Following....and getting lost!

I've had the wonderful, yet challenging experience of going on 3 backpacking trips in my adult life...all over the age of 40! Talk about adventure! These backpacking trips were through Young Life, two in Colorado and one in British Columbia. On two of the trips, I was a volunteer leader, (not the backpacking guide!), along on the trip with a group of high school and college students. The trip in British Columbia was an opportunity for our family and friends to hike all together with Jessica serving as one of the guides.

I have great respect for those back packing guides on every level. Even though they may be nearly half my age, it requires stamina and knowledge about climbing, snow arrest, ropes and knot tying, minimalist no-trace living, and navigation, to name a few. The navigation maps are not the easiest to decipher.

On all three trips there were times we got lost. How lost and for how long varied. With no-trace backpacking, there isn't necessarily a well worn path, if one at all. On my very first trip in Colorado, we got really lost. We were still out in the dark, after taking the wrong turn, trying to snake our way back, hanging on to branches along a creek so we wouldn't fall into the water, in pitch blackness...with a 40 lb pack on your back. Yikes! But we finally made it to our campsite and Ramon noodles never tasted so good. What an adventure!

We can get off the track and loose our way scripturally (Biblically) as well, I am discovering. When the scriptures were written (or translated) into Greek , and then into English, sometimes words are translated or understood a bit differently than the original intent. This mainly has to do with the difference between a Greek vs a Hebrew mindset. (Hebrews wrote the scriptures) One of the many differences between the two is a linear vs cyclical thinking process. Greek (and we in the West) think more linear. We tend to view things in the past, present and future as a time line  and where we are located on that line. Hebrew thinking is cyclical, repeating as seen in nature in terms of the seasons, growing and harvesting, day and night, new moons to full moons, etc.

For example, when I think of the word "paths" such as in Psalm 23...."you lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake...", as a Westerner, with Greek-like thinking, I view it as a path leading out to the horizon somewhere, or a destination, like our lost campsite we were desperate to find in  the dark! So here I am wanting to follow Yeshua (Jesus). With a Greek understanding of him leading me and of "paths" I interpret that to mean he's out there in front of me, like my backpacking guide, and we are on a path that I can't see very well and I'm not sure where it's going...except at the end is eternal life. It seems vague sometimes.

In Psalm 23 the word "paths" in Hebrew means, "to make a cycle", and you do it so often and consistently that you make a groove in the dirt. Another idea entirely.  So how does Yeshua lead me in paths of righteousness? What are the cycles he is showing me to repeat? What cycles did He repeat?

When I look at the scriptures through a Hebrew lens, I find out that follow means to "be in the same way with, accompany, unified" and comes from a root word meaning"to hear"(and then) "do". If He is leading me in paths of righteousness, put all together,  I am walking in unity, side by side with Yeshua (we are yoked together). I hear what He says to do and see what he does and I do that too as we repeat these cycles, over and over, and wear a well trodden groove. With each time around I learn more and more about Him and about me and  I come to understand more of Yeshua's and His Father's love for me and how to love the Father and Yeshua. I come to understand more and more His purposes and plan not only for my life but for the ages.

What are these cycles of righteousness in which God leads me to walk? One of the things we see Yeshua doing in scriptures is following His Father's instructions to celebrate the Feasts. The word "Feast' in Hebrew  means "appointed time". These are set times that God has appointed for all his people to meet with him. When we meet with Him at theses appointed times, He promises to show up! "Feast" comes from a similar root word as 'paths" which means "revolve, cyclical." We also see Yeshua's followers celebrating the feasts in this cyclical pattern and continued to do so for over 100-200 years after his death and resurrection until the feasts were outlawed by Rome. Interestingly, there has always been a remnant of believers somewhere in the world who have continued to follow the Lord's Feasts.

