Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Kingdom Sparrows! How much Yeshua cares for you!



 But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:14

It had to happen!

The Sparrows are proclaiming the word of Yeshua!!

How much He cares for the sparrows, How much more He cares for you!!

 BTW I remember the joy I had when seeing the sparrows in the walls of the stone buildings in Jerusalem on my first day there (on a tour in 2019)! Their song woke me up in my first morning in Israel and welcomed me with their song, and now I understand, they are singing the love song to Yeshua, who loves them so!!  Yesterday I even wrote a song inspired by the second verse, from Colossions 3:14.  Stay tuned! I hope to share my first scripture song before long! These sparrows pictured are local sparrows.  Notice the `cheek` mark , a special characteristic of the sparrows in Japan.  

May we take our cues from the precious sparrows and be sure to share the word of God as we go about our ABBA`s business today!!  All of creation, everything that has breath, Praise the LORD!!

I also want to add a wonderful news,  I had the opportunity to share the Salvation prayer with a Japanese woman and her husband yesterday, and both gave their lives to Yeshua! Rejoicing in two new souls saved for the Kingdom of God!! Praise Yahweh!!  I realize just as I am writing this, that on that day there were more souls saved in my Prefecture than there were new cases of the .....(you know what).  Every day let us count and rejoice in the number of Souls Saved for the Kingdom of God, and turn away from the focus on illness and death and turn to Life and Resurrection and Life Everlasting in Yeshua!!

 Much love!! Have a blessed day in Yeshua`s Love!

Love, Shayndel ❤️

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them shall fall to the ground apart from your Father`s consent.  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.  So do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows.  
Matthew 10:29~31

 



Thursday, June 17, 2021

The Blossoming Challah ~ Shabbat Shalom

 



above:  The Hebrew word `tsuwts` , in challah! , which means bloom and if you replace the `vav` with the `yad`, it means Blossom!!  Below:  in the book of Numbers.




above, `tsuwts` below `tzitz, bloom and blossoming in challah!!



And behold, Aaron`s rod from the house of Levi sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced almonds!!

Numbers 17:23

  וַיְהִי מִמָּחֳרָת, וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה אֶל-אֹהֶל הָעֵדוּת, וְהִנֵּה פָּרַח מַטֵּה-אַהֲרֹן

לְבֵית לֵוִי; וַיֹּצֵא פֶרַח וַיָּצֵץ צִיץ, וַיִּגְמֹל שְׁקֵדִים

Dear friends , 

It had to happen one day

The Challah blossomed

And sprouted 

And produced blossoms

And almonds!! 

Stay tuned for more on the Hebrew word Tsuwts, צוץ which means bloom, blossom and ציץ Tsiyts!! 

Shabbat Shalom! 

Love and blessings and blossoms!!

Love 

Shayndel 

PS for more on Aaron’s Blossoming Rod Challah  see HERE, HERE (including a Shabbat Service!), HERE and HERE!!  note:  post in progress to get in time before this week`s  Shabbat as already we are in a new week past Parsha Korach and into Chukat! Here is a postcard for you as the challah continues to blossom, and the word of God is everlasting!! :

 










Thursday, June 10, 2021

He brought me to the House of Wine! Exciting insight in Song of Songs 2:4 (and `answers` to last week quiz!)


For friends who know Hebrew, you will soon see the error in my hand-writing in the first line of this verse (Song of Songs 2:4)  where the word should be  היין and you will see there is a missing stroke in the `Hey` (see image above) .  This is a mistake I made one year ago and the Holy Spirit so graciously waited to correct me ! (read post below for the story!) And if you don`t know Hebrew, please follow along and enjoy as the insights may get you drunk on the Holy Spirit!!!

