Category: Appointments With God

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles

Beatitudes of the four species of Sukkot

Etrog and lulav symbols of Sukkot
The etrog (citron) and the lulav (bundle of palm, myrtle and willow branches) represent the four species of plants God directed Israel to adorn the sukkah (booth) for the Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles).

Temporary shelters, branches of palm, willow and myrtle, and citrus fruit — the symbols of the Sukkot, the biblical festival of Tabernacles, or Booths. Plants clean the air and subtly effect us by their fragrance. We see them as physical things that are useful to us in the physical realm, while God uses references of them in the Bible to teach spiritual lessons as symbolic representations of people.

In this study, we’ll explore what each of these symbols teach us about ourselves and how the Holy One of Israel wants to recreate us.

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Appointments With God Atonement

Yom Kippur: Afflict the former way of life to be reborn

La Résurrection des Morts (1870) by Victor Mottez.

Every mistake, goof up in our Torah walk can fall into one of three categories: sin, transgression or iniquity. Sin is missing the mark on accident. Transgression is doing something wrong when you know better. Iniquity is when you do something wrong as an act of rebellion.

Discover in this study why God blots out our sins, transgressions and iniquities, and why we want the Messiah to present us to God free of our long list of shortcomings.

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Appointments With God Discussions Trumpets

When God calls you, move without hesitation

Banner Photo: "The Snake", Larne. “The Snake” is the local name for the path connecting the Promenade to the Bankheads, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. This is the view from the Bankheads. "It is steeper than the photo suggests. The chap in the foreground made an excellent ascent without hesitation or deviation." Photo by Aubrey Dale, used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

The reason for the high holy day of Yom Teruah, the Day of Blowing (Trumpets) aka Rosh HaShanah (New Year), is not as obvious as all the others. As we “look under the hood,” we find that it calls us to accept godly change without hesitation.

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Appointments With God Discussions Pentecost/Shavuot

Pentecost: Invitation to Heavenly lifestyle for all nations

The 3,000 believers are “harvested” at Shavuot (Acts 2) as the first fruits of the wheat harvest. (Photo by Michael Illuchine/Freeimages.com used via Creative Commons License)

The annual celebration of שבועות‎ Shavuot, aka Πεντηκοστή Pentecost, is connected historically and lessonwise to the annual memorials of Pesakh (Passover) and Matzot (Unleavened Bread) by the 50 days in between. God’s instructions for Shavuot are connected to a harvest, but we can glean from its linkage to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai (Exodus 19-20) and to the widespread outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2) deeper roots in the lessons of salvation in Pesakh and sanctification in Matzot.

The message of freedom from the past, contentment in the present and strength for the future is not just for the whole world, and not just Israel. Learn how Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) is the thread Heaven has woven through all these reminders.

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Apostolic Writings Atonement Discussions

Leviticus 16; Hebrews 1–10: Heaven’s High Priest is ‘exact representation of His nature’

Yeshua is the only one strong enough to carry way all our burdens. (Photo by Erica Law/Freeimages.com)

Forgetting that the high point of God’s calendar — יום הכפרים Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement) — is all about the work of the High Priest and not of the congregant leaves one with the impossible, “terrifying” task of being his own sin sacrifice (Heb. 10:26–27). This study takes a whirlwind tour of the Letter to the Hebrews and what it tells us how Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) is the embodiment of the lessons and message of the “Day of Coverings.”

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions Passover Torah Unleavened Bread

Passover: Make me into matzah!

Make me into matzah at Passover (IMAGE BY HALLEL.INFO)

When the LORD is moving you out of your old life, it’s a one-way trip, like the first exodus celebrated at Pesakh (Passover). There is no looking back or carrying a lot of baggage that would tie us to that old life. Part of Pesakh is the spiritual discipline of eating מצה matzah (unleavened bread), through it and with the counsel of the Lamb of God and apostle Paul, we find out the remaining parts of our old way of life — the “old leaven” — God wants to drain out of us.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Chanukah: Dare to be a Daniel, Joseph, Judas Maccabeus

Lighting the Chanukkah lights at Chabad Hanukkah lighting in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, Calif., on December 26, 2016. Photo by Tammy Quackenbush

Yosef (Joseph) a betrayed brother turned slave turned prime minister in Mitzraim (Egypt). Daniel a war captive turned wise man turned second to an emperor in Babylon. יהודה המכבי Yehudah ha-Makabi (Judas Maccabeus) a priest of Yisrael turned leader of a successful insurrection against the Seleucid empire’s campaign of forced conversion. Yeshua ha-Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) in the Temple during the Festival of Dedication. These four accounts may seem to quite disjointed, but the conjunction of the Torah reading מקצ Miketz/Miqetz (Genesis 41:1-44:14, “from the end”) and the celebration of Chanukah/Hannukah helps underscore that ongoing lessons from both help us understand what Yeshua meant by “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 NASB).