giving anything up.  It just felt good and nutritious.  I’m hoping that the spiritual symbolism of this is also true! 

The whole point of leaving out the things with leaven in them is to be symbolic of learning to live without sin.  Hopefully, we are sinning less and less and instead focusing our spirits toward God’s will more and more.  I realize men cannot quit sin without God’s help and anything that we do is only because it is God working through us.  I’ll take that accomplishment!  Come Lord Jesus and do your work in me!

CHOCOLATE COVERED MATZOH

I guess I’m trying to say I feel like God is working through our lives more and more these days, and the things of the world are becoming less and less important.  Focusing on the meanings of these holy days helps me to put the things of the world into the right 

perspective.  Thinking of how Jesus made atonement for us by giving his life like an early first fruits offering has set the stage to remind me that once Jesus was resurrected from the grave we all had new and different lives!  What a joyful reminder.  Once the Resurrection proved the power of God to bring new life, it really became easier for all of us to put the things of sin and the world aside because of the resurrection power of Jesus residing in our souls.  He makes all good things possible for us.  What a difference a Resurrected Messiah makes!  Nothing is the same again; all things are made new!

So no wonder we are continuing to eat the unleavened bread for seven days, it is so symbolic of how Jesus has given us the power to clean up our lives and help us to live in God’s will and BE His people.   Why would we be eating the leaven so symbolic of sin right after our risen Savior has proved the power of God for everlasting life?  The unleavened bread seems so appropriate as we remember.

Besides seeing the everyday evidence of so much symbolism as we progressed through these days, I have also enjoyed the delightful taste and the constant feeding of the unleavened bread.  I found myself looking forward to consuming it, even craving it.  This was a pretty new concept, compared to many years gone by.  In the past I have dreaded having to substitute the leavened bread for eating purposes.  This year I have craved doing this.  I hope it is a physical example of how I more and more crave Christ in my days instead of the old life of sin.  The things of God are more delicious to me and the things I used to desire, I no longer crave.  This feels good and hopeful and it would have been harder to really grasp or understand if I had not actually carried out the observance or gone through the days as God commanded.  By adding these commandments of God into our lives, we have received more blessings, over and above what we would normally receive.  They come in little small ways, and in simple everyday messages of profound truth.  It is God’s Spirit seeping into the dark places, bringing the light that makes us wake up again and remember to start living and be joyful.  It is just as important to put the things of God into your days as to take the things of the world out of your days.

CHILDREN'S SEDER (FOR TEACHING TODDLERS ABOUT PASSOVER)

Last year I decided that my early first fruits offerings to God had to be more personal.  I gave to Him my greatest talent, my writing.  I felt like I was giving God back an old present that He had given to me long ago.  By giving it back to God  I do not mean I gave up my writing for God; I mean that I devoted myself to using my writing for God’s glory.  This past year God has blessed that offering in tremendous ways.  I have seen my offering returned to me over and over again, not so much in a financial manner, but in a feeling that the writing is finally being used in a fruitful way.  I feel like my writing is finally becoming an open window that people can enter to see more of God and the things of God’s Kingdom.  That has been the desire of my heart.  That was what I intended with my offering, and God has blessed this.  Looking back after the first year of being offered up to be poured out like a drink offering; I feel He will continue to bless it. 

This year my offering has been to take better care of my physical body because I know it is the temple of God and it is the place where God resides inside of me.  It is so easy to get distracted with day to day living and forget that you are living in a temple.  My temple needed attention.  It had been neglected.  God showed me this, and I have responded.  Immediately after I made this offering to God on Early First Fruits, God began to show me new things.  He is teaching me how to remove the bad and replace it with the good.  Just like boards rot and windows break and we see them so often that we forget to notice, our souls and our bodies need repair and upkeep.  I feel like I’m being coached by the coach of all coaches, and every day I realize something new in relation to maintaining good health and keeping this Temple of The Holy Spirit clean. 

THIS YEAR WE ENJOYED THE SEVEN DAYS OF UNLEAVENED
 BREAD BY EATING OUTSIDE A LOT.

I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that if I had not kept the holy days and not observed Passover, Early First Fruits and The Days of Unleavened Bread as God has commanded, my life would not be as whole or as good, and I would not be so content or so excited about the days to come.  I would still KNOW God, but the KNOWING would not be as much and our relationship would not be as deep.  I continue to recognize this as I count the days after First Fruits up to Pentecost.  The ancients call this “counting the omer.”  I have a friend who thinks it should be phrased as “counting the weeks” (there are 7 Sabbaths in the count up to Pentecost that are mentioned in the scriptures, and it is true we are told to count them as weeks, not the physical omer itself; if you want to get technical) because the Omer is an object of measurement, not time.  I can see a little beyond that though, in that if you actually think of the grain that was contained in the Omer when the sacrifice was brought and offered up to God and discern that our days offered up to God are symbolically like those little pieces of grain.  God takes them and uses them a little at a time.  An accumulation of our times is eventually measured out just as the grain.  It is saying that all the little things we do make up the big picture to God.  Each day builds onto the next and the next and the next and your measure of grain (your first fruits) will come together for a beautiful spiritual harvest in the end, once another ingredient is added – God’s Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  

All of man’s efforts would be a waste of time without God being a part of them.  

Observing Passover, Early Frist Fruits and Unleavened Bread without counting up to and observing Pentecost would be like mixing all the ingredients of a cake together, setting it on the counter and watching it, but not adding any milk or putting the mix in the oven.  Your cake would never get baked, because you would be missing a vital part that makes it work – God’s Holy Spirit, which is given at Pentecost. 

It is pondering these things that brings me joy!  I have so many friends that are feeling sad about growing old.  I’m just not feeling that way; though I am getting on up in years, I am feeling God coming closer and closer.  I am feeling anticipation for what He will do next in my life, in my home, in my marriage, in my family, in my work.  I don’t think I would be feeling the same way if I had ignored God’s Holy Days all year and said they are old antiquated days made only for the Jews and not for me.  It simply isn’t true and the proof to me is the way God reveals so much life to me in the observance of them. 

