Hanukkah Nights

Eight little candles

Hanukkah means "dedication." 

all burning so bright,
as we come to the last
of our Hanukkah nights.

We started with one candle.
Then we lit two.
With each night the light
of our Hanukkiah grew.

We ate oil-fried and cheese foods,
all very symbolic.....
latkes and french fries,
even Chinese and cheesecake.

During Hanukkah nights
we recalled brave, godly men
and women whose lives
were dedicated to Him.

They valued the Torah
much more than their lives.
They lived for the Kingdom.
For God's Word they did fight.

So too, may the Light
in our hearts burn with passion,
proclaiming the Living Word
descended from heaven.

For we are His temple.
Yes, we are His lights.
His glory shines out from within 
hearts fully dedicated to Him.

<3 Kim

Let us dedicate our hearts to Him!

Last year, I shared with greater detail some of my Hanukkah experiences 

and the way this new-to-me celebration touched my heart.....in Dedicating my Heart.  

The Mystery of 11-11

One in Messiah

Today is November 11.  While I know this is just another date on the calendar, there's something about the number 11-11 that tugs at my heartstrings.....reminds me of something important.....something important for me to share.  This story of mine, about the number 11-11, may sound a little crazy when you read it, but nevertheless, I pray you will appreciate my experience and find my conclusions to be of interest.....

The date was 7-11-11.  It was a summer evening when I met a dear friend at a local coffeehouse.  We talked for hours, catching up and chatting about the way the LORD was working in our lives.  At the end of the night, while walking out to the parking lot, we discovered that our sons were sharing similar experiences.  

Previously, each of our sons had shared that they were randomly seeing the number 11-11.  The repetition and oddity of this had left each one of them feeling a little disconcerted, and we moms, had taken their feelings to heart.  Normally, I steer clear of any kind of superstitious thinking, but this time the enemy sucked me in, and I experienced fearful thoughts and feelings of dread.  I knew my fear was not of God.  I knew that our God tells us to cast off anxious thoughts and trust in Him.  I knew that.....and yet, to my shame, I worried.
  
Separately, each of us mothers had asked our sons to pray.  Each of us had encouraged our sons to ask God to reveal His message, if indeed there was a message to be understood.  I don't know if our sons did pray for revelation, or if they did believe that God might get their attention through such strange methods, but separately, each of us mothers had told our sons that our God is not random.  He is precise, omnipotent, purposeful and providential.

In the coffeehouse parking lot, my friend and I prayed for the LORD's protection and for His leading for our sons.  My friend said she would look up scripture references that might give insight to the strange numbers.  I told her that I would wait for what God would show me. 


Then we went our separate ways.  My friend started her car before I got to mine.  Excitedly, she waved me over and asked me to guess what time it was when she started her car.  She told me it had been 11:00 p.m.  After what seemed only a few minutes later, I got in my car to find 11:11 staring at me!  I honked the horn at my friend, who had started to drive away, and shared the crazy news.  Though, I don't like to over-spiritualize events in my life, we did marvel together at this strange happening and wondered if God was trying to show us something.  

The next day I received a couple of e-mails links from my friend.  The first was about end-times prophecies, and the second was about something I can't remember.....but it quoted a Bible verse that I had been running across repeatedly.  Until that moment, I hadn't noticed where it was found, but this time the reference numbers that caught my eye were 11:11!  This time, this verse stood out to me as being of particular importance.

The passage in the second e-mail was Romans 11:11 which states, "...salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."  I began to ponder the meaning of this.....for me.....and for my son.  The LORD had already lead me to study the feasts of the LORD.....days that most people think of as Jewish holidays.  I had already begun to see that these God-appointed feasts/holy days of celebration found in Leviticus 23 are of great value.  I had already started learning that these biblical and holy celebrations were prophetic and intimate celebrations of joy and worship, centered on Messiah, and were a time of great blessing for both Jews and Gentile believers alike.  

My son, who was seeing 11-11 everywhere, was the only one in my family who had been willing to discuss whether God may be inviting Gentile believers back to the biblical feasts.  I wondered.....was God directing my son and me to a ministry of reconciliation with the Jews?  

