+DEV+ Messiah, our Firstfruits

Date: November 25, 2014 11:53 PM

Topic: +DEV+  Messiah, our Firstfruits

Messiah, our Firstfruits

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:20

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 23:9-14; Deuteronomy 26:1-10

Just days after the Passover, God institutes the offering of firstfruits on His calendar of appointed times. Firstfruits was the first day after the sabbath following Passover. The offering was made in remembrance of Israel's bondage in Egypt, the Lord's deliverance from slavery, and their possession of "a land that flows with milk and honey." The Feast of Firstfruits was also a celebration of the firstfruits of the barley harvest, the first harvest celebration of the year for Israel. 

But like all of God's appointed times, what was given to the nation of Israel was only a temporary "picture" or a "shadow" which had a future fulfillment pointing to the permanent reality of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is called "the firstfruits." After His crucifixion and burial, He rose from the grave early Sunday morning, on the first day of the week and exactly on the Feast of Firstfruits. Crucified on Passover; raised on Firstfruits. God pre-ordained His appointed times for great things.

Insight: "According to the laws of legal evidence... there is more evidence for the... resurrection of Jesus than for just about any other event in history." (Dr. Simon Greenleaf)

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

+DEV+ Our Messiah, Our Communion

Date: November 24, 2014 12:12 AM

Topic: +DEV+  Our Messiah, Our Communion

Our Messiah, Our Communion

"...do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19

Scripture Focus: Exodus 12:14; Luke 22:1-20

The night before our Messiah Jesus was to endure His suffering on the cross, He assembled Himself with His beloved disciples to share in the Passover. The Passover was part of the Old Testament Law, one of those very special Appointed Times that the Lord gave to Israel on her yearly calendar. "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD - a lasting ordinance" (Exodus 12:14). 

As they were all enjoying their Passover seder (the holiday ritual meal) in that upper room in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, "...Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take it; this is my body.' Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many...'" (Mark 14:22-24). 

When we observe the Lord's Supper, remember His death upon the cross and the picture God gave us in the Passover of a "lasting ordinance" for all His people.

Insight: Clothe yourselves with meekness and be renewed in faith - that is, the flesh of the Lord. And in love - that is, the blood of Jesus Christ. (Ignatius)

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

Date: November 20, 2014 12:55 AM

Topic: +DEV+  Messiah, Our Passover

Messiah, Our Passover

"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation." 1 Corinthians 5:7

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 23:4-5; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

The first of seven "appointed" annual Feast days given by the LORD to Israel was the Passover. But it wasn't all about the food. This was about history - the mighty God of Israel delivering His people from slavery and bondage in a foreign land.

On occasions our family would retell the story of how "the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt" (Exodus 12:51), I always wondered why it was the blood of a lamb "on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses" which saved God's people from certain death. They were saved by the blood of the lamb.

God's people are still saved by the blood of the Lamb today! One day John the Baptizer saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Jesus is our true Passover Lamb!

Insight: There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.  (William Cowper, 1772)

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

+DEV+ Messiah, Our Rest

Date: November 18, 2014 12:45 AM

Topic: +DEV+  Messiah, Our Rest

Messiah, Our Rest

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 23:3; Matthew 11:28-30

The origin of the Sabbath goes back to Creation. After creating the heavens and the earth in six days, God "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made" (Genesis 2:2). Was God tired after all that creative work of putting together the universe? Did He need a rest? Of course not! 

Sabbath is the Hebrew word Shabbat which means "to stop or cease from work." Creation was complete and God simply stopped what He was doing. Likewise, in Leviticus 23:3, God sets aside the seventh day Sabbath as one of His appointed times, a day every week when He would have a holy encounter with His people - a day when they, too, would cease from all work. 

But the Sabbath rest given to Israel was, again, only a shadow. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then you have already "entered into" His Sabbath rest. "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9). 

Are you wearied and burdened? Come to Jesus - His burden is light, and only He will give you complete Sabbath rest.

Insight:  "Rest in God's love. the only work you are required now to do is to give your most intense attention to His still, small voice within."(Madame Jeanne Guyon)

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

+DEV+ God's Appointed Times

Date: November 16, 2014 9:54 PM

Topic: +DEV+  God's Appointed Times

God's Appointed Times

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me..." John 5:39

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 23; John 5:39-40

Jesus often rebuked the Jewish religious leaders of His day. They should have recognized Him as Israel's long-awaited Messiah. They had the Hebrew Scriptures containing detailed "pictures" painted by God Himself to reveal the identity of the Redeemer. But they missed Him, and God held them accountable, "... because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you" (Luke 19:44). 

Jesus told the Pharisees that the things concerning Him would now be "hidden" from their eyes. But in every generation God has kept a "remnant" of believing Jews for Himself, a fact for which I am eternally grateful. Some of us who are Jewish, by God's grace and sovereign desire, can still see Jesus clearly through those "Scriptures that testify about me..."

And there is no better place to see the Jewish Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures than in the Holy days given to Israel in Leviticus 23. While the Hebrew Scriptures provided the pictures-the shadows-the New Testament points us to the reality, the fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Insight: Chasing a shadow is a vain venture: don't chase the shadow; chase the substance.

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

+DEV+ The Calendar, By God

Date: November 14, 2014 12:46 AM

Topic: +DEV+  The Calendar, By God

The Calendar, By God

"This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year." Exodus 12:2

Scripture Focus: Exodus 12:1-2; Psalm 104:19

All of God's important dates were written far in advance, even before the foundations of the Earth. When He gave His calendar to Israel, He marked those dates in the stars, kept them by the moon and observed them by the sun. "The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down" (Psalm 104:19). 

But God doesn't only have a calendar for Israel; He has one for each of us! Before you were born, He knew all about you. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" (Jeremiah 1:5). He knows when you will die. "...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:16). Israel's King David wrote, "My times are in your hands" (Psalm 31:15). 

The sovereign Creator of all things has given us His calendar and His appointed times because "For everything there is an appointed time, even a time for every affair under the heavens" (Ecclesiastes 3:1). What is written on God's calendar for you? Each event in your life He has ordained.

Insight: Seek God with a renewed heart and watch His calendar come alive with your own divine destiny.

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm

+DEV+ The God of The Universe

Date: November 13, 2014 12:28 AM

Topic: +DEV+  The God of The Universe

The God of The Universe

"And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years..." Genesis 1:14

Scripture Focus: Genesis 1:14-19

Sitting at my desk in my home office, I realize it is time to discard October from the wall calendar now filled with handwritten scribbles of history. Appointments completed, birthdays past, holidays enjoyed, reminders reminded-are all just recent memories to me as the new month begins. 

But as I glance over my shoulder towards the joining wall, another calendar stares back at me. This one, still, has all of its pages attached. It is a 2013 calendar, patiently waiting the new year.

The God who created time also created His calendar. And He marked "the seasons and days and years" even before He created any living thing-or any one! He told us that His calendar would serve as "signs" and these "seasons" would be His "Appointed Times." Each of us, created by God who has numbered our days, can approach a new month in celebration of our Maker and His marvelous plan for us.

Insight: The creator of time appoints all things; they are planned by his own hand, and formed according to his own timetable.

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.

We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,

If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.

A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site:    http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm