SEASONS - MARTHA CHANGES BACK TO MARY

The time has arrived for The Feast of Tabernacles!

On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Sukkot, seven days for the LORD (Leviticus 23:34)

I LOVE Sukkot!!!!!  THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES!!!!! 

This year I am feeling so blessed to be spending the time with my family at the beach.  The anticipation is escalating every day as the feast time approaches.  I've caught myself thinking of how great it has worked out to have a place provided by a family member that is large enough for all ten of our minion!  Eight days with our grown kids and grandchildren in a lazy, fun atmosphere that gives honor to our Creator!  I'm so excited.  

It is a sweet, sweet time before the Lord that I treasure every year.  It doesn't always work out this easy and we have not always had a place to stay together and we can't always get everyone together under one roof every year, but that just adds to my joy of this particular year, to know it has all come together.  I've had different types of blessings on other years.  Of course, we can’t be in Jerusalem this year, and we are not a members of a Jewish congregation that understands the joy of this celebration, but we are a family full of  born again, believing Christians who have come to understand the great significance of The Feast of Tabernacles, and celebrating this time before the Lord is always a big HUGE thing in the year. 

Below are some notes of my celebration from the year 2012, two contrasting situations, but still, two great blessings!  God is good all the time.

NOTES FROM FEAST OF TABERNACLES DAYS OF 2012

This season I’ve have to literally claw my way through the trappings of the world in order to get to God’s way of celebration.   It should be easy, not hard, but it hasn’t happened that way this year. Arriving in the proper place has not been at all easy.  At least one thousand things have happened to distract me and try to prevent me from the joy of the feast.

I have dreamed all year of gathering the whole family together into a little mountain resort town, worshiping together every day, and celebrating the joy of The Lord together all during the feast week.  How nice it would be to just spend family time and relax together in the evenings.  Things gradually one by one fell apart for this plan.  Everyone has some other plans; work was busy for some; money was tight for some; people were too scattered; etc., etc. 

Well, yes, that was MY perfect plan, but alas, God has allowed a situation where I have unexpectedly had to forfeit MY plan for something much simpler. 

My first prayer was one of frustration.  Nothing should stop the joy of the feast, so I just begin to passionately hold that up to God.  He answers me that I am absolutely right.  Hmmmm…..seems to be a strange answer under the circumstance, so I say "but Lord; my budget will not allow a trip with the family this time.  I’ve done everything that I can, but it just isn’t happening."  

“Yes, I know” is what I hear back. 

But Lord, why has it worked out this way? 
And the answer is the most surprising thing, but I do hear it:

“Because I have called you to be content in all circumstances.”

I suddenly remembered the verse I long ago chose for my life verse; Philippians 4:11-13.

The words screamed out to me:   Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.


I had no idea that keeping this wonderful time I've previously kept with such ease was going to be so hard and complicated this year.  You know what?  Sometimes God REALLY calls on you to live out those life verses. 

Now, that word  “contentment” isn’t exactly what pops into my mind when I think of celebrating a week-long festival before the Lord.  I envision feasting, dancing, singing in crowds of joyful people with great fanfare. 

So finally I gather my courage and  I ask The Lord what HE has planned for me this week, knowing that asking HIM was the very first thing I should have considered all along.  He says back to me those hard to digest words I often hear:

“I will show you.  Trust me.”

I am sure it is wrong to complain, but those words didn’t give me much direction.  Next thing I know, my work calls to tell me they have a great need for me to be in the office on Monday and they want me to postpone my vacation time I’ve set aside for at least one day, maybe more.  I had been trying to regroup and at least make a not so extravagant plan for something special to do at home with the family during this feast, but now I can’t even get the first day off from work, and will possibly even have more time than that tied up at work.   

It seems that,The Ox is in the ditch. 

Some people would say it is a sin for me to go on to work, and I should just take the time off anyway.   I have to confess to these zealots that I am living in grace because I have for awhile been in a bondage that I created for myself – I have a mortgage and need my job in order to pay my bills.  We all were going through through tough financial times in the business world during 2012.  If you were employed you were one of the blessed, and you should not take that for granted in today’s economy either!    My heart was still hurting for those that I worked with that had been "let go" for no fault of their own.  I do have to remember that  God says we should be responsible stewards.  I must keep my word and pay my bills.  I need my job, and have actually had on my mind that maybe I no longer need the mortgage; but God will had to led me through that decision and process over time.  I couldn't change anything overnight.   It was something out of my control.  

There I stood in the midst of turning one way and the other until I finally just ended up saying:

 “Okay, Lord, I trust You.” 

