Showing posts with label Jewish feast. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2025

“LONGING FOR THE KING - PREPARING FOR HIS APPOINTED TIMES” by Cathy Hargett

“LONGING FOR THE KING - PREPARING FOR HIS APPOINTED TIMES”

Cathy Hargett

September 3, 2025

Many times I am asked by others, “How do you celebrate the Fall Feast days”? One of the biggest ways is by releasing the spontaneous longing of my heart. When Fall begins to approach, I just find myself leaning into the Spirit and yearning to go deeper into Him. For me, this season means greater intimacy with Elohim and greater awareness of His desire for oneness with His people. To understand this in a personal way – He desires to be One with me and with you!

As always, anticipation is building that some soon-coming Succot, our King will be here to forever dwell with us on earth. His Kingdom will be established, and His people will be living in the Light of His goodness and glory! Longing for the King intensifies from the beginning of the season in the month of Elul all the way to the end of Succot and Shemini Atzeret. Yes, truly, He desires us to live the Word, “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine”.

Succot, Feast of Tabernacles

Today is the tenth day of Elul, the month leading up to the Fall Feasts - Yom Teruah (many call it Rosh HaShana, but He doesn’t!), Yom Kippur, and Succot. He is calling us to meet Him on His appointed days and times. When we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.

Here are some ways to draw near to Him, beginning now, in preparation for this season:

1. Set apart a time to worship and be with Him each day of the 40 days of the season of Teshuvah, the season of turning back to Him. This traditional season begins on Elul 1 and continues through Yom Teruah, and through the “ten days of awe”, and up to the day of Yom Kippur on Tishrei 10. After that, we wait five days until the Feast of Succot begins.

2. Join Israel in some of their traditions that have clear biblical foundations – read Scriptures that draw you nearer to Him as we seek His face with humble, repentant hearts. Here are a few to help us get started –

Psalm 27 - this Psalm is traditional for this season and is read by many every single day during the Fall Feasts, not just during the 40 days of Teshuvah, but throughout the Fall Feast season.

Exodus 34:5-6 – even though we are in dire need of repentance, confession, and being forgiven, we also remember the goodness of God, who He is, and His great mercy. In Judaism, this passage is known as the 13 Attributes of God or the 13 Attributes of Mercy.

Isaiah 55:6 – seek the Lord while He may be found.

Psalm 51 – draw near with a humble heart and ask Him to create in us clean hearts and to renew a right spirit within us.

Psalms – read all 150 of them – you can divide them up according to the days leading up to Yom Teruah.

Song of Songs 6:3 – ponder the truth that He is your Beloved and you are His – “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine”.

3. Study the Scriptures about the Feast Days as each one approaches, and let it be a worship to Him as you seek to understand what He is speaking to your heart. (Here are some passages: Leviticus 23; Numbers 29; Deuteronomy 16; Exodus 23; Exodus 34.)

4. Pray for Israel during these days of hardship and pray for the rescue and release of each one of the hostages still in Gaza (Psalm 122; Isaiah 62; Psalm 137:5).

5. Gather together with other Yeshua followers during this season and encourage each other to take His yoke upon us and learn of Him, Torah, its fulfillment in Yeshua, and His family, Israel, His chosen.

6. Sound the shofar as an alert that the time of His appearing is at hand, that these are the days for repentance and return to Him, and that the King is coming. Sounding of the shofar during all the 40 days of Teshuvah is traditional for some in Judaism and for others it is traditional to sound the shofar only at Yom Teruah and on Yom Kippur.

7. As we worship, thank, and renew our love to the God who has forgiven us, let’s intentionally forgive others. Ask Him to bring to mind those we have not forgiven – and make a list if we need to!

Let’s ask Him together for dove’s eyes, fixed straight ahead on Him, fully expecting the total restoration of the Promised Land of Israel and the coming of the throne of the eternal Kingdom to that Land. We will view the King and the Land that stretches afar. Chag Sameach!

“Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and view a Land that stretches afar”.

(Isaiah 33:17)

Cathy Hargett, Highway to Zion Ministries

http://www.highwaytozion.org

Blow the shofar! Highway To Zion gathering in Charlotte, NC 2019

#LONGINGFORTHEKING #PREPARINGFORHISAPPOINTEDTIMES #Biblicalfeasts #Jewishfeast #Sukkot #YomKippur #Jesus #Yeshua #CathyHargett #shofar #FeastofTabernacles #fallfeasts #Israel

Monday, December 19, 2016

Light In a Dark World! - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Light In a Dark World!