The Feasts are indeed cyclical and even follow a pattern of "7"s. The first Feast listed in Leviticus 23 is the Sabbath, celebrated every 7 days on the 7th day. The 7 remaining feasts of the Lord are kept yearly, 4 in the spring (Passover, Unleavened bread, First Fruits, Shavuot or Pentecost) and 3 in the fall (Trumpets or Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur

Here is a sampling of discovery, how we can see Messiah Yeshua in the 7 feasts:

He is the Lamb of Passover
He is the unleavened, sin-free bread in the Feast of Unleavened Bread
He is the firstfruits from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits
He is the one we wait for during the Counting of the Omer (the counting of 50 days until Pentecost)
He is God's Spirit on Shavuot or Pentecost
He is the trumpet of the Feast of Trumpets, a wake-up call to holy living (set apart)
He is the High Priest of Yom Kippur, who sprinkles His own blood
He is our Shelter, our sukkah, at Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles (an 8 day celebration)
He is the Living Water of Hoshanna Rabba, the day of Great Hosanna (7th day of Tabernacles)
He is the one we meet on Shemini Atzeret, the Eight Day of Assembly (8th day of Tabernacles)

There is so much to experience and learn in regards to the feasts. We can learn what God is doing prophetically through the feasts, in other words, have deeper understanding of what Yeshua prophetically fulfilled in the first four feasts at His first coming and what will happen in the future when he returns. God accomplishes all His major plans on Feast days. When we rehearse them, celebrating them year after year in these cycles, we commemorate the feasts that have been given their fullest meaning in Yeshua and we will know what is happening on future feast days so we "are not in darkness that this Day should overtake us..."

Here is how Yeshua fulfilled the first four feasts in the spring:

Passover- Pesach, the day of Yeshua's crucifixion. He died the same hour that Passover lambs were slaughtered. (John 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:7)
Feast of Unleavened Bread-begins the day after Passover. It began as Joseph of Arimthea laid Yeshua in the tomb.
Feast of Firstfruits- the day of Yeshua's resurrection. he rose as the firstfruits from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20)
Feast of Weeks- Shavuot or Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit touched the disciples in the Upper Room with tongues of fire. This is also the same day that God gave the commandments to Moses on
Mt. Sinai with burning fire.
When you study these more in depth, the degree of detail fulfilled is astounding.
The fall feasts are a rehearsal for future events that accompany Yeshua's return: the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:52), God's final judgements (the Prophets and Revelation), and the thousand-year Messianic Age. (Revelation 20:6) These all occur in the 7th month on the Hebrew calender.

Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShanah
Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement
Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot

God also says these feasts are to be everlasting, statutes to follow forever. What? Forever? Yikes. The scriptures say that God does not change His mind. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Turns out it wasn't God that changed His mind. History tells us it was Rome.  .

So why now? Why has it taken nearly 2000 years for these things to come "full circle"? That is what I was asking myself when I began to discover all of this.  Someone made the observation that it took Martin Luther 1100 years to get us back to the biblical truth that salvation is by grace, not by works. Perhaps now it has taken another 500 to reclaim the rest of the story. How to walk with and love God in the way that he desires.

It is also interesting that a reoccurring theme in the Bible is Restoration. The disciples asked Yeshua about this in the gospels and Acts; When would the Kingdom be restored to Israel and when would be the time of the Restoration of all things? Restoring things back to the beginning as they once were  originally.  In Acts 3:17-22 Peter speaks of Yeshua remaining in Heaven until the times of the restoration of all things..." Frequently the idea of the "the end being in the beginning of all things" occurs in scripture. Perhaps all these things are being made known in our day so that we can return to the beginning because the time of the restoration of all things is drawing near. There are so many things that are beginning to be restored. Scripture talks about how we will celebrate the feasts and the Sabbath when the Kingdom is restored when Yeshua returns to reign as King! (Isaiah 66:23, Zacariah14:16)

There is  much depth and richness in the significance of the feasts, but the real learning and knowing comes from "doing", the walking of the cycles. Though I have just only begun to walk these cycles in the last year, I'm no longer walking on a path that sees ahead dimly or only catches glimpses of my guide, let alone getting lost (off the path). I've done plenty of that over the years. This gives me a clearer picture of how God desires to be loved. The paths, the cycles, are clearly marked. It takes study. And frankly it takes courage that He provides. But as we follow (hear and do) more and more is revealed and understood.  And as the Psalmist says, "He leads me beside still waters and restores my soul". There is a deep and abiding peace and  joy that flows.

Want some resources to learn more about the Biblical Feasts?

Here is presentation giving an introduction to the Feasts
http://www.glc.us.com/site/watch.php?program=36&video=1075

Here is a DVD series on the Biblical Feasts that you can download for free
http://elshaddaiministries.us/storefront/dvd_n.html

This is a wonderful book giving a deeper, rich understanding of the Biblical feasts
http://www.moedministries.com/Reasons.html

This is a great book if you want more information on the biblical feasts and ideas for how to celebrate.

http://hebrewdiscovery.com/index.php?page=store

Enjoy!

