Passover is coming!

 As we near the Seder and the coming week of Unleavened Bread, I am filled with anticipation for the coming days and weeks. In the time leading up to this Feast, all of the leaven is removed from our homes in preparation for Unleavened Bread. The Feast days are always a special time for us... A time filled with peace and joy and excitement for the days when we will celebrate the Feasts in Jerusalem at the Temple and the Messiah will rule and reign from His holy throne. Each year, at the end of the Passover Seder, we all cry out "Next year in Jerusalem!" 

I have yet to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, but we say it in hope and look forward to the days when we will. 

The Feasts are a time of spiritual renewal. 

Of remembrance. 

Of joy and peace, and of hope for the coming redemption. 

During this Feast, we are commemorating when the Israelites who were in bondage and enslaved in Egypt were brought out by God's outstretched arm through many great miracles. What a truly amazing time in history, when God was so near to Moses that he could speak to the Holy One of 

Israel like you and I can talk today!

The very first Passover took place on a dark night. 

The angel of death moved through the land of Egypt, killing and causing the death of countless firstborns who didn't have the blood of the lamb painted on the door frames of their homes. 

It was a night of tragedy and horror... For some. 

God saved the ones who had the blood on the door frames, the sign to the angel of death that these were children of the most high God. 

They were saved. 

I have a difficult time celebrating the deaths of so many people, as necessary as it must have been in God's plan.. Pharaoh brought it on the heads of his people by refusing to let God's people go. But it's not the deaths that we  celebrate, it's the lives that were saved. 

It's the lives that weren't lost to the death angel. And it's the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise. 

As we spend the next few days preparing for the Passover Seder and Unleavened bread, be filled with joy and hope and anticipation for the coming redemption... A time when our Messiah will rule and reign from Jerusalem and when sorrow and sighing and tears and pain will be no more. 

A time when we will all go to Jerusalem for the Feasts, united together under one God. 

Don't let the contention and strife that rises up right before these important times distract you from what God is trying to do. The enemy likes to disrupt things during these times and tries to get us to stop focusing on God and to instead focus on us and our problems and the things of this world. Keep your eyes focused on God and don't allow your joy to be stolen from the enemy. 

Looking back to last Passover, I am amazed at where I was that week and where I am today. 

So much in my life has changed and so many things have happened, but in the end, I know that it was all supposed to be that way in order for my relationship with the Father to grow deeper and stronger. Some things have changed, some things are still the same, but these times are times of testing and growth. 

In the Modeh Ani (Morning prayers) we thank God for our failures, for every letdown, fear and setback, for they are all in our favor. Don't look back on your year with guilt and regret. Instead, look back on your year and see how far God has brought you. Then, look forward.

  The redemption is coming.