Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts

Questions and Answers on Shavuot

Questions and Answers about Shavuot for believers in Messiah | Land of Honey

I want to take the time to address some frequently asked questions about the Biblical set apart time of Shavuot, and how it pertains to us as believers in Messiah.

What are the differences between Shavuot and Pentecost? FAQs about Shavuot | Land of Honey
















Are Shavuot and Pentecost the same thing?

The words Shavuot and Pentecost are used interchangeably in Scripture. Shavuot is the Hebrew word for "Feast of Weeks," whereas Pentecost is Greek for "fiftieth." Both are referring to the set apart time that happens fifty days after the counting of the omer begins during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Of course, different people mean different things by each, but in Scripture they are the same.

Is Shavuot a Sabbath day? Q+A about the Biblical holiday of Shavuot | Land of Honey
Is Shavuot a Sabbath day?Yes, Shavuot is no-work day, and should be treated like the weekly Sabbath. So avoid professional work, shopping, home maintenance, etc. More information on no-work days can be found here.
How to celebrate Shavuot for the first time | Land of Honey

How do you celebrate it? This is my first year celebrating the feast days.To anyone celebrating for the first time - yay! - I am so proud of you for taking this step of faith and cheering you on as you do it!Take the pressure off of yourself to do everything perfectly and shoot to have a nice day of rest, while remembering the incredible gifts we have been given - the written word and the Holy Spirit!Have some good food, read your Bible, get together with other believers if possible, give an offering to YHWH, give gifts if you wish, pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and make or buy two loaves of bread to remember YHWH's abundant provision that we celebrate during this time.
Questions and answers about the Biblical holiday of Shavuot or Pentecost | Land of Honey

What day is it?It varies depending on what calendar you go by, but most people will celebrate Shavuot from the evening of May 25 to the evening of May 27. Others will celebrate it May 28. (These dates are for 2023!) Shavuot always happens fifty days after the First Fruits offering after Passover.
Questions and Answers on Shavuot - what foods to make? | Land of Honey

What kind of bread or other foods do you make?
I like to make strawberry salad or strawberry shortcake! Strawberries are great in my area at this time of year and I like the reminder of the fruit of the Spirit!Milk and honey are often used to symbolize the sweetness of Scripture in our lives, so desserts like cheesecake or fruit tarts are popular as well. See this post for milk and honey dessert recipes!
Shavuot Q+A - food ideas | Land of Honey

I also think it's fun to do two loaves of bread of any kind in honor of Leviticus 23:17 that says to offer two loaves to YHWH. This is a great reminder that he provides more than enough for our needs. You could make or buy fancy breads made with herbs or olives or cheese or you an ultimate make your own grilled cheese bar, with lots of different cheeses, veggies, and condiments! Babka is another fun bread for Shavuot.
Questions and Answers about the Biblical Holiday of Shavuot | Land of Honey

What Bible passages are good for this time?Great things to study during Shavuot would be the covenant, and the Holy Spirit. The book of Ruth is traditionally studied at this time of year. Leviticus 23:15-21, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12, Exodus 20:1-17, and Galatians 5:22 are some of my favorites.
Shavuot in Scripture - FAQs about Shavuot | Land of Honey

Here are some more verses to check out! See this post.
How to celebrate Shavuot + questions and answers on this Biblical set apart time | Land of Honey

What do you do to celebrate?Take the day off work, spend time with loved ones, talk about the ways you have seen the Holy Spirit at work in your life, read Acts 2, go see wheat being harvested if possible, make a big fruit salad to symbolize the fruit of the Spirit, get immersed, host a Bible study!
What you need to know about Shavuot - frequently asked questions | Land of Honey

What verses tell us that believers in Messiah should observe the feasts?Exodus 34:22 - "You shall observe the festival of Shavuot."We should celebrate Shavuot because Scripture tells us to! Nowhere in Scripture does it tell us that the set apart times are done away with! This post goes into more details about why we as believers in Messiah should keep the feasts.
What you need to know about Shavuot - frequently asked questions | Land of Honey

Or as Torah Sisters says: the giving of the law and the giving of the Spirit are big deals!
When does the omer counter start? | Land of Honey

When do we actually start counting?Scripture instructs us to count fifty days and then celebrate Shavuot. Our starting point for that is the Sunday after Passover, which is known as First Fruits. This is the day the Messiah rose from the grave!
Shavuot Q+A - how to celebrate with kids | Land of Honey

Ways to celebrate with toddlers?Crafts and Bible stories around the fruit of the Spirit, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the ten commandments are all very appropriate!Bible Pathway Adventures has free activity and coloring sheets for kids too!
Shavuot Q+A - the menorah | Land of Honey

