Wordless: G-kids Celebrate the New Year

Blow the Trumpets!!!

Shana tovah! For a sweet new year!

Tonight is the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets and the Biblical new year. It is the fifth of Seven Feasts recorded and defined in the Bible as “The Feasts of the Lord”. Our family is celebrating with extra sweet challah formed in a round loaf and dipping apple slices into honey as our pre-meal fun! I have found that the grandkids love the holidays. They don’t necessarily remember from year to year what it all means, but they definitely remember the food we eat. This morning Ashlyn (7 yrs old) started jumping up and down when I mentioned round challah along with apples and honey. “Oh, I remember! I remember! I LOVE apples and honey!”

We try to make every holiday something that the kids will enjoy and remember. If the kids remember, then it makes it more fun for the parental units as well.  The Feasts of the Lord are meant to be enjoyed, and they are precious family times!

The blowing of the shofar comes from Leviticus 23:24.

“Tell the people of Israel, ‘In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar.’”

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My Favorite Time of the Year

Blowing the shofar during Elul in the house of prayer last year.

The fall feasts of the Bible is my favorite season of the year. I especially loved celebrating these feasts in Israel last year. What a privilege! Today is the twentieth day in the Biblical month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish calendar.  Elul will end at sundown on September 8th. The next day (Sept. 9) is Rosh Hashana, the first day of the Jewish new year. Rosh Hashana begins the fall feasts of God.

Every day during this month of Elul the shofar is blown and Psalm 27 is read in minyans and prayer groups.  Elul is a month of preparation for the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur culminating on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.  It’s a time of reflection. Elul means “returned with” signifying when the Jewish people returned to Israel after their 70 years in Babylon. Since that time Elul is a month where we “return to HaShem” in repentance.  This is a holy month leading up to the most holy month, Tishri. (Next week I will write about Tishri and Rosh Hashana.)

Repentance.  It is a word that is not too popular in some circles, especially those who think grace is a free ride to live on the edge of holiness thinking that God will excuse their little indulgences in the world.  The Bible doesn’t teach that at all.

“Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.”  (II Cor. 7:1)

“So that you may be blameless and pure children of God without defect in the midst of a twisted and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the sky.”  (Phil 2:15)

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Next Year in Jerusalem!

Last night twenty-five of us gathered in our dining room to remember how God miraculously delivered us out of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His son, Yeshua. We recounted the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt, and received fresh revelation of Yeshua being our sacrifice lamb. He was crucified, buried, and resurrected….all during Passover week. The Passover was pre-planned and pre-determined by God with the sacrifice of Messiah in mind. The Passover set the stage for the great act of Messiah’s death and resurrection. The plan of God through the ages was to reveal His extravagant love to His children through His Son. What love! (more…)

Passover (Pesach) Prep – Part 3

The first thing I make the morning of the seder is the charoset. Charoset is a yummy mixture of apples, walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, honey, cinnamon, orange juice and sweet wine. The consistency symbolizes the mortar between the bricks that the children of Israel had to make. The sweetness symbolizes the sweetness of freedom from slavery.

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