Charisma Magazine just ran an article entitled "It’s Time to Get on God’s Calendar", and they hit it hard! When mainstream Christian media begins talking on this level, you know there's a big change happening in the body of Messiah. Read the whole article for yourself here, or at the very least read these gripping takeaways:
"We have been robbed of a significant part of our godly heritage through a calendar that was intentionally removed from the biblical one.
"Even these early Gentile followers observed the biblical feasts...The biblical feasts had become the feasts of the Gentile believers as well.
"They needed a resurrection day other than Passover. Passover was too Jewish. At the conclusion of the Nicene Council, Constantine had his way... The Roman calendar, named after Roman gods and Caesars, replaced God's calendar, and for the next 16 centuries, both the church and the synagogue agreed that Jewish people who became followers of their Messiah must relinquish all their Jewishness and get on the non-biblical calendar.
"Our Roman/Gregorian solar calendar has no biblical significance. God's calendar is based on lunar months with a solar year. The sun and moon are to "mark seasons and days and years" (Gen. 1:14).
"The fall festivals are important for us because they have yet to come into their full prophetic significance. If Jesus used God's calendar for the Spring festivals, we can well assume that He will do the same with the Fall feasts.
"God has a calendar; we have a calendar. He will never get on ours, but it's best we get on His!"
Christopher's Story
Christopher is a member of the Holy Language tribe, following Yeshua and learning Hebrew! Here's his story.
I first began following Yeshua a month before I turned 23 though at the time I only knew him as Jesus. My family had been saved a few years and every time that I saw them they would tell me about this great pastor that they knew. Due to a large dose of self destruction, I was humbled enough to at least give this 'intelligent Christian Pastor' a chance. I was surprised to find that people in his church weren't expected to check their brains at the door. In fact he was actually quite adamant in regards to self studying, and even though the old testament was only to point to Jesus, he still encouraged people to read it fully. He eventually lead me into a walk with Jesus and that is where it all began.
As time went on I felt that there were gaps in my walk which seemed to grow with my theological limitations. I knew that God was there and followed him the best that I could, but I knew something was missing. It was around this time that I met and married my beauty. We moved to the city of Toronto, and started to attend a church which had a bible study run by a Jewish believer. (My family has its own strangely ambiguous Jewish history. WW2, a bakery fire, and my grandmother being baptized catholic to be adopted out, created a series of possibly unprovable links to a Jewish heritage.) This wonderful man who led bible study was used to start a quest which led me to a very Jewish Yeshua.
The seed for learning Hebrew was planted by a typography teacher that I once studied under. We were speaking about the bible and I had made a comment about God, and a connection between what I knew as the New Testament and the Old. He calmly asked me if I had read the bible in its original Hebrew, and when I admitted that I hadn't, he suggested that I do so before we continued that particular conversation. He is Jewish and I can totally understand his aversion to hearing about Jesus, but the idea that there was something to find in the original language stuck with me.
When my wife and I were first married, I was a graphic designer. After the birth of our second daughter, I changed careers and now enjoy working as an electrician. When not wandering the city with the ladies of my life, reading, or slowly trying to learn modern Hebrew, I write in STA''M. (Hebrew calligraphy) One day I would love to create a scroll of the Gospels with Acts as well as Revelation and other writings.
You have a story too, and the tribe would love to hear it! Share here?
holy language LIVE
Join Rabbi Derek Leman this Thursday night at 8EST/5PST for the next live class in his series on the book of Ruth, right here!
These classes don't just teach you grammar and vocabulary. They're spiritual experiences that bring you closer to God, and get you thinking. The live chat is alot of fun, too!
meme of the week
Make your own Hebrew meme here or here and send it to meme@holylanguage.com, and we'll share yours too! :D
broader vision
I hope this news lineup gets you thinking and gives you a broader vision of the kingdom of God and what's going on in this world.
P.S. I'm here for you and I would love to hear from you. But this email is unmonitored - so instead of replying to it, please contact me here. Thanks so much!
