Rosh Hashanah the Biblical New Years – Commonly known as the Jewish New Year. In Biblical times, the dates of festivals were determined by a lunar calendar. Hebrew months begin with the sighting of the new moon. Because Rosh Hashanah starts on the first of Tishri – the only holiday that falls on the first day of the month – not all Jewish communities could be alerted in time. Even residents in Jerusalem could miss the start of Rosh Hashanah if clouds covered the night sky or witnesses arrived too late. That's why the one-day celebration was extended a second day to give all Jews a chance to participate. Rosh Hashanah usually falls between mid-September to early October. According to Jewish tradition, the destiny of mankind is recorded by God in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah. Those who repent of sins are granted a happy and good year. God seals judgment 10 days later on Yom Kippur. Prophetically, the holiday – also referred to as the Feast of Trumpets – points to the catching away of Yeshua's bride. The apostle Paul seems to be imparting this revelation to the church at Corinth: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." When Yeshua says in Matthew 24:36 that no one knows the day or hour of His return, it is a signal to believers that His return will fall on Rosh Hashanah. It is the only Biblical feast with an undetermined start time because of the new-moon sighting. “Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your Word; Law; Torah” (Psalm 119:37, NIV) "And he (King Of Babylon-representing an Anti-Torah spirit) will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times (Feast Days) and in law(Torah); and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time." (as in 1000, 2000 and a half a thousand= 3500yrs.) Daniel 7:25 (NASB) "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the Trumpet Of God. And the dead in Messiah will rise first" 1Thessalonians 4:16 Ok so let’s look at the calendar. WWJD? Jesus/Yeshua is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever! Right? In the book of John we read that ‘in the beginning’ was the D’var/Word and the D’var was with God and the D’var was God. The Word is Yeshua/ Jesus. It goes on to say that this D’var Word who is God dwelled among us and we beheld His Glory… Interesting, Huh? If Jesus is LORD of all, then it was Jesus/Yeshua who gave Moshe the Torah on Mt. Sinai. And if this is correct then we must conclude that He/Yeshua being God will never cast a shadow from his turning. That is to say that Jesus doesn’t change his mind. God is not a man that He should lie. His commands were given to us the children of Israel (Romans 11) as a sign of His love for us. In the last days there will be many lying signs and wonders, so great that if it were possible, even the elect (the remnant) would be deceived. Acts 17:11 The feast days are also intimate revelations of His will for us to come to the Bridal chambers and of His coming. If you won’t show up for His feast days, how do you expect to meet Him in the Heavens? Ezekiel 44 states, “23 "'They (the Children of God) are to teach my people the difference between holy and common and enable them to distinguish between clean and unclean. 24 They are to be judges in controversies, and they are to render decisions in keeping with my rulings. At all my designated festivals they are to keep my laws and regulations, and they are to keep my shabbats holy. This is what we are supposed to do. On the contrary look at what Ezekiel describes is happening in Chapter 22: 25 There is a conspiracy of prophets in it like a roaring lion tearing up the prey; they have devoured people, seized wealth and valuables, and widowed many in it. 26 Her cohanim have done violence to my Torah, profaned my holy things, made no difference between the holy and the common, not distinguished between unclean and clean, hidden their eyes from my shabbats, and profaned me among themselves. We have been foreigners to the Torah of God. It is a Love Covenant between God and his people. Jesus states in Matthew 5:17-19; ‘Do not think that I came to do away with the Torah or the Prophets. Rather I came to (cause them to come to life) fulfill them. Not one stroke of the pen (caph) or the smallest letter (yod) will disappear from the Torah until all heaven and earth pass away. Verily I say unto you whosoever breaks the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be least in the kingdom of Heaven, but whosoever keeps my commands (i.e. Feast Days) and teaches others to do so will be great in the Kingdom to Come/ Heaven (Malchut Shamayim)!!!! Rosh Hashana- the festival of Trumpets is the call to prepare yourself for the judgement/deliverance of the King. It is the Betrothal phase and the ‘elope’ so to speak. It represents when the Bride groom would come to escort His bride to the place that He has prepared for her. (“I go away to prepare a place for you, so that when I return, where I am you may also be”). 