 

In these end times, in this eleventh hour, my heart's passion is to be a part of the reconciliation process between Jew and Gentile.  Not that I yet know how I can do this, but I do believe the 11-11 mystery elicited increased passion in this reconciliation and validated the value I was finding in studying God's appointed feasts/holy days of celebration.

I now feel called to let go of many of the traditions I have grown up with, and I am compelled to learn more about the biblical and holy feasts with the goal of celebrating them as Messiah did.  I want to uncover the meaning of these appointed days through the lens of the Messiah.  I want to experience what it really means for Jew and Gentile to be One New Man in Messiah, our living Torah.

Thus far, this journey has been fulfilling one, but I do admit that in these crazy days, I harbor fear for what the future may bring.  Holding on to the One who holds the future.....this is where I find my peace.

 
* The paintings above are just a few of the elements of a 3'x4' painted canvas that I designed to represent the interests and values of my family.  The "Heartstrings" design is a little 21/2" x 31/2" painting.

My "Rebellious" Heart

In the last few years, I've been questioning a lot of things that I've grown up believing .....things that I've always assumed were good and right and true....things like my traditions and doctrines and beliefs.   Doubts and curiosity have fueled me to research and dig into history for answers in a way that has been anything but drudgery.  My seeking has led me to treasures that flood me with excitement.  While part of me feels a bit uncomfortable with these new "rebellious" thoughts.....another part of me feels energized and refreshed.  I mean, here I am, 50 years old, and I'm nobody's little girl.  If I'm not gonna be honest with who I am by now, then what am I?  If I can't be strong enough to live what I believe, then what does that make me? 

In revealing my heartfelt questions of faith, my guess is that these queries are probably not mine alone.  Perhaps you've shared some of my questions a time or two.  I have a hunch that I'm voicing those fleeting thoughts that get suppressed or ignored, because they're too big and too uncomfortable.  Perhaps some of my questions are uncomfortable for you.  I understand.  I'm sorry.....I really am.....I've been there too.  I realize that such honesty is risky.....but I'm not going to be a wimp or a pleaser.  I've decided to say what I need to say.

I believe God's Word contains the answers to my questions.  I believe my Heavenly Father welcomes my honest heart.  I believe that there is a consistency and a connecting thread running throughout the Scriptures that doesn't change.....because God doesn't change.....He knows the end from the beginning.  I believe the Old Testament isn't really old and the New Testament isn't really new.....to God.  They are linked harmoniously together as God's enduring Word.....a continuous revelation.....the love story of a persistent, faithful Lover set upon the wooing of his Bride.

As Noah, Abraham, Moses and the disciples, each one of us must answer God's call on our lives.  His call requires us to leave behind our past and go to our destiny.  We can't rely on what others around us are doing, our journeys are not the same.  We can't even compare our life's journey to our parents' journey.  Our warm memories and the cherished traditions that shaped us are not reason enough for us to refuse to move forward when He calls.  This is a new day.....a new season.....a new time of history.....in His Story. 

 

 My 50 Questions.....????? 

.....our relationship with Israel.....holidays and holy days.....
.....following Jesus.....our relationship to the law..... 
.....the trustworthiness of God's Word..... 
.....the roots of the church.....deception of the enemy.....

