| The candles that my cousins
lit at Chanukah are to remind us of the rededication of the temple
after the Maccabees won a battle. There is a story that a small
jug of fine oil lasted eight days for light in the Temple, although
it was enough for only one day. This is on the 25th of
Kislev, around Christmastime.
Everything that God ordered in the Tabernacle is continued
in the Temple and the Churches, either in a symbolic way or the
same as it was when the Hebrew people carried the tent, the Tabernacle,
and the Ark of the Covenant with them through the Wilderness.
The prayers God told to Moses, the incense, the bells, and
the pomegranates on Aaron's robes, all continue today in one form
or another. We still smell, hear, and see the signs or symbols of
God's first Church in the Wilderness.
When three angels came to Abraham in his tent, he spoke
to them as God. Abraham knew in the beginning about God the Father,
Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When Mommy and I prayed together our one greatest prayer, we
said, "Sh'ma, Y'israel, adonoy elohenu adonoy echod."
That means, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is
one." We said God three times.
This prayer is as old as the Hebrew people. It is the prayer
that God commanded from the beginning.
God used symbols in lots of ways to teach us. A symbol is a
sign. The Lamb of God is a symbol of Easter.
The Passover Lamb is a symbol of the sacrifice of God's Son
to give us a release from the idea that in death we die. He proved
to us that we do not die. Like the butterfly, we have to become
brilliant and beautiful in our souls by staying inside a case, the
body, for a while.
The word death should really be changed, for it has
the wrong meaning now.
In the Talmud, it says a person who has been ill may take a
new name to forget the illness in a new way of thinking, and become
a new person.
Since Jesus came, the words "life" and "death"
have a new meaning. We know now death is a word that tells only
the end, not the beginning.
We would have kept on not knowing about God's great secret,
that He prepared us for in the very beginning, if Jesus hadn't come
to teach us. God has different ways of keeping us close to Him,
once we want to be near Him very much. Suffering is one big way.
That's why we have to suffer, so we'll turn to Him. God is the only
help we have when we can't find any help on earth. If we turn to
Him, He helps us.
Wouldn't it be terrible if He didn't, if He didn't want us,
and didn't believe us, whenever we came back to Him? If he rejected
us?
Suppose He treated us the way we treated Him? He wanted us
to believe in His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. We must
always believe in His wisdom. We must do what He has planned
for us in the beginning to fulfill His designs for us. Then He is
happy, and we are happy.
Halloween means "Hallowed Eve" or "all Hallows
Eve." It is the eve of All Saints Day, November 1. October
31, my last Halloween, I was coming very near to my Father again.
Now I really know the meaning of Halloween. The reason why we play
tricks and do mischievous pranks then is that Halloween is related
to an old, old festival, much older than the Druids, who celebrated
in honor of the sun god. The Romans held a feast about the first
of November, in honor of Pomona, Goddess of fruit trees. The Druids
had the festival of Samhain.
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