But God, What if … ?

Exodus 4:1

Moses answered (God), “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

I must confess, I love it when these important men of the Bible question God. Not because I want to encourage others to do the same. I mean, there’s no point, right? But when I see someone of great faith have weak moments, I know there’s hope for me. So no, I don’t use this as an excuse to be sloppy. I see it as a call to be more, as was Moses.

So Moses had a what if moment. I can relate. That’s why I’m forty six and only now starting on a path of ministry that others started many a year ago. I know the what ifs.

“What if no one cares what I write?”
 
“What if everyone hates my style?” As though each and every person had the same opinion about anything.

“What if this is a big waste of time?”

“What if people think I’m ugly?” Okay, I’m a little vain.

These are the chains that bind us—Satan’s tools. When God calls us out to do something, there are no what ifs. Only what will be. He knows the outcome already, otherwise He’d never have given us the task.

Does it mean the aspiring writer will be a million-dollar royalty-making published author? (Hmmmm. How ‘bout it Big Guy? All right, all right.) No, it doesn’t. In fact, I know my calling has already touched lives through information disseminated on my blog and the tightening of relationships with people around me. I’m still feeling the call, so I guess there’s more.

Yes, I hope for the contract with a dollar sign in front of six-figures—okay, I’ll take five—somewhere on the page (preferably going to me and not just the publisher). But even if that never happens, I’ll know I’m being used by Him. And like His Grace, it’s sufficient.

Tell us about a WHAT IF moment God used in your life.

Check out Connie’s other Moses-related blog post:

What Did Moses Do Anyway?

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Molly's interview with Christian author Mike Dellosso, the author of Scream, will be posted on April 28th. Molly says Scream will scare the freckles off your nose, but it will also inspire you. Stay tuned.

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POV--How many are too many?

There is a conversation going on over at ACFW about how many points of view to use in a novel. It's generally a point of preference to me--no hard and fast rules. I personally like a story with several points of view. I'm currently working on a book written in first person, which means there is only one point of view throughout the story. So my tastes are eclectic, probably like yours. Multiple points of view work well in a plot-driven book. Keeps the action hopping. Doesn't work as well in a coming-of-age or literary story. I've noticed writers of Christian fiction tend to shy away from multiple points of view. Guess it is what readers like so we must deliver.

Whether you're a fan or not, I believe there can always be too much of a good thing. I'm currently reading a book with about 200 points of view.

Okay, maybe not 200, but more than I can count. I know because I tried. The book is entitled TO DARKNESS AND TO DEATH by Julia Spencer-Fleming. It's a Clare Fergusson/Russ Alstyne Mystery, according to the cover. You couldn't prove it by me though since these two characters are so seldom in the story I keep forgetting who they are.

There is a missing woman--a must in any good mystery--a conspiracy (though I haven't quite figured out what yet) intrigue, forbidden love, and small town scandal. The usual stuff that draws me to a story. The only problem is each chapter jumps into the heads of about 5 major players. I'm usually a few paragraphs in before I remember who it is and what his story is.

The biggest problem with so many characters is I can't decide who to root for. Maybe that's what the author was going for. This way I experience every character's motivation. Every action has a logical reason in the head of the perpetrator, though most of the reasons are dumb and not very well thought out. It's almost like reading 200 short stories that interconnect.

Regardless, it's driving me nuts. I don't know why I keep reading except I want to figure out what the author was thinking when she chose to spend so much time on so many not very interesting characters.

I have two questions for you. Make that three. #1 How many POV's do you prefer in a book? #2 Have you ever read a book that you didn't really enjoy all the way to the end and what possessed you to do so?

THE HARBINGER

A Novel by Jonathan Cahn

Reviewed by Molly Noble Bull

There is a right and a wrong way to do everything from driving a car without crashing into a telephone pole to discovering what is important in life. As an author, I sometimes look at rules and regulations set by teachers and critics I never met personally in deciding how to create successful novels, writers who may or may not agree with me on things most important in life.

Yet though all my years as a writer and then as a published author, I learned that there are things more important than rules and regulations. They are truth and inspiration.

The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn is one of the most inspiring novels I’ve ever read.

It’s really more than a novel. The author, a Messianic Christian rabbi, states that the facts in the book are true. He simply chose to write the truth in a narrative format. 

The book is about an ancient mystery—the secret of America’s future. The Harbinger is not a book designed to cheer one up on a gloomy day. Jonathan Cahn is not a “next year is going to be better than this year” pastor. In fact, The Harbinger sounds like it was written by an Old Testament prophet. The truth is always better than selling beachfront property to those who need to seek higher ground, and Jonathan tells it like it is (or will be) rather than as we might want it to be.

I give The Harbinger five stars because it inspired me and was based on scriptures from the Bible, and it will inspire you, too. Click below to see and hear a twenty-eight minute interview with Jonathan Cahn and learn how to buy the book. 

