Here is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask about the ancient paths, ‘Which one is the good way?’ Take it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
In My Thoughts on the Reformation I shared my thoughts about the reforming spirit that was present long before Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis and how the fallacies of many teachings were beginning to erode at a rapid pace at the time of Luther. Suddenly printed Bibles were available to those who could afford them, though they were illegal, and many people were sharing the Word of G-d with one another, testing their own faith against what the Bible really said. These were incredibly difficult times and in our zeal we made so many tragic mistakes, as well as much progress in stripping away what is false to find what is genuine. Next I shared my thoughts in Continued Reformation briefly touching on a few “moves of G-d” and a few moves of man over the past 4,000 years or so. Then I shared that I thought the reforming spirit of G-d today is bringing about an understanding (and acceptance) that the Holy Bible so many of us base our lives upon was written primarily by Jews and for Jews, with a Jewish mindset and steeped in a Jewish culture. In incredible numbers we, as believers, are beginning to search out and understand the Hebrew Roots of our Christian faith and it is transforming lives, families and congregations. In this entry, which seems to be part 3 of a series, I want to share more of my thoughts about today’s reformation.
If you’re expecting me to say that today’s Messianicmovement is “the place” where G-d is right now, you might be surprised to find out that this is not my opinion. I do, however, think that it is a result of what is taking place on a much greater level.
As I said in Continued Reformation, we live 3,000 years and 1,500 miles +/- and a whole culture removed from the authors and original hearers of the words of Scripture. How do we expect to have ears that understand when we have been so far removed from our foundation? We need to gain an understanding and appreciation for the people and the culture that heard, actively lived out and produced the words we find in the Holy Scriptures. There are so many things that are said and done that we simply do not understand, we have no point of reference for understanding them, so many allusions and idioms that we simply cannot understand because we’re not immersed in the ways of the people that the Scriptures are all about. There are many things we puzzle over and in our attempts to understand the meaning behind these things we have often “made stuff up”. Some of the theological concepts we’ve put together have been born out of a genuine and earnest desire to honor G-d, and some of these teachings have not been anti-Biblical at all. However, there are an awful lot of teachings that are not at all about what the words are really saying. When we go back and learn the cultural and historical context of a particular action, idiom or teaching we learn things that we never knew before and suddenly the entire passage makes much more sense when viewed in this new light. It’s electrifying!
It has been amazing to observe so many people being drawn to understanding the cultural and historical context of the Bible in recent years and the impact it has had on families and congregations. Continue Reading »
Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin and others caught the vision of reforming the Christian faith. Though the “Fathers of the Reformation” did not agree on all things, the Protestant Reformation was based on one major issue: ”Sola Scriptura“: going back to the Bible as the sole source of our beliefs and how we live out our faith while testing everything we know against the Scriptures to determine if what we know is true or false. What we know of as The Reformation took Christians back to the foundation of their faith – the Word of G-d. But this was only the beginning. There was much that needed to be stripped away, much that was to be revealed.
As the social and political upheaval that this reformation spread through western civilization, it was an incredibly painful movement. The winds of reformation brought deep divisions between various groups of people and intense persecution for those that one group or another considered heretics. We were zealously searching for truth yet each of us were sure that we held on to more truth than “the other guy”. We cannot study the history of Europe or the birth of America without having an unbiased grasp on the Reformation. Modern Europe, the USA and other countries today are direct results of The Reformation and it’s outworkings.
In the past 500 years G-d has moved in various groups of people bringing reformation and revival. Each time there is a “move of G-d” we do what we’ve always done: we set up a monument and camp out at the base of that monument. This isn’t anything new for us, we’ve always done this. We make an idol of a thing that represents something that HaShem has done in the past. We did this when we made our own golden calf, when we honored the bronze serpent, even with an ephod on more than one occasion, and so on. It is not wrong to memorialize a move of HaShem but when we can’t see past the thing He did or the thing that reminds us of what He did, that’s idolatry. We make an idol of a move of G-d or a spiritual revival and we do not move past that one moment. This has happened in the Christian world over and over in the past 500 years or more. Sometimes we have our own little trinkets and other times our ‘idol’ is a particular belief or doctrine. Today there are over 1500 different denominations recognized under the christian umbrella in America alone. And what is a denomination anyway? Simply put, a denomination is one named part of a whole.
