A Labor Day Mikvah

We are now almost three years into our "Messianic" (for lack of a better term) journey. Husband has been getting increasingly anxious to learn about an immersion.

From what we've been able to learn, a Mikvah is a cleansing before entering the temple. Actually, it is the recepticable for holding the immersion water for cleansing before entering the temple.

We have no temple but it is commanded in Leviticus and Numbers.

~Also the Messiah himself was immersed.~

I was recently asked if I felt we needed to perform a Mikvah in place of our childhood Baptist Baptism. Here was my answer:

Yes, actually. We've been studying a lot and, as you have probably already figured out ,(we're just very slow and leaving all we've ever known is, at times, difficult) we have discovered that there are concepts added to scripture that were not there originally.
One concept seems to be the idea of the Trinity.

Even though we have been Messianic for almost three years now, we were challenged over the summer to study if the concept of Trinity is actually scriptural. Here is what we found:

The statements "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" are not in the oldest Greek manuscripts or ANY of the Hebrew NT manuscripts. The updated Strong's has changed their definition of "Echad" found in Deuteronomy 6:4, to actually mean "One" instead of "Unity." A Trinitarian concept does not agree with Torah.

I never realized that in being Baptist, I was very Catholic...

We wanted to be immersed into the Father's Biblical name, YHVH, and into His Son's, the Messiah Yeshua's (or Yashua, Yahosua) Name and character.
And in following the Sh'ma, Deuteronomy 6:4-11, we wanted to symbolically state we believe YHVH is truly ONE, not a unified god-head.
We prayed for the Father to immerse us in His Son's character (name, reputation)
I don't think this is a salvation issue but Husband is thinking it is. We are studying John 3 right now.

Here is something on which I would like your opinion:

How do you interrupt this verse and the whole context surrounding it?

Quote:

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

As I see it, the Messiah is using parallelism to answer Nichodemus' question; born of water being of flesh, born of spirit being spirit...

In other words, you certainly can't enter into the Kingdom if you're not first born into this world.

But, then how does that explain the evil one's access to the Throne in the book of Job? He wasn't "born of water."

But, if the "born of water" phrase means baptism, then how can I explain the robber on the cross?

Quote:

And Yeshua said to him, “Truly, I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Do you have any thoughts on this?If you see any error in my logic, please point it out to me so I can study further!

~

Spurred on by John 3, We decided to follow HIM.

We went to the river today and after a simple prayer, immersed ourselves in HIS name and in HIS character.

It was a wonderful experience for our entire family.

k'tiva v'chatima tova!

~wow~

a look into our family Shabbat

More from a June 8th email...

~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday, First Day

The beginning of a new week. We begin to study the parasha (pare-ra-sha) and haftarah (haf-ta-rah, or haf-ta-rah) for the week. We also have a study in the New Testament, The B'rit Chadashah (Brit ha-da-shah), that is similar in concept to the haftarah.

One interesting thing to note is that the fourth commandment is not just to rest on Shabbat, but to work for six days. For Shabbat (sha-baht) to be a delight, you need to get your work done on the other days.

Wednesday, fourth Day

menu planning day. Since I will be doing all the cooking on Friday, the Saturday meals need to also be yummy served cold. Vegetarian/Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean meals are very well suited to this! I also need to plan for any guests, and any overnight. Challah can be the traditional braided egg bread, or the pita-type flat bread, or just a loaf of sandwich bread. It doesn't matter but challah is a good tradition to keep, although I haven't yet found a good gluten-free substitute.

Please be sure to stress to the VBS children that the children of Israel have a strict Kosher diet that is actually very healthy. Kosher means "fit." Some things that Americans eat isn't even considered to be food by the Lord: Pork, mammels that don't have cloven hoofs and don't chew the cud, birds of prey, birds that eat carrion, any water creature that didn't have scales and fins. All of these animals were created to be garbage disposals so they are just considered trash cans, not food.

The method of killing and butchering also has to be considered. Animals have to be "Koshered," which means they have to be killed quickly and humanely, the blood has to be drained, the fat removed, the nerve in the hip socket removed, the fatty lobe of the liver, the intestines... You can't eat a clean animal that died of natural causes or was killed by another animal, or by accident. That would render the clean animal un-kosher.

The practice of not mixing milk with meat is a Rabbinical teaching that is taken from Exodus 23:19, 34:26, and Deut 14:21,

"The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

But this is referring to the pagan fertility rite, not a method of cooking and eating. After all, Abraham served the three visitors meat and milk...

Here's an easy Kosher menu:

Shabbat Dinner

Challah

Garden salad

meatless taco soup

roast chicken

raw veggies & dips

fruit

Shabbat Breakfast

Rice chex cereal

vanilla rice milk

Shabbat Lunch

chicken wraps (with left over chicken)

or veggie wraps

or pb&j

salad

Supper

left over taco soup

chips & dip

Thursday, fifth day

Shopping. I have to be sure to have enough food prepared for any guests

make sure the children are studying the parasha

Friday, six day

Cooking and cleaning. Think of it as preparing your house for a very special guest. You are inviting the Father into your home!

Don't forget to fuel up the car, be prepared for any "emergencies" that might crop up. In our case, have extra diapers, toilet paper, tylenol,,,

Set the table w/ paper plates to cut down on clutter later, or set out your best china!

Shabbat night

light the candles, Zachor and Shamor (Remember and Keep)

I say a blessing

Clint says Kiddush (Santification of Shabbat said over the wine and begins with Genesis 2:1-3)

We have blessings we say over the bread, the wine, the children.

Clint recites the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:24-

Num 6:24-26:

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: (25) The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: (26) The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Then, we eat!

After dinner we clear the table, put away the food, visit or go over the parasha then go to bed

Shabbat day

sleep late!

eat breakfast

Bible study

history study

Hebrew language study

lunch

go outside

help the neighbor with something

go to Granny B's

visit the elderly neighbor down the road

play with the children

play Bible baseball, (I get smoked everytime!)

take a nap

watch a Hebrew study video

play games

take a walk

current events in Bible prophecy

play with the dog

mark the end of the day with a blessing (Havdalah)

Saturday night

End Shabbat

clean the house

wash the dishes

begin the laundry roll

run to the store

work, work work!

I hope this has helped you some. It wouldn't be difficult at all to come up with a "Moses Shabbat." What foods might they have eaten? How was it prepared? How might they have listened to the Torah? in large groups or individual families.... (they didn't have copies of the Torah ...)

You could make sukkahs (tents) from chairs and blankets, have them prepare for shabbat. How would they have filled their day? What about the animals they had how were they taken care of during Shabbat?

You could teach them the Hebrew blessings which arent' difficult. they all begin the same:

Ba-ruke a-tah A-don-ai, El-o-hey-nu me-lek ha-a-lome...

(Blessed are you Lord God, King of the universe...)

Maybe show them some paleo writing

I don't know how much time you have but this could be a really neat study...

I'll look up stuff on the Feasts, if you'd like...

A traditional greeting/blessing...

Shalom Aleichem (sha-lome ah-lek-em)

Peace be upon you

The traditional response...

Aleichem Shalom

Upon you be peace

~WOW