LOVE THINKING ABOUT THE CHESED ATTRIBUTES OF GOD'S PERSONALITY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF COUNTING THE OMER.  I TRY TO KEEP REMINDERS ALL OVER THE HOUSE.

So before I ramble even more, I will end this time of pondering.  But first; I would like to encourage everyone everywhere to pick up your bibles and study Leviticus 23 and learn how to observe God’s Holy Days.  Don’t listen to all the Pharisees out there who will give you their legal list of rules.  Just study God’s word and apply what He shows you.  He will lead you.  As long as you are focused on worshiping God, you will not make unrepairable mistakes.  God looks at the intentions of your heart, not the rules and regulations and technicalities.  You will be blessed, I promise.  

SEASONS - GOD'S SACRED HOLY DAYS - PASSOVER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

THE PASSOVER

I am a Christian, believing in Jesus Christ as Messiah.  I am NOT trying to act Jewish, I am simply trying to be a more accurate Christian. God used the Jewish people to teach the Christians how to live.   Because of this, I keep the Holy Days in my home according to the Jewish calendar, the same calendar that Jesus kept, on the same days that the disciples continued to keep, even after the Resurrection and Jesus's Ascension into heaven.    I have learned, like they did; that God gave these dates in the time order of appointed sacred times, and that they have never been changed by God, even after the fulfillment of the Resurrection on the second Holy Day of the Seven Days of  Unleavened Bread, during Passover  Week which we call Early First Fruits.  

If the order of these Holy Days were changed by God, like many people think, and God's calendar ended at the cross, so much of God's story that He tells through the Holy Days would remain unfulfilled!  Yet; sadly; many stop their religious observances after the celebration of Passover and The Resurrection.  By only keeping and observing a portion of the well laid out plan of God, the continuation of God's plan would be skewed.  There are three more holy sacred times that HAVE NOT YET been fulfilled that come AFTER the Passover.  Teaching people to forget these Holy Days and God's calendar only helps Satan to keep God's people skewed.  It keeps them from seeing all of God's complete prophecies.    This year Passover (which includes The Days of Unleavened Bread and Early First Fruits) will be observed April 22 - 30th.  It is a very sacred and holy time that is rich with ancient history and modern transitions.    I feel sorry for anyone who is so caught up in the trappings of the world's teaching that they miss or dismiss the true time of Passover.  

Many people think Passover started with the Exodus from Egypt, but the whole concept actually began way back in the garden with Adam and Eve.  God first showed the concept of Passover to Adam and Eve when He killed an animal and used the skin of the animal to cover their nakedness.  It is thought by the sages that God roasted the meat of the animal killed to cover Adam and Eve’s sin, and they ate a meal together just outside of Paradise.  This was the beginning of God repairing the breach caused by their sin inside the garden.

In this sense, observing Passover is the beginning of repairing the breach between God and mankind.  Note that it was initiated by God, planned and laid out as a way for us to come back to Him.  God has never wanted mankind to be separated from Him.  He has used Passover to teach us this.

We know that Adam and Eve taught a concept of Passover to their children who taught it to their children all the way up through history right to the  present generation where we are living now. 
    

Even when the great flood came, Noah kept count of God’s sacred days and he and his family celebrated them together on the ark.  Afterwards Noah’s son Shem became the family high priest for the first new family after the flood.  He taught about God’s sacred holy days in the first school that he founded to teach people about God's way of life. 

Many generations later, in the days of Moses God’s people were taken into slavery and held captive by an Egyptian Pharaoh.  God told Moses to lead the people to freedom.  When Pharaoh refused to let the people go God sent plagues across the land of Egypt.  The last and worst plague was the death of every first born son.  Before this night, which was Passover, God instructed Moses to tell the people to put the blood of a lamb over the door posts of their homes.  On this night, if the Angel of Death saw the blood of the lamb over the door post of the home, he would pass over and the first born of that house would be saved.  This is how God helped His people remember this sacred time even when they had been held for years in captivity and had not been allowed to worship Him or keep His sacred times.  God was reminding them that HE set the dates of our time.  He is the eternal timekeeper.  He stands outside of time; but He has planned for every second of our life as He watches over it.  Some of our seconds, minutes and hours are more blessed and sacred and should always be set aside.  

Many years after the wilderness experience of the Israelites, during the days of Solomon’s temple, the people brought their lambs to the temple to be slaughtered by the priest.  Each sacrificial lamb wore a sign around its neck with the family name painted on it.  The blood of the lamb was poured out at the altar and the meat was taken home and roasted on a pomegranate pole until it was done and the whole family would gather in the home and have a sacred meal to remember how God had atoned for their sins by the blood of their lamb.  They would also remember how God had delivered their ancestors from the bondage of slavery and led them through the wilderness to the promised land.  All of the lamb was eaten in this meal.  If any was left over it was burned in the fire.  The stories of these things were told each year to the next generation so they would always remember the sacred stories of God.  Are you passing them on to your next generation?  It is so easy for children to see these stories when you observe the Passover Seder inside your home.  

 Then came the days that Herad was king.  Jesus Christ was born to a young virgin named Mary.  Jesus grew up keeping God’s sacred, appointed times.  He was the first man to ever live without sin.  He was the Son of God who came from God to earth in the form of man.  He endured every temptation known to mankind without sinning.  He was a great teacher and He taught about The Kingdom of God.  He had many followers and they were called disciples.  

Jesus and His disciples understood sacred, appointed times and they observed The Passover for seven days.  On the night before Jesus was crucified the disciples ate the Passover meal with Jesus.  On that night Jesus asked them to always remember him with this meal.  Shortly after that He was crucified.  He hung on a cruel cross, suffered and bled and died for my sins and your sins and the sins of those disciples that ate at the table with Him.  He was the Holy Lamb of God.    

