Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? Psalm 106:2 The holiday season is upon us in full spring. Today is Thanksgiving. It is also the first day of Hanukkah this year. These holidays rarely coincide. While Thanksgiving has devolved into “Turkey Day” and the beginning for the Christmas shopping season, it was originally created as a day to give thanks to God. Consider this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s original proclamation 150 years ago: (emphasis mine) I do therefore […]
Category Archives: Other
God’s Tent
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 The last of the fall festivals has just finished: Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. We set up our sukkah and have enjoyed spending time in it. Spending time in a sukkah is meant to remind us of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, living in tents for forty years. The Israelites followed the presence of God through that harsh, hot land. God dwelled in their midst. […]
A Tale of Two Goats
Then [Aaron] is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats–one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Leviticus 16:7-10 The second of the fall festivals, Yom Kippur […]
Book Binding
He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Revelation 3:5 Shanah Tova! Happy New Year! We just finished Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. The fall festivals are beginning. A common phrase for this time of year is “May your name be inscribed in the book [of life] for the next year.” The Bible talks about books with people’s names written in them. When Moses pleaded with the Lord to take away Israel’s sin with […]
Gleaning
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. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:9-10 Continuing from my last post, Ruth decides to glean in a field. We are introduced to the owner of the field: Boaz. Gleaning involves picking up leftover grain. God instructed his people to leave grain for those in need. This was God’s […]
Passing over Bitterness
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Exodus 12:7-8 Once again Passover is upon us. It is an annual reminder of the great redemption God worked by bringing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. We gather together to eat an interesting array of foods such as parsley, matzah (unleavened bread), charoset (a sweet apple, honey, and […]
Purim: Fighting God
So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. But when the plot came to the king’s attention, he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. (Therefore these days were called […]
Whiter than Snow
Let us acknowledge the LORD;let us press on to acknowledge him.As surely as the sun rises,he will appear;he will come to us like the winter rains,like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3 Though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow Isaiah 1:18 If you’ve been following the weather in Israel lately, this past week has been quite something! Heavy rains have deluged the country. For years Israel has been in need of some good rain. The Sea of Galilee, a primary water source, has been slowly getting lower and lower every year. However, […]
Still Alive
“I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:18 Probably the first thing people think of when they think of Egypt are the pyramids. These massive stone structures have stood the test of time. They were built to be permanent. The ancient Egyptians built their tombs and temples out of stone to make them last. Other structures were made out of more temporary materials like mud brick. The Egyptians put a lot of work into their burials. They wrote books on […]
Impossible
“For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37 Exploring Disney World a few weeks ago, going from ride to ride and show to show, one has to spend time to admire what they’ve created. It makes me ask how they accomplish some of the feats that they do. How is that character animated? How does a doorway seemingly appears out of nowhere there? What sort of engineering went into creating that ride? I noticed a quote by Walt Disney hanging on a wall: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” One can say similar things about the ancient constructions […]