Building on the Foundation

Our primary goal and mission as Christians is our service and singular devotion to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. That's who and what we are, and it defines everything about our lives. We walk in a manner that reflects glory and honor upon His name, and when there is the darkness of wickedness, His light reflected through us reveals it.  Our highest mission is service to Jesus, who is YHWH. Once a year, however, it becomes abundantly clear that this mission has gotten confused in a lot of Christian's minds. We serve YHWH for 364 days of our lives, but one day a year, it's okay to go out and partake in the works of darkness. It's harmless and fun, so what's the big deal? As representatives of the kingdom, we are children of light. We cannot participate in evil things and expect God to be okay with that. We are to practice what is pleasing to God and do those things which are good, right, and true. That's a pretty good litmus test, and we find it repeated thro...

  In the Gospel of John, we discover the following detail during Jesus’ ministry: “Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch” (John 10:22-23). In Hebrew, “dedication” is hanukkah (Strong’s # H2598), which appears several times in the Old Testament. For instance, when Moses dedicated the altar in the tabernacle, the word used for that dedication was hanukkah (Num. 7:10, 11, 84, 88). Again, Solomon’s dedication of the altar in the temple was a hanukkah (2 Chron. 7:9). Both dedications lasted seven days as God commanded (Ex. 29:37). The New Testament, of course, was preserved in Greek rather than Hebrew. But among the Jews of Jesus’ day, this would have been called the Feast of Hanukkah, it was at the temple, and it was in winter. To this day, the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah is in winter. So what is Hanukkah? Where did it come from? It isn’t among God’s commanded Holy Days, but is it okay for us to cele...