1st night of Hanukkah 2013

Tonight is the 1st night of Hanukkah and I was looking at the blessings that are done on the 1st night of Hanukkah:

•  Barukh atah Adonai Elohenu melech ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvohtav v'tzi-vanu l'hadleek ner shel Chanukah. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of Hanukkah (and to let our light shine before others).
•  Barukh atah Adonai Elohenu melech ha-olam, sheheyanu v'keey'manu v'hee-gee-anu lazman hazeh. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has performed miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time.
•  Barukh atah Adonai Elohenu melech ha-olam, she-hasah nisim la­avotainu ba-yamim ha-ham bazman hazeh. Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.

 And I was thinking of something from each of the blessings...

1. I looked at the last part of the 1st blessing: (and to let our light shine before others). We were told by the Lord in Matthew 5-"¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven." How many of us have been letting our light shine, not only in the bright times, but also in the dark? And how many of us are living in such a way that people know that we are believers and that we are following the example of the Lord in the way that we live? How many testify to what the Lord has done (and is doing) in their lives, not only at this time of Hanukkah (or Thanksgiving), but whenever we have a chance-are we the 1 Peter 3:15 type of believers-"¹⁵ but treat the Messiah as holy, as Lord in your hearts;^[a] while remaining always ready to give a reasoned answer to anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you — yet with humility and fear,"

2. "Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has performed miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time." Think about it...and the same God who performed miracles back then does the same thing for us. I know that I can say that with authority because I am a walking miracle. I know that there are many out there who read this that can say the same thing about their own lives or the lives of someone that they know... It's as we could say "Blessed are Thou, O lord our God, King of the Universe who has performed and is still perfoming miracles, for our forefathers and us in those days at this time!"  
 
3. "Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us in life and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season". Just think about it, that we are in His hand...that He sustains us-He gives us enough to get through each day-enough strength, enough provision, enough breath-He doesn't give us more than we need or less than we need, but enough to get through each day, no matter how "hard" the day may be. He also has enabled us-we look at what is going on in the world and the situations that go on in our lives and around us and think about them-would we be able to handle them without the strength of the Lord. You hear how many complain that they don't have this thing or that thing or the new version of whatever thing they have and we should be thinking (to borrow from a phrase that I heard in a Max Lucado book) "Why are they crying over spilled champagne?"  As I have said many times, my favorite song at Passover is Dayenu ("It would have been enough"), it would have been enough if the Lord had just given us salvation, but He has given us so much more! And we should realize that for whatever reason, He seems to have given us more than others! Compare we we have been given to what others in the world (and even close to us here in this city, county, state, nation) have been given and we should be on our knees thanking God even for the "little" that we have been given!

So on this first night of Hanukkah, let us thank the Lord God for the blessings that He has given, not only during the times of the Maccabees or the Pilgrims, but to us as well!

sure way to annoy me for the end of 2013

Want to find a way to annoy me these next few weeks? Use the phrase "Happy Holidays" anytime after December 5th.

Why? OK, let's see usually people say "Happy Holidays" for one of two reasons...one, there are multiple holiday ("holy day") seasons going on. And usually that is true...because usually during December is Hanukkah and that is a holy time celebrating the deliverance of the people of Israel and the re-dedication of the temple.

However, if you have looked at this year's calendar, Hanukkah will be starting on the night before Thanksgiving and end on the night of the 5th of December.

So can anyone tell me what holidays fall between the 5th and 25th of December this year? Are there any? So the question is then, why are we saying "Happy Holidays" this year if there are no holidays between the end of Hanukkah and Christmas?

Maybe it's the second reason; which is to remove any hint of the reason why many celebrate this time of year. Yes, I know that the birth of the Messiah may have been more during the late Autumn, but there are many in the Body of Christ who don't know this or are used to celebrating His birth in December.

Oh by the way, for the idiots at Salon and other places that say there is no war on Christmas...yes there is, when you remove Christmas and replace it with Holiday..and encourage others not to celebrate the birth of the Lord who came, to borrow from the old holiday song: "to save us from satan's power when we had gone astray", which is the reason the season is celebrated....

