Since I've Been Gone

 I guess it is time to explain my long absence from this place.

And, to tell you why I've decided to return.

Admittedly, covid kicked the whole world's butt.  I was not exempt.  It's not that I got very sick from that particularly virus, although I did have it...twice (so far).  It was more a downward trend that began in January, 2020, when our beloved dog, Charlie, died.  I was still processing that grief when covid hit.  The whole world seemed to stop in March, 2020, and so did my blog, for the most part. Oh, I wrote a few posts in 2021, including the Korban series in early 2021.  But, after those posts, I just "laid it down," the blog, that is.

Several times I tried to return, and it was like when you try to push the two positive poles of two magnets together.  Every time I would try, I would feel a push-back in my spirit.  I'm honestly not a "woo-woo" kind of gal.  But, even I, in my spiritual obtuseness, knew that it was not yet time.

In the midst of, and thank God in spite of, all that muddy angst, I started studying Sephardic Biblical Hebrew, with a private teacher/friend in April of 2021.  What a blessing that has been! I am loving my Hebrew journey.  You'll see the influence of that in coming blog posts.  However, learning a new language (when long in the tooth, lol) is an arduous undertaking that, at the very least, takes a lot of time.  So, the time that I would have ordinarily spent writing, I spent studying.

Do I feel like I have "let the Lord down"?  Yes, to a point, I do.  It bothers me that a blog that had thousands of readers just "dropped off the map" for what some might say was no good reason.  But, I have always written mainly to deepen my faith walk, and when that was taking a different tack, would it have benefitted anyone if I had just...pressed on?  I don't know.

At any rate, Lord willing, I am picking up the mantle again, with teshuvah, a Hebrew word that means to both repent and return.  

See you soon. 

Yom Kippur 2022

I did not intend to write a post today, on Yom Kippur.  However, in reflecting on the themes of Yom Kippur, it just poured out of me.  It has been a long time since my last post and, while I want to share with you the reason for that, I’m going to save that for another post.  For now, my thoughts on the holiest day of the calendar which God gave to Moses in Leviticus and which Jesus and His earliest followers kept.  

Repentance has been portrayed in modern-day Christianity as a one-time event that occurs at the time of a person’s acceptance of Yeshua (Jesus) as haMashiach (the Messiah).  And, it IS true that the beginning of the relationship with Him cannot occur without recognition of one’s utter depravity and complete spiritual deadness, followed by true, heartfelt, sincere repentance from our sins (turning away from our past sinful life and turning TOWARD eternal life with Yeshua).  But, the role of repentance in the believer’s life was originally intended to be vital to the ongoing process of sanctification, a key component to “working out your own salvation with fear and trembling”, as the refining fire of the Holy Spirit brings our sinfulness “to the surface” where it can be removed by Him through confession and repentance.  It is these last elements that we find so lacking in Christianity today.

“Once saved, always saved” has become not just an affirmation of the believer’s sure eternal salvation in Christ.  It has gone beyond that truth to become a perversion, a “cheap grace” which gives license to becoming comfortable in one’s sins and complacent about them.  As a result, the sacrifice of our Savior has been made a laughingstock to an unbelieving world, as Christians have become ever-more worldly in their actions, eventually in many cases coming to resemble the ungodly more than the godliness of Yeshua.

While daily, ongoing submission to the Holy Spirit living in each true believer in Yeshua is a key part of the relationship with Him, the calendar days known as Teshuvah provide a period of more prolonged, more intense self-examination, prayer and restitution.  The first 30 of these days encompass the last month in the biblical calendar, Elul, while the last 10 of the 40 days are the most intense of them all, beginning with Tishri 1, Rosh HaShanah, the first day of the biblical civil new year, culminating in Yom Kippur on Tishri 10.

For the follower of Yeshua haMashiach, Yom Kippur is a multi-faceted day, because it is also a time to celebrate and give joyful thanks for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, whose sacrifice for us is completely sufficient to provide eternal salvation, to allow us to have fellowship with the one, true Elohim.  Hallelujah!

The writer of Hebrews explains how Yeshua fulfilled Yom Kippur so beautifully.  Here is a wonderful portion, from chapter 9, verses 11-16.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,^e then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify^f for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^g conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Is it “legalistic”, then, for the follower, the disciple, of Yeshua, to “keep” these feast days?  Some would say, “yes”, that doing so is spitting in the face of grace.  I disagree.  It really depends upon the attitude of the heart.  As my fellow believer, John Parsons, said in a recent Facebook post on his page, Hebrew for Christians:  “Fear (reverence, awe) without love leads to legalism and hypocrisy; love without fear leads to presumption and profanity.”

In all things, I long to follow my Savior, to walk as He walked.  I’m so eternally grateful for what He has done for me.