10 days after Rosh Hashanah is the Wedding Phase called Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur also referred to as the Day of Atonement or as I like to refer to it as the Day of At-One-Ment with your God is your ‘wedding day’ with Yeshua/Jesus. Do you love your Lord, Jesus/Yeshua? Do you love Him enough to show up when He says or do you have your own ideas of when the party should begin? Take a look at the story of Esther and Vashti. In Esther chapter 1- We see that interestingly enough the king(who represents Yeshua) beckons the queen (who represents the bride of Christ) to come to the party. We read that this occurs on the 7th day of the banquet. This alludes to the 7000 year millennial reign of the King. We happen to be in the 7th day according to biblical creation. God created for 6 days and on the 7th day He rested-Shabbat! In verse 11The servants are called to bring the queen to the king wearing the the royal crown which He gave to her (alluding to the crown of Salvation) which for us is found in the Incarnate Word or the Living Torah who is Jesus/Yeshua). Yeshua wants to show all of Heaven and earth your beauty. After all He formed you in His own hand for His glory, to become to Him a helpmate in the Kingdom of God. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come to the Feast days that the King had ordered. All of Creation ignores the MOEDIM (appointments) which he had sent through his officers (prophets). This enragesd the king - his anger blazed inside him. So to not entirely unlike the King of Persia, our God’s wrath and fury are kindled within when we refuse to adapt to His ways. God wishes to bless you all. Jeremiah 29:11 states that He/God knows the plans that He has for you to do good things for you and to cause you to prosper… Come to His Feast Days, Observe the Sabbath and keep it set apart/Holy. Circumcise your hearts Oh Jerusalem and come before your God. This is the ‘good news’ of the gospels. It has always been God’s plan to give you opportunity to come before the LORD our God just as Esther the obedient wife of the King came before him and beseeched him for mercy. Mercy was given to Esther just as it can be had for you. The Lord your God has gone to the grave for us and has arisen alive. He did this in order to fulfill a law that states if a man (Jesus/Yeshua) wishes to stay married to an unfaithful bride (you and I) He must be able to die and come back to life. With mere mortal man it is impossible to make this unequally yoked union work… but with God all things are possible. It is taught that God doesn’t believe in divorce and this is the only place you have a right to apply that concept. You and I alone are the unfaithful and Jesus chose to remain married to us. Let’s gather this Rosh Hashana and show the world how much we love the Lord Jesus, and how aware we are of the mercy that has befallen us. All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Romans 3:23 Let us enter into the Holy of Holies with confidence this week and enter into a New Year. Hebrews 10:19 Coming before the Lord in repentance making ‘teshuvah’ is an act of trust and faith. Ezekiel states that the LORD our God would place His Spirit in us and move us to desire to know HIS ways. Your name has indeed already been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life but will you show you Adonai Elohim that you trust Him and that we believe in His ways rather than in the ways of man. WWJD? Come and Join us this Wednesday evening. It is the Erev Rosh Hashana the evening and the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets. We will be eating Apples and Honey to bring in a sweet new year for all of God’s children! We are expecting a move of the hearts of men and women in our community to draw near to the culture and customs of Jesus Christ/ Yeshua. Would you like a “do-over” for the year? This is our chance to come before the Lord our God/ Yeshua-Jesus and begin a new life. This is the chance we all should be looking forward to each and every year. As the Children of Israel (Romans 11) I believe that we should rejoice at coming to the feast days. After all, it is these festivals that remind us of the promises given to us in the Covenant. The New Testament is not a ‘new’ covenant it is the same covenant that God made with our fathers. The same one our fathers broke and so will we. But we have license to claim our rights and inheritance to the commonwealth of Israel, if we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength. The Maher family wishes you and your families a Shana Tova – a year of good health, happiness and serenity. May our prayers be answered and may our leaders be endowed with wisdom and integrity. May we merit a year of peace and security for the State of Israel, good tidings for the Jewish people and may all good people throughout the world be blessed.

