Sunday Mornings

"Yom Kippur! Yom Kippur!! Yom Kippur!!!" shouted the children with glee as they raced towards me. I was under my fig tree after just reciting the Shema Yisrael for the evening sacrifice. "Rabbi, we have come to learn about Yom Kippur. We love hearing your stories." cried the children. "Okay children. Gather round. But first, I must get some water and a towel to wash your feet and some bread to eat while you listen to me." The children were dazzled as it was not customary for Rabbis to wash the feet of their disciples; nevertheless, if that was a condition to listen to my esteemed stories, they were ready to act along. I began my story, "The 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishri (September or October in the Gregorian calendar) is the Day of Atonement. You know, the day everyone gets to transfer their sins onto something else (usually animals though) and they are taken away from them and they become purified. But why Atonement? As we all know the G...

...Well, quite some years have passed and honestly, no ram gets to live as long as I have. My mates are all gone. Even the younger generation. I am LAMB of the previous story witnessing our Savior's birth. Only I am no longer a lamb. I should be what you'd call a grandfather, except Sheep, don't keep family rites, especially the males. We just live. Neither ending nor beginning. But call me LAMB. The dust of the Negev has given my shaggy coat a nearly exotic red tint. Our Trek is punctuated by short stops to rest and water the livestock. We travel more at night when it's cooler. The days are treacherous. Ima is long dead (Hashem bless her heart). I smile faintly in recollection. I shall face a similar fate at the end of this journey. I mean, what ram lives to be 30 and 3 years... A low chuckle escapes my throat. There's a little dust devil to the west of us. Our caravan leader doesn't think it will delay us at all. A man with some metal instruments carelessly d...

But they all cried out together, "Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas" Luke 23:18 Many years ago, a Jewish crowd was presented with 2 choices: Barabbas and Jesus. Surprisingly, they both had a lot in common than we realise on the surface. Barabbas, when translated from Hebrew means Son of the Father . Coincidentally, throughout Jesus’ short ministry, He proclaimed Himself to be the Son of the Father (Son of God) . So, it was, therefore, a choice of “ which Son of the Father would the crowd choose ?” And they rejected Jesus and condemned Him to be crucified ( Matthew 27:15-23 ). The Jews, even those close to Jesus had a form of Messiah they would have loved Jesus to come in or operate in ( Luke 24:19-24 ). This is not just typical of the first century Jews. When we are presented with the same choice that faced the Jewish crowd, how often do we choose the true Son of the Father; how often do we choose rather, a Son of the Father of our own making? How true are the sa...

Held bound by sin, fear and unbelief, it was evident that we couldn't make our way out. We, the captives couldn't set ourselves free. We were obviously incapacitated captives, imprisoned in the grip of a treacherous captor, who would not grant release just because we wished to be free. We saw our mess, recognised it but couldn't get out of it. Freedom seemed so out of reach, the more we reached for it, the more we reclined into our mess. We were truly angry at our state, but that didn't help, the captor just had the pleasure of letting us sink deeper into the mess we had become.  The long nights of struggling with masturbation, pornography and all forms of secret sins, the clear days of struggling to get through without being dishonest or just " falling short" of God's standards, of making direct promises but falling back into the pit. The jailer stood by and watched with an evil smirk, watching us try and fail again and again. The chains had completely ...

Audio Transcript   The death of Moses was significantly tragic for the Children of Israelites. A seemingly unreplaceable vacuum had been created, for he was someone whom the Lord knew face to face (Deut 34: 10). They grieved for Moses on the plains of Moab for 30 days (Deut 34:8). The Israelites now wondered who they would look up to guide them to the Promised Land. However, God does not leave His people without guidance. Shortly before Moses died, He laid hands on Joshua who was then filled with the Spirit of Wisdom to lead the people. Joshua was a man who stood out among his peers. This was seen when He and Caleb brought a good report and believed that God would help them succeed; contrary to the remaining 10 spies sent for exploration (Num 14:30). Joshua, now the elder leading the newbies of Israel because the previous generation had phased out. This new generation did not see the great works that the hand of God executed in Egypt and the Red sea. Because all those men which...