Monday, December 19, 2016 | Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Christians

When the stars lined up to lighten the path of the Wise Men as they travelled from the East to worship the new-born King of the Jews, it was the dawning of an amazing new era.

Now, 2,000 years later, the Jewish feast of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas. They are usually close together, but such a precise convergence doesn’t often happen. Both are festivals of light cheerily illuminating our dreary winter days with sparkling symbols of God’s intervention in human affairs.

But at a time of unprecedented threats both to Israel and the Gentile Christian world, are we about to see God’s light shine as never before in the midst of the darkness, with growing recognition – especially in Israel – of the Messiah who appeared as a helpless babe in Bethlehem?

Special candles will be lit all over Jerusalem to remind her people of the time, in 167 BC, when God came to their rescue. The ruthless Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus Epiphanes had desecrated the Jewish Temple by sacrificing a pig there and blasphemously proclaiming himself God. Judah Maccabee led a brave and successful revolt against the tyrant and re-established temple worship (Hanukkah means dedication) with the aid of the menorah (seven-branched candlestick) which burned miraculously for eight days despite having only enough oil for a day – the Greeks had polluted the rest.

I believe this event foreshadowed another great rescue, less than two centuries later, when the Jewish Messiah – the light of all mankind (John 1.4, New Testament) – was born in a stable at nearby Bethlehem, as prophesied in the Scriptures (Micah 5.2). And now much of the world is lit up with brightly-coloured decorations to commemorate his birth.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…” Isaiah prophesied of Yeshua (Isaiah 9.2) who did not at first lead Israel in a military victory, although that would indeed happen one day (Zechariah 12.9), but came to cast his glorious light on a dark world, and bring peace, hope and comfort to all those who seek him.

The Wise Men travelled a thousand miles to worship Yeshua, bringing gifts of gold and frankincense (Isaiah 60.6). Should we not follow their example by giving him our best treasures, laying down our lives and letting him fill our hearts, minds and souls with his holy presence?

I love Christmas, partly because it draws my faith back to its roots in Israel. Tragically, much of the Western church seem for the rest of the year to have divorced themselves from the Jewish state, as if it were unrelated to the ongoing story of the church.

But there is no getting away from the Messiah’s birth being inextricably linked with Bethlehem and Jerusalem, as the carols clearly reflect: Once in royal David’s city, O little town of Bethlehem, O come, O come, Emmanuel… shall come to thee O Israel. And, in the First Nowell (an archaic word for Christmas), the chorus keeps repeating the line “born is the King of Israel!”

The Bible clearly teaches that the Messiah will come first as the “suffering servant” (Isaiah 53) and then, in the fullness of time, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem as the ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’ (Revelation 5.5) after finally defeating God’s enemies on the mountains of Israel.

So it is that, as with his first coming, the focus returns to Israel for his second advent. Should we Christians not more adequately prepare ourselves for this great event by re-aligning our hearts with the hopes and aspirations of God’s chosen people? We are in this together.

The anti-Semitic hatred currently manifested through Islamic State and related terrorist groups (and in past generations through Haman, Hitler and others) is directed at those who look to the God of Israel – first the Jews, then the Christians. Encouraged by growing co-operation on this level in the face of an implacable foe, we look to increasing revelation for all that the child born to a virgin (Isaiah 7.14) is the true Messiah – Emmanuel (God with us) – who fulfilled all the Jewish Scriptures. As the carol put it so beautifully, “He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all.” It’s an awesome truth. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9.6) promised, first to the Jews, and also to the Gentiles (Romans 1.16).

Friends from Ireland, Velma and Alan Beattie, at a Christian worship festival in Antrim, Northern Ireland, recently heard the amazing first-hand account of a man who had just returned from Ethiopia, where he had been to look for a remote Jewish village that is under severe persecution.

“When he arrived he was told that the people had seen a vision that a man would come bringing light to them. And so he was able to share with them about the light of the world, Yeshua!”[1]

Avi Snyder, European Director of Jews for Jesus, tells of a time when his colleague Julia asked a young woman called Miriam to read Isaiah 53, written around 700 BC. “Miriam’s eyes literally grew wide as she read from her own Bible the description of the Servant of the Lord killed as an atonement for our sins.”

“Does this sound like anyone you’ve ever heard about?” Julia asked.

“It sounds like Jesus,” she replied. And, after re-reading the passage, she asked, “Why don’t the rabbis believe this?”