 

http://www.prophecyinthenews.com/videos/tv-program/ 

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Molly Noble Bull is one of five authors who wrote The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities, a new book from Westbow Press. To find all Molly’s books, write Molly Noble Bull in the search slot at online and walk-in bookstores. 

       

THE BIBLICAL CALENDAR

by  Guest Blogger

Matthew Miller

If you were to ask a person “Can you tell me the time,” the person will most likely look at their watch or cell phone.  In like manner if asked for the date, one would consult the calendar or again check the cell phone.  These sources will give us the time and date but are they really the correct time and date.  Time for the most part is a universal standard.  Dates however depend on what calendar one uses. 

There are many ways to set calendars and even in Christian and Jewish communities there seems to be much debate and uncertainty over “how to” determine days and months.  Even the seventh day Sabbath is going through a fiery trial to hold its independence apart from the moon as a way to determine the correct “seventh day.”

In this article we will find out how the Creator of heaven and earth recons/establishes time.  We will study;

·       What determines the beginning of “regular” months

·        And how the “first” month of the year is determined

Determining the regular months

During the time from Moses to the fourth century, the first visible crescent of the new moon was used to determine the regular months.  The Children of Israel would watch the sky for the crescent new moon and declare that evening Rosh Chodesh (i.e., the first day of the month). 

In the fourth century, Hillel II (a Jewish Rabbi) established a fixed calendar for Judaism based on mathematical and astronomical calculations (cited by R. Avraham Hiyya in his Sefer Ha'ibbur). This Jewish calendar, still in use today, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19 year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years.  This is not the calendar Yahweh established.

Note: Constantine (the Christian emperor) also changed Yahweh’s calendar in the fourth century, a change that remains hidden to most Christians.

Determining the first month of the year

Exd 12:2-20  This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you

During the time when the children of Israel were in the desert they were an agrarian people.  The first harvest of the year would come in early spring, this was the barley harvest.  Yahweh instructed them to bring an offering of flour made from barley, to be waived by the Priest on the day after the Sabbath during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Passover is the 14^th day of the “first” month; the Feast of Unleavened Bread is from the 15^th day to the 21^st day and Firstfruits is the day after the weekly Sabbath during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread.                    

Lev 23:9-11 And Yahweh spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and you reap the harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the Priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

On the day after the Sabbath, the Feast called Firstfruits, a bundle of barley was brought into the Court of the Temple and thrashed; then 'parched' on a pan perforated with holes, so that each grain might be touched by the fire, and finally exposed to the wind. Then it was ground in a barley-mill, which left the hulls whole.  Then the flour was passed through thirteen sieves, until the flour was sufficiently fine (Men. vi. 6, 7).  Though one ephah, or ten omers, of barley was cut down, only one omer of flour (i.e., about 5 pints), was offered in the Temple on Firstfruits as a wave offering.  The omer of flour was mixed with three-fourths of a pint of oil, and a handful (approximately) of frankincense was mixed in it, then a handful was burned on the altar.

In order for this month to be the First month of the year:

·       The barley had to be made into flour for the Firstfruits wave offering

·       Therefore the barley (the flour is made from) must be RIPE

In the spring, as the 12^th month ends (on Yahweh’s calendar), during the last two days of the lunar month, the barley is examined to see if it is Aviv or ripe (i.e., ready to harvest).  Without having Aviv/ripe barley, the flour for the wave offering cannot be presented to Yahweh.  Without having barley flour for the wave offering, the main event for this Feast (the waive offering of barley flour) would be absent.  Without the wave offering, the Feast would be incomplete and therefore unacceptable to Yahweh.

There are two factors Yahweh established to determine the “first” month of the year;

·       The crescent New Moon must be seen

·       The Barley must be Aviv/ripe

The month of Abib

Exd 13:4   This day you came out in the month Abib. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it you came out of Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty handed

Deu 16:1  Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD Yahweh your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.

The English word Abib is Aviv, in Hebrew.  This is why we see the title for this month in scripture called “the Month of Abib.” Because the “first” month of the New Year comes in the spring of the year, the word Aviv is one way to say spring in Modern Hebrew.

Note: If the barley is not Aviv/ripe at the end of the 12th month, an extra month is added to the calendar, and the “first” month of the New Year will arrive at the sighting of the next crescent new moon.

In conclusion

Yahweh is calling Christians to worship Him on His Feast days according to His calendar.  The calendar most Messianic Jews and Christians are using today is based on the Hillel II calendar.  This calendar is based on mathematical calculations, not the visible new moon and ripe barley.  Although many are still using the Hillel calendar, the Biblical calendar Yahweh established is beginning to be used by many who are seeking truth rather than tradition.  Not since the first century have so many believers been drawn to keep Yahweh’s Feast days on the true calendar.  This way of determining time should be something Christians are familiar with, but the blind have been leading the blind.  Yahweh is opening the eyes of pastors, teachers, elders and other leaders within the body of Messiah so that His True Calendar and True Feast days may be understood and therefore taught.