After these words, while I’m looking out my bedroom window  still feeling a bit sorry for myself, I catch myself thinking sadly that I haven’t even built a sukkah!  I feel like a failure before God actually, not living up to my own testimony about keeping God’s feast and festivals.  It isn't a good feeling.  I know in my heart He wants us to keep them!   Then, almost as if someone was standing behind me and tapping me on the shoulder, God reminds me that my back deck is a three sided structure that you can see the stars through.

Hmmm……………

He has provided what I was not prepared for.  I think of this simple little miracle, a hidden blessing that My Father just points out to me, and my heart becomes happier.  I go about planning a festive outdoor dinner to be eaten on the deck for that night.   We may not be starting the feast in a fancy place, but our home is a GOOD place.  The view from our deck will be great!  There will be lots of stars shining through the shelter.  This is great!

I consider the food.  My planning has been bad.  My budget has been so tight that the menu will probably need to be very limited.  This is not how God wants us to feast.  I feel ashamed of my own poor planning.  I look in my pantry and find some great selections that I had just overlooked before.

God always provides what we need.  

How long will it take for me to always remember this and never doubt.  Even when I plan amiss, He blesses me anyway.  True grace.  I had the physical things all along without even realizing they were there.   

Now I just had to bring my mind and my spirit to the right place.  

That was the thing most needed.  I confessed my sins of worry and anxiety to God.  I felt His forgiveness flood over me.  I thanked God for his awesome provision, and asked Him to keep my eyes wide open to all the daily blessings He brings from now on.  I had everything that we needed right here under our own roof to offer a joyful feast of thanksgiving to God on the first night of the festival.  What more could a daughter ask from her Father?  I knew I was loved.  I felt the first spark of joy that belongs at the table of the King, and I welcomed it into my heart.

I thought of all the people of God throughout history who had to celebrate their feast days under truly hard circumstances.  I considered that I truly had no problems.  There were those who celebrated under  the rule of captivity.  I thought of those Jewish heroes that had to celebrate their feast days in concentration camps.  I remembered Corrie Ten Boom and her messages of how she found hope when there was no hope.  I thought of Joseph worshiping God in the pagan life he was forced to live in Egypt.  I began to see that my problems were all in my head.  It finally occurred to me that clearly my problems were very small and my God was very big.

I resolved that after work tomorrow, I can do the same again.  We could have our feast on our sukkah on the deck after dark and look up at the stars and thank The God of Heaven and Earth every night during this week. 

Suddenly I felt very rested and not at all stressed.    

Maybe I was just anxious for nothing? 

Once again, I apologized to God for being so stressed over the details.  I am usually such a “Mary,” always worshiping at The Master’s feet; but this week I have been caught acting and behaving just like a “Martha” getting all bogged down in the details and the work and so much so that I almost missed the whole point of setting aside the time to listen, worship, rest and just be thankful and joyful in  the Lord.  I rested in His provision. 

I  have been reminded this week that God simply wants me to sit at His feet and worship.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate, it can be as simple as a dinner on my back deck with my husband.  We will feast with the things that He has provided and offer thanksgiving prayers, ever grateful that we have food and shelter for this day, for this moment and for this season.   It is enough to bask in God’s presence right where we are, right in the moment that we are living in, in the temples of our bodies that He has given us and with our spirits that will never be destroyed or pass away. 

When the stars come out in the night sky, we will look up to see God’s story written in them. 

Is it not a great miracle? 

Is it not a wonderful thing just to sit after a full meal and look up at the night sky and be ever thankful that God is in control and we are not?  

The God who thinks way beyond anything that I could ever imagine reminded me that we own a telescope that is not even being used.  I had not thought of it in years.  I hurried out to the storage area to clean it up and place it next to our table on the deck.  Yes, we have everything that we need, and even more!

And so way back, even in the year of 2012 I was able to proclaim: Happy Feast of Tabernacles Everyone! I expect to do the same this year as our whole family gathers together at the beach.  

May you be able to see God’s blessing unfold before you as you worship and sit at His feet at your feast this year, no matter where or under any circumstances.  I pray that the world will not be able to keep you from all the good God has blessed you with.

May we all live in eager anticipation for the time when Messiah returns to set up His Kingdom and rule and reign, for a thousand years of peace on this earth.

He will graciously provide everything that we need, and it could just be that  the simple things are actually the richest things of all.

Right now, even before Rosh Hashanah comes, begin anticipating the feast times you will spend with God this year.  He is waiting with open arms in the places that He will put His name and call you, living and breathing and walking around inside his temples, to be!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 85 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WRESTLE WITH GOD AND HE LETS YOU WIN

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The place where the angels met Jacob and his family was near Harran.  After spending one night in the camp near Harran Jacob sent his caravan on across the Rabbok River. This included his wives, his sons, his servants and all of his many possessions.

