Our relationship with God.

I posted this message on Joel Rosenberg’s blog this morning. But I wanted to put it on my little blog as well. It is a lot to think about and it is the most important ---Our relationship with God.

There is so much to learn about the History and meaning of the Jewish holidays and how they relate to Christians. I learned a lot from this passage, I hope you don't mind me posting it here.
Rosh HaShanah and the Messianic Kingdom to Come
by Joseph Good (1971)

“On the Jewish calendar there is a forty-day season called Teshuvah (meaning return, or repentance).

The forty-day period of Teshuvah can be divided into four sections:

1) The thirty days of the month of Elul.
2) The day of Rosh haShanah.
3 ) The days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur.
4) The day of Yom Kippur.


1) The thirty days of Elul. The message is to repent of one’s sins before Rosh haShanah and in so doing be inscribed in the Book of Life. The very greeting that is used among the Jewish people during Elul speaks of this: “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.” The people who are written in this book are not those who are righteous in themselves, but rather those who have received the Righteous One, the Messiah of Israel; for the prophet Isaiah said that our righteousness is not acceptable to G-d.

Therefore, it is only through repentance of one’s sins, and faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of the Messiah, one is made righteous in the eyes of G-d and is written into the Book of Life.

In the overall scope of the plan of G-d, the world has come to the time of Elul. The next appointment G-d will keep is the blowing of the shofar to announce the beginning of the Kingdom. Now is the time for the world to wake up and come to G-d. This is the time for a person to accept the Messiah. This and only this will allow someone to escape the judgment that is to come.

2) The day of Rosh haShanah. This represents the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom. By this time the wise person has repented, for the judgment is now being passed. Those who have accepted the Messiah by this time, are the righteous, are immediately written and sealed in the Book of Life. Others have hardened their hearts against G-d. Their disastrous fate is sealed. The majority have not made a decision for or against G-d. Rosh haShanah is a final warning to them. They have ten days to return to G-d.
3) The days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur. This period reflects the seven-year period of Jacob’s trouble. During this time, the greeting one uses changes to “May you be sealed until the day of redemption” (Yom HaPeduth). Rav Shaul (Paul) referred to this expression with the same meaning used in this book in his letter to the Ephesians: And grieve not the Ruach haKodesh (the Holy Spirit) of G-d, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30

4) The day of Yom Kippur. This is the last division of the time of Teshuvah. It shows the second coming of the Messiah. It is the Day of Redemption (Yom HaPduth). Realize that the forty-day period is designed by G-d to teach about His prophetic plan. This is related to the statement in Luke twenty-one that the generation who sees Jerusalem return to the Jews will also see the Messiah’s second coming. In the Bible, a generation is 40 years (Hebrews chapter three). This day-for-a-year equation was used by G-d in punishing Israel for its lack of faith to go into the promised land. They were sentenced to one year out of the land for each of the forty days that the spies had spent searching out the same land. We are in the generation. Yeshua spoke of, as of June 7, 1967, when Jerusalem was taken from the hands of the Gentiles and given by G-d to Israel. The return of the Messiah is near. We are in the middle of the time of Teshuvah. May all who read this make a decision to repent of their sins and accept the Messiah.

At His second coming (Yom Kippur), Yeshua will reestablish His throne in Jerusalem, and all those who by faith have been gathered to Him will also reign with the Messiah for the remainder of the thousand years. Those that are vessels fit for destruction and those intermediates who have not by this time received the Messiah will lose their life, eternally damned to Gehinnon.”

End Quote

It makes me think long and hard about the fact that John the Baptist and Jesus both started their ministry telling people to “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Jews knew how important repentance was to their faith especially during the High Holy Days.

All of us can take this time to think about getting right before God.

Christians can reflect on “take captive every thought”, is it good, is it edifying, etc. Also, do we need to ask our neighbor for forgivness?

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”- II Corinthians 10:5

Jews now as they approach the High Holy Days I pray come to see Yeshua as their Messiah.

“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”- Jeremiah 33:2-3

All can come to Him, if they only will.

Now is the time.