On this very same day called Passover Jesus Christ became the lamb for the door post of our hearts.  He atoned for our sins by giving his life in exchange for the debt of our sin.  He redeemed us from the bondage of the slavery to sin.  Christians must remember this at Passover .  He commanded us to always remember this.  At the time the disciples participated in the Passover with Christ before His crucifixion they were on their way to being REAL Christians, the very blessed People of a Resurrected Messiah.  They had done all that was humanly possible and Jesus was about to do the rest.  There were appointed, sacred times for fulfilling all of this.  God had set them in motion from the foundation of the world.  Jesus understood this.  He waited on God's timing and then accepted His mission to save the world just as they had mapped it out from the very beginning.    

Today we have come to  know that Jesus Christ was the Holy Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.  He was and is our Passover.   He fulfilled every thing  that had been learned in the keeping of Passover for all the years before and after His death, burial and resurrection.  He asked us to always remember.

The people who love God today still keep the Passover and they have not forgotten Jesus’s words when he said “Remember Me.”  They know that Jesus became our Passover lamb and that His blood was perfect blood which atoned for all the sins of mankind forever.  God’s people still keep God’s sacred, appointed time called Passover.  We remember each Sabbath and we remember each Passover.   In all the years that have passed, God's people have never forgotten.

So now we all know of these things which came about over time through the different generations of people serving God that further fulfilled the meaning of Passover.   These little stories were added to the whole story and passed on from each generation of people as pieces of Passover developed and unfolded and happened in their own time.  

From the beginning of time God wrote, knew and understood the whole story, but we have had to live through the story in order to understand it all.  We will always remember to tell the story to our children, to pass it on to the next generation.  They must understand all these things that God used to teach us that Jesus Christ would become The Lamb of God offered up for the sins of the whole world.  Each year we remember and we tell our children of the greatest love story that ever happened, all the while hoping that they too will learn and grow and love and know the goodness of The Lord and pass the beautiful story on to their children one day. 

At Passover we glorify the Lamb who is worthy to open the scroll; the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world, who hung on a cross to pay for the sins of all mankind.  He is worthy of all glory and honor and praise.   We must always remember how much God loved us to send Him to us.  We must always remember how much He loved us to die in our place.  

Passover is all about remembering the most important things of God which we should never forget.     

The Passover season lasts for eight days.  The Seder meal is eaten inside the homes of God’s people on the first day just after sunset.  The meal is served on white linen tablecloths by candlelight and special blessings and prayers are recited to help us remember and to allow us as a family to offer up our thanks to a God with a heart bigger than the sky.  

SEASONS - THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF PASSOVER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Passover is coming soon.  Passover for the year of 2016 begins on the evening of Friday, April 22 and ends on the evening of Saturday, April 30.   Many do not realize that Passover is not just one day, but a season that lasts for eight days. 

It all started not long after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and they began to till and harvest the land.  Every year they enjoyed a celebration of the harvest of the spring barley crops and the new lambs.  We can understand this from the stories of Cain and Abel.  One brought vegetables and one brought meat.   It was a set aside time that God had ordained each year at the ending of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season. 

Adam and Eve passed this down through the generations right up until the flood.  Noah was the grandson of Enoch.  Enoch had walked with God and he taught Noah.  Noah taught his sons and kept God's calendar even during the time on the ark and the flood.  After the flood Noah's son Shem was made the family high priest.  He established a school to teach God's ways to the people of the earth.  Shem passed on the Holy Days of God to the generations after the flood.  Abraham was the next family high priest after Shem.  Abraham knew and passed down God's Holy Days to his sons and his household.

Many years before the redemption of Israel from Egypt, God instructed Abraham about the sacrifice of a lamb.   We know that Abraham offered up many lambs for sacrifice, and was even prepared to offer his own son, but God would not allow it.   

The word Pesach, as the Hebrews call it, was first derived from the instructions given by God to Moses.  It means “passing over” or “protection.”  God had promised that the Angel of Death would “pass over” the people who had put the blood of the lamb over the door posts of their homes.  The time of the year was right in line with the same clock that God had given men from the beginning.  It was the season of Passover when God told Moses to tell the Israelite people that He would bring them out of the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians.  

God was officially calling His people out and stating that He would lead them to the promised land, the land that He had promised to the seed of Abraham in a covenant long ago.  This was a land that would be known as the land of the people of God.  These people of God were the ones from which would come the promised Messiah.  It was a time of new beginnings for Israel.  They were leaving an old life and entering a new life.

  

After the Exodus, during temple times, people came up to Jerusalem every year singing joyous songs, bringing their lambs to the temple for sacrifice.  A sign hung around each lamb naming the family that brought them.  

Sometimes there were 3 million lambs offered up for the sins of the people in Jerusalem in one 24 hour period of time.  The priests blew the trumpet when the lambs were slain and they caught the blood of the lambs in a special silver or gold bowl.  Hymns were sung as this happened and the priest carried the bowls to the altar.  The service ended with incense on the altar after the lambs had been roasted on a special pole made specifically of pomegranate wood. 

The lambs were eaten at a special meal.  Anything that was not eaten was burned up with fire until none remained.  Unleavened bread and herbs were served with the lamb as well as red wine and water.  The people always remembered how God led them through the wilderness out of slavery into a new promised land where they lived in freedom and luxury.

By the time Jesus walked the earth this offering had been a required offering for many years.  He too went up for the Passover every year with his family.  Every Jewish male was expected to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Passover.   It became a week long festival.  It was a time to repent, to  give the offering for atonement, to cleanse your house of all leaven (sin) then celebrate the harvest with an offering of the first fruits of your crops. 

