First Fruits to Shavuot: The Heart of His Feast Cycle

http://www.messilife.com/First%20Fruits%20to%20Shavuot.pdf

The link above will download the actual teaching.   The notes below will set the premise.

I've gotten so much positive feedback on the Pesach vs. Passover study, so I decided to share the notes from the "First Fruits to Shavuot" study we did last year too.   Although this is essentially a powerpoint turned into a PDF, I think there are enough notes in the fine-print to get the idea of where I am going here.   I promise I will put this in a more independent format that breaks down the ideas deeper and more succinctly, but for those who have had experience with the Feasts and a basic understanding of Hebraic thinking, I'm hoping the visuals and notes will speak for themselves.

The premise is this: First Fruits is not a "feast" unto itself...and neither is the day of Shavuot.   They are the beginning and ending of a 50-day-long Feast that begins with the theme of "salvation" and ends with the celebration of "perfection".   Shavuot is a plural word that means "weeks", so we need to paying attention weekly (and daily) to the lessons he has for us during all 7 weeks (49 days plus one), and not just routinely phone-in some "omer counting prayers" as we wait for the big event at the end.   

None of the feasts stand alone, all seven are stops along the roadmap of YHWH's plan...teaching us crucial principles IN THE ORDER that they occur in our lives and in prophecy.   The Feast of Weeks needs to be looked at as the heart of the feasts...as they are literally CENTRAL to his plan.   I think we've also made the error of looking at Shavuot as the "giving of the 10 commandments" when the real culmination is not that event...but the celebration of the Mosaic Covenant with all 70 elders on the top of Mt. Sinai--eating a covenant meal in the very presence of YHWH!

Towards the end of the power point, I reference 7 events that occur in the lives of our people from the moment they cross the Sea up until that collective moment on the mountain top.   The last few slides hold the briefest of sketches on notes of the "Fall Feasts", simply because it's impossible to study one feast without the context of all 7.   I'm sure many of you will notice that I have come to a less-than-traditional understanding of Yom Teruah--much of which has come through my new understanding of the Feast of Weeks.

Last year, many in our fellowship replaced their normally scheduled Torah portion with a study of each of these 7 events during 7 Sabbaths along the path to Shavuot.   We were truly blessed, and we hope you are too!

If you are used to the Jewish reckoning of the timing of Shavuot, and to the notion of "counting the omer" as the point of this feast...I'd also recommend reading our former posts on those issues too:

http://www.homeshalom.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-fruitscounting-omer-video.html

http://www.homeshalom.blogspot.com/2011/04/counting-omerdays-revised.html

Thanks as usual for growing a sojourning with us!

Ben

The Way of Love

In a recent post we shared about some "personal growth" type studying were are doing as a family during this season of Counting the Days Between First Fruits and Shavuot. We mentioned a list of "5 things" Ben and I had made to work on in our own character and also to instill into the children by example and correction...Well...long story short...Yah put 1 Cor 13 on our hearts...so this is what we have chosen to work on in this season together as a family (in addition to our other studies). Doing this will be our main focus, our overarching "theme" to cultivate and develop in our "way". This 50 day period is kind of like our "Love Boot Camp". (Is that a contradiction?? Yah Help me!) Our goal is to really shift our focus in this direction as a family...We pray that this be our direction and aim always and forever after...This 50 day period is one of changing habits, accountability and correction for all of us...If we come to mind please pray for us during this time...Yah has probably brought us to mind for that reason! :-)

These are our initial plans - but of course we will remain open to hear the leading of Yah through all this (adjusting things as needed)!!

1. Hide the word in our hearts! We have started memorizing chapter 13 together as a family. Each morning, we will read the whole chapter. Then we pick the first section (often a verse - but it will be done in "thought chunks" not just by verse numbers). Mamma or Pappa will read the day's section we intend to memorize and discuss it. (Defining words, and making sure everyone in the family has a clear understanding of it's parts and it's context to the whole chapter.) Then we will spend time exercising it together and repeating it until everyone can repeat it without looking - word for word - and it is committed to memory. Sometimes hand motions, faces and makeshift sign language can be very helpful for the little ones in this process! Then the next day we read the whole chapter, review what we memorized, and repeat the process with the next new section, adding on to the end of the last and always reviewing them together the next day. We will try to review it "as we walk in the way" through out the day. We will also repeat the whole chapter at bedtime.

2. Love Song It is my hope that I can put this chapter to a tune, and we will start singing our love chapter. We have found that music is a very effective tool to remembering the Scriptures - not to mention a very pleasant one. It is recalled more often in the day and really implants JOY into the process which lightens our souls. If we are successful with this, we will record our little song to share with you.

3. Changing Habits This is the hard part... catching ourselves and correcting ourselves when we behave in ways that are not "loving" as is so clearly defined in this chapter. We will need to make new choices in considering others as more significant than ourselves!! We have pledged to remain teachable and pliable and WANT this to be our normal way...there is no place for impatience, irritability, pride, selfishness and haughty attitudes in Yah's house.

After we do this with 1 Cor 13 - we intend to do the same thing with Philippians 2:1-12

The Way of Love
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Messiah's Example of Humility

Philippians 2:1-12
So if there is any encouragement in Messiah, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Messiah Y' Shua, who, though he was in the form of Elohim, did not count equality with Elohim a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore YHVH has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Y'shua every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Y'shua Ha Messhiach is Lord, to the glory of YHVH the Father.

Halleluyah!

Assessing Our Stuff (Spiritual Organization)

The first step of organization is assessing our stuff. If we fail to do this, than we will not get healthy and proper handle on managing it. Here are some principles that The Father has trained me in as He has honed my heart over the years to be a good steward of the things that He has given us... The things of which He has put us in charge.

Slight Course Correction

As our walk continues and our understanding of Hebrew slowly (but surely) increases (along with understanding the context of the Scriptures), we find that course corrections are required. We are often checking ourselves against the Scriptures and those who have gone before us. I am sure this will not be the last (and it FAR from the first!). We find ourselves in a place of course correction on our English Transliteration of The Messiah's name. Early in our walk, we were at a cross roads, but though it was good to choose "Yahshua" with the intent to keep the "Yah" in His name and draw attention to that part of the name's meaning. Although it may have been good intentioned...it was an act of ignorance on our part in the Hebrew language. There is still more than one way to transliterate the name into English, and there is the argument (which we see as valid) for two different possibilities. Yeshua (Y'shua) for one and Yehoshua for the other. Both we see as "not wrong", if that makes sense. So we have chosen to use Yeshua.

Some of you may say "whooptie-do"...we know that this is semantics and means little in the larger picture of walking in His ways...but we thought we would humbly mention this course correction (and may make it a point to mention others here in the future!) as we walk in the Way. We are simply "pilgrims on a journey" trying to do our best to live a life of worship in every way we can.

Here is an article which a friend shared with me (unknowingly) while we were in the middle of this course change. We think it is worth sharing.

FYI - We are also prayerfully considering and researching the pronunciation of the Devine Name YHVH (AGAIN) too. :-)

Ben and Pamela