Spiritual Growth

Hanukkah and Christmas Convergence Celebration

In a few days Hanukkah and Christmas will both fall on December 25.  Jews around the world will usher in the Festival of Lights as Christians celebrate the Light of the World. Often the two holidays coincide because Hanukkah is an eight day commemoration. But this year’s convergence of Christmas…...

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How Hanukkah Empowers Us to Overcome the New anti-Israel Alignment this New Year

A day before Hanukkah, US President Obama brokered UN Security Council Resolution 2334, declaring that Judea and Samaria (including the Western Wall) belong to Palestine. The resolution puts in place putative legal groundwork, lacking until now, for dividing Israel into a Palestinian state. The exquisitely evil timing of the American…...

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Deeper Meanings of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

Traditionally called the season of our joy, Sukkot begins in Israel tonight, on Tishrei 15. Despite the ongoing trials of life, the nation takes a full week to rejoice in God’s goodness, as Deuteronomy16:13 commands. Then it emerges strengthened by His joy. What a message to the world – and…...

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Tu b’Av: the Jewish Holiday of Love (August 19, 2016)

  Tu b’Av (translated, 15th [day of the month] of Av) is known as the holiday of love. It is not a Levitical feast, nor is it directly referenced in the Scriptures. There are, however, interesting biblical associations with this historical celebration. Tu b’Av falls this year on August 19,…...

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Tisha b’Av: Mourning Destruction of the Temple in Light of a “New and Living Way”

  The Jewish observance of Tisha b’Av (translated “9th day of [the month of] Av”) falls this year on August 13-14.  Marked by fasting, prayer and Scripture readings, Tisha b’Av is considered the saddest day of the year. This is because on precisely Av 9, devastating calamities have befallen the…...

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Prophetic Messianic Mystery of Shavuot

The biblical Feast of Weeks (“Shavuot”) occurs on the 6th day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. Corresponding this year to June 12, the holiday is mandated in Leviticus 23:15-16: “From the day after the Sabbath [after Passover] … count off 7 full weeks. Count off 50 days up to…...

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Israel Independance and Lag b’Omer Holidays – May 2016

  Surprising Mathematical Evidence in Scripture that Israel’s Re-gathering is From God? Check these prophecies! May 14 marked Israel’s 68th birthday as a sovereign, regathered Jewish state. Yet a growing number of Christian naysayers view Israeli statehood an unjust, strictly human endeavor. They do not attribute her existence to the…...

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WHY COUNT THE OMER FROM PASSOVER TO THE FEAST OF WEEKS (SHAVUOT)?

  Yeshua’s post-Resurrection appearances and personal, revelatory teachings all took place during the Counting of the Omer. We can still anticipate, by grace, fresh revelation of God in this special, 50 day count. God commanded ancient Israel to count the omer, or measured sheaves of harvest, for each of the…...

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PASSOVER THEN AND NOW: Strange Parallels

  The back story to Passover is a mysterious one. Yet it seems strangely, even portentously relevant today. Exodus 1 recounts that after Jacob and his sons died in Egypt, the Israelites “became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.” (v.7) The rabbis teach the ancient Hebrews…...

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Purim and Resurrection Week: Prophetic Parallels in This Year’s Rare Calendar Convergence

    This year, as Christians mark Holy Week to prepare for Resurrection Day, Jews celebrate Purim on March 24. Purim is based on the book of Esther. The merry festival recounts God’s victory over His enemies’ attempt to annihilate the Jews. Calendar convergence of the two holidays is quite…...

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