The offering of the lamb was made on Passover.  The first fruits waive sheaf of barley was offered and waived before God in the first few days of unleavened bread which came to be known as The Day of the FirstFruits.   The people, who had put away sin and cleaned their homes of anything ungodly came up and celebrated the first fruits of their crops with Thanksgiving before God. 

The disciples of Jesus also kept the Passover.  They celebrated The Passover with Christ just before He was crucified.  Having celebrated this set-aside sacred time all of their lives, and understanding the history of their people, they realized when Jesus died for them that He had become their true Passover.  His resurrection on the third day, the day of Early First Fruits was positive proof to them that He was Messiah.  He was the perfect lamb of God offered up for the sins of mankind. 

Even after Jesus once more ascended to heaven; the disciples remembered that Jesus had commanded them to “remember Him” with this special Passover meal every year.  The Messiah is remembered weekly in The Holy Eucharist celebrated on The Sabbath and remembered annually with the great ritual and symbolism that tells the whole extensive story at Passover.  

The disciples continued year after year to remember the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Early First Fruits.  Each generation taught their sons and daughters, and the Church now understands the offering of Christ was fulfilled by keeping the Passover.  Now we do this to remember that He was once The Suffering Servant, but now is The Resurrected Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He will come again for His people.  He has commanded us to remember the story.  

We retell the whole story each year with The Passover.  The symbols and the whole eight days teach our children how to live in the truth of The Messiah. 

 With the season of Passover every year we learn and grow in God's grace as we celebrate all He has done for us.  We remember His resurrection on the day of Early First Fruits and we look forward to our own resurrection day when we will be with Him forever.

SEASONS - JUGGLING DATES AND TIMES AND WAITING WITH PATIENCE FOR GOD TO REVEAL ALL THINGS

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Every year when spring rolls around, I ask myself if I’m going to have to do the juggling act again this year.  I’m referring to the way the church observes its holy days.  Some organizations prefer different days than others. There are so many different variations.  Everyone thinks they are right.  All can't be right.  Not only that, each year is different for all concerned.  Some days the celebration of The Resurrection falls close enough together for all parties celebrating to be doing it together.  I love those years!  I'm all for unity and I hate divisions, but nevertheless; it is sometimes necessary.

After years and years of study and prayer and day to day life experiences, I've chosen to live by the passages of scripture that seem to ring most true to me.  These words from God are found in Leviticus, Chapter 23:

Leviticus 23New International Version (NIV)

The Appointed Festivals

23 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

The Sabbath

3 “‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: 5 The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. 8 For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”

Offering the Firstfruits

9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect,13 together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

The Festival of Weeks

15 “‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 19 Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. 20 The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest.21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

22 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”

The Festival of Trumpets

23 The Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 25 Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’”

The Day of Atonement

26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.29 Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. 30 I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”

The Festival of Tabernacles

33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.

37 (“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the Lord—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day.38 These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord.)

39 “‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. 40 On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters 43 so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”

44 So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed festivals of the Lord.

Notice that word "appointed" and ponder how many times in the scripture you hear "it has been appointed," then read the rest of the sentence that is worded "of The Lord."  

Hence, my problem with keeping the calendar of nearly all of the present day Christian churches.  Most of the world, both Catholic, and Protestant will be celebrating Easter Sunday on March 27th this year.  

Though I celebrate the Resurrection of Christ EVERY DAY; I follow the days from the above scriptures that have been kept by the Jewish people for years and years, ever since God first gave them.  They are not lost times.  There are references to when they started and every celebration since then.  When time was lost in the Exodus, God corrected the calendar by the way He gave the manna.  It fell for six days and on the sixth day they collected enough for two days so they could keep the Sabbath without any labor.  If they collected more manna on any other day than the sixth, it would spoil, but the manna collected for two days in order to keep the seventh day holy would keep until the end of the Sabbath.  That was God pulling his people back into his calendar.  

In the calendar that God gave His people there was no Easter Sunday, but there was a Passover week.  During that week with 7 days of unleavened bread, there was a day of an early first fruits offering, which coincided with the later reality of the Resurrection of Christ.  This day from the beginning has always been  a perfect picture of the resurrection of Christ.  

This particular year (2016) on that particular ancient calendar (which follows the moon, not the sun) Passover occurs on April 22 - 30th and the whole week (8 days - 7 days of unleavened bread and one day for Passover) is a very holy time when you decide to stop and follow the instructions God gave in the scriptures I referenced above. 

On the first day there is a Seder meal that remembers the Passover of ancient days when Moses led the children of God from Egypt to the promised land, and then we remember the parallel it shadowed, the fulfillment of the story and how Jesus led the people of God out of the bondage of sin.   

On the second day of Passover we begin to count the omer.   The omer was used by those same people in the wilderness who collected the manna.  They knew when they had an omer they had enough food for one day.   In other times an omer was a measurement to measure the grain from the first crop of the year that was offered up to God in the Temple in ancient times.  It was the early first fruits sacrifice, the one that always came first, before any of the other part of the crops were consumed by the people.  This amount was given to God.  For the Christian this is symbolism for the sacrifice of Christ.  It symbolizes His death, burial and ascending into heaven to offer His blood at the mercy seat.  

On this day, the day that we offer up the omer of first fruits, we start counting 50 days until Pentecost.  

Heaven receiving the sacrifice of Christ made the Holy Spirit possible.  The third day of the feast of unleavened bread is when we celebrate the actual Resurrection of Christ.  This would be 3 whole days and nights from sunset at Passover.  Christ rose from the grave on the 3rd day!  This is considered to be a High Sabbath.  The last day of Unleavened Bread is another high Sabbath of thanksgiving that ends the feast with rejoicing.

