This is the first year that our family has begun, in earnest, to celebrate all the appointed feasts of Adonai. This is different for all of us and we admittedly have emotional ties to all the pagan festivals we have celebrated in the past, even though we have never put up a Christmas tree. We knew that in order for what our heavenly Father said our children were supposed to ask, speaking of Passover, "When your children shall say to you, What do you mean by this service? You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He slew the Egyptians but spared our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshiped." Exodus 12:26-27 AMP
My girls and I love figure skating. Our favorite competition is the freestyle. In the freestyle competition, you do have some required elements, but the creativity is limitless. That's how I see making these feast days our own. There are some required elements to some of them, but for the most part, we are to be creative and make them our own, in order for them to become a part of who we are as a family.
Take a look at these two scriptures from the book of Acts. One is written in the Amplified Version and the other in the Complete Jewish Bible.
"AND WHEN the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled together in one place." Acts 2:1 AMP
"The festival of Shavu'ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place." Acts 2:1 CJB
The Book of Daniel tells us, in versus 12:3-4 that in the last days, knowledge will increase.
And the teachers and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness (to uprightness and right standing with God) [shall give forth light] like the stars forever and ever. But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the Book until the time of the end. [Then] many shall run to and fro and search anxiously [through the Book], and knowledge [of God's purposes as revealed by His prophets] shall be increased and become great.
I believe we are in the last days and more knowledge is available than ever before because of the internet. It has been through this that we discover that the early disciples were still celebrating the feasts. I also believe that the more we learn about them, the more we discover how prophetic they are.
So these are some of the things we will be doing to celebrate Shavuot/Pentecost:
Reading through the Chag Shavuot Power Point slides from Hoshana Rabbah's website.
Helping the children make homemade ice cream in a bag.
Eating other dairy foods, after all, He was bringing them to a land flowing with MILK and honey. I thought maybe we'd throw in some spicy things to represent the fire of Pentecost.
Read through the book of Ruth and learn the function of a kinsman redeemer (Yeshua-Jesus is our kinsman redeemer!)
My daughters are working on homemade Shavuot/Pentecost greeting cards for each family in our fellowship.
My son has learned all the steps of the ">"New War Dance."
Finally, I watched a great video on Shavuot today. It does a good foundational teaching of what this festival represents.
We hope to establish new family traditions of rejoicing in the biblical holidays that for generations, unless you are Jewish, were like gifts stuffed in the back of the closet.
Blessings and Chag sameach! (Joyful holiday!)
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