New reading cycle started...
The new reading cycle started. I have been slowly moving my blog to another blog. As I do that, I am modifying it. My writing ability is poor, and even I can see it when I re-read my blog after a year. I have no idea what I was trying to say. So I cleaned up the extra feeling and comments and tried to make it to the point. I stopped when I caught up with the beginning of the reading cycle. I will combine last year's and this year's discoveries. I am also working on another blog in Japanese. This is my tiny contribution to introduce the Bible to the world. Why am I doing this? It is fun to write on the blog, and I can continue where as I tend to stop writing on a notebook. Something about the keyboard and the screen... Also I want to share what I learned.
My new blog is the same title as this one.
My new blog is the same title as this one.
Ha'Azinu = give ears = hear
I am a Christian but I was very touched by a commentary of a rabbi. How I got there is a long story, but I thought this was an amazing explanation of Joshua's name as Hoshea!! This is in Deuteronomy 3244. Here is the whole chapter. My heart rejoiced after learning the insight. If anyone reads my blog, I hope I don't offend Christians or Jewish people by my usage of the rabbi's commentary. God loves the Jewish people and God loves us. God wants us to love the enemy (I know it is easy for me to say because I am not at the war zone) and Christian leaders preach that and we Christians go to God and ask Him to give us grace to do so. Then why not loving the Jewish rabbis? Judaism is the root of Christianity. So here is the link. Ha'Azinu is one of the reading portions in Deuteronomy. (32:1-52) Moshe is Moses. Yehoshua is how Joshua is pronounced in Hebrew. Hoshea in the commentary is Hosea in the Christian's Bible (Deut. 32:44). In some translations, Hosea is translated as Joshua (I think it was NLT) instead of Hosea, which is in essence right, but then the impact is not there after we understand why Joshua's name is not Joshua here... Yud the rabbi is talking about is one of the Hebrew letters. Just like the letter h (I wrote about it some time ago), the letter yud has a meaning. Each little dots count in the old testament. 
In case anyone reads this blog, these little notes may be helpful to understand what the commentary is talking about.
After I read the commentary, the Holy Spirit guided me into a prayer for our next generation. The next generation needs to decided on their own whether they are for God or not, just like Joshua did. Now the leader (Moses) is going to stay on this side of the river, and you have to go on with the Israelites. All the glories we saw in the past and all the success we experienced in the past, are they because of our own strength? I pray and pray that my children, their generation and their children and and grandchildren will choose to walk with God!! Each generation needs to make a choice, too, and not just the next generation. We also need to remember who we are. So many examples in the Bible teach us that they fall because they forgot who they were. God is teaching me that in my humble situation at school. As I have more confidence I noticed that I feel like I can go through another class because I did well in my previous class. How easy it is to think that 'I' did it when the strength and power and success only come from our God. I am still a timid person with a proud heart. May my pride not overpower me...
In case anyone reads this blog, these little notes may be helpful to understand what the commentary is talking about.After I read the commentary, the Holy Spirit guided me into a prayer for our next generation. The next generation needs to decided on their own whether they are for God or not, just like Joshua did. Now the leader (Moses) is going to stay on this side of the river, and you have to go on with the Israelites. All the glories we saw in the past and all the success we experienced in the past, are they because of our own strength? I pray and pray that my children, their generation and their children and and grandchildren will choose to walk with God!! Each generation needs to make a choice, too, and not just the next generation. We also need to remember who we are. So many examples in the Bible teach us that they fall because they forgot who they were. God is teaching me that in my humble situation at school. As I have more confidence I noticed that I feel like I can go through another class because I did well in my previous class. How easy it is to think that 'I' did it when the strength and power and success only come from our God. I am still a timid person with a proud heart. May my pride not overpower me...
Remembering to sing with a thanksgiving heart
After digging into God's words and looking into Hebrew dictionary with numbers, then my textbooks and more numbers (because I am studying med. billing and coding), I remembered to look up again... Thankfulness and worship are essential for my soul yet I ...sort of... neglected because I was reading and I thought studying was satisfying me. My what? My ....self. Over and over again I do this. Over and over again the LORD is waiting. I am back. I am singing in the car again.
Lord, I don't usually dance, but ..
Dance with me!
I feel like it today.
Lord, I don't usually dance, but ..
Dance with me!
I feel like it today.
Encouraging God #2
A ruler of the synagogue, Jairus (meaning, whom God enlightens) came to see Jesus, he fell at his feet and asked Jesus to come to his house to pray for his daughter.
Then the woman who was suffering from bleeding for 12 years came up to Jesus to touch his fringe. Jesus was on his way to Jairus' house. The crowd was around him. The disciples were with him. Jesus stopped, looked around, and took time talking to this woman! What if I were Jairus? Ahhhh... 'Excuse me, but my daughter is dying, we don't have much time. Jesus needs to be there now, please..." Then I am not sure if I could be happy for this woman who was healed. Because someone from the house came and reported that Jairus' daughter died... while he was spending some time with this woman. Jesus was on his way to his house. I would have cried with such a disappointment. I don't see how Jairus reacted. A woman who suffered for 12 years was healed. But Jairus' 12 year old daughter died.
But Jesus is not restricted by the time frame. He was not too late.
Beth Moore said this in her "Beloved Disciple."
"A loved one's death is not a time to quit bothering Jesus." "He doesn't have our limitations or rationalizations. Has a death left you with unfinished business? Finish it with Jesus."