The Zarqa River, as we now call it, is said to be about 30 million years old.  It is a tributary of The Jordan River, and it flows through the valley of Jordan.  This river is what Jacob knew to be the river Rabbok.  It leads west into the Sukkot Valley, from where one crosses over the Jordan and can easily reach Shechem.  This river later became the boundary separating the territories of Ruben and Gad from Ammon.  The Rabbok valley was an important passageway connecting the Eastern Desert with the Jordan Valley.

Present day Jordan is trying to restore the water quality of this river which has been heavily polluted by oil companies and other industrial endeavors.  The estimated cost to restore it is $30 million, and it seems a hopeless task.  In the days of Jacob though, the water was probably clean and useable.

He helped his family across the river and he waited on the other side.  Does anything about those words sound familiar?  I get a vivid vision of all those who have gone on to God’s eternal life before those of us who are left on this earth.  Jacob waited on the other side and did not cross the river  yet. 

So, Jacob was left alone and the scriptures tell us a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

What strange words!  Whatever does that mean?

We are not given the meaning of the “man” but we are told that the man could not overpower Jacob but he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that Jacob’s hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 

Who was this mysterious “man?”

Most have come to believe that the “man” was a Christophany, or the pre-incarnate form of Christ in the bodily form of a man. 

Could Jacob have wrestled with Christ and won? 

To know Jacobs story is to know of deep, deep struggles against huge odds.  That night as Jacob lay his head down to rest he was at the place of his largest struggle ever, that of facing his brother Esau.  He had actually reached a place of “in-between” struggles.  He was forced to leave his father-in-law because of the mistreatment he received from him, yet leaving made him have to face the brother who wished him dead. There were struggles any way Jacob turned.

In order to face his brother, he had divested himself of all he owned.  He sent his possessions and his family on ahead of him.  He is left alone, with nothing.

 

It is just Jacob and God at Peniel.  There will be a Peniel for all of us, a time when nothing that we own or no one that we know can help us.  Everything will be laid bare before God and we will have to give account for our own actions.  Whoever leaves Peniel either goes God’s way or continues in their own strength. 

 Jacob had conned his way out of every situation up until this point; but could he con God? 

He knew he could not.  

He had learned through all this time of struggling that eventually you had to face things honestly and straight on.  This was Jacob’s time to face God with who he really was.  It was a time  to receive forgiveness for his past mistakes, and convince God that he was worthy of another chance at being the person he was designed to be. 

Basically, at Peniel Jacob was going through the process that all devout Jews and a few Christians follow during the month of Elul that lead up to Rosh Hashanah.  He was reevaluating himself before God.  He was reconsidering where he had been, looking and learning from his past mistakes and begging for God’s mercy to try again.

These are the things that Jacob “wrestled” with at Peniel. 

Frederick Buechner said Jacob’s divine encounter at the Jabbok River symbolized the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.  Like Jacob all of mankind has struggled with fear, darkness, loneliness and vulnerability.  At some point we all experience empty feelings of powerlessness and exhaustion and relentless pain.  There is only one thing that will change it, and that is the blessings of God.  

In order to get through to God for His greatest blessings, we all must have our wrestling encounters with Jesus Christ.  If He needs to, Christ will inflict pain in order to save our souls from eternal damnation.  Whatever it takes to save us, that is just what Jesus has in mind.  That is exactly what happened to Jacob.

God could not forgive Jacob and have mercy on him because he had been basically unrighteous in his deeds.  There was one hope though, the atonement of the blood of Jesus.  God would never deny that sacrifice.  This Angel of The Lord that wrestled with Jacob was Jesus before the cross.  God would grant Jesus the power and ability to negotiate with Him for the souls of mankind.  Jacob had to prevail with Christ in order to keep his place in the family.  God loved Jacob.  He came, through Christ, in Jacob’s place in order to live the life that Jacob could not live.  Jacob’s place, my place, your place, none of us measured up.  We all have been wrestling and we all have our broken hips to prove it.

It must have been a tough struggle, because at one point “the man” almost left without giving Jacob a blessing.  It seems that He needed Jacob to acknowledge that He was the only One who had the power to bless him.  Jacob was pretty stubborn, and so are we; but Jacob did finally have the good sense to admit this. By asking for the blessing, Jacob acknowledged his inferiority and Christ's supremacy over him.

The man noticing it was daybreak told Jacob to let him go, but Jacob held on to him and said he would not let him go until he blessed him.