We totally believe all of the other elements that the Catholics and Protestants keep during Holy Week, we just think they happened in a different time frame.  We remember how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the people laid down their garments and palm fronds in the pathway.  We follow the steps of Christ during this week.  We consider how He cleansed the temple and cursed the fig tree.  We trace His steps leading up to the crucifixion too.  We think of how he washed the disciples' feet.  We remember all of these things, we just remember one thing more; that God set the dates for them to happen and they were fulfilled and played out just as He commanded from the beginning of the time that He began setting people apart for His Kingdom.  

I do not believe that the Church has replaced Israel as God's chosen people, but I do believe that the Church is the fulfillment of Israel being God's chosen people.  The church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles that believe on the name of Christ and follow Him.  It is not a building or an organization, but a body filled with God's Holy Spirit.  This is the fulfillment of every story that God ever gave to Israel.  Israel has not been replaced; but the purpose of Israel has evolved to include all the nations of the earth.   

In keeping the Jewish calendar days it is not my hope to become Jewish, but I hope for everyone, both Jewish and otherwise, to become Christian.   My definition of Christianity is "those who know Jesus as Messiah and are filled with God's Holy Spirit who are content to follow His Holy Scriptures and the example of Christ until the end of time, when they will then be with God forever and ever."  

 Christianity started out with a small group of people who had been Jewish but became believers in a Messiah named Jesus.  When they became believers they were no longer Jewish; they were Christians.  The Jewish nation as a whole has never believed in Christ as Messiah.  This conversion experience that many of them experienced did not mean their national identity had changed, it simply meant they now believed the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They became different from the other unbelieving Jews in that their religious identities became Christian even though their nationality was still Jewish.        These people are the Jewish people that my heart identifies with.  In keeping the same scriptures that God gave to THEM I am not trying to be Jewish, but trying to be like the first Christians.  At the time these scriptures about the holy days were written, no one could have believed in Christ, because he had not yet arrived on the scene, but God was using these days to show that He WOULD come.  These days are how God has taught His people from ancient times.   They were and still are VERY important and sacred. 

God used that nation (Israel) to teach us how to live His way.  They were the pattern of what was to come.  He chose these people to bring us, as well as them; The Messiah.  The Church now is in a continuation of all that Christ started.  I think that all we (the Church) believe has come from what God originally taught to Israel.  I do not think that Jesus's death, burial and Resurrection did away with the law; but that in these things Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law for us.  The law is still in effect; Jesus just paid our penalty for breaking it! 

Even though we will not have to pay our penalty, God still desires that we keep HIS laws.   Leviticus explains how God gave His law to His people.   He simply gives us grace now because of Jesus.  He began proclaiming that He would do this way before it ever happened through the giving of these days in Leviticus Chapter 23.   The ten commandments were written down as the best ways for us to live.  They were given for our own well being.  They were clearly written down and spelled out for our understanding. They are still in effect.  They were not abolished.  When God gave those commandments, He also gave us HIS Holy Days at the same time.  Like the commandments, they were clearly written down and spelled out for our understanding.  I believe they too are part of our best way to live before God.  

We can chose to ignore the law and live in sin and if we confess this God will forgive us and we will receive grace.  We can also make a conscious decision to try not to break the law again and God will bless our lives because of it.  Receiving grace is what happens when we fall.  Deciding to follow God's ways in the first place is a higher way to live.  It would mean that we chose to accept what God intended for us all along.  It is the path to greater blessings and fuller days.  How do I know?  I've lived both ways.  

Men make holidays, but God made Holy Days; days that He sanctified within our times; appointed days in which He desires to share festivals and feasts with us.  That last verse says it all with the words: "the appointed festivals of the LORD."  Not the appointed festivals of mankind, but God's festivals.  Not the appointed times of Israel, or any other nation, the appointed times of GOD.  If you are a child of God, these are HIS times.  They belong to God, not to any certain nation or people. 

 

So this is how I have come to treat the days appointed in Leviticus 23 as holy.  The days were still observed in the New Testament, both by Jesus and by the disciples. Some of them are mentioned in the Revelation to be observed in eternity.  Following the example of Jesus and His disciples has been appropriate for everything else, why would this be different?   

One thing changed; that was the need for an animal sacrifice.  Jesus died once for all.  He was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.  Now we no longer need animal sacrifices, or any other sacrifice for that matter.  Jesus paid it ALL.  This did not do away with the feast or festivals, but it fulfilled them and gave them even deeper meanings.  Now when we keep the days mentioned in Leviticus 23 we remember how some of them have already been fulfilled and we look to the day of the fulfilling of the rest of them.    

Since these days were first given to the Israelites and they, via the tribe of Judah, have been accountable for keeping accurate and continuing times and dates throughout all the pages of history; I have chosen to follow their calendar in lieu of the other many calendars that the world has come up with.  Even this calendar could not be totally accurate, but it is by far the MOST accurate.    All you have to do is look at the historical records to see that men, in the name of God, have changed dates and times for their own purposes and rode the horse of religion to get their way.  

  

 Some holy days found on the secular calendar are totally different dates than those found on the Jewish calendar.  We have one group with the right calendar not practicing all of the right things and another group practicing the right things but on the wrong dates.  Very ironic that most people can't get the point of correcting this and bringing two rights together to make a WHOLE right.   Some years have the dates falling close enough that it isn't very noticeable.  We all seem in better harmony on those years, though it is actually deceptive in nature.  In some years there is no way to make everything mesh together properly and I have to fall out of step with all of my brothers and sisters.   It is sad to me that we allow Satan to divide us.   I try not to stress over this, and just allow grace to happen as God directs, but I’m always confronted with the fact that the devil is in the details (in more ways than one.) 

These subtle differences in dates and times seem like just another way to cause division among believers, but if you give into that notion and go with the flow in order to create unity, it just feels like another way for the devil to use human logic and cause us to follow false religious practices.  If you can't be true with God, you will not be true with anything.      

So what is the best solution?  