1. Why have I grown up with so little focus on Israel's importance for today?
2. Does the church think she has replaced Israel?
3. Do we think God has rescinded on His promises to Israel?
4. What assurance does a Gentile believer have in God's promises, if God is not even faithful to his chosen people?
5. Is it honorable for the church to call Jews away from the biblical .....Sabbath and other God-appointed holy days.....days God commanded them to keep forever?
6. Is it right for the church to call Jews to pagan originated "Christian" holidays that Jesus/Yeshua never kept?
7. Why don't we recognize the fullness of Jesus/Yeshua's Jewishness?
8. Why don't we call Jesus by his prophetic, God-given name?  Yeshua means "the LORD saves".....how cool is that?!
9. Why do we celebrate Messiah's birth in December when we know the season is incorrect?
10. Why do we celebrate our Savior's birth and resurrection on the same day as pagan holidays?
11.  Are Christian holidays really holy days in God's sight?
12. What do Christmas trees have to do with the birth of the Savior of the world?
13. Advent.....after all these years I still can't remember how the pink and purple candles fit in or what each Sunday is supposed to signify.....why is it so nebulous?
14. Do our unbiblical holidays really honor God?
15. Why don't we celebrate biblical holy days, the days called calls "his appointed times"  or "his divine appointments?"
16. Lent.....what does Christ's 40-day wilderness experience have to do with Easter?
17. Why do we celebrate the Lord's Supper with leavened bread?
18. Why don't we celebrate the Passover with unleavened bread as our Lord taught us to do in remembrance of him? 
19. Why do we celebrate our resurrected Rabbi by eating ham at Easter?
20. WWJD - how about instead.....What Did Jesus Do?  If we consider ourselves to be disciples/followers of Jesus, why don't we do what he did?
21. Why do we worship on Sunday and call it the Sabbath day?
22. Who gave the Roman Catholic Church the right to outlaw Sabbath worship and order Sunday worship?
23. How can we discount the words God gave to Moses face-to-face.....words that God wrote in stone.....with His own finger?
24. Since Jesus kept the Sabbath along with his followers, shouldn't we do the same?
25. Since Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law, should we not esteem and follow it also?
26. Does God mean what He says?
27. Isn't God's Word eternal?
28. Why do we consider the law to be negative?
29. Would God do away with His law that David proclaims as perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, firm, righteous, invaluable, sweet, in Psalm 19?  
30. If the law is done away with, why does Paul call it "holy, righteous and good?"
31. If we believe that the New Covenant has replaced the Old Covenants, why do we still trust God's covenant sign of the rainbow?
32. Why do we consider the Reformers to be our church fathers?
33. Why don't we consider Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the disciples of Jesus to be our church fathers?
34. Shouldn't we be more Reformed.....as in formed to be more like the early church than the Roman Catholic Church? 
35. Why do we nearly idolize the Reformers, like Martin Luther and John Calvin who were anti-Semitic? - see Anti-Semitism of the "Church Fathers"
36. How can one love God and hate his chosen people Israel?
37. How could a truly holy church commit atrocities against people with whom they disagree?  
38. Who gave the Roman Catholic Church the right to change God's laws, times and customs?
39. Does it matter to God that the Roman Catholic Church merged the pagan with the holy to create new holidays?
40. When God is patient, does that also mean he is approving?
41. Who gave the Roman Catholic Church the right to outlaw biblical Jewish practices?
42. Why do we practice the same holidays that the Roman Catholic Church instituted?
43. Why does the Protestant church resemble the Roman Catholic Church, more closely than the early church?
44. Why is the Vatican filled with such pomp, power and riches?
45. Why does the Vatican collect and display pagan and naked art?
46. Where did God ever say that (infant) baptism replaced circumcision?
47. How does infant baptism embrace the reality of repentance and rebirth?
48. Is it possible that the enemy of God has infiltrated the church with his schemes?  
49. Is there not an enemy who seeks to oppose, to steal, kill and destroy what belongs to God?  Who seeks to deceive even the elect? 
50. Can we as a church be humble enough to admit that perhaps we have been deceived, and that the enemy has divided us from one another and from our Jewish roots? 

So, do all these challenging words make me a rebel-rouser?  I hope not.  

The way I see it, I'm just a seeker of Truth and a fellow pilgrim on life's journey.

The Day draws near.....the Bridegroom is returning soon, and we must prepare.....pure and spotless as a bride, we must be.  When the shofar blows we must be ready.  Let us go when God calls.....let us walk by faith.....not by sight.  The journey is life-long, sometimes difficult and lonely, but it is worthy and worthwhile and totally worth it. 

Paper Petal Praise & Worship

The groomsmen's boutonnieres.

From the beginning she had planned on making them herself, the bride-to-be with the dreams of a lovely and meaningful wedding.  But time was slipping by, and she was getting a little overwhelmed and busy, especially as she had just taken on a new job.  This was something I could do to help, so I offered to make them for her.....seven boutonnieres ....paper flowers made of sheet music. 

