-
A Weary World Rejoices – ~ 8 Ways to Lean Into Joy This Christmas
A reflection inspired by “O Holy Night” “A weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” Few lines capture the ache of the human soul—and its hope—quite like these. When Placide Cappeau penned the poem Minuit, Chrétiens in 1847 (later known to us as O Holy Night), he was not merely writing a Christmas lyric. He was echoing a cry that has risen from the earth for millennia: How long, O Lord? Cappeau, a French poet asked to write a Christmas poem for a church organ dedication, turned to the Gospel of Luke as his source. Luke’s account does not sanitize the night of…
-
From Hidden Light to Resurrection Glory: The Fire That Heals the World
The mystics teach that the light we kindle during the eight nights of Hanukkah does not begin in the days of the Maccabees. It reaches back to the dawn of creation itself. Before sun or stars were set in the heavens, God spoke light into the darkness—and that light carried more than illumination. It carried life. It bore the breath of God, the Ruach Elohim, hovering over the chaos, ordering what was broken, calling forth what was good. Yet Scripture and tradition alike suggest that this first light was too radiant for a fractured world to hold. It was hidden—or ganuz—reserved for a future time when creation would be…
-
From Seed to Glory: The Journey of Maturing Fruitfulness
📖 “But the one who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” — Matthew 13:23 This is part 2 of the Hebrew Month of Cheshvan Reflections In the fields of Galilee, a thirty-fold return was considered good — a harvest worth rejoicing over. Sixty-fold was exceptional, and one hundred-fold was a wonder, a miracle of abundance. Yet in the parable of the sower, Yeshua makes no distinction of worth between these yields. Each is a testimony of good soil — of hearts that have received the…
-
Cheshvan: The Quiet Rain of the Spirit
This is part 1 of the Hebrew Month of Cheshvan Reflections The fall feasts cycle has focused on a fresh start, atonement, and renewed covenant relationship – Chesvan gives us the opportunity to reflect on how will we live that out in the year ahead. Cheshvan arrives — soft and unhurried, like rain upon tilled soil (Chesvan is the beginning of the rainy season in Israel). It is the only month without a festival, and yet it is full — pregnant with the quiet work of God. The harvest has been gathered, the fruit weighed, and now the soul exhales. The fields rest beneath the first rains, drinking deeply, and in…
-
Heaven’s Flame – Dwelling Within
During a recent time of prayer with a writer’s group I’m in, close to the Day of Atonement, I saw tongues of fire dropping from heaven and resting on each of the ones I was praying for, and going to others not in actual physical attendance. I began to hear the Holy Spirit speak about renewing His covenant, as Yom Kippur is truly a renewal of the covenant made at Sinai during Pentecost, which was broken when the Israelites in the Golden Calf incident. When Moses came back down Mt. Sinai on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the covenant was reaffirmed, but with different sacrifices. This flash of an…
