The Feast of Tabernacles

Hag Sameach!  (“Happy holiday!” in Hebrew)  Today is the fourth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Oct. 12, 2014).  It started last Wednesday evening at sunset (Oct. 8), with a Sabbath rest, and will continue until this coming Wednesday at sunset (Oct. 15), when it will be followed by an additional day of rest (Oct. 16).  This is the festival that we will be celebrating with other churches in Hsinchu next Sunday (Oct. 19)! 

The High Holy Days

This is a very special and holy time in Israel, known as the High Holy Days or the “Days of Awe.”  It began with Rosh Hashanah, the Biblical Feast of Trumpets, the week before last (Sept. 25).  Next came the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year, which ended yesterday (Oct. 4) just after sunset, and then the Feast of Tabernacles begins this coming Wednesday at sunset (Oct. 8). 

Sermon on the Mount II

Location of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount

If there is one message that every Christian should know, it’s Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  It’s the clearest example in the Bible of the Way of Jesus:  the way that he lived and the way he wants his followers to live, too.

The Tower of Babel (Gen. 11)

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the Flood of Noah:  both the physical and the historical evidence that this huge catastrophe actually took place just as the Bible and other ancient histories say it did.  Today we want to consider what happened after the time of the Flood. 

Tassels

One of the reasons it’s important to understand the Jewish roots of our faith is that it helps us understand the meaning of what we read in the Bible.  For example, what did Jesus mean when he mentioned that the Pharisees lengthened their tassels:  "But they do all their works to be seen by men; for they...lengthen their tassels" (Matt. 23:5)? 

Noah’s Flood (Gen. 6-9)

(Click play to watch this video of a recent Japanese tsunami washing away an entire town.)

The Bible says that there was once a worldwide Flood that covered all the mountains on earth and destroyed all life on the land surface of the earth:  the Flood of Noah (Gen. 7-8).  Is this true?  Did it really happen?  And if it really happened, what evidence is there that it happened?  If it really affected the whole world, shouldn’t we be able to see evidence of it all around the world? 

Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19)

The last we talked about Abraham, we left him bargaining with God about the city of Sodom, like a buyer in the market (Gen. 18:27-32):  what if there are fifty righteous?  What if 45?  How about 20?  How about 10?  Why was he bargaining like this with God?  Because God had revealed his plan to Abraham to destroy Sodom.  Abraham was trying to rescue his nephew, Lot, who lived in that city.  So what was the problem with Sodom, and why did God want to destroy it?