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Hanukkah 2011

Hanukkah 2011

December 20-28, 2011

I believe this year Hanukkah spoke to me in a different way than ever before. This year I felt connected to the holiday by the similarity of circumstance.  Back in the time of Judah Maccabee, they lived in a country that did not worship YHWH (the God of Israel) in spirit and in truth. Many assimilated to the beliefs of the people with which they lived, even though the many times the word of YHWH says specifically not to do such.  However, there were a few brave souls who did not just “go with the flow” and go along with the crowd. They stood strong in their beliefs of following YHWH’s “instructions to live by”, called the Torah. The would NOT defile themselves with the worldly pagan things. They suffered persecution and ridicule and even death for standing strong against the oppression of the enemy, but they did not back down. I felt the strength of the story of Hanukkah for the first time this year. I too have been bashed for my beliefs to follow Torah, nowhere near to the extent of the Jewish people but enough to understand that if you walk (or attempt to walk) a path to righteousness, expect to be fought by the enemy. The story of Hanukkah inspired me to stand strong in the face of opposition.

Last year, Hanukkah was more of a “fun-filled week” but this year I just felt differently about it so we studied more and played less. I try my best to just follow where the Holy Spirit leads me but I have a tendency to try to plan everything too, which usually gets a divine “rewrite” before the day is over. That is just how HE works sometimes.

Each year I decorate with blue, silver, and white because it reminds me of winter. I love it because in Texas we rarely get any snow or any real “feel” of winter so the best I can do is recreate the “feel” inside my home by the decor.

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We did do a few fun things like bake cookies. I borrowed this “tradition” from my childhood holidays. We love making and decorating (not to mention eating) these cookies!

Passover 2011

Passover 2011

April 18, 2011

Passover this year was very special, my daddy came!!! He came to Purim and it was fun so I suppose he decided to brave Passover. I have to say if he made it through Passover he can make it through any of my Feast Day celebrations. This holiday is the most ritualistic of the feast days with a lot of reading, symbolism and it is all to be done in a particular order. My dad was a trooper and even though no one warned him what he was in store for, we made it through it.

The only sad thing is that my nephew Jonathan was unable to make it because he was working out of town.

I had tried for three weeks to write a new Haggadah (the booklet we use to go through the meal) but I always ended up with writers block each time I sat at my computer to try.

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Finally the day before Passover and no new Haggadah,  I decided maybe GOD was just wanting me to relax and so I decided to use one I had already wrote for Passover 2010. It was not “up to date” with all I have learned so far but it did the trick.

Read the rest of this entry

Purim

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Purim

March 19, 2011

Purim is the celebration that is spoken of in the Book of Esther in the Bible. Although it is not a “GOD commanded” feast, it was established by Mordecai to observe this victory.

Est 9:20  And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
Est 9:21  To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
Est 9:22  As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day:

that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 

Many will tell you that it is a “Jewish celebration”, I beg to differ.

Est 9:26  Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
Est 9:27  The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
Est 9:28  And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

The scripture says “all such as joined themselves unto them”. We joined ourselves unto them when we accepted JESUS as our Lord and Savior.

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

We became “joined” to them when we were grafted in among them.

Rom 11:17  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Now,  you can say, “But GOD didn’t say we had to!” You are completely right, you do not HAVE to… but why wouldn’t you want to??? I want to celebrate things that are pleasing to GOD, so in a month that doesn’t give us a holiday except St. Patrick’s Day with all it’s silly leprechaun traditions and such, why not set aside a day to talk about the story of Esther and show how GOD worked “hidden” behind the scenes, much like HE does every day in our lives!

A tradition of Purim is to have a costume party representing the “hidden things” in the Book of Esther. There was several things “hidden” so be sure and take a look at the link above.

I didn’t want it to be just any costume because that could lead to all sorts of ungodliness, instead I told my family I wanted them to dress as a Bible character and have some scriptures ready to read or act out so the other people can guess who they are.

 

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My family showed up and I was so happy that my daddy came also, and dressed up too! For anyone who doesn’t know my daddy, he has never had much respect for “religion,” mainly do to the fact that preachers in the past had never been able to answer his questions about the Bible with answers that made sense. So for him to come to my “religious” party is a huge thing. I was so very happy.

  ~~~ CONTINUE READING…~~~

A Sign and a Mark…

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A Sign and a Mark…

March 12, 2011

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I was studying the other day about the “mark of the beast” and came across some web sites that talked about what the “sign” of GOD was. One that I thought was really interesting was called The Antichrist Truth. Now first, I want to say I do not agree with everything posted in their sight, but it was the site that led me to looking into the Bible and comparing the sign vs. mark scriptures. The following is some what how my study went. CONTINUE READING…

Scripture Scavenger Hunt Hike

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Scripture Scavenger Hunt Hike

February 26, 2011

We have been trying to find things to do on the Sabbath that is helpful to keep our life centered around things that give glory to GOD and also for it to be a delight. I believe that we are to keep the Friday to Saturday Sabbath and that if we can do what it says in the following scripture then we will receive the blessing that the Lord promised in that scripture “for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

Isa 58:13-14  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

We can not think of anything more delightful than hiking and being out in the awesome creation that GOD made for us to enjoy and take care of. We had invited my mom and sister and her kids to come with us on our hike so I wanted to look for something that would help keep it a little more Bible based and maybe help get the kids focused on seeing GOD in nature as we do.

I found on the internet a sight that suggested to have a Scripture Scavenger Hunt. I took a few minutes to adapt it with scriptures of common things we could find on a hike and we were ready.

We all load up into the car and head out to Boykin Springs Lake.

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We get our stuff together and begin our hike. CONTINUE READING…