Janer the Entertainer

I was reminiscing about "momisms" the other day with my adult children and they all came up with their classic favorites of funny memories of things I've said or the way I've said them (as in pronounced in some hilarious, incorrect way) that I have gotten good naturedly teased about over the years...and brings me to laughter-tears as well.

One of the memories had to do with more of a nick name Dave came up with for me that got morphed into various "titles". It stated out by affectionately calling me "Jane", my middle name. Then it became "Counselor Jane", then Janer, and even Janer the Complainer. I think Janer the Entertainer is my favorite. It must be the "momisms" that must be so entertaining! But you'll have to check that out with them. I find this all particularly endearing as some of my nicknames growing up were not so much!

Just as "Jane" got morphed over the years, Jesus' name did as well. This came about through transliteration, which I discovered means translating a word using the closest corresponding letters in another alphabet, rather than by the definition of the word.

You may know what your name means depending on the language from which it derived. In the Bible, the Hebrews would give their children names that specifically meant something important about the circumstances the child's life or character traits. For instance Jacob means "surplanter" and he was named this because when he and his twin brother Esau were born, Jacob was grasping Esau's foot. But it would be like, when his Mother called to him, hearing, "Surplanter, time to come home!"

Yeshua, means salvation. The angel told Mary (Miriam) and Joseph that she would "bring forth a son and they shall call him Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt 1:21) So how did the name Jesus end up in our New Testament translation? It happened through transliteration. Rather than translate his name "Salvation" they just used the corresponding letters in the alphabet they were translating.  When Yeshua was translated to Greek, it became Iesous. When it was translated into Latin from Greek it became Iesus. His name begins with an "I" because prior to the 14th century, their was no letter "J" existing in any language. It first showed up in the King James version as Jesus in the 1600's. And the name Jesus does not mean anything in English, Latin, or Greek.

So in the spirit of returning to Hebrew Roots of the faith, I decided to use Jesus' given Hebrew name, Yeshua, which means Salvation.

What Does Hebrew Roots Mean Anyway?And How Did I Get Here?

Following. I remember following my son Dave (or attempting to) on a backpacking trip with Young Life in British Columbia. We were on Day 1. We were heading up the mountain on an old logging road that was covered with thick alders...like giant, thick sticker bushes you had to push through and Dave was in front of me. It was raining. It started to get cold. We were hungry. It was miserable and only morning of Day 1! I was trying to keep up. There was barely a trail. All I could see was Dave's blue rain coat ahead of me. For a few seconds I would see him, then he would disappear into the thicket and the mist.  I would feel lost, unsure of where I was going...then that blue rain coat would reappear. Thankfully. Like grasping in the mist to make sure I was still on the right path. Thank goodness for that blue raincoat! (This trip was infamous...and there's a song all about it called Alder Roads by Dave Beck)

I have to admit that my experience of following Jesus (Yeshua is His name in Hebrew) over the course of my life has been like our hike up Alder Road. Sometimes the way seemed clear and I could see Him. A lot of the time it has been more like trying to grasp at someone walking through the mist. But I would have to say that since I have been on this journey of returning to the Hebrew Roots of the faith, following has never been more clear. And the view is amazing. And everything is beginning  (I mean everything) to make sense. From a Hebrew perspective.

What does "Hebrew Roots" mean anyway? Good question. I didn't know. Then I found out. Now some of this was familiar to me, given my years of Bible study and 3 trips to Israel over the last 12 years. But most of it was not.

Returning to the Hebrew Roots of the faith means to study and view the Bible through the Hebraic lens. That makes sense to me given nearly all the writers of the entire Bible were Hebrews! A Hebrew is a descendant through the line of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Jacob who's name was changed by God to Israel had 12 sons...creating the 12 tribes of Israel. The Jewish people descended from one of those tribes, Judah.  Jesus, or Yeshua, His name in the original Hebrew language, descended from the tribe of Judah, so He is Jewish as well!

Why does this matter? Well, when I started exploring history, in the first 3-4 centuries after Yeshua was crucified and rose again,  I learned that many changes were made to "The Way" (the original name of our faith in Yeshua) that "Romanized" the faith, making it hardly recognizable from what Yeshua and the early disciples  practiced. Including renaming it to Christianity. And a good part of these "romanized" doctrines and practices that we engage in today are not found in the Bible. In addition, our western point of view and culture emanates from the Greek/Roman mindset. We naturally will read/study the Bible through that lens rather than a Hebrew lens from which it was written and in many cases, that looses and changes the meaning.
I can imagine your reaction right now. I know what mine was. Disbelief. I didn't want to believe this or accept it. I was kind of squirming in my chair. It doesn't sit well. At all. It creates a cognitive dissonance. Part of me did not want to accept it.