The best advice I could ever give you is to hold on to Jesus until He convinces God to bless you.  It was through wrestling with Christ that Jacob came to see God face to face.  That was the greatest blessing of all blessings!  Jacob saw the face of God and lived to tell about it.  It  could have only happened through Christ who came to this guilty man in the form of humanity and brought him to a place where God would agree to face him yet have mercy on his soul.  Christ did this for Jacob, and He did it for us. 

Jacob had finally wised up.  He knew that God’s will was more powerful and better than his own will.  He had an injured hip to remind him of that for the rest of his life.  

We all need reminders.  What is the broken hip in your life?  I have many injuries, each one of them have taught me and led me to a place of God’s will and purpose for my days.  Without the scars I would not be able to see the stars.  I’m thankful for the broken hips.

The man asked Jacob’s name and he told him.

Then the man said “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.

Therein friends lies the secret to eternal blessings, to struggle with God and humans and to OVERCOME.  Many think this implies that Jacob overcame the strength of Christ in the wrestling; but that is not so.  I take this to mean that by wrestling with Christ, Jacob overcame the problems he had within him that came from sin and his own ways.  He did this by surrendering to God.  In overcoming, Jacob surrendered to Christ and to God’s way of life totally and completely.  He had already started this process as he worked for Laban, but at Peniel, Jacob surrendered all.  By asking for the blessing he gave God total authority over his life.  If he had not met Christ and wrestled with Him at Peniel, this might not have ever happened. 

Revelations 3:21 speaks of a type of Jacob’s victory in this battle: “to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

We can expect to see Jacob with a changed name sitting on a throne in the Kingdom of God.  He will be called Israel.  Under his new name he will represent the House of David before God.

Just as Jacob had faced his troubles in the world and was in the process of bringing the house of Abraham home, Christ too has faced the sin of all nations and is in the process of bringing all of us who follow him into the Kingdom of God.  We know this from the words of John 16:33:  These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace.   In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Jacob had overcome his fears and faced God at Peniel.  He was being strengthened and prepared to meet his worst enemy, and to come out of it victorious.  At Peniel God assured Jacob of who he really was, and  reminded him of the covenant of God that covered him. 

Jacob then said to the man who wrestled with him “Please tell me your name.”But the man replied “Why do you ask my name?”  Here we are reminded of that passage in John 14:9 from a later time where Christ speaks to Philip and says:  “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father.”

Christ has appeared to Abraham and his people over and over in the form of The Angel of The Lord.  He had appeared to Jacob at Bethel.  He had appeared to him in his pastures as he was tending sheep in a dream back in the land of Laban.  Jacob should have recognized The Angel of The Lord, and by seeing him, face to face, Jacob had looked into the face of God, because Jesus said if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.  The two are One.  Jacob should have recognized Christ as The Angel of The Lord.  This is why he did not tell him his name. 

And after that “the man” “The Angel of The Lord” “Christ Incarnate” “God Himself” blessed Jacob.

And Jacob called the place Peniel because it was there he saw God face to face, yet his life was spared.  When Jacob realized that he had wrestled with Christ, he also knew that he had only been allowed to win the wrestling match.  After wrestling with all his strength all night, the Angel Of The Lord simply touched the place on his hip and it was permanently injured.  Jacob had thought he was winning on his own strength, but after that moment, he knew for sure that nothing good ever happened to him unless it was allowed by God.   This was a continuous lesson that played out over and over again in Jacob's life. 

When the sun was high in the sky Jacob passed out of Peniel and he was limping because of his hip.

To this day the Jewish people do not eat the meat that is the tendon that attaches to the socket of the hip, because that was where the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched.

SEASONS - ELUL 2015 - TIME FOR PREPARING FOR THE FALL HOLY DAYS

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God''s Fall Holy Days are coming up! 

We are in the last month of the Hebraic calendar, the month of Elul.  

It is a time to prepare.

 

Do you know about these Holy Days of God that happen every Fall?

The word translated "festival" in Hebrew is "hag" or "moed" and it means "set times", or "appointed times."  These are times of sacred assemblies.  In the Hebrew language the words "sacred assembly" means "rehearsal" or "recital."  During these fall days that is exactly what we are doing; we are rehearsing the things to come and celebrating God's overall plans for mankind.  It is sort of like the time leading up to a wedding when you begin to remember the important things that have happened through your life in the past, but you are also looking forward to something even more special in the future. 