When the Children of Israel spent their 40 years in the desert, they were being led by HaShem. When He moved, they moved and when He stopped, they stopped. Continue Reading »
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Thesis on the door of the Wittenberg Church and set in motion what would come to be known as The Reformation. Already, before Luther’s day, there were waves of reform blowing through the Christian world with movements such as the Waldensians in the 1100’s being one example. With the invention of his printing press, Gutenberg was able to illegally print Bibles for the masses. In 1455 complete Bibles were sold at the Frankfurt Book Fair for equal to three years wages for an average clerk. The truth contained in the Scriptures was just beginning to be unveiled and people desperately wanted the truth. When people began to learn what was actually contained within the pages of the Holy Scriptures, devoted people began to make radical changes. Of course, this angered those in power because the common man was now challenging the authority of the established institution of the Catholic Church. By the mid 1500’s there were various groups of people desperately trying to work out their salvation with fear and trembling as they read the precious words in the Bible and put them into practice. It seems that the Renaissance had ignited the minds of many great thinkers who reasoned with their hearts. The “civilized world” was turning back to the past, looking for the intellectual spark that we had somehow lost. It was time to break out of “the dark ages”. As we dug into our history looking for glorious gems, many would find the history of our faith and it would bring about shocking changes.
We had drifted so far away from where we needed to be. There were those who wondered and had a sense that something was amiss, but could we have ever guess just how far off course we had drifted? We had been taught our theology through superstitious traditions, wonderfully amazing paintings and statues, and a whole lot of guesswork. Since we were told that G-d was too difficult for us to understand, we accepted the hierarchy that the Catholic Church had put in place to govern our lives. Most of us simply wanted to be obedient subjects to the King, to the Pope and to the Emperor. But winds of change were blowing as some of us started to learn what was really contained within the pages of the Holy Scriptures. And as we started to learn, we learned we had some choices to make. The spirit of the Reformation was fanned into full flame in the 16th Century.
For many of us, we think of the Reformation as the start of a whole new intensity of persecution of the Jewish community and anyone who may have appeared “too Jewish” or too anything else in the eyes of the Church. There was much evil done at the hands of sinister and callous men who were in high and powerful positions. These outworkings of the time in history known as “The Reformation” contain both good and evil. In our zeal to be right before the L-RD, many of us did some evil things to our brothers and sisters. Yet in our zeal, we began to see layer upon layer of falsehood fall away. It is a very painful time in the history of the world. Continue Reading »
In light of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 thesis on October 31, 1517 I was thinking this morning: What would it look like, what would the outworkings be like, if this reformation continued today?
From Martin Luther and the other “Fathers of the Reformation” to the the Puritans and Separatists, what would that continued reformation look like today? Did the reformation ever really stop?
Recently we’ve been asked the same question from various friends and acquaintances. It can be phrased in several different ways but the basic general question is “Why are you Messianic?” Sometimes we have less than a minute to give a satisfactory answer and other times we have the opportunity to give a fuller answer. In either case, nobody wants to hear a long monolog they just want to know the basics. ”What is it that makes you line up with something different than I do?” Then we have the friends and acquaintances who would like to know but don’t feel comfortable actually asking such a question. In this entry I’ll try to explain the basics while at the same time taking the opportunity to dig a little deeper. We love conversation and find that when we engage one another in meaningful conversation that we learn a lot. So please, don’t hesitate to talk with us. We actually enjoy it! Earlier I wrote part 1 of this series, this is part 2.