But I plunged on. Getting back to the Hebrew Roots of the faith then, is getting back to the original meaning, intent and practices that Yeshua taught and practiced as did his disciples and followers for 1-200 years until many of these things were outlawed because the practices were Jewish. If I want to truly follow Yeshua, which is what He is inviting me to do, I want to know what that really means. So, I go back to the Hebrew Roots of the faith. And interestingly enough, I am also reminded that I have been "grafted in" to the vine of Israel (Romans 11) and am an heir of Abraham's (Galatians 3 :29) as is every one who believes on Yeshua for salvation. That makes me a Hebrew too. Adopted into the family.

So how did I come across all of this? What got me started on this path? As I look back there are several markers that I believe were very significant.

In November of 2010, a little over a year ago, while doing a study on the book of Daniel, I was led to begin submitting my life under the Father's authority every day, on my face even. Now this wasn't my idea. It was a Beth Moore study, and she was sharing the impact it had on her life. It was something she had begun to do and Daniel was certainly our role model as He prayed 3 times a day on his face. I had felt restless in my faith, off and on for years. I really desired to let God have authority over my life, so I began to submit to Him daily. Things began to shift. Everything was about to change.

First I began to see that there have been times in my life I have too quickly held to theories or ideas as  "truth", only later to find some refuting evidence. Now this could be in any realm such as nutrition, psychology, scientific theories, or spiritual/biblical thought. In December 2010 I was attending a training for consulting therapists, and something I had been taught previously about the brain and taught in my couple workshops was pretty much refuted by a neuro biologist. The trainer asked us what our take away from that discussion had been and  I shared that I'd made an intentional decision from that point on to hold theories "lightly" until more fully substantiated. I believe this was a small shift that not only helped me be more open to question other long held stands of my own, but also become a better Barean. A Barean were people from Barea who Paul describes in Acts 17:11-12 as examining the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul taught was true. They didn't just take his word for it. The scriptures they were examining was the Tanach (what we call the Old Testament) as the New Testament had not yet been written down. When I started to come across information that was different than some of my long held Biblical convictions or beliefs, instead of just dismissing them or too quickly adapting them, I began to examine the scriptures on my own. I consulted Strong's Concordance from which both a Hebrew and Greek understanding/definition of the words are found in the original Greek and Hebrew. I learned about Hebraisms and how the Hebrew mindset is different from the Greek/Roman mindset under which I have been cultured, educated and raised being a westerner. I kept studying.

In the midst of this, in February 2011, our small group was watching a DVD series by Ray Vanderlaan, an in-depth Bible teacher who covers the cultural, archaeological, and especially the Hebrew or Jewish context of the scriptures. He was teaching on the Essenes, a Jewish sect who withdrew into the wilderness out of the Greek/Hellenized culture of Jerusalem/Israel about 150 years before Christ was born. They wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. A thought that Ray shared was how they approached and lived life from a Hebrew mindset rather than a Greek mindset. One important aspect of a Greek mindset is "all about me" and living life in pursuit of my own happiness. This definitely resonated with my experience living in the USA and my tendencies The Hebrew mindset is all about God and living life with Him at the center, in  pursuit of His desires. This really spoke to me. I took note, and wrote it down.

Later in Fevruary I reveived an email from a frenid asking me to checkout a teaching on the blood moons diocvered by Mark Biltz at El Shaddai. Ministries. This really got my attendtion as he discovered a unique and rare pattern of blood moons on NASA's website lining up on Passover and Sukkot (spring and fall) in 2014 and 2015.
Upon visiting the El Shaddai website and others I noticed messages and themes about returning to the Hebrew Roots of the faith. I thought at first they were Messianic Jewish congregations (and some of them were) but soon discovered these were believers who had formed congregations and were returning to following the Torah.. In other words, they were returning to the beginning and following the commandments and instructions that Yshua followed and commanded. And this was happening all over the USA and all over the world, in ever increasing numbers, especially over the last 10 years.