“Actually, that’s the wrong question,” Julia said. “The right question is, ‘why don’t you believe this?’”

Miriam thought for another moment, then said, “I do.”[2]

Just a few chapters later, Isaiah wrote, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Isaiah 60.1–3)

Jesus himself celebrated Hanukkah – also referred to as the Festival of Dedication – and it was there that he came under fierce attack from the Jewish religious leaders. As they debated with him about his identity, they threatened to stone him for blasphemy because he claimed to be the Son of God. (John 10.22–42)

The encouraging thing about this account is that Jesus subsequently returned across the Jordan to where his cousin John had earlier been baptizing, and many followed him there and came to believe in him.

Today we rejoice that more and more Israelis, along with Jews across the diaspora, are putting their trust in Yeshua who, at Christmas, came to dwell (or tabernacle) among us (John 1.14).

Have a happy Hanukkah and a blessed Christmas!

CMJ Ireland News, October 2016. [CMJ=Church’s Ministry among the Jewish people.] ↩
Jews for Jesus newsletter, December 2016, adapted excerpt from Avi Snyder’s forthcoming book Jews Don’t Need Jesus – and Other Misconceptions, due out in the spring of 2017. ↩

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com

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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

"The Bread of Affliction" ✡ Israeli Matzah Factory Hard at Work

This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat.

PASSOVER HAGGADAH

הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל

הגדה של פסח

ha lakh-ma an-ya dee a-kha-lu av-ha-ta-na b'-ar-a d'-mitz-rai-yim kol dikh-feen yay-tay v'-yay-khol

Haggadah Highlights

We begin the Seder by remembering and inviting those less fortunate. One Passover, a poor woman asked her town Rabbi an unusual question. She wanted to know if she could use milk for the four cups of the Seder, for she could not afford wine. The Rabbi, in response, gave her a large amount of money, much more than was needed to purchase wine. The Rabbi reasoned that if she expected to drink milk at the Seder, it was clear she had no meat either (as we are prohibited from eating milk and meat at the same meal). So he gave her enough to buy both wine and meat for the festival. Today "Meir Panim" in Israel provides thousands of meals in dignified soup kitchens, as well as meals-on-wheels to Holocaust survivors, and hot lunches to poor school children.

Take part in a Passover custom to provide food for the hungry »

Secret Poverty in the Holy Land

Under the radar is a large segment of Israeli society living in poverty. What is being done about it? You'll never believe the fight of one organization to stop poverty here in the Holy Land.

Watch here »

5 Thoughts for Your Passover Seder

Inspiring, take-away lessons to enliven your Passover Seder and deepen your understanding of the festival.

Best-Selling Passover Haggadah

"The Night that Unites" is a best-selling Haggadah from Jerusalem, featuring the full text in Hebrew and English, with powerful stories related to the Land of Israel. Includes questions and answers to help facilitate meaningful discussions during your Passover seder.

Get this Beautiful Haggadah »

Today's Israel Photo

In the "Matzot Carmel" bakery in Petakh Tikva, workers prepare matzah, traditional unleavened bread which is eaten on the holiday of Passover.

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Thank you for Israel365! It always puts a smile of adoration on my face trying to read the Hebrew! Amanda Duvenhage. Colesberg (between Cape Town and Jo'burg) South Africa

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Yom Kippur Greeting

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Happy Passover (Pesach) To Our Friends!

...and because I couldn't decide

on which one to send,

I send you all these greetings!

With our love (ahava),

Steve & Laurie Martin

Love For His People

Charlotte, NC

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Happy Purim Israel and Around the World this weekend! (Israel365 photo)

The Jews had gladness and joy,

a feast and a holiday.

ESTHER (8:17)

שִׂמְחָה וְשָׂשׂוֹן לַיְּהוּדִים מִשְׁתֶּה וְיוֹם טוֹב

אסתר ח:יז

sim-KHA vi-sa-SON la-yi-hu-DEEM mish-TE vi-YOM tov

Friday, February 21, 2014

Purim in March - Antioch International Church (03.18.11)

Purim, one of the annual feasts celebrated each year in March, remembers the biblical true story of Esther (Hadassah), Mordecai and Haman in Perisa. The Lord saved the Jews from the slaughter of the Persians.

As we appreciate and enjoy our Jewish roots as bleivers in Yeshua (Jesus), we also celebrate these every year in the USA! These photos are from the Antioch International Church cvelebration on March 18, 2011 in Fort, Mill, SC.

Steve Martin

Love For His People