You will encounter God in the Holy Land, an experience of God’s presence in the Holy Land, the place of which God said, “I have…put My Name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there every day” (1 Kings 9:3).
Nothing is as precious as the Lord, and no experience is more valuable than being in His presence. As the psalmist declared, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else” (Psalm 84:11). Time spent in God’s presence—and the intimate relationship with our heavenly Father that cultivates— is something that we should constantly seek.
What lens are you using to read your Bible and view the land of Israel? The questions and concerns of the average person walking down the street in Jerusalem differ from those of a person walking down the street in Los Angeles. To walk the streets of Israel and engage local shop owners (and experience an Israeli breakfast) begins the process of learning to think outside of our own culture and to attempt to understand the perspective of another.
The Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 as the “birth of the Church.” This language ostensibly implies the start of something new. However, we should be cautious of such terminology lest we fall into the trap of “replacement theology.” The Pentecost event in Acts was not a replacement of Israel but rather the renewal of covenantal relationship and purpose with a radical expansion.
A Fire that Will Not Die “You will receive power… and you will be my witnesses…Acts 1:4,5,8 – The Resurrected Lord spent forty days with His disciples, preparing them to set the world on fire and carry out the Great Commission. However, He did not immediately send them out. Instead, He told them that they needed to wait and pray. While they knew the Father and spent years getting to know Yeshua, they would now need to receive and get to know the Ruach (the Hebrew word for “Spirit”).
“You could see the wonder in their eyes, much like a young child opening a pop-up book for the first time. The Bible stories coming to life essentially leaped off the page into their personal experience in those powerful moments, an encounter with the Bible and Jesus.”
Shavuot / The Sinai event was several things wrapped in one; perhaps most significantly, the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. In recounting the giving of the Law at Pentecost, Moses said, “Adonai came from Sinai and dawned on Bnei-Yisrael from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the holy myriads— blazing fire for them from His right hand.” (Deuteronomy 33:2). Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks), also known as Pentecost, is the traditional Jewish celebration of the reception of the Torah. It occurs seven weeks or fifty days after the feast of Passover, hence its name (the Greek word Πεντηκοστή – Pentēkostē, meaning “fiftieth”)
We’re excited to introduce another “deeper” resource to our TPG Tribe: the Hebrew Word Study. We’ve featured a “Hebrew Word of the Week” graphic in our Table of Contents each week, but these articles offer a deeper dive into their meaning as well as their biblical and cultural contexts. Our prayer is that these articles will intensify your hunger for God’s Word.
In Psalm 91, what do demons, pandemics, animals, and fighting have in common? Psalm 91 gives the keys to winning battles. Since ancient times, God’s people have considered Psalm 91 an effective weapon comparable to a sophisticated nuclear missile that strikes at the heart of the enemy’s barrage of attacks. It can deal such a deadly blow that our eternal Adversary even tried to desperately wield it against the Messiah Himself—unsuccessfully (Luke 4:9-13). So let’s use this psalm in our arsenal to stand against the enemy’s schemes, those “false arguments and high-minded things that exalt against the knowledge of God” (Ephesians 6:11).
Starting from the second night of Passover, the Bible encourages us to all become “Pentecostals” by initiating a forty-nine-day minor festival culminating on the Day of Pentecost—“Pentecost,” meaning “fifty.” The first fruits festival, known as “The Counting of the Omer” or simply “The Omer,” marks a culmination of three unique historical events and has enormous significance in the life of a disciple of Yeshua – Jesus.
Jesus in the Passover: The Apostles recognized that the Messiah was so intimately connected to Passover that they even referred to Him as “our Passover Lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:19), but this raises many questions. Why are the Messiah and Passover so interconnected? What does it mean for Yeshua Jesus to be our Passover Lamb? Join me and let’s journey deeper to explore the answers.
