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!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 111 - THE CHILD THAT WAS DRAWN OUT OF THE WATER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

We are told in Exodus chapter two that a man from the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.  The people of God were still living in Egypt under the bondage of slavery.  It was a very bad time to be pregnant with a son.  They were all being killed by Pharaoh’s orders.  The Egyptian astrologers had seen a sign in the sky that had predicted the birth of a leader that would deliver the Israelites out of Egypt's bondage.  Pharaoh did not want this to happen.  He felt threatened by every Israelite boy that was born after this prediction by his wise men and he was determined to kill them all.  One little boy survived. 

Before we speak of this very special son; what do you remember about the tribe of Levi?

Levi was one of Jacob’s twelve sons.  Levi had three sons; Gershon, Merari and Kohath.  Kohath had four sons:  Uzziel, Hebron, Izhar and Amram.  Amram is the man from the tribe of Levi spoken of in the previous sentence.  He was the father of the little boy who survived. 

Amram married Jochebed.  Some of the ancient writings proclaim that Jochebed and Shiprah, the head midwife, were the same person.  We have no way of knowing if this is correct or incorrect.  There are scrolls that have been found that some think show good evidence.   The same writings suggest that Jochebed was a good bit older than Amram and that she was actually his aunt, and Gershon’s daughter.  The marriage to one’s aunt would not have been wrong in this time period – the commandments forbidding this had not yet been given, so she is not without honor because of this.  This history also could be wrong information; we have no way to know for sure, but some writings seem to point this way.  A few scripture passages here and there lead you to believe this is probably true.  You can study and decide for yourself.  It does possibly answer one question though, the question that asks why God would have left out the name of the mother of Moses.  Perhaps He did not.  Perhaps Shiprah and Jochebed were the same woman with both Hebrew and Egyptian names.  It seems logical.   

 Amram and Jochebed had three children; and the oldest was a daughter named Miriam.  There is historical evidence to suggest that Miriam served along side of her mother as a mid-wife.  Many believe she was the same as Puah.  If this is true, both the mother and the sister of Moses would have been named in the scriptures and not overlooked.  It seems logical, but we do not know for sure. 

The other two younger children of Amram and Jochebed were boys named Aaron and Moses.  Aaron was the oldest and he was born before the prophesy came which caused Pharaoh to kill all the boy babies of the Hebrews.

Moses was born on the 7^th of Adar during the times of the slaughters.  It is significant to note that Moses also died 120 years later on this same day.  As a matter of fact, many significant things happened on this particular month of the calendar that coincided with Moses birth and death.  If you want to follow an interesting trail of events go back through history and study the things that happened to the Jewish people during the month of Adar.   It is quite a study.

As stated earlier, it was prophesied by the Egyptian prophets that a liberator of the Hebrew people would be born and Pharaoh felt threatened by this prophecy and did all within his power to see that every male child under two years old died during this time period. 

Moses was born during the time of the slaughter of the innocent babies by Pharaoh.  The midwives did not kill him in the birthing process.  There are stories and legends stating that when he was born the whole room became filled with a great light and the midwives knew he was destined to become a great leader.  

When his own mother first saw him she too instantly knew that he was a fine child with a destiny; so she hid him for three months.  

The time came when she could hide him no longer.  All of the Hebrew women had been told to throw their babies into the river after birth.  If they did not obey this order, the soldiers of Pharaoh’s army would come and kill the children before their eyes.  They could only keep the girls, but the boys were destined to drown in the Nile. 

Jochebed decided not to throw her baby into the water with no protection.  She got a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch.  It was like a little ark and one has to wonder if Jochebed had studied the story of Noah and was using all she knew of the story of the flood to save her youngest child. 

The Hebrew word for “ark” is “teba” and this word is seen only twice in the holy scriptures, once speaking of the flood of Noah’s time and again in the passage that speaks of Jochebed making the basket for Moses.  She covered the basket with tar and pitch just like Noah covered the ark and she made him to be safe in the little basket that floated on the water.  The word “teba” has a connection with the meaning of “salvation from waters.” These are the same words we often use when describing water baptism.  People say they are “saved” from the cleansing of the water.  We know they are delivered by the miracle of the power of God, just as Moses experienced.  All of these things have a water connection.

 Moses Mother placed him inside the basket and put the basket among the reeds along the banks of the Nile River.  Surely she was hoping that some miracle might happen and her son would survive.  

The baby’s sister (Miriam) stood off at a distance, just watching to see what would happen to her little brother.

It was a very hot day and Pharaoh’s daughter Bithya came walking beside the cool of the river.  

She intended to cool herself by taking a bath in the waters of the Nile. 

Her maids attended her. 