The world will not change completely until Christ comes again and sets everything straight.  For me this is one of those times to just do what I think is right before God and try not to make an issue over it.  I just try to stand for the truth without being hateful or disruptive and wait for God to bring grace and peace into anything that I chose to do in His name.  I’m reminded once again of having the heart of a child in all things.  I am also reminded of the fact that nothing is going to happen to any believer that has not already happened to Christ.  It is nothing new to be persecuted and hated for believing in the things that God has made plain to you.  All Christians have experienced this on some level.  It is an open door to testimony.  One of the strange ways that God brings good to all situations.   

When I taught little children simple and uncomplicated bible stories that we called “Godly Play,” we always ended each lesson with some very effective “wondering” questions.  These questions were designed to help children learn to think through the scriptures for themselves and to process the stories on a deeper, more personal level than what was just on the surface.   Hence they wound up really following God and really working out their own salvation with God instead of just going through rote motions formed from the ideas, expectations and suggestions of other human beings.  

The “wondering” questions were designed so that each child could ponder the facts in the story from their own level, and not have to compete with those who were ahead of them, or lag behind because of those who were behind them in the spiritual learning process.  They could think through things by wondering aloud at the things God had shown them from what ever level they were living in at in the time. 

If something had been taught out of order or erroneously, this thinking-through process would open their eyes and bring them back to the truth without them having to be corrected or humiliated publicly or proclaimed wrong in front of all the other children.  They could then decide how to have the convictions to act on the truth that God had shown to them.   It made learning a delight instead of a chore.   The children were always discovering something new and/or proving tried and true things.


So often I see where this process could be very helpful for many adults.  Sometimes, in spite of all our best efforts and good intentions, we hit a learning snag and we perceive the truth to be something that it is not.  We have to wonder aloud with God until we come up with the correct answers.  Then we have to decide to be convicted enough to act on the answers that God shows to us.

This is often the way it goes with some of us when it comes to dates and times and seasons within the church calendar.  

I face this issue almost like a personal dilemma each year that Passover comes way after Easter on the secular calendar. 

I have to go back and ask my own wondering questions in order to clear the cobwebs from my mind and direct my heart into a direction that I feel pleases God.  

Isn’t that what worship is supposed to do; please God? 

 But often it seems that we are bent on pleasing men first.  Take this season as an example.

We all clearly teach that Passover was a type and shadow for the Resurrection.  Without the understanding of the Passover the Resurrection would not make sense.  The parallel comparisons are so clear – the blood of the lamb over the doorpost – the blood of Christ over our hearts; the death angel “passing over” those who had the lamb’s blood on their homes and the defeat of death because Christ died in our place; like the death angel who granted life instead of death to all those first born sons who acted in faith and were willing to believe and follow God in the details of their lives during that first Passover.

 So much is clear, but one thing that is completely clear in the scriptural account is the fact that before resurrection can come; we must go through a Passover. 

This year your secular calendar will not show that order.  The calendar will show Resurrection coming before Passover.  I have many wonderful devoted and godly friends who are Catholic, but the truth is that the Catholic Church, long ago, moved Resurrection Day's date on the calendar and declared that the calendar would be calculated by the phases of the sun instead of the phases of the moon as had been the custom for so many hundreds of years.  Now instead of acting in unity under the declaration of God’s instructions, we all must live in a confusing state of reversal where the days on our calendars for some years have a Resurrection coming before a Passover.  So some of the groups in order to eliminate confusion from their misleading chose to also move Passover into the new Resurrection week they had created.  It is sort of like when you tell one lie, you have to cover it with many more in order to help people believe your lie. 

Later, the Protestant Church chose to use the SAME dates of the Catholic church, though not to the same detail.  The shortened the lie, but  the deception of the dates lived on.  Everyone ignored that God chose "appointed times."  They changed God's dates and times.   

There were some however who did not confirm.  Those who had all along been following ancient time just kept following Passover from the phases of the moon and counting the days around Passover from the old ancient ways of counting. Those who kept keeping God's time God's way were Jewish people who didn't even believe in Christ!  Now that is irony.  Oh my, what a mess!  

If something isn't broke, we shouldn't try to fix it!  Constantine made a HUGE mistake in trying to use religion to unite the people.   At least the Jews had the good sense to recognize God as the Keeper of all times.  

 This confusing state would never have happened if we all had simply kept time the way God first established it so long ago.  We had to go and change it, just like we have tried to change so many other things that God set into motion from the beginning of time.  A little change here, a little change there....eventually we will not be telling the same story.  When we do this, we hit snags that just won’t work out right.  If we stick together and follow our current calendars this year, we will have to have a Resurrection almost a month before a Passover; and this just isn’t good theology.  If you are Catholic, your Passover has been rearranged in order to coincide with your Resurrection date.   Your theology will be correct (MOST OF IT) but your "appointed time" will still be wrong.   Oh dear!

The church (both Catholic and Protestant)  just goes marching right on through the season with their man made changes, expecting everyone to just swallow the falsehood and believe that God was the one who made the changes.  If you question this, well you just might have an “authority” problem.  

Just who has the FINAL authority anyway?  Wouldn't that still be God?     

Still, in my “thinking-through” process, I can’t help but realize and acknowledge that this rearranging and moving around of all the dates and times simply can’t be pleasing to God and I don't think it should be done!

 

Without a Passover you cannot have a Resurrection!  Resurrection simply cannot occur without a Passover first!  God is a God of order and this is the order that He set in motion.  The night before He was crucified, Jesus confirmed this by having the Passover.  Three days later He celebrated The Resurrection.  It doesn’t work backwards!  It only works going forward.

 

The wondering questions of the children have brought my feet back to steady ground once again this year.  For a few years the dates on both calendars were close enough together that it didn't make a huge difference.  This is leap year - and the times don't ever match up on a leap year.  It is simply one of those times when my worship will have to be out of step with my Christian brothers and sisters. 