Does the lamp stand all over the Bible have any significance with this?The lamp stand that the Bible talks about is a seven branched menorah! This correlates with the seven Biblical holidays.
Shavuot Q+A - ways to celebrate | Land of Honey
How to celebrate?This is a day to remember the giving of Scripture and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! I enjoy getting together at a lake with other believers (the lake is a great opportunity for immersion), we share a meal and read/discuss Bible stories related to these times.I also like finding ways to 'give the word' to others - sharing a printable Bible verse, memorizing a passage to share with others, gathering Bibles to donate etc.
Shavuot Q+A - the meaning behind the holiday | Land of Honey
What is the meaning of it?On Shavuot we remember both the giving of the written word and commandments, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. It is also a time when we celebrate that YHWH provides for our needs! Shavuot happens when wheat is being harvested. During Bible times, wheat was a significant part of the daily diet, and the harvest being brought in was a tangible reminder of YHWH providing for them! On Shavuot we look back at the ways YHWH provided in Scripture and in our own lives.
More on Shavuot:
Celebrating the Fruit of the Spirit at Shavuot
Shavuot Provision
Seven Ways to Celebrate Shavuot

Quitting Christmas Q+A

Qutting Christmas questions and answers from someone who's been there | Land of Honey

For the first 20 years of my life I was an enthusiastic Christmas celebrator. Christmas was special to me and I felt it had spiritual significance. My family loved celebrating the birth of our Messiah. We never did much with Santa and our family emphasized that the point of this season was Yahusha. We meant well.

Of course, Scripture doesn't teach that we can do what we want as long as we have good intentions. As with Hanukkah, there are no passages of Scripture telling us to celebrate Christmas, or even the Messiah's birth. Most of us have heard of the paganism involved in this holiday, so I don't want to take the time to extrapolate the pagan connections to Christmas, but I would recommend this video if you are interested in learning more.

I stopped celebrating Christmas and I know that most people don't get that, especially at this time of year. It's not a subject that most people are willing to talk about. I get that because I used to get defensive about it as well. I thought I would address here some of the questions I've gotten over the years about deciding to no longer celebrate Christmas. Sometimes it's easier to learn when you're alone with an article than when you're confronted by a person you disagree with. :)

Why did you decide to quit Christmas? It started with a prayer, "Take away things in my life that don't honor you." This was at a point where we had already made some changes in our faith practice, like observing Shabbat. Soon after this prayer lots of things about the origins of Christmas came up, and we also heard of many others who stopped celebrating after a closer look at the origins of this day. We knew that YHWH was speaking to us.

A big eye opener for me was realizing that most of the world, religious or not, believers in Messiah or not, celebrates Christmas. If other cultures and religions have no problem with joining in with our holidays, how 'faith based' can they be? Because outside western culture most people can see Christmas for what it really is, and that's not a celebration of the Messiah.

Was it hard to stop celebrating Christmas? Very! We didn't choose to walk away because we didn't enjoy it nor value it. It felt like something was missing when we didn't put stockings up or bake Christmas cookies, but we knew we wanted to follow YHWH. The first year or two is like working to lift a very heavy weight from your chest, definitely a difficult process and not fun at the time, but afterwards you feel so much better. Each year gets easier.

But I love Christmas! Yeah, I did too. The songs. Family gathering. Giving presents. Stockings. The classic stories. Favorite Christmas movies. Manger scenes. Me loving something doesn't equal YHWH's approval though.

But isn't Christmas in the Bible? Actually, many elements of traditional Christmas celebrations get a mention in Scripture, only in a very negative, don't-do-this sort of way. For instance Jeremiah 10 expressly tells us not to learn the ways of those who cut down trees and then deck them with silver and gold. The word Christmas, like Easter, does not appear in Scripture.

What about the 'Christmas' story? The Luke 2 story - angels appearing to Mary and Joseph, the shepherds in the field, Mary giving birth to Yahusha in a sukkah with animals - is absolutely a precious part of Scripture. It's unfortunate that many elements of this have been totally misconstrued. The wise men didn't arrive for a couple of years after his birth. The shepherds didn't have their sheep grazing on winter's snow. The date was certainly not December 25. And the name that the angel declared the Messiah would be called was not Jesus. And of course at the time of the Messiah's birth no one in Bethlehem had a tree up in their home or told their children stories of elves making toys on the North Pole.

Shouldn't we celebrate our Savior's birth though? Should we be grateful that Yahusha came to earth in the flesh to bring us correct understanding of the Word and ultimately to die for our sins? Of course! May we always be. That said, Scripture does not tell us we should and birthday celebrations aren't a Hebrew idea. The two or three birthdays Scripture mentions (Pharaoh, King Herod, possibly Job's son) all end in death. If you still find yourself wanting to celebrate his birth the appropriate time to do that would be when Yahusha was actually born, in the fall during Sukkot.

I know the Messiah really wasn't born in December but this tradition is important to me and I mean well. There is another story of a group of people that feared and loved YHWH who decided to throw a festival in his honor. Offerings were made. Time was spent making a beautiful decoration. They feasted on food and drink. They laughed and played games. How did YHWH respond to this? Was he appreciative? Did he say, "well it's the thought that counts"? He was ready to kill them. You can read about this incident in Exodus 32.

