First of all, a reminder that Paul Manwaring of the Bethel pastoral staff in Redding, will be with us this Saturday evening at Blazing Fire Church!! Paul is an amazing man of God with brilliant insight for the emerging new wineskins that the Lord is revealing to His Church. If you cannot come, it will be available to listen to for free on podcast sometime next week (www.blazingfire.org).
There is a reason God has put certain traditions in place for His children—it’s because we tend to forget. We are in the midst of three very important feasts that God instituted for the Israelites centuries ago that are wonderful reminders for us today.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which this year began at sundown on Sept. 18th, the beginning of “10 days of Awe” which is a time for repentance. Repentance is not saying to God, ‘I am a worm,’ but it is coming into complete agreement with who you are as a Son or Daughter of God who has been paid for by the blood of Jesus. It is a time to turn our backs on the lies that keep us in chains and remember our freedom in Christ to bring his light and life to a world who desperately needs to know the Good News!
That 10 days ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This year, that happened at sundown on September 26th. It was on this one day of the year that the high priest would enter the Holy of holies to present a blood sacrifice to alleviate people of the guilt they had from their sin. This is the reminder that Jesus has absolutely done everything to make us right with God. Hebrews 10:11-14 reminds us that, “Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins. Jesus, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat forever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified!” That would be you and me! Everyone who has said yes to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus is perfectly cleansed from all unrighteousness!! There is not one thing that we can do to add to his finished work on the cross. We are not at odds with God in any way!! Waaaa Hoooooo!
And now, the third Fall Feast is approaching—Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles—which this year falls on Oct. 3rd, this Saturday. It is a joyful celebration of the harvest--the perfect provision of God--and it is a reminder that Jesus is God's perfect provision as Savior of all nations! It was on this festival that Jesus cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37 & 38)
This is a reminder to you to drink and drink and drink of the goodness of God! And after you have done that…drink some more!!
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