So if you remove the "reason for the season" what are you left with? What is the world left with? Why celebrate? All you really do when you remove Christ from Christmas is increase the despair, anguish and sorrow that people who have no hope have. You kill the reason for joy, peace and tranquility and replace it with greed, humanism and a state that worships nothingness or its leaders and place them in the place where the Lord should be.

So this year, if you expect to be on my good side (greetings, e-mail, etc...), please use the proper terminology, otherwise expect to see your greeting disappear faster than a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving-Hanukkah connection?

I was on Facebook this afternoon and saw a link for the following article: "The Hanukkah-Thanksgiving Connection-Who knew?" http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/v20-n02/the-hanukkah-thanksgiving-connection-who-knew

I have to admit that I was intrigued by the article where it talks about the themes of this season: freedom and thankfulness...and how then it went into a description of the One who gave us the real reason for true freedom and thankfulness...Our savior Y'shua ha Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah)!

And it also pointed to a time when in John 10 when the Lord was in Jerusalem during this time and the religious leaders asked once again if He was the Messiah and the Lord answered them plainly:
I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me ..." (John 10:25).

He was telling them plainly and showing them by His works that He was the Messiah who was sent by God to deliver the world and give it true freedom...in His own words...If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

So what greater reason is there to be thankful this season?  To borrow from the last paragraph of the the article:
When we sit down to our Thanksgiving meal on the first day of Hanukkah this year, it's a good thing to remember the great deliverance that God gave to those who were under the thumb of tyranny, and also to remember that in many parts of the world, people still suffer under oppressive rule. It's also a good time to rejoice and reflect on the greater deliverance - from death to eternal life - that the Messiah Y'shua offers each one of us. Have a Happy Hanukkah/Thanksgiving!

follow-up to "Being on the other side"

A couple of weeks ago, I was writing about what happened to my mom http://1ncisfan.blogspot.com/2013/10/being-on-other-side.html and just thought that I would follow-up...

I have to thank God for the doctor who was able to find out the reason that my mother was in the hospital and was able to resolve it....what had happened was called for short-AVM (a arteriovenous malformation). The best way to describe it is that if like on a street, you have one person going one way, another person going the other and they meet in the middle of the street and just stay there...what happened there was that the arteries and veins in her GI (gastrointestinal) tract decided to merge and created a bubble...and that this bubble was leaking, which was causing my mother to have anemia and other complications, which I don't want to discuss publicly...

Anyway, the doctor during a colonoscopy was able to "burst the bubble" and seal everything so that it would be healed and that my mother would be able to leave that same evening....

If this doesn't give you a reason to be thankful to God for what He does...then I don't know what I can say to you...my mom is feeling better and her regular doctor has told her that something like this shouldn't happen again...so ends another chapter in the story of God's healing hand and another chance to give testimony and point others to the Great Physician!

Blogger beware again?

A couple of times I have written about dangers that are out there for bloggers...http://1ncisfan.blogspot.com/2013/05/follow-up-to-new-dangers-to-bloggers.html 
and http://1ncisfan.blogspot.com/2013/05/new-danger-to-bloggers.html

Now I find that there is another danger out there, and that is when you write something that someone disagrees with and they go crying to the government for help. In this case I was reading this story "Obama Admin Helped Abortionist Try to Shut Down Pro-Life Blog" http://www.lifenews.com/2013/11/13/obama-admin-helped-abortionist-try-to-shut-down-pro-life-blog/ about this abortionist who went "berserk" simply because the author of the blog wanted to ask questions to verify a story that he was doing. And you actually have to read this story to believe it!

For years we have been told: "Freedom of expression" or "be tolerant" when we try to raise objections to vulgar acts that other people are doing. But it seems that there seems to be a double-standard when someone objects to us, then it's no longer "freedom of expression", but "why are you harassing this person", instead of "Be tolerant", its "We going to go after you and shut you down!" Have we gotten so double-minded that we actually encourage this "selective" tolerance and enforcement to happen in this nation?

I keep thinking back to the thoughts that I wrote with those entries and wonder-will 2014 be "1984"  and how long do we have before the freedom that we have will be taken away and replaced with the system Orwell described?