Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

Tomorrow, May 2nd, is Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In this world, we are so far removed from the horrors of the Holocaust and the effects that it had on the entire world. But it was a very real event in the not-so-past history. Six million Jewish people were brutally murdered, including 1.5 million children. They also murdered tens of thousands of disabled children and adults.

The stories are sickening, to say the least. The horrors that seem too evil to ever be possible, are not.

Last night I read a couple of first/second hand accounts on Aish.com that brought me to the point of sobbing to Mark, "How could such evil possibly ever exist? It's a horror story that's actually true!" I want to challenge all of you to take some time tomorrow and read a story of a Holocaust survivor (you can google them). Yes, it will probably bring you to tears also, but that's what we need. We NEED to stay sensitive to this, and it needs to be remembered. That is the only way we can prevent something like this from ever happening again!

And let's not forget that this evil plot stemmed from the theory of evolution. The murdered in the Holocaust were thought to be "less evolved" and the Nazi's were trying to perfect the human race in an effort to become "gods." As long as evolution is taught as fact, we must be even more vigilent to stand against this evil mindset!

Praise the Lord for the strength and blessing He has abundantly given to his people, Israel!

*Here is a link with some educational sources: http://www.remember.org/educate/

Me and My Endless Projects!

My life seems to be comprised of a constant stream of projects - and very often I don't finish them before moving on to the next one! For instance, right after Mark and I got married (3.5 years ago) I decided that I would input all of our chord charts for worship music into a computer/web-based database so that they were easy to access and find. I put it to rest around letter F when Eliza was born 2 years ago, and the pile of chord charts is still sitting underneath our printer!

The other day Mark and I were looking at a couple of Bible storybooks that were given to our kids. We were amazed and disgusted by how Biblically-inaccurate they were! Being Messianic, I always replace "Jesus" with "Yeshua" when I'm reading to my kids, and other names with their actual Hebrew name also (Just because Pedro from Mexico moves to the U.S. we don't start calling him Peter - his name will always be Pedro! Shouldn't it be even more so with the Son of God?). We also correct some other things like instead of 2 of every animal in the ark, there were actually 1 pair of every unclean animal and 7 pair (14) of every clean animal! Anyway, this got me to thinking about how much I would like to have a Bible storybook for my kids that I didn't have to screen first! And with as easy as it is to write and print your own book these days, I decided that I would write a Biblically-accurate (yes, violence and sex will be masked as appropriate) Bible story book and get it printed at one of those online print places (like Shutterfly).

So I'm going to do it - but... I'm not a very good artist, or at least I don't have time to practice to where I'd be comfortable at doing it. So if anyone reading this knows someone who might enjoy illustrating a children's Bible story book, I'd love to talk to them! The illustrations will follow the culture and will be mostly Jewish in nature, but will also include ancient Egypt, Rome and Persia.

Woohoo! I'll post some text here when I get it started!

Our Crazy February!

We have had the craziest month around here! We have been busy trying to grow our photography business and did three sessions this month. It has been fun, and we are praying that God will help us grow and develop because we would really like to do this for a living someday in the not too distant future! For a glimpse of our work, you can view the Rich Imaging Blog (click to link). Right now we're trying to get some practice doing senior sessions and are offering them for FREE - so if you know any high school juniors in the area, send them our way!

We also almost moved this month and it fell through at the last minute. We've been tentatively planning on doing a lease-to-own with someone since the beginning of February. He called on Feb. 16th and said that he'd be ready with money in hand to sign papers and move in by the 1st of March. We said that that would be fine, and set up to sign papers on Feb. 29th. For the next week I frantically searched for a place for us to live. We are actually planning on moving to Idaho (more on that below) in a few months so we couldn't move anywhere that required a lease. Finally on the 24th, we found a place - it was a perfect situation for us and it was as if God handed it to us Himself, telling us not to worry and that He would take care of us.

The next day was Monday, and the guy who was supposed to be signing papers with us on Friday called to try to back out of the deal because he found something more appealing. Mark convinced him to keep his word and he decided to stay with us. I had a sick feeling in my gut all day on Tuesday, knowing I desperately needed to pack but being afraid that it wasn't going to go through. On Wednesday morning, I decided to just go ahead and pack because I had so much to do in just a couple of days. I packed all morning. Then, in the afternoon, this guy called to let us know that he didn't have any money to sign the lease papers and he was calling it off. I was angry and at the same time relieved. So, we're not moving out of our condo - at least not yet!

That brings me to the next topic: our pending future move to Idaho. We've been toying with the idea of moving to Boise for over a year now. We really want to raise our children around their grandparents and include our extended family in their lives. In most ways, Boise will be a better place for us to raise our family. It is a smaller city with much less crime and less traffic. It is a more conservative area with favorable laws on homeschooling and families in general. And since we want to have a few more kids, it will be much easier to raise them with the help of Mark's parents. It will also be a day's drive closer to my parents in Colorado which will make it feasible to visit them much more often. AND, real estate is about half the price as it is in the Seattle area, which is appealing for obvious reasons!

The biggest reason we don't want to leave here is our amazing and wonderful community at Beit Tikvah. BT has been a place of huge spiritual growth and maturity for us as well as a place that has fostered some wonderful relationships. Our faith has deepened to a level we never realized possible before, and we have a foundation that will support us for the rest of our lives. For those of you who don't know, Beit Tikvah is a Messianic congregation. Essentially, it is a place where we keep the Torah as a part of our relationship with God. We keep the Sabbath, celebrate and honor the Biblical holidays (Leviticus 23) and eat Biblically kosher. We are very similar to a typical Jewish community except for the major difference that we believe in the deity of Yeshua (Jesus). Our rabbi's teachings are very solid and Biblically-sound and relevant to our lives. (Side note: you can listen to them yourself from BT's website link on the right!) Such a community is not easy to come by! There are a lot of flaky communities in the Messianic movement, but our is definitely not one of them! We have developed so much there and have fostered some wonderful friendships that we will always treasure.