In progress (image above and below), corrected the letter `Hey`



 Part 1

 the ` House of the Wine! `

הֱבִיאַנִי אֶל-בֵּית הַיָּיִן, וְדִגְלוֹ עָלַי אַהֲבָה

 He brought me to the house of the wine and 

His banner over me is Love ~~ 

Literal translation of Song of Songs 2:4

 Do you recognize the verse above in  Song of Songs? Hint, it is the verse in the postcard in post below, and looking at a literal translations, you see the words  `The house of Wine!!`

I found the word for `banquet` is literally  `wine` or, as used in the verse, the wine!!

בֵּית הַיָּיִן

I discovered this through the drawing in the postcard below!! I made the drawing at least a year ago , during the week of Parsha Shelach Lecha, and...

God waited patiently to reveal to me that I had made a mistake in the Hebrew! 

I was surprised to discover it when working on the postcard with my AHAVA collaborator and prayer partner,Aimei.  It was last week, in the very same week of Shelach Lecha.  

During our meeting, I discovered I had left out one stroke in the letter `hey` and so it looked like a `dalet`.  

I hadn`t even noticed it for a whole year until we were working on the postcard the other day!! And because of it I found out the word there is `wine`!!!  To be honest, when I originally wrote out the verse I was just `copying` the letters for my Hebrew practice and wasn`t focused on the words themselves.

In showing me the error now,   He `brought me to the banquet table` to commune with Him and enter the verse and showed me the word `wine`!! 

As you can see in our faces in the little zoom picture, we both got excited about this, it was like a live moment of gracious correction and revelation by the Holy Spirit!!  

Also God reveals to us in our yearly study of Torah how when we come back to the same Torah portion year after year and pray from the scriptures, He is fine tuning us to align with Him and to get things right and oh how He guides us in his LOVING ways!!!

Then I searched the verse a little more and found another word,  that we often see as `table` is actually `beit` which is `House`!! or other meanings, Household, or even family.

So this expression in that moment we saw this verse with a new interpretation, to us like `Family, or Household of Wine` and since Wine brings us to the `Vine`, and abiding in Messiah Yeshua,  we saw it as `He brought us to the Family of Messiah!`  or the table of the family of Messiah.  It was so meaningful as He showed us this `corporate` interpretation as a `family` or even `household` in Messiah as we abide in His love and in His word!! And this is our preparation as His bride as the whole body,or family, of Messiah(not forgetting of course the song of songs is a wedding song!)

I hope you might get excited about that as we did! Or even a little bit! And that this insight blesses you as we come into approaching Shabbat again this week and approach His `table` and coming together with Him in the Family of Messiah.

Part 2

 `Answers` to quiz in post below

where I asked if anyone could find the scripture references that are hinted at in the postcard from the Parsha Shelach Lecha.

They are

1.  Big Grapes! 

 They reached the wadi Eschol, and there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes--it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them -- and some pomegranates and figs.  That place was named the wadi Eschol because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down there.  Numbers 13:23~24

The big grapes on the table is a reference to the `big grapes` that were brought back by the spies to show the abundance of produce in the Promised Land!

 

2.  Challah

You shall make a gift to the LORD from the first yield of your baking, throughout the ages.   Numbers 15:21

The mitzvot of Challah is given in this parsha! Hence two big loaves of fluffy challah are on the `banquet table` of the LORD in this picture!!  May we give ourselves fully to Him from our heart!

 3.  Tzitzit

see Numbers 16:37, commandment for Tzitzit!

You can see the prayer shawl or `talit` on the one in the picture.  Who is depicted in the picture? Its up to you, I see it as representing the Holy Spirit and the little girl (me?! you?!) dining and delighting in Yeshua`s love!! 

4.  The House of Wine and His banner of Love!

Now you know the verse that this refers to, though it is not in the parsha per se, the whole Torah and all of God`s word is an expression of His Love and an invitation to His table and to abide in Him!!!

Yeshua says, Abide in my Love!!! That is what I learned from this parsha study and every day as we `come to the house of wine` under His banner of AHAVA, Love!!

Blessings and AHAVA! 

Shabbat Shalom!!

❤️

Shayndel (Joanne)

 

welome Holy Spirit!!

 

PS, today is a few days after I posted this, it is June 12, 2021... I just found the `original` postcard, HERE along with a sweet story about it!!.... amazingly it was not a year ago as I thought but it was 3 years ago!!!! To the day!!! (June 12, 2018!!!)  God is patient, He is kind!! His LOVE is everlasting!

 

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Shabbat Shalom! Parsha Postcard ~ Shelach Lecha!

He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me is Love. 

 Shabbat Shalom!

❤️

Love,

Shayndel

 

Please feel free to print out as a postcard and share a Shabbat greeting of AHAVA (God`s Love) with your family and friends!

 

Can you notice any of the `hints` in the drawing that refer to this week`s Parsha Shelach Lecha?

I will come back with `answers` after Shabbat !  Hope you enjoy `scouting them out`!!

Yes, `scouting them out` is a word that refers to this weeks reading, as it is the word for when the  men , one from each of the 12 tribes,  were sent to the Promised Land to scout it out to give a report about entering the Land (see Numbers 13:1~15:41, Joshua 2:1 ~24, and Hebrews 3:7~9).  

Remember only Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report.  The other ten `spies` gave a negative report about the land of Israel (Canaan) and saw themselves as `grasshoppers` and were afraid of the `giants`!!

I discovered (scouted out!) through reading the parsha this week that the word `to scout, spy` in Hebrew is:

 TUR  תור  Strongs Hebrew #8446

Amazingly, this word appears 12 times in the parsha in regard to this incident of scouting out the land and the `sin of the spies` who did not get to enter the land due to their negative report.  

The next discovery is that the word TUR, that very same word, is used an additional time in the verse at the end of the Parsha about the commandment for tzitit.  

The men of B`nei Israel are commanded to wear a blue fringe on the corners of their garments so that they `shall look at it and recall all the commandments of the LORD and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes into your lustful urge`.   (Numbers 15:39) This word `follow` is also the same Hebrew word TUR!!

I found this very exciting and even poignant that the word for scouting out in reference to the Land is the same word that is used in scouting out our hearts, in reference to following the LORD`s commandments as we look into our hearts and be sure to follow His ways and not ours!! 

May we go forward into this Shabbat with delight in the LORD of Shabbat, Yeshua, and keep our eyes on Him!  As we Magnify Him we will see that everything else becomes small like grasshoppers, let us not give into fear but rather Fear the LORD!,   and may those things that are not of Him be eradicated out from our lives.  May HIS glory fill the Land of Israel and all the world!!  And may all the nations too open their eyes to give a GOOD report about Israel and stand with the apple of God`s eye!!

  As believers in Messiah and in the God of Israel, may we believe in the things unseen, in faith, and share a good report about Israel, and stand with Israel. In doing so we not only share in God`s heart of love for the Jewish people and protecting all the people and land of eretz Israel, and we also help prepare the way for Messiah`s return where He will step foot on the Mt. of Olives!!! 

May it be speedily and in our day!

 

 Trust in the LORD and do good,

abide in the land and remain loyal.

Seek the favor of the LORD,

and He will grant you the desires of your heart.

Leave all to the LORD;

trust in Him; He will do it.

Psalm 37:3~6 (and all of Psalm 37!)

 בְּטַח בַּיהוָה, וַעֲשֵׂה-טוֹב

  שְׁכָן-אֶרֶץ, וּרְעֵה אֱמוּנָה




*Please also feel free to download this week`s AHAVA prayer sheet in Parsha Shelach Lecha to pray for your loved ones and Israel! PDF link here:

Parsha Shelach Lecha Prayer Sheet 
 

**Other post reflections on this blog from 

Parsha Shelach Lecha:

HERE (Spying the Land, Flowers and Grapes) and  

HERE (Challah)