Rev. 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let the one hearing say, Come! And let the one who is thirsty come. And he willing, let him take of the Water of Life freely.
With the war breaking out in Ukraine there is a lot of speculation that we are in the end of days with the apocalypse on the horizon. Everyone who knows me knows I’m not a gloom and doomer, that I do acknowledge the days we are living in, but remain expectant and focused on the birth of the Kingdom.
The book of Revelation begins with the word “apocalypse” in Greek. “Apocalypse” (Apokalupsis) can be translated as “disclosure” or the “lifting of the veil”! And we find that the Revelation of Yeshua culminates in a marriage, as the Heavenly Bridegroom unites with His Bride.
“The spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”; [Rev.22:17] In the ancient (and some modern) weddings in the middle East, the bride was veiled before being presented to her husband. In a sense, we, Yeshua’s Bride, are still veiled in mortal bodies, that is, until the time when we shall see Him, “face to face” [1 Cor. 13:12], and we shall be as He is. [1 John 3:2]. Then, the veil will be fully removed!
Yet, paradoxically, even in this world we can taste this reality and walk with our faces “unveiled”; “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit”; [2 Cor. 3:18]. And since the veil was torn in two, [Hebrews 10:19-22] we have access to the most holy place of God through what Yeshua (Jesus) did for us!
A wedding is coming soon, and the veil of this temple, your mortal body, will be forever removed and replaced with immortality. If there are wars and rumors of wars be assured, that looking up, your redemption draws near, and a marriage supper is being prepared for you. Nevertheless, even now you go with your face unveiled revealing the glory of the Lord, and all the more as you walk in fearless anticipation of that soon-coming day when you will be removed from this veil of tears and be wed to the King of Kings. So walk unveiled until the day when your unveiling will be complete in the resurrection of the dead. As a young woman anticipates her wedding day, view these end-time events as harbingers of the happiest day of your life, when your Bridegroom sounds the shofar announcing His return for your wedding! Simply allow Him to prepare you as a bride without spot or wrinkle! [Ephesians 5:25-27]
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]In today’s world of Smart Phones, tablets and instant Internet access, there are many things that we can “know.” “How long is the Golden Gate Bridge?” Pop out your iPhone, ask “Siri”, the golden-voiced digital encyclopedic genius, and you’ll have the factual answer in seconds.
The Jewish leaders of His time rejected Yeshua (Jesus) when He first came. He didn’t meet their expectations. They were expecting a Messiah who would bring relief from the Romans, restore the Kingdom of David, and usher in an era of tranquility throughout the world. It is probable that their intense jealousy of Yeshua blinded them to the numerous passages in the Tenach (OT) which describe Messiah as a suffering servant, since they were certainly aware of those passages.
As thousands of believers around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday, I thought I’d offer some additional historical insight into the day Yeshua (Jesus) entered Jerusalem. Most people associate Palm Sunday with the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”. But there is another significant detail associated with this beautiful fulfillment…
I could tell you about countless difficult and drawn out circumstances over which we have tried to stand firmly in faith until they finally came to pass. Sometimes we made it and sometimes we were weak and began to doubt. But God mercifully came through for us on most of these things, despite our lack of strength to stay faith-ful.
New Testament genealogies of Yeshua Ha Mashiach (Jesus the Christ) all identify Him as the son of king David. It was universally understood from the Tenach (OT) that the messiah would be descended from David and that he would restore the Davidic monarchy to its ultimate and most universal expression, even that this king would reign and sit on the throne forever.
This weekend, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. This holiday commemorates Israel’s amazing reversal in Persia during the reign of King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) when Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai gained victory for the Jews and protected them from annihilation at the hands of the evil Haman.
Over two decades ago, when I moved to Israel, I had the opportunity to spend considerable time with a pastor and his wife. This pastor imparted significant wisdom to me during that period, counseling me to “be like the children of Issachar,” he directed me to this specific passage in 1 Chronicles 12.