8.21.25 ~ Foot Feasts
Good morning!
Today is the 26th day of counting towards the first fruit of the oil, which means it's another opportunity for more Torah thoughts to consider :-). It's also my last full day back in Kansas City to work before I head back to Michigan (prayer appreciated).
We're rapidly approaching the Fall Feast season. How ya doing? Are you preparing? Periodically I go through the day thinking, now what day is it? So I pull my fingers out from behind my pressure washing gun (on this trip) and count just to make sure. It's kind of a funny exercise, but it's all about anticipation and endurance. I'm the kind of person that if I don't keep my focus on something good, I'll get focused on something else not so good. If I don't keep my eyes on the prize, the finish line, the goal of the faith, I get bogged down with the temporary and usually life gets bent out of shape over things that aren't worth bending my life over. Hence, I have my mind focused on the upcoming feast season of Trumpets, Atonement(s), and Tabernacles. Ironically, and as a contranym (both positive and negative) the word for feast/chag, has a numeric value of 19. So too does the word sin/chata, and sorrow/abowy.
In this week's Torah portion, Re'eh/to see, in Deuteronomy 16, we have the 3 foot feasts mentioned (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles). The writer of Hebrews tells us about the importance of our focus. He alludes to the future Feasts of the Lord when He returns and the reward according to promise that will be given.
"For you have need of endurance/hupomone, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay." (Heb. 10:36,37)
Every time I hear about endurance my mind runs to the long race of a marathon. I ran one with a friend, John Maloney, in 7th grade, just for fun, and that was enough for me. Some enter to win. Most enter to finish. That’s what it’s like for us. And in finishing that's what guarantees the victory. Followers of Yeshua HaMashiach enter to win by disciplining their journey in such a way that they help others finish together. I need to make sure that my brothers and sisters cross the line with me. I can’t cross without them because my job is to make sure they reach the destination too (this was Paul's focus in running the race to win in 1 Cor. 9:24-27 and in 1 Tim. 6:12 and 2 Tim. 4:7,8). This is no tortoise and hare fable in this race. This is real. This is leading from behind; that's how you win this race. This is climbing the ladder to the bottom.
Paul says in his 2nd letter to Timothy:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. (2 Tim. 4:7,8)
When someone endures/hupomone, they do whatever it takes to bear up under and persevere. But its constituent parts tell us something even more profound. Let me break it down for you a little more...hupo/under and meno/to remain. Endurance is remaining under. It is the choice to stay with the group, to remain a servant to all, to lead by being at the rear, to carry every straggler. Endurance is symbolized in washing feet, in humbling myself so that others may shine. Endurance is choosing to decrease so that He may increase (Jn. 3:30).
The secret of a life delightful to God and a blessing to others is patience and endurance. Waiting for God is always the answer because waiting requires my desire to take a back seat; to let go of taking charge. The yetzer hara has a voracious appetite for immediate satisfaction. Waiting on the Lord starves that appetite. If I am willing to live on kairos/when things aren't real clear to me, I will not be disappointed. I will be at the finish line with you and we will celebrate victory together. What we need more than anything else is a dieting plan for desires and waiting is critical to such a plan. The man who surges ahead, who combats every obstacle with self-determination, who seeks victory no matter what is the man who has not yet conquered the power of the yetzer hara/evil inclination. Such a man turns desire into acquisition energy rather than discovering the calm reserve of knowing The Lord's provision. Such a man struggles to remain above it all. He has yet to find the delight of waiting.
“When you have done the will of God,” says the author of Hebrews. Doing that will be intertwined with hupomone. No one can do His will without endurance. Those “blessed” by lives without struggles have been shortchanged. Perhaps, for those individuals, the Lord God in His infinite grace knew that they could not endure the difficult days ahead (Isa. 57:1,2)? Maybe?? But for most of us the road is long and arduous and for good reason. That long and arduous road is the avenue of doing His will and it's the road of conforming us to His image (Rom. 8:29).
Of course, the length of the road is relative, isn’t it? “Yet in a very little while” quotes the author from Habakkuk (Hab. 2:3).
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. (Hab. 2:3)
What distance is a marathon compared to traveling towards the horizon of he earth? Look up from your plodding feet. The horizon is still far away and the road will end before you get there. The victory celebration will come before you reach the end...or will it? One step at a time, my friend! One step at a time.