We realized we were on a journey after we were already on the path so there isn’t really a definite date that we can put our finger on and say “Our journey started here.” We simply began to study the Scriptures and test our firmly held theology against the Scriptures. It was absolutely amazing what was confirmed as well as what we couldn’t find support for. We started to take seriously our need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, our faith was in our own hands and we understood that we were responsible for our own relationship with the King of the Universe. We were finding ourselves wrestling with everything we held to be true in order to prove it or cast it away. While it was tempting to go “pagan hunting” and work to cut out all things of pagan origin, we needed to stay focused on our G-d hunt. We were in search of the King of the Universe and His Son! We were wanting to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and let the rest take care of itself.
Rather than restate what I wrote earlier, I’m going to try to pick up where I left off. The title “Messianic” has been freely used by a wide variety of people so that the term does not really indicate anything very specific right now. Just the same as the “Christian” title is used by those who are culturally Christian to those who teach and do some silly, and some evil, things. There are those who are in a state of proud rebellion against the church and there are those who adhere to very different teaching than we do, all of whom have taken up the title of being Messianic.
We are not of Jewish descent, but our faith is. Our faith, as it is understood and practiced, is a Jewish faith. Let me explain what I mean. Continue Reading »
FFOZ had a Sukkah Contest this fall and friends urged us to enter photos of our succah. The winners of each category would receive a Torah Club volume of their choice. We decided that with a prize like that, why would we not at least try?
And today the Sukkah Contest Winners were announced – we won! We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Torah Club volume 3 to add to our studies.
We had a wonderful Sukkot. I hope you did too. I’d like to share a little about our amazing Feast of Tabernacles.
Some of you know that we were busy painting a mural on our succah. We keep a basket of activities for children in our succah so when friends come to visit and the adults talk, the children can have something fun to do too. In this basket are Sukkot coloring pages and puzzles as well as little games that can be played at the table in the succah. Last Sukkot I was thumbing through a new coloring book and came across a few pictures that we thought would make great Sukkot murals on our succah. With all of the greatest intentions to paint our succah, we put it off until just before Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah. It was a bit of a scramble to get the whole mural painted before it was time to set the succah up but we made it. And we were pleased with the results.
A couple in a succah with visiting shepherds and townsfolk
Joyful worshipers singing on their way into Jerusalem
On the first night of Sukkot, which was also Erev Shabbat, we had a special guest come and spend all of Shabbat with us. It was truly a fun time. We had a special festive meal together in the succah, we slept late in the morning, we studied our Bible readings, played games, and ate lunch all in the succah. Continue Reading »
We celebrated Shalom’s Bar Mitzvah yesterday here at home. He taught about the festival of Sukkot and shared his testimony with the crowd before his two grandfathers and his dad bestowed blessings upon him.
Blessings of the Fathers
Our friend who teaches at our Bible study group emceed the event for us and sang the Aaronic Blessing over Shalom. He has a beautiful singing voice, being the son of a cantor he has had very good training. It’s beautiful to hear him sing the blessing, and he’s a very good teacher . We appreciate him so much.
Singing the Aaronic Benediction over Shalom
We were blessed to have so many family and friends come to celebrate our youngest son and welcome him into the community of believers as a young adult.
Shalom's Bar Mitzvah guests assembled outside of the succah
It was a great day. We enjoyed celebrating with friends and family, introducing some of them to the Festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. Shalom did a wonderful job teaching about the festival, our emcee did a great job directing the ceremony and the weather cooperated with us as well. It was windy and there were times I wondered if the succah might blow away, but HaShem saw fit to see that the wind died down for the Aaronic Benediction and to keep our succah intact. It was a great day.
I wanted to pop in and wish my friends a happy new year, Chag Sameach Teruah!! Tonight begins the new year of 5770.
As we celebrate a new month and a new year, let’s remember some of the significance of this event. We are celebrating the day and the hour that no man knows, we are to be watching and waiting. Before we had calendars to fore-tell the future we would watch the skies. We would anxiously await the appearing of the first sliver of the new moon to signal the beginning of the new month, and this month would be the beginning of a new civil year. We would be prepared for the festival and if it didn’t come today, we’d be ready again tomorrow. That is why it is the day, even the hour, that no man knows.