Note: We must never judge our brothers in Messiah for which calendar they use or how they choose to keep the Feasts.

Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.  
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Matthew Miller is a pastor for Yeshua (Jesus.) He pastors The Vineyard of Yahweh -- a Messianic Christian congregation.  
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Check out Molly's newest book, The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities. 

  

JESUS' PASSION, OUR COMPLETION

by Connie Almony 

            As authors, we know the feeling of satisfaction when we write the words “The End” at the bottom of our manuscript. We’ve dispensed the last of our blood, sweat and tears onto a page littered with bits of our soul. Our lives. Our being.

Figuratively, of course.

            As Christians, we pour out this offering in ministry, in hopes it will one day bless someone, draw them closer to God, make their lives more meaningful.

            Yet, there are words more profound, representing a larger sacrifice and an infinitely greater offering. They are not only for the writer, but for each and every one of us on this spinning globe called planet Earth. They are not “The End,” though they can be misunderstood as meaning the same thing.

            “The End,” suggests a story that’s over. However, these words tell of stories just begun. New Creations. Lives stepping out in purpose. They were uttered by our Savior as His Life drained from His flesh and His renewing filled our souls.

We might imagine Him on the cross, looking on His new creation and smiling at the beauty we now embody because the master has given so much to refine us.            Though the blood from His crown of thorns drips into His eyes, and His lungs labor to take in their last breath, He peers at His children, righteous pride swelling in His scarred and battered breast, and declares, “It is finished!”

John 19:30 

                                                           Connie Almony

Check out Connie’s other blogs:

Finding fullness in Christ:

http://livingthebodyofchrist.blogspot.com/     

Group Blog:

http://infinitecharacters.com/

Tales from a Mega-Millions non-winner

I didn’t win the lottery. I would’ve needed better odds than a couple hundred million chances to win since I don’t play. But it’s hard to live in America during the last week without being inundated with images and dreams and false claims of winners and chances and unearned riches.

I get why people play the lottery. (Only marginally though since I’m a natural tightwad and see no sport in throwing money down a hole with virtually no chance of recouping a penny of it.) But I get the allure. I really do. Times are tough. Marriages are falling apart. Families are crumbling. Businesses are outsourcing. Pensions are worthless. And gas prices, well, don’t get me started on gas prices.

Americans need a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope. Something to cling to in uncertain and scary times. It’s fun to take a chance, to dream of a life transformed from the everyday, ho-hum to magical and exotic beyond our wildest fantasies.

Where is your hope? Would winning a few hundred million dollars make all your problems go away? Or make them hurt less? I doubt it. Money—even hundreds of millions of dollars of it—is only temporal. It doesn’t last. It doesn’t provide true peace. There is only one true hope that produces peace and joy regardless of gas prices and insufficient retirement planning.

Hope in a future of no pain, no sorrow, no loss, and eternal fellowship with our Creator is the only true way to happiness and fulfillment. It’s the only thing that lasts. I Peter, chapter one says we have been given a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and an inheritance that can never spoil, perish, or fade…

I don’t mean to belittle or lecture anyone who plays the lottery. That’s a personal choice. I won’t deny an unexpected windfall would be fun for a season. But may we put our hope in a treasure that lasts, where neither moth nor rust can destroy.

THE OMEGA CONSPIRACY by I.D.E. Thomas

Article by Molly Noble Bull

http://www.mollynoblebull.com/

According to The Ancient Alien series via the History Channel, aliens from other planets visited earth eons ago, planted mankind here and promised to return one day. Science fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke, called the last generation of man before this possible scenario Childhood’s End in his novel by that name while Greek mythology and children’s literature are full of giants and super heroes.

However, these premises don’t fit with the biblical account of creation. So, where can the truth be found?

The Omega Conspiracy by I.D. E. Thomas explains that what science fictions authors, the History Channel and others call ancient aliens were actually the fallen angels found in the Book of Genesis, chapter 6.

Some say that the Bible calls angels “the sons of God”—whether good angels or bad ones. You will find this information interesting when you read the scripture verses below. 

[And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

And the Lord said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.]

Genesis 6 verses 1-6. 

The Omega Conspiracy was published in 1986, and the book agrees with Greek Mythology and the History Channel. Ancients did come down to earth and were certainly mighty men of old, but they didn’t come from other planets. They were fallen angels who fell from Grace, married human woman and bore children with them. Their offspring were giants, both in size and intelligence. The giants were also called the nephilim, and they were super evil.

Will the fallen angels and their evil offspring return to earth one day as they promised?

I.D.E Thomas and others think perhaps the fallen angels and their offspring are in the process of returning now.

How do you spell flying saucers?

The Omega Conspiracy by I.D.E. Thomas is a fast and exciting read, and it can be ordered from Amazon. Just write The Omega Conspiracy by I.D.E. Thomas in the search slot at online and walk-in bookstores.