Thursday of Passion Week

Thursday of Passion Week:  “As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.”

“And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many.” (Mark 14:22-24).

In June of 2017, a group of us shared a Sunday memorial meal of bread and wine. Keeping with our own traditions, it was a small meal - a handful of unleavened bread baked that morning in Jerusalem, and a small olive wood cup filled with the fruit of the vine.

It is our way of remembering Jesus and honoring him for his death and sacrifice for us all.  The Passover, the sacred meal Jesus was sharing with his disciples, memorialized the meal eaten by Israel in Egypt on the night death came to the Egyptians, before the children of Abraham were set free from slavery. In the same way, our shared meal symbolizes the death of the Messiah, the blood shed that protects us from death, and points toward our freedom from the slavery of sin, because Jesus the Messiah conquered death.

We have been adopted as children of Abraham through Jesus. We have been set free. I pray I may live like one who is free and grateful for what the Father has done for and given me.

Israel - A land of Milk and Honey...and Wine, Olive Oil, and Grain 6/2/2017

Our friends had not yet arrived in Israel, so we made plans to see the Judean hills.  A guide, Barak, met us at our hotel and drove us south into the ancient land of milk & honey.

We drove south into the Judean hills and the land once allocated to the tribe of Dan. Often we were within sight of or a very short distance from towns once visited by Samson.  We skirted past Eshta’ol on the way to our first stop, an Israeli settlement called T’zora very near to the village where Samson was born.

We soon learned the land is abundant, not only in “milk and honey”’ but also in grain, vineyards, orchards, and other crops.  At each of our stops, we were offered fruits of the land, from the vineyards, the olive orchards, the grain fields.  We learned of the Jewish view of God's blessings on how the land will sustain His people.  They have a proverb:  "A liter of wine, a cup of olive oil, a bit of grain will sustain one each day."

It brought to mind the words of the psalmist, "You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth - wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength" (Psalm 104:14-15).

We are looking forward to more of God's blessings.