Most Christians who wear a symbol of their faith wear a cross.
A few wear a fish.
I wear a Star of David.
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Some people worship God through prayer and praise; or through singing, music or art; or by serving the needy, counseling the broken or feeding the poor. We are all given different gifts, which we love to use, and with which we feel compelled to bless others, thereby glorifying God.
I worship God through the study of His Word. It is what I long to do more than anything else on earth. I am always hungry for it. Read the rest of this entry »
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Reading Psalm 22 in the context of the gospels is an eye-opening exercise, to say the least. It was written by King David, but almost every word applied to a day that would not take place for a thousand years to his own descendant, who would come 40 generations after himself.
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There are a number of whole chapters in the Old Testament that are devoted to prophecy or revelation about the Messiah. They tend to be Chapter 22, no matter what book they are recorded in.
The first one is the story of Abraham following God’s instruction to sacrifice his son Isaac. This story is almost always preached in Christian sermons as an illustration of Abraham’s tremendous level of righteousness and faith in God, which indeed it is.
But there’s a lot more to it than that.
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There are many “verse 22″s that shed light on the Word of God, whether the written version or the living version—the Messiah. And this is by no means an exhaustive list.
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The scope of the number 22 as it applies to Scripture and to the Messiah is huge. If I were to do all the blog entries through the end of the year on this one subject alone, I would still not get to the bottom of this treasure chest.
And it all begins and ends with the Hebrew aleph-bet.
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There is one final holiday on the Jewish calendar, commanded by God, that brings everything full circle, tying the end back to the beginning.
On the Christian prophecic calendar, it speaks to us about the time that comes after time ends: eternity! But what, exactly does that mean?
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The Feast of Tabernacles is known among the Jews as simply “The Feast” or “The Festival.” It is the giant among all the festivals, and the most joyous and exciting. As my friend in Jerusalem calls it: The créme de la créme of the Holy Days. Not to mention the longest!
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Yom Kippur, in every way, ends the final chapter of redemption that Rosh Hashanah begins.
—> On Rosh Hashanah, the gates of Heaven open; on Yom Kippur, the gates close.
—> On Rosh Hashanah, the bride of Christ is snatched away at the Rapture; on Yom Kippur, she is brought back at Christ’s return to earth.
—> Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the tribulation, Yom Kippur marks the end of it.
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Now that you have some idea of the hidden relationship between the spring and summer “Jewish” holidays and the first coming of Christ, let’s see what’s hiding in the fall festivals!
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