Shabbat Shalom--some thoughts on Rosh Chodesh Elul and Parsha Re'eh!

Happy is the people who know the teruah (joyful shout of the shofar)
                                                       Psalm 89:16

       Parsha Re`eh,
       Almost Elul!!!

This week (Friday) we will enter into the new month of Elul, the 6th month of the Hebrew calendar.

As Elul is the preparation month for the Fall Feasts, that means its getting close to the Fall Feasts, which begin with Rosh Hashanah,  in Tishrei, the 7th month and a `New Year`on the Hebrew calendar.

I love the month of Elul itself, and feel like I need to even prepare in these few days before Elul to prepare for Elul!! 

Prepare to prepare ??  What does that mean?  I would say, it means to strip away everything that is not focused on the beloved Yeshua!!  To have the whole month clear for meeting Him in the fields and in every encounter.  So as to precious-ize (not a word maybe?! but just making that word for the situation!!) each moment in anticipation of His return.  As we know the Fall Feasts are a time of celebrating the beginning of Creation, and the blowing of the Shofar to announce the Kingdom come, as well as the leading up to the day of Atonement, a time of individual and corporate repentence and return,  and after that the rejoicing in the Feast of Succot.  

And ultimately tabernacling with the God of Creation, our very beloved Yeshua.  Of couse there will be dancing and a feast of feasts for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The spring feasts have been fulfilled in the Messiah`s first coming and although we don`t know the day of when He will return, we want to be prepared!!  The time of the Fall Feasts will be the fulfillment of His return and of His Coronation and His dwelling with us!!!   Indeed now is a time of preparation.   Halleluyah!

The word Re`eh, the name of this week`s Parsha, means `See`!!

It is the root word of Yireh, which may be known to many, as that is the word for ADONAI Yireh, The LORD who Provides, one of the names given to God that we read in the book of Genesis when Abraham saw the ram in the thicket and says `The LORD will Provide`, which also can be translated as `The LORD is Vision`, since it is from the root word See.  He sees the end from the beginning and the beginnning from the end.

I pray a blessed month to all and a month of `Seeing` what it is that God has for us individually and as a body of Messiah.  

Much Love, 
 ♡
Shayndel 

First Sunrise, Second Sunrise, and Sunlit Bush

Now Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.  So he led the flock to the farthest end of the wilderness, came to the mountain of God, Horeb.  Then the angel of ADONAI appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush.  So he looked and saw the bush burning with fire.  Yet it was not consumed.  Moses thought, "I will go now, and see this great sight.  Why is the bush not burnt?"

                                                                                                              ---Exodus 3:1~3

Every year since I came to live in Japan and since my daughter was born 18 years ago, we have always gone to visit my husband`s family on the New Year, and every year I always get up to watch the first sunrise of the year.

This year, the 18th year, was no exception.

Each year the number of people who gather to watch the first sunrise--a tradition on New Years day in Japan--- gets smaller and smaller, and this year I was surprised there were just two other people, a couple there.  I asked where is everyone and they said, its cloudy so everyone probably already went home, or saw that it was cloudy and didn`t come.

Then once a tiny piece of sun peered out from a cloud, they too left, and it was just me.

I too got a little discouraged for a moment by the clouds, but then told myself, you know Shayndel, God speaks to us in those times.  Those times of cloud are times when he desires to meet us.   Those are the times when we can call out to Him and say, Please O God, please move the clouds and reveal more of Your light!

With all the people gone, I felt even more His presence and that is when my eye caught the `bush` and I remembered where we are in the Torah readings, in Parsha Shemot, where Moses first encounters the Angel of God at the burning bush.

When ADONAI saw that he turned to look, he called out of the bush and said, `Moses, Moses.`

                  ---Exodus 3:4







 That was the amazing beginning of their encounter, when Moses turned to look, and the `negotiations` between God and Moses for Moses` assignment to deliver the Children of Israel and bring them out of Egypt.

So then I watched the green of the bush and the drama of the sky behind it and the way the streak of sun lit it from behind.  Even though on the first sunrise the perfect round ball of a a sun that we `expect` to see didn`t appear, God manifested His light in ever dramatic ways and He reminded me of stopping to observe, of turning to look, and of seeing His consuming power in the miracles that we see as they are in front of us.

The next day, I did something I haven`t done in all my years of watching the first sunrise.

I got up and went out to watch... the second sunrise!

Amazingly the couple from New Year`s day was there too!

And there God gave us a sunrise, a perfectly round ball of sun appeared over the horizon.

Again I looked at the bush, and stayed a while, as the sky was lit up and revealed the brilliance of the Great `I AM`.

 Blessings and Love!
♡
Shayndel

God answered Moses, "I AM who I AM."

--Exodus 3:14 

The Torah portion readings this week are in the first chapter of the Book of Exodus.  If anyone is resolving to start in this year, or for those who are continuing the Torah readings, referred to as `Parashiot`(plural), or Parsha (single)these are the readings --Torah, Haftarah, and Brit Chadashah---for Parsha Shemot:

Exodus 1:1~6:1

Isaiah 27:6~28:13, 29:22~23

Jeremiah 1:1~23

1Corinthians 14:13~25

by Joanne Yoshida

#ParshaShemot

#Japan

#burningbush

Related post on this blog:
HERE, Parsha Shemot, Burning Bush, Daffodils and Ume Tree

Psalm 27, morning glories, and a little about Elul

 One thing I ask of the LORD,

only that do I seek:

to live in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD,

to frequent His temple.