Keep running to win!
Shalom,
Alan
We're rapidly approaching the Fall Feast season. How ya doing? Are you preparing? Periodically I go through the day thinking, now what day is it? So I pull my fingers out from behind my pressure washing gun (on this trip) and count just to make sure. It's kind of a funny exercise, but it's all about anticipation and endurance. I'm the kind of person that if I don't keep my focus on something good, I'll get focused on something else not so good. If I don't keep my eyes on the prize, the finish line, the goal of the faith, I get bogged down with the temporary and usually life gets bent out of shape over things that aren't worth bending my life over. Hence, I have my mind focused on the upcoming feast season of Trumpets, Atonement(s), and Tabernacles. Ironically, and as a contranym (both positive and negative) the word for feast/chag, has a numeric value of 19. So too does the word sin/chata, and sorrow/abowy.
In this week's Torah portion, Re'eh/to see, in Deuteronomy 16, we have the 3 foot feasts mentioned (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles). The writer of Hebrews tells us about the importance of our focus. He alludes to the future Feasts of the Lord when He returns and the reward according to promise that will be given.
"For you have need of endurance/hupomone, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay." (Heb. 10:36,37)
Every time I hear about endurance my mind runs to the long race of a marathon. I ran one with a friend, John Maloney, in 7th grade, just for fun, and that was enough for me. Some enter to win. Most enter to finish. That’s what it’s like for us. And in finishing that's what guarantees the victory. Followers of Yeshua HaMashiach enter to win by disciplining their journey in such a way that they help others finish together. I need to make sure that my brothers and sisters cross the line with me. I can’t cross without them because my job is to make sure they reach the destination too (this was Paul's focus in running the race to win in 1 Cor. 9:24-27 and in 1 Tim. 6:12 and 2 Tim. 4:7,8). This is no tortoise and hare fable in this race. This is real. This is leading from behind; that's how you win this race. This is climbing the ladder to the bottom.
Paul says in his 2nd letter to Timothy:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. (2 Tim. 4:7,8)
When someone endures/hupomone, they do whatever it takes to bear up under and persevere. But its constituent parts tell us something even more profound. Let me break it down for you a little more...hupo/under and meno/to remain. Endurance is remaining under. It is the choice to stay with the group, to remain a servant to all, to lead by being at the rear, to carry every straggler. Endurance is symbolized in washing feet, in humbling myself so that others may shine. Endurance is choosing to decrease so that He may increase (Jn. 3:30).
The secret of a life delightful to God and a blessing to others is patience and endurance. Waiting for God is always the answer because waiting requires my desire to take a back seat; to let go of taking charge. The yetzer hara has a voracious appetite for immediate satisfaction. Waiting on the Lord starves that appetite. If I am willing to live on kairos/when things aren't real clear to me, I will not be disappointed. I will be at the finish line with you and we will celebrate victory together. What we need more than anything else is a dieting plan for desires and waiting is critical to such a plan. The man who surges ahead, who combats every obstacle with self-determination, who seeks victory no matter what is the man who has not yet conquered the power of the yetzer hara/evil inclination. Such a man turns desire into acquisition energy rather than discovering the calm reserve of knowing The Lord's provision. Such a man struggles to remain above it all. He has yet to find the delight of waiting.
“When you have done the will of God,” says the author of Hebrews. Doing that will be intertwined with hupomone. No one can do His will without endurance. Those “blessed” by lives without struggles have been shortchanged. Perhaps, for those individuals, the Lord God in His infinite grace knew that they could not endure the difficult days ahead (Isa. 57:1,2)? Maybe?? But for most of us the road is long and arduous and for good reason. That long and arduous road is the avenue of doing His will and it's the road of conforming us to His image (Rom. 8:29).
Of course, the length of the road is relative, isn’t it? “Yet in a very little while” quotes the author from Habakkuk (Hab. 2:3).
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. (Hab. 2:3)
What distance is a marathon compared to traveling towards the horizon of he earth? Look up from your plodding feet. The horizon is still far away and the road will end before you get there. The victory celebration will come before you reach the end...or will it? One step at a time, my friend! One step at a time.
Keep running to win!
Shalom,
Alan
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