4.16.25

Good morning!

Today, the fourth day of counting the omer, will be my last day here in beautiful Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; I'm not referencing the obvious beautiful coastline, but the beautiful people! Thank you Pastors and youth leaders. Thank you praise and worship teams. Thank you Brad and Linda for taking care of my every fundamental need. Thank you members of Grace and Mana for your growth in faithfulness. Thank you Suzanne and Joseph for tirelessly sharing your knowledge of whole health processes for every ear to hear. Thank you college age students for modeling for the young bucks, a growing life in Messiah. And thank you Alondra for the sacrifices you made every day traveling back and forth from FSU to translate for each teaching! Wow, what an amazing 8 days. Tonight, caps it all off with Q&A at 6:30 p.m. prayer appreciated.

When we choose a relationship we look for two things: Faithfulness and being trustworthy.

Many of you have completed the feast of unleavened bread and I hope you enjoyed eating your matzah (I sure did :-).

In Exodus/shemot (names), chapter 23, beginning at verse 14, we are told,

"Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year: You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread (you shall eat unleavened bread 7 days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before me empty); and the feast of harvest (Pentecost), the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the feast of ingathering (Sukkot) at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field." (Ex. 23:14-17)

In our harvest times and celebrations, currently, they are reaping the barley harvest in Israel. Barley is what’s referred to as 'poor man’s bread'. It is primarily used as feed for livestock, but among the poor, it is a grain which they can make basic bread. It’s just flour and water and sometimes a little salt; so it’s not it’s not the most flavorful thing ever, but it will sustain our body's needs. In actuality, it is purer food than what we buy off the grocery store shelf. And in simplicity it speaks of our redemption, our basic salvation (Jude 3); the very basic first step foundation of a relationship. It's a time where He is looking for people who will be faithful to Him, to His word, and that He can depend upon us to walk into things that He gives to us and not use them to profit ourselves and others (Eph. 2:8-10).  It's about returning to the basics, remembering again our initial salvation experience, our deliverance from our personal Egypt; a type of the systems of this world. It's where He has delivered us from world mindedness, a worldly attitude and lifestyle where we can be brought under Himself, given to us His covenant.  He has removed our former past identities and he has renewed us into brand new people before Him.

With the first feast in the rear view mirror, we begin the count of 50 days to where we come to Pentecost (Lev. 23:15,16; Acts 1:3; 2:1). This is the celebration of the wheat harvest. The barley is gone and now we celebrate with two loaves, full of yeast, full of flavor and full of life. This is King‘s bread and speaks of the time between our basic salvation and the time of maturity and introspection when we move beyond the basics (Heb. 6:1-3), emulating the walk in the character of the heart of our Messiah (Eph. 5:1,2). It's a time where we find, purge and build on the positive things of the word. Getting rid of self. Taking on the Messiah's way of life. Producing joyful, flavorful, bread and a life filled with the spirit. These 50 days are preparation for the next cycle of Him fulfilling Joel 2 :-)!!!

Before we go on, there are some life lessons for us to consider: You can open a box of matzah/unleavened bread from last year and it's still yummy-delicious and fresh. It doesn’t produce mold or deteriorate, since it doesn't have yeast. But, wheat bread, because it has the yeast in it, given enough time, a week or so, it starts to dry out, get moldy and...unless it's McDonald's Hamburger buns :-)

Many have been filled with the Spirit years ago, but it’s not fresh. It needs a fresh fire daily. My prayer for each of us is that, during these 50 days, we will all stay hot and fresh like the loaves of bread in the Tabernacle (Lev. 24:5-9).

After Pentecost, we work through a series of first fruit harvests to bring us to the feast of ingathering, aka feast of tabernacles. Here we are to bring our produce from the field. This expresses to the world that we’ve been redeemed, empowered by the Spirit. We have been faithful, putting seed in the ground, watering, and tending to fruitful growth. We can have a nice piece of land, but if you don’t put anything in it you're just gonna look at a piece of ground and that’s it :-/. For these individuals, they shouldn’t go out and expect any green thing other than weeds to grow in that land. Speaking of those never ending weeds, you also have to be faithful and trustworthy to reach out and pull up the things that compete with the nutrition of the soil that will produce fruit. And to produce the most fruit, we have to prune the little sap sucker branches that have begun to come up and take all of the energy out of the plant. We have to cut it back so that it will produce the most fruit (Jn. 15:1-7)...no moaning and whining allowed :-)

A year from now, at the season of life (Gen. 18:10-14), I hope we will look back with new life, new fruit, new vision and a fuller appreciation for the Lord's, eternal Feasts.

Happy 4th day of counting the omer!

I'm preparing for day 50 with you :-)

Shalom!!!