Pentecost/Shavuot... Tomatoe/ tomahto

Don't call the whole thing off!
Chag Shavuot Sameach! Happy Shavuot/Pentecost Holy-day!
Check this out. Shavuot is celebrated as the day that the Israelites recieved the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The significance is that if you love God, Wish to walk with Him and sometimes wrestle or contend with Him, then you're one of His! Yeah.
Because you are stiff necked and stubborn you must be an Israelite, and that's cause for celebration.
To borrow from the great Joe Peschi the actor, "ok, ok, ok, now check this out"
So we read that we are to set up the lampstand constructed of 7 branches.
the same seven branches, ribs, sticks or bones that make up the body of Christ/Yeshua. Seven is a complete number also alluding to the introspective nature of an Israelite who "chews his cud". Remember an animal that doesn't chew its cud is not Kosher/fit. We as Humans created by Elohim are called to inspect ourselves and look at our own behavior, compare it to the ways of God; the Torah and make adjustments in our lifestyle to reflect our belonging to the God of order.
Others have no compass and therefore they end up in the same hole of despair over and over again. That was never Hashem's plan for His chosen children.
But I digress.
Shavuot; the giving of our marriage covenant by God's Spirit; the Ruach Elohim to Moses the Deliverer to give to the people of Israel.
So lets break it down.
In the "upper room" of Mt. Sinai the Ruach Ha Chodesh meets with Moishe and gives Him the Torah; the Covenant of Promises to give to the Israelites all who had recently been set free from bondage and captivity in Egypt. Hey, wait that's us. Right??
In the book of Acts chapter 2 we read that the Talmudim/disciples were in the "upper room" when a mighty rushing wind was heard and the Holy Spirit descended upon them. There were tongues of fire over their heads. The mighty rushing wind could be like the thunder and lightning seen and heard on the mountain while Moishe was up there with God. Moishe's face was radient when he came down, like tongues of fire which also represent the dove over Yeshua after the Mikveh by Yohannan.
Now check this out! While in the "upper room" a place that wasn't necessarily a room so much as it was on the roof where the waters of rain were collected in a bathing pool would be located. This was the place for doing a mikveh which is a ceremonial washing. Like the baptism in modern Christianity it sybolizes the cleansing of the Holy Spirit and the changing of status from common to holy.
Back to the story. We recieved the Spirit of God on Pentecost which is a feastday or an appointed time. Obviously if we celebrated the appointed times; the Moedim HaElohim we would know that Pentecost was prophecied on Mt. Sinai and the talmudim/disciples were fulfilling their commitment to God by taking part in the Shavuot, in the Upper Room and Praying washing feet perhaps to signify that they had indeed been set apart. As You and I are also set apart, so shall we cleanse our brethren's feet.

So could it be that like the disciples and like the Israelites we too should be prepared for the Shavuot and rejoice in its remembrances. After all though we were once enslaved in our own vices and reasonings, the Lord Yeshua saw us as His bride. Even from afar He sought us before we sought Him.
Has the Spirit of Elohim come to this earth or not?
After Moishe's visitation and the gift of the Ha Torah we fell into murmuring and back biting. But yet the Ruach Ha Elohim had come down and surrounded the Mountain of the Lord. Later in Acts we see that on the holy-day of Shavuot we recieved again the Holy Spirit of God, the same Spirit of God that gave the Torah to Moishe. The same! Not different. God doesn't change. Yeshua said, "I will send the comforter; the Holy Spirit"...
Do we believe that He is holding out? we have to wait for some special time other than the Moedim of Elohim to receive the gifts of the Ruach?
Never! We are in the midst of His Presence and we lack vision.
We are the Lampstand, we are to shed light forward. Forward not back at your past or back at your brother's past. but Forward!
Shed light not darkness. The lampstand doesn't shed darkness such as the end of the world theories and the rapture and the tribulation. Are we not in various tribulations now? Have we not brought these things upon ourselves in many ways?
