Hosea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
On the Hebrew calendar, we're at the end of the month of Elul. This particular month the shofar is sounded once a day as a call for the people to repent as we approach the Hebrew month of Tishri.
Interestingly enough, Yom Teruah [Hebrew for "Day of the (shofar) blast"] known in modern times as Rosh HaShanah (Hebrew for "Head of the Year") falls on the 1st day of Tishri (beginning this Monday night) which is also the seventh month of the year -- yet it has been designated as the New Year. This season is also known as the season of "teshuva". In Hebrew, "teshuva" means "repentance", and yet it also means "return".
So, ironically, the beginning of the year is connected to the end of the harvest year. The beginning is connected to the end. And the end is connected to the beginning. Thus, a cyclical pattern emerges: the gospel message was delivered by the Jewish people whose Messiah Yeshua appeared at the beginning of this age. This message has gone to the nations for nearly 2000 years and is now returning to its source, Israel and the Jewish people, whose return to their homeland signals the completion of the cycle culminating in the spiritual resurrection of the nation. We are certainly witnessing the beginning of this fulfillment at the end of the age with Messianic believers multiplying and proclaiming faith in the true Messiah to their own Jewish people.
In this season of repentance ("teshuva"), as we ourselves turn to the Lord, please remember to be praying for the Jewish people -- not only for their return to their homeland, the physical restoration -- but for their repentance and faith in the only Name given under heaven by which we must be saved -- the spiritual restoration which signals the coming of King Messiah Yeshua.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When I first gave my life to the Lord, like many of us, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If God would have shown me, at that time, all the things that would have to change about me, I think I would have gone running for dear life!
During his first year of graduate study at the University of California at Berkeley, George B. Dantzig arrived late for a statistics class. He saw two problems on the blackboard. Assuming they were homework, he copied them and a few days later turned in his solutions. One Sunday morning six weeks afterward, the professor appeared at Dantzig's door, waving a manuscript. It turned out that the professor had merely written two examples of unsolvable problems on the blackboard. The manuscript was Dantzig's work readied for publication. George Dantzig later became known as the father of linear programming.
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2 Corinthians 2:14-15 14 Now thanks be to God, which always leads us to triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of His knowledge in every place. For we unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ, in ...
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