New Moon over Jerusalem
Rosh HaShanah, or Yom Teruah, is the day of trumpets. The sound of these trumpets is what accompanies a king as he is coming. These trumpets are sounded at his coronation, which was always on the day of Rosh HaShanah/Yom Teruah.
The Feast of Trumpets
It is the same as we await the return of our Master, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. We are told to be prepared, to have all of our work done before He comes so that when He does return that He will find us ready. We are to know the seasons. The sound of the trumpet will accompany His return as Conquering King! May we all be found prepared and ready when the King of Kings returns to sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
May your holiday celebrations be filled with much joy, anticipation and expectation! I, personally, have great expectations!!
Chag Sameach Teruah ~
Lisa
Next week begins the month of Elul. Elul is the month of preparation for the Fall Festivals of the L-RD. It is a time of inspecting our lives, restoring relationships and anticipating the joyous festivals this fall.
I have updated the sidebar with a section of links to previous years’ entries related to the fall festivals. Please, if you have found some resources or links related to the fall festivals that you’d like to share with my readers, please post them in the comment section. I just love resources…
I hope to have a new entry soon with new links I’ve discovered since last fall. For now, our family is in the midst of 4-H fair season and a very busy season with Civil Air Patrol.
There are several things that have taken place on this very date, the 9th of Av. Today is a fast day, a day of self examination and mourning. It is a day that has stood out in history as a very bad day.
So what does the 9th of Av have to do with us Christians? It goes back to the reason for the Temple destruction and the teachings of Jesus. According to the Talmud the Temple was destroyed because of “baseless hatred”. People were speaking evil against each other. People were not caring for each other. And we see this reflected in the teachings of Jesus.
In the book of Luke Jesus tells a story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell on some robbers. A priest who must serve in the Temple comes by but knows if he touches the man he will be unclean and cannot engage in his Temple services. The Levite the same. What is wrong with this? The Temple services were VERY important? Yes! But not above human need and suffering. That is the kind of baseless hatred that existed in the days of the Second Temple.
The Temple was destroyed because of the actions of the people. So, today is a day of mourning and grief, fasting and prayer. But, it is also a day of self examination and repentance. How might we be missing the needs of the injured and bleeding among us? How might we be speaking evil of others? How might we correct the errors of our ways so God can once again dwell in our midst?
On the 9th of Av through history, these things have happened to the Jewish people:
The twelve scouts sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan returned from their mission. Two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, brought a positive report, but the others spoke disparagingly about the land which caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair of ever entering the “Promised Land”. For this, they were punished by God that their generation would not enter the land. Because of the Israelites’ lack of faith, God decreed that for all generations this date would become one of crying and misfortune for their descendants, the Jewish people. (See Numbers Ch. 13–14)
The First Temple, built by King Solomon, and the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and the Judeans were sent into the Babylonian exile.
The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, scattering the people of Judea and commencing the Jewish exile from the Holy Land. According to the Talmud in tractate Ta’anit, the destruction of the Second Temple began on the ninth and was finally consumed by the flames the next day, on the Tenth of Av.
Bar Kokhba’s revolt against Rome failed in 135 CE. Simon bar Kokhba was killed, and the city of Betar was destroyed.
In 136 CE, the Roman Emperor Hadrian established the heathen temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple and rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city named Aelia Capitolina, and renamed the land as Palestina, to distance its Jewish heritage.
Jews were expelled from England in 1290.
The Alhambra Decree of 1492, expelling the Jews from Spain, took effect on the 7th of Av, just two days before Tisha B’Av.
In 1914 Tisha B’Av was August 1st, the day Germany declared war on Russia and the Swiss army mobilized. World War I caused unprecedented devastation across Europe and set the stage for World War II and the Holocaust.
On the eve of Tisha B’Av 1942, the mass deportation began of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.
On the day after Tisha B’Av in 2005, Israel began the expulsion of Gush Katif residents in the Gaza Strip. The expulsion was pushed back by a day, so as not to coincide with Tisha B’Av.
The Second Lebanon War took place in the three weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av in 2006.