I have made the choice to keep Passover with the Hebraic thinkers who have kept the calendar forever.  When I say "forever" I mean way before the Catholic Church ever existed.  In case you haven't figured this out yet, there was a Christian Church even before the Catholics existed.  The forming of the Catholic Church was actually the first great schism.  They forget to mention that part in the catechism classes.  God taught First Fruits to Adam and Eve right after the fall, and I believe they passed this on to their children.   My celebration of the Resurrection Day will be on the day of Early First Fruits which occurs soon after the Passover.  It will be about a month after the dates that most Protestant and Catholic churches are celebrating the Resurrection for this year.  

Ironically, those old ancient Hebraic believers who kept the days originally did not even know why they did so!  More ironically, the Jewish people who keep the correct dates today STILL don't understand the whole truth.  They miss that Jesus is the Messiah.  ALL of the Holy Days point to Jesus as Messiah.  It is amazing to me that people can celebrate these days year after year and not see that; but it happens. 

Without knowing what they were doing; they celebrated the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for years and years before it even happened!  They were simply following God's instructions.  They, in their ignorance, were still a lot smarter than us today with all of our modern intelligent ways.  How ironic it all seems.   I'm not trying to be Jewish folks, I'm just trying to be as accurate a Christian as possible.  I'm simply trying to follow the scriptures in whole with accuracy.  Please don't misunderstand the motives.  Aren't Christians supposed to follow ALL of the scriptures?  Why do we chose to ignore a HUGE portion of our bibles?  The answer is that men have changed what God said to make things more convenient for men.  Since it was allowed for so many years, many have become blind to the truth, and that is just what Satan wanted to happen.  

Another question we would always ask while teaching children was:  “I wonder if we took out just one little element of this story; would we still have the same story?   

The logical conclusion was always an emphatic “NO!”  

You simply can’t change the stories and still have the same story.  

God gave ONE true story of the Resurrection.   We must be true to that one story – you can’t have a Resurrection without first going through a Passover. 

Another wondering question we would sometimes ask was:  “I wonder if there is more to the story than what we just heard?” 

Many times something very obvious would surface when we asked this last important question; some would become aware of something that had not been seen or noticed before.  It was as if a bright light suddenly came on and everyone could see more clearly in the light. 

The “something further” or the “more to the story” that I see in relation to the calendar of the church is that God planned out His times in an order to teach us His story.  If we mix the order, the story is lost.  And there is a BIG “something else” to consider.   That “something else” is vitally important to all of us who know and love Jesus Christ and want to worship God with all our hearts.  It is called Pentecost!

Can you have a Pentecost if you get the Resurrection before the Passover?

 

Look at the words of Jesus.  What did Jesus say to his disciples regarding Pentecost?  In Luke 24:49 He said:  Wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

In John 14:26 he says:  “But the Advocate, The Holy Spirit which the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said.”  So right after the Resurrection (when the early first fruits had come both physically to the land and physically and symbolically in the form of the Resurrection of Christ) the people who had faith went up to Jerusalem to wait on God to send The Holy Spirit. 

Why?

Because that was what they had always done after an early first harvest.  They went up to the Temple to offer the first fruits of their labors to God.  They took their Omer of barley and gave it first before they ate of their crops, then they waited for 50 days.  They counted them off on the calendar and they waited.

 Why?  Why were they waiting? 

They didn’t even know!  

They simply had faith.  

They were ignorant of the truth; they only had faith.  We are not ignorant! We have no excuse for our actions.  We are living on the other side of truth.  The sacred times that God set in motion happened just when He had said they would!  WE CAN KNOW.  All they knew was that God had commanded that they keep the days in this certain order and they were acting in faith.  When the symbolic first fruits offering was fulfilled in the form of Jesus and the Resurrection proved its truth, they knew to go to Jerusalem and wait for 50 days.  In 50 days, if they counted correctly from the day of early first fruits (Resurrection Day,) they would come into the time of Pentecost.  They would find themselves in the time of a much greater harvest.

The meaning became very clear when Jesus told them the instructions in person AFTER the Resurrection had occurred.  It became even more clear when on that very 50^th day they received The Holy Spirit from Heaven!  Their eyes were opened.  

What a day it must have been!

 None of them would have been there if the Resurrection had come before the Passover.  

Their timing would have been off.  

They would have missed Pentecost and would not have received God’s Holy Spirit. 

Unless they counted their time in the way God had shown them, they would have missed the biggest day of Church history. Take that to an individual level.  Unless we learn to count our days with the purposes that God has given us, we will miss our life's mission from God.  Like little first graders learning addition, we much learn to count!  I'm not sure about you, but I don't want to miss anything because I didn't pay attention to what God had instructed and put my faith into something that a man had devised instead.   I know the real teacher, personally.  I'm listening to His words and no other.  There are days that are still to be fulfilled.  I want to be in the place where God has instructed doing what God has instructed when those days come.  I'm going to abide by the scriptures!  

Folks, you cannot have a Pentecost without a Resurrection, and you cannot have a Resurrection without a Passover.  God first gave the order to the Hebrews, then later Jesus gave us (the Church) the proper order by the way He lived out His days.  It is God's math. The Son will always confirm the Father.  

If you look at your calendar from the view of the way men have changed it over time; you will not see all of the lessons that God intended for you to see. You will miss things.  Your spiritual math will be wrong.

 

Does this mean I will look down my nose at those who dress up and go to worship God on Easter Sunday so that they can thank Him for the Resurrection?  No, absolutely not!  

I will thank God they know Him.  I will thank God for saving them.  I will praise God that they BELIEVE in Resurrection.  