---Psalm 27:4

This month is Elul, the sixth month on the Hebrew calendar.  It is the  last month of the Biblical Year 5777.  The first day of the next month will be the `Head` of the year, Rosh Hashanah,  also known as the Feast of Trumpets.  Rosh Hashanah is the start of the Fall Feasts and days of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur.  The month of Elul is a time of preparation for the Fall Feasts and a time to seek forgiveness as we reflect on the past year and seek to better ourselves and draw nearer to God in the year to come. 

There is a Jewish custom to blow the shofar and read Psalm 27 every day in the month of Elul (excluding the last day, the day before Rosh Hashanah).  I have been incorporating these and love reading the Psalm in the morning and evening.   I have a small shofar, and don`t get a big sound, but the morning glories reaching out over the balcony seem to amplify the sound...   It feels as though they are echoing the call of the shofar to wake up to God`s glory!  

With blessings and Shalom to you in this month of Elul!

♡

Your face, Lord I seek!

---Psalm 27:8

It is good to give Praise to our Maker and rejoice and give thanks to Him as we seek repentance and to draw closer to Him in this month of Elul!

Elul Story, Jerusalem dress

I sacrifice in His tent with shouts of joy,

singing and chanting a hymn to the LORD.

--Psalm 27:6

♡

Blessings and Shalom!

Love,

Shayndel

Elul Morning

Let morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.    

---Psalm 143:8

It is the Hebrew month of Elul.
The King is in the fields!

May we treasure this month , a time to draw near and seek His face as all the year,  reflect and give thanks for all that is dear,

Repent for all our wrongs.
Sing the Song of Songs,
especially this line*

`I am my beloved`s,

and He is mine`

Shabbat Shalom!

♡

Shayndel 

*Song of Songs 6:3

Morning Glory

For the earth shall be filled

With awe for the glory of the LORD

As water covers the sea.

---Habakkuk 2:14

Shabbat Shalom!

He Straightens the Bent

 The LORD upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.

---Psalm 145:14

 1.

I planted seeds to grow morning glories on our balcony, and got so excited when some of the little green sprouted up from the soil!  I was so excited to watch them grow.  For a few days or so.

Then to my dismay,  I went out to check them one morning and they all were bent over and fallen down, I didn`t know if there was any chance that they could still have life.  I am not much of a gardener, I am of very little experience .  And almost no know how.



But I thought, as our G-d is a powerful God who straightens the bent, upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down (see scripture above, Psalm 145:14), perhaps I could use this Word and the power of He who lives in me,  and apply it for the morning glories.  I got a new hope! I ran desperately back into the house fueled by a passion to want to straighten them and bring them back to life.  I grabbed some wari-bashi from the cabinet (disposable wood chop sticks) and  nylon string and got to work.  I sat with the wilting stems and lifted them up onto the chopsticks.

The next day, they were still standing, and little by little, with adjustments here and there, they made it to the top of the chopsticks.  They have sprouted the `vine` and today, one of the vines made it to the net and is on its way up the trellis!! Praise God!!

       2.                              Another scene---a few days ago I was having a sandwich and coffee for lunch in a nearby park, but not so nearby.  I hadn`t been there for about a year.   When I looked around, I noticed the beautiful purple hydrangeas.  After eating I took a walk around  looking at the hydrangeas, when an amazing thing caught my eye!! I saw little green plants being held up with chopsticks!! And then I saw a net around the tree, and that these little plants were morning glory, and some were even growing up and around on the net around the tree!! There was one flower!!

can you see the greens around the tree, and growing up the tree and supported by a net, a vine of morning glories!!  There was even one flower that was open

I felt filled with such great hope and confirmation that my morning glories too would make it to flower ! Seeing that I wasn`t the only one who used chopsticks to straighten the bent morning glories,  I felt the great presence of the Almighty God, here in this tiny detail of those greens so close to the ground!!!  As I looked around the garden, it was like a miracle unfolding.  Next I saw there was a great tree in the middle of the garden.  It was a palm tree!  And then I noticed...yes!... a net around the base of the Palm Tree.... for morning glories to grow up around!!  I wondered who made this garden, and at the same  I loved just sensing it was put there  from the G-d of Heaven to reveal something about His love and kindness and mercies that are new every morning for us here on earth!!

At the base of this great, straight, Palm Tree in the ....middle of the Garden!!...someone had planted morning glories!!!

Before I left the garden I began to notice tucked here in there in between shrubs and in quiet corners, I saw a watering can here, a shovel there, and then a box of garden gloves and other garden tools.  The hand of the gardener was there, and yet so sweetly she/he tried to hide her presence.  Then I saw her there, in a corner, pruning some plants.  She must have been 100 years old, her face full of lines almost hidden by a bonnet, as though she had been there, in that garden, tending it for a lifetime, plus lifetimes, waiting for someone to notice it`s splendour, to  wander through the garden just marvelling at its wonders.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!

Much Love,

Shayndel

Because of the mercies of ADONAI we will not be consumed, for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning!

Great is Your faithfulness.

--Lamentations  3:22~23 TLV