Many times as I am riding my bike or in the shower (where many people do their best thinking) I will be praying or just letting my mind wander (someday it may come back home) and I get inspiration for something to write about.

Today I got nuttin…nuttin at all. It’s like the breakfast cereal commercial:

“Hey, Steve- what are you sharing this morning with us?”

“Nut ‘n Honey.”

When this happens, which is (luckily) not too often, I review the topics I have, such as Jews and Jesus, Parashot, Messianic 101, and see if something comes to me. If not, then I do what I am doing this very moment- I just start to write and see what happens.

While I am waiting for something to come to me, I should thank all of you who follow my blog. I regret that I have not always followed back, and that was because (up until my retirement this year) I was too busy to be able to read all the blogs I would need to. Please know that I really, REALLY appreciate you following this, and I would even go as far as to ask you to share it on your Facebook or Twitter accounts to everyone else that you know. I also would really appreciate it if you buy my book- if you like what I write here, you should like my book, also.

I am not above hyping my own work.

With Passover coming, Donna and I are thinking of which friends we can invite to share the Seder with us. Even though the bible is clear that only those people who sojourn with the Israelites are to share in the Passover Seder, I think that today, any Gentile who is covered with the blood of Messiah would be eligible, and we even will invite people who are not Jewish, or not even “saved” (Oy Gevalt!) because we want them to know the true meaning of the Last Supper. There is a Hebraic Roots church that we are working with to provide a Seder on the 15th of April for Christians, so that they can see what the Last Supper really means. I think most Christians see it as a sad event, Jesus knowing that He will die. But the truth is the Passover Seder is a very happy event, and I am sure that Yeshua (Jesus) and all His Disciples enjoyed their meal together.

During the meal we retell the Passover story, and it is an interactive reading. The food is always good, the wine flows freely (each person is supposed to drink no less than 4 cups, which is essentially an entire bottle) and the event is a happy celebration of the freedom we receive from God. The Seder Donna and I host uses a Messianic Hagaddah (the Hagaddah is the text setting forth the order of service and the story of Passover), which is the same as the “Jewish” Hagaddah, except that it references Yeshua where the Jewish Hagaddah references Messiah. Other than that it is the same, which is nearly identical to the one Jesus celebrated some 2,000 years ago.

That’s pretty cool when you think about it: we are telling the same story, with the same items on the table, that Yeshua and His Disciples did the night before He was crucified. The one exception is that we do not serve lamb, because the Passover lamb is to be sacrificed at the place where God put His name, which is the Temple in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), and since that Temple no longer exists, we cannot sacrifice the lamb as ordered in the Torah. So, we substitute chicken for the lamb.

Our Seder starts with Matzo Ball soup (Donna makes it so well you forget she wasn’t raised Jewish), the main course is baked chicken with roasted red potatoes, and the desert is a lemon pudding upside down cake (no yeast is used) and walnut meringue cookies. Sometimes we also have chocolate covered matzo. Yum!

Another interesting thing, which I believe I have talked about before, is that Yeshua’s death was a sin sacrifice, but the Passover Lamb sacrifice is NOT for sin- it is a Thanksgiving, or Friendship sacrifice. The Passover lamb is not the same sacrifice as the sin (or guilt) sacrifice. So when we refer to Yeshua as the Passover Lamb, that isn’t the role He fulfilled that day, or was it?

When I was studying for my Messianic Minister Certificate, one of the classes I had discussed how Yeshua fulfills both the Thanksgiving sacrifice AND the Yom Kippur sacrifice, at the same time. His Passover sacrifice was to cleanse our sins (as the Yom Kippur sacrifice does) but it also served to bring us closer to God (as the Thanksgiving sacrifice does.)  So when He gave His life, He not only cleansed our sins but brought us into communion with God, which (when you think of it) is only possible after our sins have been cleansed.

Well, nothing else is coming to me- maybe there is a message for someone in what I have written, maybe there isn’t anything but my mindless rambling. I hope, if nothing else, it has been somewhat entertaining for you to share in my absence of thoughts.

Have a blessed day and Happy Springtime!