For those who are joining us in the fast today, may you have an easy fast. May your self examination and mourning for the sins of our people be a day to remember. May we acknowledge our mistakes and failures, learn from them and do teshuvah. May His kingdom come, may He rule once again from Jerusalem in our lifetime and in our days. May we be worthy enough to partake in those days.
May we pause in the midst of these summer months to take inventory of our hearts, our lives and our deeds. The immediate distractions (the heat, a vacation, fun trips, long boring days – whatever the distraction may be) , may they not be so consuming and distracting that we cannot stop to look at our lives and see what kinds of troubles have befallen the people we are grafted into, now our very selves, over the course of history. May we mourn our collective hardness of heart and stiffneckedness and may we weep before our King in repentance. May we be humbled before Him today.
To Him be all glory, honor and praise today and forever more.
I was hoping to write a bit about Tisha b’Av but I have not had time. Instead I would like to share a few links for those who might be interested in learning more about this fast day, a day of reflection and mourning.
“When Av begins, we decrease our joy.” — b.Taanit 29b.
Tonight begins the new month of Av. On Rosh Chodesh Av we remember the death of Aaron and the death of Paul Philip Levertoff. To observe the yahrtzeit of a loved one or one we respect, we light a candle (I found yahrtzeit candles at the grocery store, even) and recite the mourners kaddish prayer. It would also be fitting to honor Dr. Levertoff by studying his works, which can be found in an online search or through FFOZ as they’ve recently published one of Dr. Levertoff’s books for our benefit.
The first of Av also marks the beginning of a 9 day period of reflection and mourning as we draw nearer to the anniversary of the destruction of the Holy Temple. Both the first and second Temples were destroyed on the 9th of Av, so we reflect on the cause of such a terrible event and we mourn the loss of the House of HaShem in Jerusalem.
This Shabbat was a double portion reading, Matot/Massei. Matot is “Tribes” and Massei is “Stages”. We finished the books of Numbers and John.
HaShem had ordered that Israel go to war against Midian, to “take vengeance on the Midyanim.” The complete removal of all pagan products and practices, along with the pagans themselves, was likely understood by the army of Israel yet they left the women alive. Moshe was rather irritated because it was these women who were the ‘bait’ that caused the men of Israel to fall into Ba’al worship in the P’or incident that brought a plague on Israel. The women were what Bil’am recommended be used to cause Israel to become defiled and turn away from HaShem, and it worked so well. I wonder how often in our own lives we try to cut out the things that need to be removed yet we leave intact the very things that have caused our fall, without much thought about what it is that we are keeping. If we remove the stumbling blocks from our path, we are less likely to fall into the pit again. Somehow we often miss the obvious.
However, not a single man was lost in the war! This was cause for rejoicing with freewill offerings and offerings of thanksgiving and praise.
In our Jeremiah readings (Jeremiah 2:4-28, 3:4) we fast forward to a time hundreds of years later where the people have let idolatry slip into their lives so subtly. The orders were to destroy ALL the people, their gods and their pagan ways. We didn’t do a very good job of following orders and over the course of time we let their stuff slip into our lives. Syncretism. HaShem is calling the people to do teshuvah: to stop sinning, turn around and walk in His ways. What strikes me is verse 23, “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not pursued the ba’alim?’ Look at your conduct in the valley, understand what you have done.” How often are we the same way! We let a little slip in here and there, we go to cut out what is abhorrent to HaShem but we keep for ourselves some of the worst practices and don’t even seem to notice it. We ask, “How have I worshiped pagan gods? How have I been participating in these evil ways? I certainly have not!” We are no different today than we were when we went to war with Midian, before we went to exile in Babylon, and at any other point in history. We still struggle with the same things. And HaShem still calls us to Himself, disciplines us as a father disciplines a son he loves, and sets us toward the path of righteousness. He is patient indeed! If only TODAY we will hear His voice…
I didn’t see any parallels with this thought in the John readings. I’m still deeply pondering my thoughts from Pinchas last week. We are to be united with one another, loving one another SO THAT the world will know that the Father sent Yeshua.