Can't God redeem pagan things? Reading through Scripture this doesn't seem to be his approach. He could have redeemed the golden calf (they did mean it as a celebration to YHWH after all - Exodus 32:5), but didn't and the people were punished. He could have used that temple of ba'al as a worship center for himself but instead had it turned into a public toilet (2 Kings 10:27). He could have re-purposed some of those asherah poles but always ordered them to be smashed. He could have told us to accept our culture but he said, "Come out of her and be clean."

What about the kids? Yes, making changes can be disappointing for children. Changing holidays is tough for all ages. But it's far better that children grow up learning truth and how to walk in YHWH's ways, than to be blinded by cultural lies in the name of fun. Not celebrating Christmas doesn't mean you have to be miserable though. Replacing pagan holidays with the seven festivals of YHWH can be tremendously joyful as you set apart his times. Plus, YHWH's feast days make up 19 days of the year, not to mention the weekly Shabbat. That's a lot more celebrating than the five or six days of cultural holidays.

Don't you miss celebrating it? My siblings both live out of state so I'm often nostalgic for days when my whole family is together, including at Christmas. There are a few Christmas songs that I really liked that I miss. Other than that, no. I don't find myself wishing my house was decked in red and green or anything like that.

Wait a minute, are you just trying to take Christ out of Christmas? Well, sort of. I think Christ should be removed from Christmas because, well, he doesn't have anything to do with it in the first place. I think it's sad and ironic one of the few causes Believers are willing to rally behind is this. Not the persecution of Believers in the Middle East, not the Ten Commandments being removed from public buildings, not the rights of students to be able to pray in schools, just that cups at Starbucks aren't plastered with the name of a holiday the Messiah didn't celebrate. I have yet to hear anyone who is upset about a "happy holidays" greeting complain that Starbucks doesn't go unleavened during Matzah Week or that no major retailer has a Shavuot section.

How do you feel when you see Christmas stuff? Okay, so no one has actually asked me about this but maybe it's something people wonder about? When I walk into an office with a tree up or visit a friend's fully decorated home or see manger scenes in the neighborhood my heart sighs. I think, there is so much more for you.

What's the best part of not keeping Christmas? My faith has grown so much by taking this tangible step to follow YHWH! It's nice to read through Scriptures like Jeremiah 10 and not make excuses for what I'm doing, and also to be able to relate to people like Ruth who left their culture to live YHWH's way.

Also, this sounds odd but seasonality has been something I've worked on lately. Things like eating the foods that are seasonally available, and adjusting sleep patterns with sunlight and so forth. And it always felt unnatural to me that during what is typically a cold and icy month we would travel so much, to stores and parties and so on. Having December as more of a low key time makes so much more sense to me. The lovely Spring and Fall weather of Passover and Sukkot is when I want to be out doing things. Does that make sense? It might not be something you can appreciate until you've been there.

What's weird about Christmas now? So many things, but mostly the Santa pictures I see on social media. Can we talk about how weird it is that suddenly handing your baby off to a random stranger is acceptable? Doesn't it seem unwise to teach your child it's okay to trust this man they don't know? Should college girls really be sitting on the lap of some guy in costume? The really bizarre thing is that my not-so-religious friends don't seem to care much about this but the ones on staff at a church or who went to seminary or Bible college? They are hunting Santa down! I don't get that, okay?!

How do family and friends feel about you not celebrating? Some have taken it better than others. But usually it's a range from confused to offended. And for that, I am sorry. The last thing I want is to hurt feelings. This change doesn't impact that I love the people in my life. I get why they enjoy Christmas, because I did for so long too. I just feel like YHWH has called us to better things.

How do you handle Christmas parties? On one hand, I definitely get wanting to avoid all connection to and appearance of celebrating Christmas. On the other, it does seem in John 10 that Yahusha was at the temple during Hanukkah festivities. Of course, he was not throwing the party or leading the songs or making the donuts. He was teaching truth. So I think a lot of this decision depends on what you would be doing at the party. Wearing an ugly sweater, giving a secret Santa gift, and just participating in whatever the Christmas party is doing is very different from the family reunion type of events where you can share with a pro-life cousin what is so horrific about a yule log. Obviously you need to pray and ask YHWH for direction on this, but chances are you will be less busy than normal.

How do you reconcile viewing Christmas as ungodly with good childhood memories of it? All I can say is that we did what we thought to be true at the time. 2 Peter 3:18 tells us that we should grow in the knowledge of Yahusha. Growth means changing. Just as a mature flower looks different than it did when it was a seedling, we can grow without resenting our past. My family celebrated what we believed to be was something that honored YHWH. Now that we know differently our lives should reflect that.

How about you? What kind of questions do you get asked? Is this something you're comfortable talking about?