Tea-staining paper petals.

She shared with me her ideas, and I set out to please.  I desired to bless this dear young couple who had been so faithful in seeking the LORD in every aspect of their lives.  Truly, I felt it was an honor to be involved in their wedding.  

Making burlap leaves.

I had the sense that the LORD was preparing the way as I gathered my supplies.  Nearly everything that was needed was something I already had!  I had wire, hot glue, floral tape, burlap for the leaves, beads, twine, and even pheasant feathers from my husband's hunting expedition, for embellishing.  When I looked in my old piano bench I found, not just sheet music.....but worship music.  I wondered what my young friend would think about it.  It was not only the musical bars and notes.....but the words of praise and worship too!

One of the groom's boutonnieres.

I set to the task and created a mock-up, feeling very excited about the LORD's provision, and sent a photo to the bride-to-be.  She and her fiance loved it from the start.  They thought the worship music was perfect!  It was then I was told that all the groomsmen and the groom-to-be had been together in a praise band.....how meaningful would this make these boutonnieres to them!  I just love seeing God's hand in the details!

The process of creating these little boutonnieres was detailed and time-consuming.  Petals were cut, tea-stained, curled and glued on one-by-one with hot-glue.  Burlap leaves were glued to wires and backing.  Feathers were attached to wire, as were the loops of twine.  Then, the separate parts were assembled with floral tape and the stem was wound with satin ribbon.  Time-consuming, yes, but my time was consumed in joy and worship, creativity and love.

The mothers' wrist corsages.

I was asked if I would create corsages for the two mothers.  For the base of these I used pretty, pearly, recycled corsage bracelets which I had collected.  I love using recycled materials!  Along with a feather and a pearl, I added sheer white ribbon and a piece of crocheted doily too.  

Paper flowers for the bridal bouquet.

The bride-to-be asked me if I would make some paper flowers for her bridal bouquet.  I knew this would be an extra-special touch for her, since she too had been a lead-worship singer.  I made five more flowers, with feathers, and pearls in gold settings, to add to the bridal bouquet. The pearls reminded me of the parable of "The Parable of the Pearl." 
 

Alethia's completed bouquet!

The Parable of the Pearl:

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."  
- Matthew 13:44-46

Like the treasure of the kingdom, this young bride was a precious pearl.....worth everything to her beloved and to her Heavenly Beloved!!

When everything was complete, I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling really good about the way everything had turned out, and then I proceeded to put away all the various supplies.  Next came the phone call that kind of deflated me.....would I be able to make one more boutonniere?  I really struggled for a bit, and wondered aloud if there were any other options, but then I knew.....I must complete the mission I had set out to accomplish.

Paper petals of praise and worship.....hearts for Him! 

As I prepared to create the one last boutonniere, a thought came to mind that gave me fresh vision and a renewed passion for what I was about to do.  I realized that I had the opportunity to make the deserving groom a boutonniere designed especially for him!  A few extra details, would set his boutonniere apart as unique and extra-special.....just like him.




I cut petals with extra thought, making sure they would display words of love and worship, thanks and praise.....reflecting the godly heart of the faithful groom-to-be.  I placed the bronze bead in a decorative gold setting.  I added two feathers.....one to remember the Heavenly Protector and one because this young man would soon be his bride's protector!!  
 

Thinking of you, Kris.....singing your praise to the LORD!

The feathers I had included in all the flower designs were symbolic of a Bible verse that has been special to me.  It became my blessing as well as my prayer for the LORD's protection over the marriage of this young couple.

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." - Psalm 91:4

Photographing the parts of the process and the finished products was a sweet experience.  The old piano that had once belonged to my great grandma became my favorite staging area.  Ever so meaningful to me, it was the same piano where I found the worship music stored in the bench seat.  The photos, like a journal, remind me of the various ways I sensed the LORD's hand in the details.....


.....blessing me
.....as I sought to be a blessing
.....while creating paper roses.  






 

 Enjoy Alethia's blog, Streams of Mercy @ alethialov.tumblr.com