A consistent theme of the Christmas story is the appearance of Angels to people. The story begins with an Angel who comes to Abraham on Mount Moriah and tells him, “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” (Ge. 22:18, repeating the promise given by God in Ge. 12:3) The Angel also visits…
Zechariah the Priest looked forward to serving the Lord at the Temple each time the opportunity afforded itself, which was about five weeks per year. The journals in the book Advent Journeys attempts to share Zechariah’s passion and dedication for the Lord’s work. Scrolls inscribed by a Sofer The scripture relates to us as background…
The Temple of the first century is a fascinating place! The Temple itself was the center of activity, serving thousands of people each day. The plaza around the Temple was a meeting place of pilgrims who came from long distances to bring an offering and merchants who were selling the offering to the pilgrims. It…
The Christmas season … Christmas day … each of these hold more meaning when pre-planning takes place. Today, I want to share the parts of a good Christmas plan and a tool which will help make sure the plan falls into place (and is not consumed by the business of the Christmas Season). The first…
In writing the words of Advent Journeys I came to thoroughly enjoy taking walks with the Biblical characters themselves. One of the couples I enjoyed visiting with the most was Elizabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist. By tradition this couple lives in Beth Hakkerem (then Jer. 6:1; Neh. 3:14), or Ein Karem…
Many books have a presence in the cyber world on Amazon.com. My books are in the company of those of 5,000,000 other authors! The problem with being an author in the United States is that people are reading less and less. I learned while in Israel that per capita more books are printed in Israel…
Trips to Israel are always filled with interesting experiences and learning. The picture below is one of my favorites. It shows the rabbinic interest in education. We observed this “school group” from the Western Wall. School Group at the Western Wall, Jerusalem During trips to Israel, I have been able to learn from some great…
One look outside will tell us our world is changing. We have proceeded from the lush green world of spring through the productive days of summer into a time of drying out. Fall with its cooler temperatures, pumpkin harvest and leaf coloration is getting close. Pumpkin Days are almost here Days are getting noticeably shorter…
Between eight and ten years ago I finally threw in the towel and accepted the challenge … My senior adult group asked me, and then pushed me to teach the book of Revelation. I had never taught this book as a class other than under the protective resource of a Sunday school quarterly. I know…
In my last blog I shared my passion for teaching children about God. This passion in my life was not a passing phase or a job-related necessity. I truly believe we must put time, effort, energy, creativity, substance and finances into preparing our children to receive the torch of life from us and sprint into…