The word rapture isn't in the Hebrew mindset but rather the word ingathering is. Such as in Deuteronomy 30:1-6 we see the re-gathering of the children of Israel back to the Torah, teaching and instructions of God so that we can and will possess the land given to our forefathers, the land flowing with milk and honey. The same land that was given to our ancestors before us when Hashem/Yeshua brought them out of Egypt with a mighty right hand and an outstretched arm. Hence the Cross at Calvary.
Get it?
in Chapter 8 of the bookNumbers we read that after the Levites had been purified, they were to be presented as a wave offering, they are to come to do the work at the Tent of Meeting. It's talking about you and me to come forward, since you have indeed been made clean and purified by the High Priest and the cleansing waters of the Ruach HaChodesh. We are the Israelites (Romans 11) who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn. You now receive levitical priveledges and you receive the firstborn blessings as one who receives Yeshua/Jesus as Moshiach/Messiah. See no one can take away your blessing. However likened to Essav you can sell you birthright for the satifaction of the flesh which is corrupt and sure to die.
We have repeatedly sold out our birthright for foolishness. It is time to return to "the hearts of our fathers" and receive the blessing of the land. but wait! I am not proposing that you can somehow take what belongs to someone else. It has always been Israel's and will always be Israel's. However we must be adopted into the inheritance through the Moshiach who is Yeshua. Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah. He is not gentile/unfit but rather has come outside the camp to meet with us and offer us the priveledge of coming into the camp and He makes us clean. We cannot presume to replace Israel but rather likened to Ruth... Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God. If anything less than death should separate us, let God deal harshly with me.
I love My Jewish brothers and sisters and want nothing more than for the Christian Church to realize that you can't recieve the blessing of Hashem while rejecting the lifestyle of the Messiah. Being Jewish is so much more than genetic bloodlilne. It is more a lifestyle than genes. All genes were created by the same Creator. YHWH.
I want to learn the Feasts and the Appointed Times out of my love and adoration for The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is the God of our Fathers.
Ezekiel 37 alludes to the two sticks becoming one in His hand and having one Prince or King over them both. That is the fulfillment of prophecy that in these last days of the great apostacy we will return to the Truth of Elohim; the Torah of God and the Whole House of Jacob will be reunited as it was in Egypt under Yosef.
You are a priest, you are the lampstand. with out the Shamash/Yeshua we cannot be annointed as priests let alone be light to shed any light. we are a lamp without flame/aish.

Chapter 9 verse 13
But if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people because he did not present the Lord's offering at the appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
What do we do with that? Could it be that because of the ignorance fo the Body of Christ we fail to keep the feasts and the appointed times? And as a result we suffer consequences such as lack of involvement in the church by men, there are no priests or Rabbis, there are things like rape, incest, molestation, divorce, murder, abuse of all kinds in the people who call themselves Christians and in the nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Either God fell asleep or we are outside the camp...
What do you think?
Are we so righteous that God is allowing Satan to torment us? Or could it be that we lack knowledge? I'll take the latter one. Thank you.
So where can we find this knowledge? It is in the Torah. Yes, that Ol' Torah that we call the Law. The same thing that we think Jesus came all this way to free us from is the key to the Kingdom that sets us free from the pain of sin.
When you feel that you can't go on, stay put. Stay faithful and be steady.
Allow yourself to be one of the two silver trumpets that blows and calls the assembly of the people of God. When the two are together (house of Judah/House of Ephrayim) then we can conquer the enemies of God's people.
Its not a physical war as much as it is a spiritual war on the hearts of man.
You Count!
You have a new position of elevation so that you can elevate your King!
Light the lamp via the only way through the Shamash Melechienu/Servant King who is the Light of the World. his name is Yeshua Ha Moshiach.
If you have a desire to know your God and Savior more, join us at Beit Tikveh U'Nesim; the House of Hope and Miracles Center for Torah Studies. We are in Lockhart, Texas,
Come just like that!