Do you have any thoughts to share from this weeks readings?
This thought has stuck with me for the last week or more, when John 15 was part of our Gospel readings on July 11, the Pinchas Portion.
Yeshua prayed, “Just as you, Father, are united with me and I with you, I pray that they may be united with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me… so that they may be one, just as we are one… so that they may be completely one, and the world thus realize that you sent me, and that you have loved them just as you have loved me.” John 17:21-23
Did you notice that believers are to be as one so that the world will believe that HaShem sent Yeshua? Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. Hiney ma tov… It brings glory and honor to the Father and His Son, it proves Yeshua as Messiah. Hiney ma tov u’manayim shevet achim gam yachad!
I’m pleased to announce that this years vegetable garden is the best one we’ve grown to date. :) I’ve said that once already and that has piqued the interest of a few friends who want to see what our garden looks like. I feel silly posting pictures of our garden, but because you asked, I’m going to do it.
In an earlier post I mentioned that Shalom was working hard to take the styrofoam off of the concrete walls in the storage room because it was staying just too warm in there. At that time he had finished one wall and was starting on the second. He is now finished and because people have asked, I’m going to share a bit about the storage room project.
We already had a room designated as a storage room. This is a small room just at the bottom of the stairs in the basement in the coolest corner of the house. We would store everything in there – the spinning wheel and wool, craft supplies, card tables and chairs, and of course we used it as our food pantry too. It was a mess in there! It was time to organize the storage room and make it more efficient for storing food. Since we decided to do a larger garden this year that means I am learning how to can this summer. We intend to have a lot of tomatoes, salsa and who knows what else. We need a good place to store these things and we need it ready before the canning marathon begins.
So what was one of my first steps? Of course, I bought a book! What else would I do?
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
I’ve had a few friends ask me to share with them how I make herbal tinctures. I think it’s about time I get around to doing that now. :)
First you have to collect the herbs you want to make into tinctures. Collect the herbs at their peak time for maximum benefit. Flowers are best picked early in the morning just as they open into their bloom. When collecting leaves, usually earlier in the season they leaves are more tender but my personal experience has been that tinctures don’t care if the leaves are tough or tender. You never want leaves or flowers that have been eaten by bugs or damaged by weather, disease or something else. Try to get the best herbs you can, then dry them. I dry larger things like stinging nettle or mint hanging in the attic where it’s warm and dry. For smaller things like flowers, I use a food dehydrator. You do not want to dry your herbs in the sunlight because the thought is that just like the sun fades the herbs it will destroy some of it’s beneficial properties. The key is to dry them in a place that is dark, dry, and with good airflow so that the herbs will dry well and not become moldy.
I decided to import my posts from my other blog, The Ancient Paths Family Farm, over here and close down the other blog. I hadn’t posted there in over a year and there were only a few entries that I wanted to save anyway. Here there is one new page called Our Farm which has an attached page called The Benefits of Grass Fed Meat.
And today I was directed to a good article called Would Jesus Go Green? I appreciated and enjoyed the article and I imagine that many of my readers will too. I also put a link to this article in my sidebar.
I’ve still got a bit of tweaking to my blog to do, but I’m short on time. I also have several entries that I want to finish – about the future of our Messianic movement and how on earth are we going to get there, introductions to four or five of Messianic Jewish rabbis from 100 years ago or more, and a post with instructions for making tinctures and a comparison between brewing the tinctures in sunlight vs the dark.
But for now, I’ll post a quick update on family life: Continue Reading »
The appearance of links either in this sidebar or in article entries do not necessarily constitute full endorsement of the full content found at those websites. The material contained within any specific page linked may, or may not, accurately reflect the views of the author of the Following The Ancient Paths blog.
we would watch the skies. We would anxiously await the appearing of the first sliver of the new moon to signal the beginning of the new month, and this month would be the beginning of a new civil year. We would be prepared for the festival and if it didn’t come today, we’d be ready again tomorrow. That is why it is the day, even the hour, that no man knows.