Thirty days before Rosh Hashanah comes Elul, a time which helps us to remember to be prepared and get ready.  It is a time of Teshuvah, or a time to repent, examine your life, restore your relationships both toward God and your fellow man.  You need to use this time to have those long talks with your Bridegroom from Heaven because the future of eternity lies before you.  Why?  Because the Messiah is going to return!  We must be ready for the wedding feast!  He has told us to be watching and waiting and preparing.  Teshuvah, during the days of Elul, is a reminder, almost like one of the "save the date" invitations you get long before a wedding date comes.   The shofar is blown to remind us to awaken to the season and repent and look up with anticipation.  Ezekiel 33:3 warns those who are not ready and are not paying attention. 

And he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.…(Ezekiel 33:3-5)

We get ready in Elul by listening until we hear the sound of the shofar.  The shofar is a warning signal that reminds us to come before God and repent of our sin.  We are reminded by the shofar sounding again during Rosh Hashanah and the 10 days of Awe.  Everything leads up to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, The Day of Atonement. 

Without atonement, there is no hope for God's people.  

It is the most important day of all the sacred days.  

By the atoning blood of Christ our God shows mercy by blotting all of our sins out of His book of remembrance.  If you repent and turn from your sins, the blood of Christ is applied and the sins are blotted out forever.  If you do not, you go into another year of life with sin on your record.  The blood was given and the holy sacrifice was made once for all, past present and future; but every year when God searches His books and lays out His plans for the upcoming year, the atonement must be applied for new sins.  Salvation is forever.  If you are saved you will have God's Holy Spirit living within you and you will always seek forgiveness for sins.  You do this because if you are saved, God's Holy Spirit lives and works within you.  Salvation is a wonderful, perfect gift!  But, it is only the beginning of the Christian life, not the end.  Salvation leads us down the path to holiness.  Holiness opens our hearts to seek the ways of God that are good and true and right.  Salvation brings peace.  Holiness brings joy.

As long as we are living in earthly bodies, even after we receive salvation, we are all still human.  We all keep sinning despite our best efforts, we all fall short.  God knew this would happen.  He provided a way for sinners who sin after the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus has been applied and made them whole and completely clean.  This way is called atonement.  The sacrifice provides salvation, the atonement brings sanctification.  Both are a gift of God through His Son Jesus Christ.

It is comparable to a traveler who has bathed and is walking along a dusty road to attend a special event.  When he arrives he does not need to bath again, for he is clean, but he has picked up the dust of the road along the way, so he must wash his feet again before entering the special event.  

So many struggle with this concept saying "once saved always saved."  I just carry that concept a little further saying, "Once saved, always in need of confession."  In the end we all DO stay saved because we are clean because of the sacrificial blood of Christ, but we must do our part to grow in God.  We must continue to allow God to transform us and we must realize that we are all still sinners in need of God's forgiveness, even after we have become believers and step into the path that leads to The Kingdom.  There is always more transformation going on until we meet God face to face.  This is the process that prepares the Bride for the Groom.  This is the path of the wise virgin who keeps oil in her lamp until she sees the groom coming.  This is how God helps us each year in the Day of Atonement.  He saves us from our humanity and applies His grace that refines us and makes us more like Him.  If someone reaches the state of thinking that they do not need atonement anymore, they are simply living in a sin called "self-righteousness."  

So here we go into the beautiful Fall Holy Days of God:

Leviticus 23:2 says: 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.


God goes on in this passage to name seven feasts and/or festival days that He desires to be kept.  Four of these special times are in the spring and summer, those four are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost.  The other three days come in the Fall.  We are now in the month of  Elul and these Fall Days are fast approaching for 2015. 

Here are some of the scriptures that proclaim how we should keep these Fall Feast Days of God:  The times are calculated by the phases of the moon unlike the calendar commonly used today which calculates time by the phases of the sun. They all start at sunset and end at sunset.  Because they are calculated by the phases of the moon they do not always fall on the same calendar day each year.  This year, 2015, the days come in September and October.

ROSH HASHANAH/FEAST OF TRUMPETS: In 2015 this festival lasts from sunset Sunday, September 13th through sunset Tuesday, September 15.

Leviticus 23:24:  "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month (the first month if your reading the sacred calendar) you are to have a day of Sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.

(God, in these scriptures, was laying out the pattern for celebrating Rosh Hashanah, The Feast of Trumpets.)

YOM KIPPUR/DAY OF ATONEMENT:  observed in 2015 from sunset Tuesday, September 22nd to sunset Wednesday, September 23rd,   This is a fast day, not a feast day:

Leviticus 23:26-28:  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month (it is the seventh month of the civil calendar and the first month of the sacred calendar) is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD.  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.