Not too long after, I came across a book on a website I was visiting called "The Hebrew Yeshua vs The Greek Jesus" by Nehemiah Gordon, a Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar and Semitic language expert. That familiar phrase "hebrew vs greek" was surfacing again. I took interest and downloaded it on Kindle. Gordon explores how the modern Greek text of Matthew depicts "another Jesus" from the Yeshua portrayed in the ancient version of Matthew written in it's original Hebrew. (They have discovered Matthew was originally written and translated from Hebrew and have a copy in Jersusalem.) When Matthew was translated into Greek from the original Hebrew, it was through a Greek/Roman mindset as well as having a antisemitic bias. (Everything Jewish was outlawed and expunged.) It was an excellent example of how in the translation or even transliteration process, from Hebrew to Greek and then to English the original meaning can be lost and in some cases, changed, resulting in a different meaning. This has occured as well when the New Testament was written in Greek, unable to translate the Hebraisms as well as the differnces between Hebrew and Greek thinking and culture. (And then consider Greek to Latin and Latin to English!)

The Greek Jesus is portrayed (and I've been taught) as opposed to Torah and that's why He challenged and disputed with the Pharisees and Saducees (religious leaders/scholars of His day). But Gordon shows how Jeshua (Jesus) was in fact living out the Torah as prescribed in the whole Tenach perfectly and the religious leaders were not. The pharisees/saducees were practing additional man-made laws that they had added (like protective fences around the Torah to protect it) and placing these burdens on the people, laws that God never intended. Plus they were counting on following the law for salvation instead of faith in God and repentence.


 In our modern translation we can get the idea (and indeed it is taught) that Yeshua was against Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) but what we find, over and over, is that he was admonishing the religious leaders of the day because they were not following Torah, God's instructions, (Which is what Torah means), but their own man-made traditions and doctrines which they added. He had come to turn the hearts back towards the Kingdom and the ways of God the Father....repent....return...return back to the beginning of your faith. Return to following Torah. Yeshua is the Word of God, and the Torah is His word.  He is Torah.

I began to see there are huge reasons to study scripture from a Hebrew mindset and understand what the words mean in Hebrew and from a Hebrew perspective if I want to follow Yeshua. Turns out Judaism and Christianity both got off tract and here we are today.  Christainity has gotten it wrong by sutracting from the faith the very instructions of God in Torah so then not following the wayYeshua lived, though believing in Him. In addition, Christianity had added all kinds of man-made religious practices and rules that are not Biblical or part of God's instruction. Judaism has gotten it wrong in that they are still practicing man-made laws added and Rabbinical Judaism places the word of the Rabbi above God. They also do not beleive that Yeshua is the Messiah. They should be on the exact same page. Turns out they will be in the future as it is prophesied all over the Bible.  Could that be what's beginning to happen with the Hebrew Roots movement? And the fact Jewish people are believing on Yeshua as the Messiah in amazing numbers? I wonder.



A really striking thought which became obvious to me once I heard it, is that what we call the New Testament was not written at the time that Yeshua was teaching and preaching. Nor was it written when Paul, Peter, James and others penned their letters and the Gospels to the various believers. They were all referring to the Torah and the Tanach (the entire Hebrew scriptures or what we call the Old Testament). So when Jesus was saying "If You love me you'll obey my commands" it makes sense that He was talking about the whole of scriptures, specifically the Torah. I was reminded that He taught in Luke 24 that all the scriptures from Moses to the prophets spoke of Him.

Wow. I had a lot to think about and a lot to learn. I began to study, and study some more. The more I studied, the more there was to study. What began as a trickle, became a flood. The earth was moving beneath my feet. You know, when your world view is pulled out from under you. I experienced a full range of feelings. Astonishment, deep sorrow, grief, anger, excitement, disbelief, overwhelmed, thrilled, repentant, recommitted, flooded, consumed, compelled, humbled, unworthy, and the list goes on.

 This is but a thumbnail sketch of what transpired in the early days/months of this journey. But this was only the beginning. Big changes were on the horizon.

Here is a short 3-part article that gives an excellent overview:
http://thewatchman.org/en/2007/10/the-hebrew-movement-part-1/
http://thewatchman.org/en/2007/10/the-hebrew-movement-part-2/
http://thewatchman.org/en/2007/10/the-hebrew-movement-part-3/


Want a couple of websites to begin to learn more?

http://moedtorah.blogspot.com/
http://elshaddaiministries.us/index.html