by donfinto | May 30, 2014 | Uncategorized
Shavu’ot 5774
Pentecost 2014
God is into calendar!
“Remember” is a thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation. From the time God put the rainbow in the sky and told Noah, “I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant” (Gen. 9:16), to the last book of Scripture in which Jesus told the church in Sardis to “Remember…what you have received and heard; hold it fast and repent” (Rev. 3:3), God is into remembering, and encourages us to do the same.
Shavu’ot/Pentecost is the annual remembrance of the giving of the Law on Sinai and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Shavu’ot (Pentecost) following the resurrection of Jesus.
The Biblical calendar date for Shavuot falls this year on June 4. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is Sunday, June 8. Let’s pray that we will all experience a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit – a deluge of His heart into ours!
Blessings,
Don Finto
by donfinto | Feb 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
Seven words… one sentence…changed the way I look at the future:
“Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Matthew 13:30
These are the words of Jesus in His parable of the wheat and the tares. He later explained to His disciples that the wheat are the righteous, and the tares are the wicked. The harvesters are angels and the harvest is the end of the age – righteousness and wickedness ripening side by side as we move toward the Lord’s return and the final judgment. John saw the same scene (See Rev.14:14-20). Two angels reap the righteous; two the wicked.
I don’t look forward to living at a time when world wickedness has reached its zenith, but I must remember that this will also be the finest hour for the people of God.
Righteousness ripe! I like the sound of it! “Many will be purified, made holy and refined,” Daniel says in describing the same time period. “The righteous will shine like the sun,” Jesus said when explaining the parable (13:43). And will “lead many to righteousness,” Daniel adds (12:3). “Be merciful to those in doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire,” counsels Jude (vv. 22-23).
Let’s lean into the future with hope!
Blessings,
Don Finto