(In these scriptures God has laid out the pattern for observing Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement.  This day isn't a feast day or a festival, it is actually a fast day that God has commanded to be observed.  It is a day to be spent in fasting before The Lord.  It is a day for Christians to remember the most important sacrifice ever made for mankind, the life of Jesus Christ.  It is the day for repentance and remembering that his blood is offered up as atonement for our sins, a very serious and sacred day, a most holy day to be observed forever by all believers.)

SUKKOT/FEAST OF TABERNACLES: In 2015 this festival is celebrated from sunset Monday, September 28th through sunset Sunday, October 4th, with the Great Last Day ( the eighth day) being on Monday, October 5th.  

Leviticus 23:33-37:  Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'On the fifteenth of this seventh month (the seventh civil month and the first sacred month) is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD.  On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind.  For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.  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. 

Here God is telling us to celebrate Sukkot - The Feast of Tabernacles, a joyful time of celebrating what the world will be like when Christ reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lord's forever.   Many Jewish people so not celebrate these days unless they are in Israel because they now have no temple to go to .  Christians know that our bodies are now the dwelling for God's temple.  We can celebrate the feast anywhere, because God is always with us, unlike in ancient times before Christ brought salvation to all.

These awesome days known to many as The Fall Holy Days are a gift from God to His people.  Do you know Him?  Is He your God?  Then you are one of His people.  Are you keeping your Father's traditional days?    You do not have to be born Jewish to keep these days, they are God's days - it is a good thing for you to honor your Father, God, and keep the days He has planned for His family.

Think of your time growing up in the home of your earthly father.  Did he have special times that he would command that the family gather around and celebrate together?  

Do you not have fond memories of these family times that are priceless to you as you become older and look back on them?   

Perhaps your earthly father chose these days to say important things to the family while they were all together, relaxing and celebrating.  Maybe he knew that during these special gatherings you would be listening carefully to his words and paying close attention.  He knew you would be undistracted, because you had set aside this time just to be with him and your other family members. 

It is the same with our Heavenly Father.  

He has mapped out appointed days from the very beginning of time that He wished for His family to keep and observe together.  

He wrote them down for us in His book so we have no excuse for not noticing them or overlooking them.  He spelled it all out, yet many people chose to blindly ignore these sections of their bibles.  Or they blame their nonobservance on the fact that these are "Old Testament" things.  Guess what?  The New Testament did not wipe out the Old Testament, it only fulfilled it.  

The days with their fulfilled meaning are even more precious than the days before they were fulfilled and completed by Jesus Christ.  

Trumpets still represents a coming time that has not yet been fulfilled.  We should be observing and anticipating!  

Yom Kippur, or Atonement represents a time that has been fulfilled by the blood of Jesus, yet also a future time that will come when we will know even more about how wonderful the love (hesed) and kindness and grace of our heavenly Father can be.  It will be a day when we will see Him face to face and stand before him covered with His blood, atoned and holy before Him.  It is something to anticipate and take seriously in the present.   

This will all culminate in a future Feast of Tabernacles and we can read of it in the scriptures where it speaks of a date in the future:

Zechariah 14:16:  Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

Our present day celebrations are only a shadow of the things to come.  

These scriptures are our invitation from our heavenly Father to come gather around His table and celebrate that we are His family.  God chooses these times to speak specifically to His family about things that He considers very important.  God has called these times His "appointed" days.  Have you been keeping your appointments with your heavenly Father, or has the world led you aside and kept you busy with other things? 

The scriptures say these are God's days, not the designated days for the Jews or the Christians, or any other group.  They belong to God.  If you love God and serve Him and consider Him your Father, they also belong to you. 

The Israelites were honored and chosen to be the first to live out these patterns that God set for our special family celebrations.  They were also given the honor of being the people whose heritage would produce an offspring from God who would fulfill the meaning of all of the appointed times.  Jesus Christ was born of the tribe of Judah, a perfect man who was also The Son of God.  He fulfilled these days.   God used them as shadows to tell of His coming, His life and His leaving and returning to earth in the future. 

If you are a Christian you know these stories well, but your life can be enriched beyond belief when you know these stories as well as the stories of the Hebrews who so long ago began to celebrate these days with God.  The Jewish people have preserved these days for themselves and us, and the Christian people have proclaimed the end of the story through the preaching of the truth of the gospel and proclaiming the life of Jesus Christ for both themselves and the Jews.  It is true that they are a blessing for everyone and as Jesus so wisely put it "whosoever will may come."

I get excited every Fall as we begin to approach these very holy times!