That being said, we still believe that it is God's will for us to move on from here into a new place, spiritually as well as physically. I remember when we first started attending BT, and Mark told me that he believed that we would be there for a short time - maybe a couple of years - and then God would move us on somewhere else. At the time, I prayed he was wrong but knew he probably wasn't. I've learned to trust Mark's prophetic gift and his ability to hear from God. So all this time we knew deep down that this was probably just going to be a relatively short season of our lives, but I think all along we hoped it would last forever. We don't know what kind of a community of believers we will find ourselves in when we move to Boise, but we do know that at the end of this time we will live forever in a world of Torah observance, where all the nations with gather in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Sukkot together with Yeshua! We will always cherish our relationships at BT, though, and hope to visit there whenever we are able.

So, we will continue trying to sell our condo (or do a lease-to-own) and Mark will start looking for a job in Boise, and our plan is to move in the beginning of June. We'll see how things go!

In the meantime, here are some recent pictures of our beautiful blessings from God!


Eliza will be two at the end of March and our next event with her will be learning to use the potty! I am especially looking forward to it! :o) She is talking a lot now and starting to really use her imagination in play which has been loads of fun!


Judah is 6 1/2 months and is growing up so fast! He is sitting up (for a few weeks now) and starting to crawl already! I think that he is always challenged by his big sister and is pushing himself more than she did at his age. He's such a joy!

Well, everyone, I must end this very long post. Have a wonderful day... and leave me a comment - I'm curious if anyone reads this thing!! ;o)

-Judy

p.s. Oh - and by the way - I voted for Mike Huckabee...

Passover This Year

I love Passover! I love having the Seder together with friends and family and celebrating the sacrifice of Yeshua. Every year I am amazed all over again at how Yeshua fulfilled so much of the Passover. For those of you who don't know what I am referring to, here are a couple of the most well-known fulfillments:

The Passover Lamb:
- The lamb was set aside for 4 days on the 10th of Nisan. Yeshua was on public display for 4 days starting on the 10th of Nisan (commonly referred to in Christian circles as "Palm Sunday").
- The lamb was sacrificed on the 14th of Nisan, right before the start of Passover at sundown. Yeshua also was sacrificed on the same day. (Side note: During the 2nd temple period, there was much controversy as to the actual date of Passover, whether it be the 14th or 15th. It was common to keep it on both nights which explains the keeping of the Passover Seder with His disciples the evening before his crucifixion.)
- The lamb could not have a blemish. Yeshua was without blemish/sin.
- The lamb was sacrificed around 3pm (at the time of the afternoon sacrifices). Yeshua was crucified at the same time.
- The lamb's bones were not broken. Yeshua's bones were not broken.

The Afikoman:
- There are 3 pieces of matzah wrapped in a cloth that have traditionally not had a good explanation. Some say they symbolize Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and some say they stand for the Aaronic Priests, the Levites, and the Israelites.
- During the seder, the leader is to remove the middle piece of matzah, break it in half, wrap half in a cloth and hide it. No one understands why one would break Isaac or the Levites, respectively.
- But if you look at the 3 pieces of matzah as Elohim - our Lord who exists as several entities, and look at the pieces as G-d in heaven, Yeshua His Son, and G-d's Spirit which dwells in us, it makes sense. Yeshua was sacrificed for us, wrapped in a cloth and put away in a tomb until the Sabbath when He rose.
- This also explains why Yeshua in His last seder with His disciples, showed them the matzah and compared it to Himself saying, "This is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me."

Anyway, I love all of the Biblical Holidays, but Passover is definitely one of my favorites. We had a wonderful time together this year. Mark and I had our first home seder (just us and Eliza) reclined at our coffee table. I'll never forget Mark's reading of "Dayenu." He wept as he thought about how grateful he was to G-d for all of His wonderful blessings in our lives and the lives of those before us.

"L'Shanah haba'ah bi Yerushalayim!"

My convictions...

Lately I've encountered a lot of people who accept or reject something in God's word based on their "convictions." That kind of logic is everywhere- "God is different to each person" or "We all believe in the same God, just in different ways." I hear it on the news, on sitcoms, and just in daily life. My former boss told me, "Yeah, I believe in God- I'm not sure what I believe though. But that's okay 'cause all that really matters is that I'm a good person, right?"

And we all expect that from those people who are not born again - those without a living and real relationship with the creator of the universe. But what about when it comes from fellow Christians? Lately I've been hearing a lot of Christians say that "I'm just not convicted of that" when asked about something in the Bible. They use the passage that says that the Spirit of God will lead us to all truth to mean that if they don't feel "led" in a certain direction, then it's not what God wants.

But let me say right now that my convictions are now and will always be subject to the Word of God - not the other way around! If I start using my own convictions and feelings to interpret God's word (and I sometimes do), I am treading on dangerous ground. It's those kind of thoughts that lead to "Christian Gays" and those couples in churches everywhere who live together outside of marriage because "they're commited to each other, and they're not convicted about it."

It's high time for those who serve God in this world to stop thinking like the world and start holding ourselves to a higher standard! I challenge us all - me included - to pursue holiness at any cost - even when other Christians don't understand. Let's start taking the Word of God at face value and subject our convictions to it's words - not the other way around!