  And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Gen 22:13 Let us take a step back and read the 3 verses before this: Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now, I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me." Gen 22:10-12 Sounds straight out of a Disney movie right? Just at the nick of time; salvation at the 11th hour. This is a story that is very well known. But every time I have heard this story being told, it is said from Abraham's standpoint. What if, perhaps, there is something to learn from Isaac? This month we will be taking many studies to i...

 ..."Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my fingers into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." John 20:25 b By the grace of God we will be rounding up our Easter related studies today. We began with looking at how pivotal submission to the will of God was to the grace that Jesus received for His journey to the cross. Last week we saw how the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was a prove of God's faithfulness and providence (intentional sovereignty) over the years. Today we will take a brief study on our resurrected and glorified LORD. May God grant us insight as we glean at His feet and may these not just remain Easter only lessons, but meditations for our everyday and season. Every scar has s a story to tell. Scars are reminders of wounds. They bring bad memories to us when we look at them and we could go to such great lengths to conceal them from ourselves, but sometimes from others. So, are scars unhealabl...

And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. Genesis 22:8   Today as we celebrate the Resurrection of our LORD, we would love to journey back in time to savor God's providence in our salvation once more in a story so familiar to us. Many years ago, a father showed his love to God by sacrificing his son on a mount; fast track many year later, a Father would sacrifice His Son on a hill to show His love for mankind. Just how similar were the two sacrifices and what can we learn from them? May God grant us wisdom as we study. Amen. Our Journey begins in Genesis 22 when God demanded the sacrifice of Isaac from Abraham. If we do not consider Abraham to be a man, as we are, we may fail to see the gravity of the steps that he took as he journeyed to mountains of Moriah. Here are a few key lessons to learn from this as we reflect over the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus: 1.  "Your son, your o...

And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. Luke 22:43 It is that time of the year where we collectively reflect over the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Our anchor text for today's study is timed just before the arrest and trials of Jesus. May God grant us insight as we glean at His feet together. Amen. Can two work together except they agree? Amos 3:3 In Jesus' agony in the garden of Gethsemane, we see something that we can all relate with. There always comes that point in a believer's walk with God that there is a conflict of interest. God would be leading you in one direction, but you would rather prefer some other method or direction. Jonah once went on this path, and when he was in the belly of the fish, this is what he had to say Those who regard and follow worthless idols turn away from their living source of mercy and loving-kindness. Jonah 2:8 it was in the light of this fundamental truth that even though Jesus would have preferred ...

God said, "I’ve taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I’ve heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." ( Exodus 3:7‭-‬8 MSG) Thank God for another opportunity to glean at His feet. Today we will particularly be looking into scriptures to study the human condition and what God did to bring a lasting solution to it. The first thing God will be helping us to understand is the need for a saviour. When we talk of the salvation project, the picture should be about a saviour and someone who needs to be saved. In the absense of any of these parties, salvation would not make sense. If everything is going on well...

Hebrews 2:5-6 ( MSG ) 5.God didn't put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we're dealing with here. 6.It says in Scripture, What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?. Man disobeyed God and fell out of God's original plan. But God, being so mindful, kind and merciful, provided a means of reconciliation for man to reconcile back to Him ; The Salvation Project. "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life"  John 3:16 The Salvation Project is a planned endeavor by God with the goal of delivering man from sin and eternal damnation; giving man a new life. This process was kick-started by the birth of Jesus. "It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham." Hebrews 2:16. Yo...

Hebrews 2:5-6 ( MSG ) 5.God didn't put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we're dealing with here. 6.It says in Scripture, What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?. Man disobeyed God and fell out of God's original plan. But God, being so mindful, kind and merciful, provided a means of reconciliation for man to reconcile back to Him ; The Salvation Project. "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life"  John 3:16 The Salvation Project is a planned endeavor by God with the goal of delivering man from sin and eternal damnation; giving man a new life. This was accomplished by the death of Christ Jesus. "It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham." Hebrews 2:16. You...