God always shows me something new, or teaches me something vital to living out life in His Kingdom.  It all begins with the Hebraic month of Elul, that 30 day period of time leading up to these holy days.  The month of Elul is known as a time to be preparing, meditating, praying, pondering the last year of your life and asking forgiveness of God and anyone you have sinned against over the last year.  The whole idea is to use the month of Elul to sort out your sins, confess, repent, try to make amends and prepare to appear before God on Yom Kippur a holy and clean servant before a merciful God.  Elul is all about getting ready.

Are you ready? 

Rosh Hashanah (The Feast of Trumpets) is about realizing that time is short and soon we must all stand before God.  The trumpet blows out the warning signal to awake people from their sins and shouts out a warning to return to God. 

Yom Kippur is about judgment and atonement.  We are all guilty, but if we seek out the love of our merciful God, He will grant us the perfect atonement of the blood of Jesus.

Sukkot, or The Feast of Tabernacles is a time for proclaiming the reign of Christ, for knowing that He will return again and marry His Bride; (those who have The Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them.)  It is a wedding rehearsal every year for The Marriage Supper of The Lamb.  It is a time of joyous celebration for what God has done for his people.  It is a time of cheerful anticipation of the world that is coming because we have been given salvation and atonement that will last throughout eternity when we will ever be with God.

So join with me if you will in this time of  Elul, the beginning of the Fall Holy Day Season, in a time of careful consideration, faithful preparation and also anticipation of the day that we are fully clean and we will see The Face of God and live.    We are there right now, living in the days of Elul on our calendars.  What will you do about it? 

How will you speak to God of your own life?  What things do you need to consider and restore?

Right now - today - is your opportunity to do so.

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 84 JACOB PREPARES TO FACE HIS PAST

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God assured Jacob He would be with him as he went back to his father, Isaac’s home.  God also warned Laban to be careful how he treated Jacob.   Jacob and Laban set up a memorial that divided their people.  They both agreed that they would not cross over to harm one another.  They promised to let God be the judge between them if they did. 

Jacob traveled on with his family and a wonderful thing happened as they entered the land of Jacob’s birth; the angels of God met them!  What a welcome home greeting that must have been!  When Jacob saw the presence of the angels in that spot of land, he decided to camp there.  He named that particular area Mahanaim (which means “two camps.”)

From there Jacob sent messengers ahead to meet Esau in Seir, in the country of Edom.  They were to say to him:  “Your servant Jacob says I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.  I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants.  Now I am sending this message to my lord so that I may find favor in your eyes.”  They returned to Jacob having delivered the message and told him that Esau and 400 of his men were coming to meet them.

With great fear and distress Jacob divided his group into two camps.  He thought if Esau attacked one group the other could escape.  Jacob then begin to pray, reminding God that he was doing just what He had asked him to do and reminding God that He had promised to protect him.  His prayer was very humble, stating to God that he was unworthy of all the promises God had given.  Jacob did bring up the covenant promises and reminded God of them again.  He asked humbly for God’s protection in light of all these things.

After thinking it through in prayer, Jacob divided out much of his possessions and put different servants in charge of each.  He spaced them out and put them in front of everyone.  As they, one by one, were reaching Esau they were to present Esau with these very valuable and generous gifts from Jacob and to tell him that Jacob was coming behind them.  Jacob hoped that the gifts would appeal to Esau's anger and he would be easy on Jacob's caravan as they approached.

With all of these strategic plans in place, Jacob paused and spent the night in the camp.  

Can you imagine the thoughts running through Jacob's head as he tried to get sleep that night?

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 83 HIDING IDOLS

 (Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So one day Jacob called Leah and Rachel out to the fields and explained to them that he had received a dream from The LORD and The Angel of The LORD had told him to gather his things and go back to the place of his birth.  Jacob explained to his wives that Laban was now treating him bad, and their brothers were jealous of him.  Jacob had dealt fairly with Laban and now they were claiming that he had cheated them with Laban’s livestock.  He explained to his wives that God was with him, and everything that Laban did for harm, God had turned it for good for Jacob. 

I can never hear this part of the story without thinking of all the good-hearted people who slave away at their jobs, hoping to better themselves, putting in a

good days work for a low wage, never seeing an increase, trudging along taking the blame for everyone else’s mistakes because they are the lowest man on the scale and have no one else to blame.  All the blame for everything comes to this person who innocently gets up, goes in every day and does his job.  When things go wrong and the people at the top complain, it is this guy who does not sit in on the conversations of management that gets the blame.  One day he looks up and he has spent a lifetime working for low wages without a raise or even a "thank you" and they kick him out on the street for someone else’s sake. 