When I was doing the study last year my aunt passed away. These words from Beth Moore in the textbook was very encouraging to me. We don't know what happened to the loved ones who passed away without Jesus but we can bother Jesus about it until He gives us peace. I don't have the answer, but I pray until I have peace with Jesus. Beth's words gave me renewed confidence in Jesus.
Sometimes we think we were pushed aside but Jesus never forgets about us. He is never too late. He makes a way where there seems to be no way... Jesus raised the girl from the dead.
Then the woman who was suffering from bleeding for 12 years came up to Jesus to touch his fringe. Jesus was on his way to Jairus' house. The crowd was around him. The disciples were with him. Jesus stopped, looked around, and took time talking to this woman! What if I were Jairus? Ahhhh... 'Excuse me, but my daughter is dying, we don't have much time. Jesus needs to be there now, please..." Then I am not sure if I could be happy for this woman who was healed. Because someone from the house came and reported that Jairus' daughter died... while he was spending some time with this woman. Jesus was on his way to his house. I would have cried with such a disappointment. I don't see how Jairus reacted. A woman who suffered for 12 years was healed. But Jairus' 12 year old daughter died.
But Jesus is not restricted by the time frame. He was not too late.
Beth Moore said this in her "Beloved Disciple."
"A loved one's death is not a time to quit bothering Jesus." "He doesn't have our limitations or rationalizations. Has a death left you with unfinished business? Finish it with Jesus."
When I was doing the study last year my aunt passed away. These words from Beth Moore in the textbook was very encouraging to me. We don't know what happened to the loved ones who passed away without Jesus but we can bother Jesus about it until He gives us peace. I don't have the answer, but I pray until I have peace with Jesus. Beth's words gave me renewed confidence in Jesus.
Sometimes we think we were pushed aside but Jesus never forgets about us. He is never too late. He makes a way where there seems to be no way... Jesus raised the girl from the dead.
leaven is leaven
The following is a quote from this site.
I have been thinking about this topic for a long time. Then last week as I came across a messianic website Then I suddenly remembered about one evening in 1988 or 1989 . A friend of mine came over to give me something in a container. I cannot remember what she called it, but it was a bread starter. It was like some bread dough in a small container. She told me to use it to bake some bread but to save a portion of the new batch before I baked a loaf of bread. She said that this bread dough started long ago (sort of like chain letters??) and it hadn't been broken. She wanted me to give the saved portion to someone else so that she could do the same and give a new portion to another person. Just like #2 of the Dictionary.com definition:
2. fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
It looks like Amish people do this.
Now I can understand the concept of not using the old batch into new batch a little more. Just like we are made a brand new christian when we believe in Jesus, the old cannot be there. We are brand new, born again. Just like we cannot put the new wine in the old skin. Our bread needs a brand new ingredients, not to be mixed with the old. Yeast does the function the bread starter. But the concept of 'old' can be better understood with the 'bread starter' method because if the yeast if everywhere in the air, I don't know which one is old.
Matthew 16:5-6 (King James Version)
5And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Here's my thoughts. My friends' bread starter got started long time ago and it continued, adding little more of the new batch. Jesus didn't want us to continue our old way like Pharisees and the Sadducees' traditions. The law is over.
Galatians 3:19 " Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people."
Our Father is so wonderful.
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The word "yeast" comes from the Sanskrit 'yas' meaning "to seethe or boil". Yeast is a living organism and is in the air around us. It is a member of the fungus family and is a single-celled fungi of which there are about 160 different species. Baker's yeast as well as brewer's yeast belong to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae species. Louis Pasteur in the 1850's is credited with first discovering and understanding the fermentation process which led to the development and cultivation of the yeast we use today.
Baker's yeast, like baking powder and baking soda, is used to leavened baked goods
(breads, Danish pastries, brioche, croissants). The difference between these two leaveners is that baking powder/soda react chemically to produce the carbon dioxide that makes the baked goods rise. Yeast, on the other hand, is a living organism and the carbon dioxide it produces is the result of the yeast feeding on the dough.
leaven (according to dictionary.com)
–noun
1. a substance, as yeast or baking powder, that causes fermentation and expansion of dough or batter.
2. fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
3. an element that produces an altering or transforming influence.
I have been thinking about this topic for a long time. Then last week as I came across a messianic website Then I suddenly remembered about one evening in 1988 or 1989 . A friend of mine came over to give me something in a container. I cannot remember what she called it, but it was a bread starter. It was like some bread dough in a small container. She told me to use it to bake some bread but to save a portion of the new batch before I baked a loaf of bread. She said that this bread dough started long ago (sort of like chain letters??) and it hadn't been broken. She wanted me to give the saved portion to someone else so that she could do the same and give a new portion to another person. Just like #2 of the Dictionary.com definition:
2. fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
It looks like Amish people do this.
Now I can understand the concept of not using the old batch into new batch a little more. Just like we are made a brand new christian when we believe in Jesus, the old cannot be there. We are brand new, born again. Just like we cannot put the new wine in the old skin. Our bread needs a brand new ingredients, not to be mixed with the old. Yeast does the function the bread starter. But the concept of 'old' can be better understood with the 'bread starter' method because if the yeast if everywhere in the air, I don't know which one is old.
Matthew 16:5-6 (King James Version)
5And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Here's my thoughts. My friends' bread starter got started long time ago and it continued, adding little more of the new batch. Jesus didn't want us to continue our old way like Pharisees and the Sadducees' traditions. The law is over.
Galatians 3:19 " Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people."
Our Father is so wonderful.
