Blessed Shavu'ot!

Since the marvelous week of Unleavened Bread, which I wrote about from a camp high in the mountains, we have been counting the omer.  At last we have reached Day 49 of counting - which means tomorrow is Day #50, the much-anticipated Feast of Weeks, or Shavu'ot (Pentecost).  It is always a faith-walk through those days of counting, as the Spirit brings to our minds and hearts those small things that we need to change and those dirty/defiled places that need to be cleansed, before we are ready to receive the promised outpouring of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit).  On the first Shavu'ot, Israel was summoned to Mt. Sinai at the leading of Moses, where they received the Torah, the Covenant (Betrothal) between God and His people.  He told them to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations before they could meet with Him.  So now, I believe we - the Betrothed Bride of Messiah Yeshua - are being called to "wash our clothes" (symbolic here of cleaning up our lives) and be purified before we can be regathered by our Bridegroom and restored to our homeland of Israel. 

This year a word came to us regarding the urgency of REPENTANCE for the Feast of Shavu'ot (which begins this evening at sundown).  The word took us back to the time of the original captivity in Babylon, where Israel spent 70 years in a strange and foreign land, being defiled by the mixture of other religions and ideaologies.  And when it was approaching the 70th year, only a remnant of the House of Judah was even desiring to return to their God and their Land!  So it is today.

We who are in Messiah, grafted into the olive tree of Israel, have been living in a foreign land.  And in the past several years this land - the United States of America - has begun to manifest itself as a picture of Babylon - a place where evil is now called good, and good called evil.  When the President of our nation came out and took his stand in favor of homosexual marriage, it felt as if the Hand of Almighty God, which has thus far kept us covered, was surely about to be removed! But John and I both felt in our spirits that this Shavu'ot held a great and significant promise for the people of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This nation where we live once had God's Torah as the foundation of its laws and morals, and Yeshua (Jesus Christ) as its cornerstone; but even as we see the rise of Islam in this nation, and the evil mixtures of Humanism, New Age, and Globalism taking over, we are reaching back to these promises and taking hold of them for this season in time. 

God speaks to us again today through the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 29:10-14) when He says, "When Babylon's 70 years are over, I will take note of you; I will fulfill to you My promise of favor - to bring you back to this place.  For I am mindful of the plans I have made concerning you - declares the LORD - plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a hopeful future.  When you call Me, and come and pray to Me, I will give heed to you.  You will search for Me and find Me, if only you seek Me wholeheartedly.  I will be at hand for you - declares the LORD - and I will restore your fortunes.  And I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have banished you  - declares the LORD - and I will bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you."

What a promise!  So, what did Daniel do to seek the LORD and pray to Him, in order that his people might be restored and returned to Israel?  He prayed a powerful prayer of confession and repentance.  He interceded for Israel.  He came to the LORD wholeheartedly - and God heard and answered.  This is what our little fellowship plans to do tomorrow as we gather to keep the feast of Shavu'ot.  As commanded in Leviticus 23:15-17, we will wave two fine loaves of wheat before the LORD; we will worship Him and sing praises to Him.  And then we will get down on our knees and pray the prayer of Daniel 9:1-19, earnestly seeking Him, and interceding for the Babylonian nation in which we now find ourselves in captivity.

Traditionally the book of Ruth would be read on this Feast.  Ruth was a Moabitess, a foreigner and stranger to Israel; but she joined herself to the people of Israel with great love and devotion - and she was later redeemed by Boaz, her "kinsman-redeemer" - a picture of Yeshua, who has redeemed us by His Blood, and grafted us into the Olive Tree of His Land and people. 

May we have the zeal for our God, for His land and His people, that Daniel and Ruth had!  May we all get down on our knees this feast-day and recite this prayer to intercede for our own sin, for our families, and for our nation.  Our God has said, "I will take note of you; I will fulfill to you My promise of favor - to bring you back to this place."

Hallelujah!  Blessed Shavu'ot!

The Costly Free Gift

Yesterday's devotional reading from Patrick Lumbroso's book Under the Fig Tree still has me pondering one statement: "May our lives constantly reflect the costly gift of regeneration, given to us freely by Yeshua haMashiach."  Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  How could a "free gift" be "costly?"  Is it free or isn't it?  You know the old saying, "there's no free lunch!"  So, is there a free gift of regeneration, or does it cost me?  And what is regeneration anyway?

Vine's Complete Dictionary defines regeneration as "new birth" and points us to several scriptures that speak of a single event in time, "involving the communication of a new spiritual life in contrast to antecedent spiritual death."

1 Peter 1:23: For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Titus 3:5: He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit...

If you have received Messiah Yeshua (the Lord Jesus) as the ruler of your heart and your life, surrendered your life unto Him, and received His Holy Spirit, then you are regenerated, born again.  It was a single event, and the gift was freely given to you by God, who created you and loves you beyond measure.  It is His greatest desire that you would spend eternity with Him!  He has indeed given you this free gift through the blood of Messiah Yeshua, not because of your righteousness, but because of His mercy. 

But there was another part to that definition in Vine's Dictionary, wasn't there?  Something about this new birth being "in contrast to antecedent spiritual death."  That means that before you could become a reborn, regenerate person you had to die to your old self. 

Galatians 2:20:  I have been crucified with Messiah and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me.  The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  

That verse brings additional understanding.  The gift of regeneration was free, but it cost me my life.  Yes, it both saves my life and costs my life!  How can this be?  It means I can no longer live as the world lives, seeking my own way and my own pleasures.  It means I've been granted free passage out of "Egypt" (the world) and into a life lived for God and focused on His desires, His will, and His way.  "That doesn't sound fun, and it doesn't sound easy," you might say.  "It doesn't even sound like freedom!"  You would be right on the first two counts.  It is not always fun and it certainly isn't always easy; but it does lead to the perfect freedom that gives life, and keeps us into eternity. 

James 1:25: But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

The gift is free, but the cost is high.  It doesn't make sense in the natural - but these things are not natural, but spiritual!  If I die daily to my flesh - looking intently into God's Word daily and doing it - I am blessed; but I can only do this in the power of the Ruach haKodesh (the Holy Spirit), who is freely given to me. 

May our lives constantly reflect the costly gift of regeneration, given to us freely by Yeshua haMashiach!