 Some people, like Jacob in this story, just don’t get any breaks.  However, these are the people on whom God looks down and sees in their suffering.  The things other’s do to them do not matter.  God always repays what the locust eats.  He has a record of right and wrong, and he knows who did what.  He helps those who live righteously and can’t help themselves.  He brings them more than they need and they receive joy in the end.  Jacob had a situation just like this typical one of the common man after years of working for Laban and being true to the love of his life.  All of Jacob's good intentions had been used by others at this point and God was watching.  God always watches.  He watches and He waits until the time is right to restore the broken.  Don’t think for a minute that Jacob was the only unhappy person either!

Rachel and Leah were also very unhappy with the way Laban had treated them.  They had no desire to stay with their father or to share their family with him any longer.  They learned long ago that they were merely profit to him and nothing more.  They agreed with Jacob to pack their bags and move away. 

So, they packed up the kids and the camels and the livestock and Jacob and his wives headed back to the land of Canaan to live with Isaac. 

Jacob knew if he told Laban his plans he would try to trick him into staying again.  He wasn’t going to fall into that trap!  He concealed his plans from Laban and decided to leave in the night while it was dark.  Fortunately, Laban and his sons were very busy sheering their sheep, about three days away from the flocks of Jacob.

What Jacob, and everyone else, didn’t realize was that Rachel went in to her father’s house before they left and took his household gods with them.

 

When it was good and dark Jacob headed down the road with his family and flocks.  All his possessions were happily headed for Canaan.  It was three days before Laban and his sons discovered Jacob was gone.  Jacob and his family caravan crossed the Euphrates River and headed toward the hill country of Gilead.  It was there, seven days later, that Laban and his sons caught up with them. 

Before they reached Gilead, Laban had a dream from God.  In the dream he was told:  “be careful what you do to Jacob, whether it be good or bad.”

This must have troubled Laban and he paused not knowing what to do next.  He pitched his tents next to Jacobs. He confronted Jacob as a hurt man.

“Why have you run off like a thief in the night without consulting me?  Why did you not let me say goodbye to my daughters and my grandchildren?  I would have thrown you a party, a great celebration, but instead you left without notice!” 

Laban’s words were dripping with honey as he said them.  He told Jacob that he had been very angry with him but God had appeared to him in a dream last night and told him that Jacob left because he was homesick.  “But why,” said Laban “Did you leave with my household gods?”

This question took Jacob by surprise.  He had no idea that Rachel had stolen the gods.  He answered Laban that he was afraid he would take his daughters from him by force and so he left without warning, but he declared that no one had taken his household gods.  He told Laban if he found anyone in his camp had them; that person would die with everyone looking on.  He welcomed Laban to look around and see if they had anything that belonged to him and if they did, for Laban to take it back. 

 Laban went from tent to tent looking for his gods.  He did not find them.  He looked in Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and Rachel’s tent. 

Rachel had hidden the gods in a camel cushion and she was sitting on top of it.  She explained to her father that she was not being disrespectful in not getting down to greet him, but she was in “the time of the way with women,” and she continued to sit upon the cushion that held the pagan gods. 

Laban didn’t have a clue.

 Neither did Jacob!

What on earth was going on inside the mind of Rachel?

After Laban had ransacked the camp and turned everything upside down without finding any evidence, Jacob lit into him.   He had been holding back for a long time and just about everything that Jacob could think of to say to Laban about his bad feelings came out! 

“Did you find anything?  

You have destroyed our camp and wrecked our homes, but we are innocent!

Let our family’s judge between us!”  

Jacob launched into naming all the many ways that Laban had abused him over the years and how he would have sent him off penniless had God not come to him in a dream.  Jacob explained that God had prospered him in spite of Laban’s selfish abuse. 

Laban would not own his abuse.  He still claimed the daughters and the children and the flocks, but he said there was nothing he could do because of the children that had been born to his daughters, probably indicating that he did not want his grandchildren to perceive him as a mean old man, and he asked Jacob if they could make a covenant between them.

At that point Jacob set up a pillar. He called his wives and children together and asked them to pile up stones in that spot.  They heaped them up around the pillar and ate a meal there together.  Laban called the place Yegar sahadutha (which means Witness Monument in Aramaic.)  Jacob called the place Galeed (which means Witness Monument in Hebrew.)

Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.”  (That is why it is called Galeed – witness Monument.)

It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.  If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.  This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross the line to hurt you and you won’t cross the line to hurt me.  The God of Abraham and The god of Nahor (the god of their ancestors) will keep things straight between us.”

Jacob promised and swore by the fear of God on his father Isaac, and Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mountain and worshiped, calling all his family to come to the meal. 

They all slept on the mountain that night and the next morning Laban kissed his daughters and grandchildren, gave them a blessing and left for home.