The main pieces of the puzzle are still in place.  Their salvation is sure.  Even though they have chosen the name Easter, I do not believe they are worshiping a pagan god, but I think they are truly intending to please the God of Heaven who sent Jesus Christ.  The intentions are right. God looks at the intentions of the heart. As long as they truly don't know or understand, I don't think God will hod it against them.  Grace.  

Also I do consider the fact that it is appropriate to celebrate resurrection on any day and every day.  Resurrection is just that wonderful.  It is appropriate to worship all the time – 24/7 if you choose; especially if you are thanking God for raising Jesus Christ from the dead!  Never a problem! 

So, no, I’ll not point my finger and be critical.  I recognize these people as saved sinners just like me.  I'm not better.  I make other mistakes and miss the mark in other ways.  

I don’t even mind, and do enjoy having baskets and dying eggs and setting little bunnies all over the place to speak of the spring season's arrival.  These are simply children’s games.  Spring does bring new life and it is proper to celebrate that!  God created all of this beauty and I worship Him for the blessing of each season.  I celebrate every season that God made with all of its symbols and signs.  The little chicks and bunnies and eggs are just earthly things though, not idols.  They hold no magic.  As long as I do not put pagan worship into these things, they will not be pagan.  They will simply be reminders of spring and nothing more.   They will not be misused at my house, nor do I think they will be misused at the homes of my friends.  We all understand the difference between children’s play and reality.  We know the difference between Jesus Christ and the Easter Bunny.  One is real; one is a fairy tale.  As long as we have our facts and priorities in order; we are okay.  We must not let these earthly things take over so much that we lose our focus on Christ and The Gospel and the heavenly things.  That would turn them into idols.  There must be balance in our lives, but I think we can manage that.  

When we get down to teaching the WHOLE truth, down to the tiny little details; I’ll stick with the gospel every time in explaining to my family what really happened and what is really important.  It is all recorded right there in the scriptures.   They can clearly see the focus of my heart.  They will know that the world celebrating Easter Sunday is not the same as us celebrating the Resurrection on Early First Fruits after commemorating the Passover. They will have the whole story in the right timing in their minds and hearts exactly as it did happen.  They will know the concept of the "appointed days."   I will celebrate Passover on the dates that have been counted for millenniums from ancient times, in the sacred spaces that God gave instructions for them to happen.  I do believe that God has given sacred, appointed times.  It is God's time, not my time.  He is living outside of it, but I am still inside of the times that He has appointed.   I have no right to change what times He chose to make sacred.   Passover will always come before Resurrection.  I will remember Early First Fruits in the proper order during the Days of Unleavened Bread and right after Passover.  We will begin counting the days up until Pentecost on the day of Early First Fruits and we will count the 50 days until we come to the space in time that God appointed to be Pentecost.  There is even MORE to count after that - but this is enough for this article.  



The time leading up to Pentecost is a growing season and we will be growing as we go.  We are only human though; so it IS possible we may be off here and there occasionally, and it will not be able to be helped.  God gives grace when it is needed.   We will still be following and teaching God’s truth and tending to the parts of our lives as best we can in His ways and with His instructions that are higher than ours.  It isn't at all about being legalistic, but about following God as close as we can.  God looks at the intentions of the heart and He knows we will be following his instructions as best we can within the knowledge that He has given to us.  This is true for everyone, no matter what days they decide to keep.  Everyone must make their best decision and remain true to what God shows them.  

Will others point their finger at us?  It might happen, but we won’t worry about it. (When I say "we" I mean whoever is in my house worshiping with me when these days take place.)  

What is important to us is to follow God and ignore the ways that men try to change God’s plans in order to meet their own ways.  God has never been about convenience.  Narrow is the gate and few there are who find it.  Sometimes this will seem inconvenient.   God is always the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.  He never changes.  His word will always hold true.

Has God put it on your mind to think through these things?  That could be a sign that He is showing you something new.  Some people never feel led to consider or question what everyone else is doing.  It could be that God just has something different for them to achieve.  God only holds us to what He has shown us.  If you are a parent you might come closer to understanding this.  Do you ever trust one child with something that you would not trust another child with?  If so, it probably isn't because you love one more than another, it is just because one child has a clearer understanding of what you are doing.  

Some of us, for some reason, have just given a lot of thought as to why these dates were changed in the first place.  Yes, it was men using God’s name to accomplish their own goals, but even more; it was Satan using men who allowed themselves to think more like Satan than God by following another man's thinking instead of the scriptures.  Some have considered this and yet they simply must measure out grace to those who feel the matter is unimportant.  Truth and grace, they both are used in God's balancing process.  They both matter.  

We learn to live with each other in grace and much emphasis is put on this fact for those of us who are actually thinking and examining our lives as we are counting through the 50 days  leading up to Pentecost.  Our passion also teaches us a lesson in patience.  Everything in life is about waiting on God; for when The Holy Spirit comes, He makes all things plain. 

The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of all the things that Jesus said and did.  That is all we really need to know to do what is right. Each man will be held accountable to God for their own actions.

Spring is full of such decisions!

The day is coming when no one will have to ask the wondering questions.

When Jesus returns and sets the earth in order, we all will be in the same place and we all will have the same level of learning at the same time.   In the meantime, we can keep perfecting and practicing love.  Love overcomes anything.  Love works in all circumstances.   It is the cure for healing those who disagree on things that are not basic to salvation.  Love is the glue that holds God's children together. 

In the Second Coming we will all stand before a God who will tell us exactly what He meant and what He still means.  He will know how much our hearts have comprehended.  He will know what He directed us to do during the days of our lives.  We all have been given different tasks.  It all fits into one plan though.   Hebrews 8:11 speaks of this:  “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”  

That will be a most glorious day!  

There will be no need for a calendar at all!  

Keep looking up folks.  Eventually time rights all wrongs and heals all wounds.  Love overcomes a multitude of sins.  There is One who is never wrong, and He is coming back.

May the joy of The Resurrection fill our hearts with wonder!