 As she prepared to bathe, she suddenly heard the cry of a small child.  She turned around to see the basket containing Moses.  

She thought him very beautiful and she was intrigued with the child.  

She understood that he must be one of the Hebrew children condemned to death, but she wanted to keep the baby for herself. 

Some of Bithya’s maidens tried to nurse the baby, but he would not take their milk and he continued to cry.  Miriam came out from the bushes and offered to find a Hebrew nurse for the child, one that could keep him for the princess and feed him until he was weaned.  Bithya liked this idea and Miriam ran home and brought back her own mother and presented her to the princess as a nurse.

By this great miracle Moses was left in the care of his own mother for the next two years, with Bithya visiting often and becoming more and more attached to the child.  

Finally, she told Pharaoh about the boy she had found and adopted and her father did not object.   By that time the astrologers told Pharaoh that more than likely the one who was appointed according to the stars had already drowned in the waters of the Nile and the time had passed for his birth. 

Pharaoh was over his paranoia for a little while and he agreed for Bithya to take Moses into the palace at the end of two years.  

That is how Moses, a Hebrew slave’s male child came to be raised as a Prince of Egypt.  

All the people of the land knew him to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.     His name “Moses” meant “I drew him out of the water.”  

SEASONS - GO GREEN FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Thursday, March 17, 2016 is St. Patrick's Day!  

Do you always wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?  Did you know that originally at the first celebrations the color was actually blue?  

The blue has been long forgotten in honor of the fact that Ireland is the Emerald Isle and Ireland’s flag is green, and St. Patrick used the green 3-leafed clovers to teach.  An old legend also goes that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns who will pinch you if they can see you.

For the hidden, not often shared, educational value of the green; we do know that wearing green commemorates the Irish Rebellion of 1798, when the British, who were oppressing Ireland, declared that wearing a shamrock (or anything green) was considered a symbol of support for Irish rebellion and was punishable by hanging. Many people were shot on sight for the offense back in those days.  

Back then green was used by the Society of United Irishmen; a political organization that was fighting for parliamentary reforms as well as a Republic for the Irish people.  An Irish Republic would have ended the English rule.  The wearing of the green is, therefore, a "fist in the air" act of defiance representing the brave men and women who fought for their independence.  

Today things are much more civil, if you do not wear a touch of green on St Patrick's Day you get symbolically punished by getting pinched instead of getting killed.  I think I like this progress!

In the 1700's, Irish immigrants in the United States started the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City.  Those old Irish traditions came to be cherished forever after in the land of the free and the home of the brave; making Americans enjoy this day as much if not more than they do in ole Ireland.   

In the very beginning though, the original Irish Catholics noted this day for celebrating the life and times of their patron Saint Patrick, which is a real interesting twist of the story, considering the fact that the real St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.  He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family, who owned a townhouse and a country villa and plenty of slaves.

Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy.  At 16 Patrick’s destiny unfolded.  He was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years.  It was during this horrible experience that Patrick met God and became a deeply convicted Christian.  It is a long and intriguing story but according to St. Patrick’s Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Christian Holy Trinity; the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.  

Many traditions have evolved from this day over time, some centering around St. Patrick and some not, some very Christian, so not so much.... 

In 1962 in a show of solidarity in Chicago, the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.  A parade organizer for a plumber’s union noticed how a dye used to trace possible sources of river pollution had stained a fellow worker’s overalls a brilliant green.  He decided why not use the dye to turn the whole river green on St. Patrick’s Day?  It not only added to the celebration, but helped to keep the river healthy.  The custom is still traditional in Chicago today.   Many other places have taken this tradition.  Fountains in cities turn green, rivers turn green, everything possible turns green!

Aside from the "green" traditions, the food and drink of the Irish have been added into the traditional events.  5.5 million pints of Guinness beer are consumed around the world on any given day, but on St. Patrick’s Day that number more than doubles to 13 million pints.  

It seems those Irish immigrants brought this habit with them to America.  This is a night when Irish pubs in both countries, as well as pubs in general, are packed.  If you happen to run into a real lrishman in one of these happy establishments, he will probably tell you that St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was at one time only a special story, and possibly a nice dinner at home.  The hugeness of the day didn't really surface until the Americans turned it into parades and large community celebrations to raise money for charitable causes.  They aren’t complaining in Ireland though, they have even upgraded their own celebrations in order to attract more tourists in the spring.  Everyone wins, and it is really a lot of fun.

Do you have a favorite Irish food that you eat on St. Patrick’s Day?   You will find corned beef and cabbage in all the finest restaurants on this day, as well as, Irish stew, colcannon and soda bread all served up with green beer.  Green icing is on every desert and all the tablescapes are, you guessed it, green.

So go ahead – Go green!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!