Long ago, if you asked a Jewish mystic about tikkun olam, he might tell you stories – beautiful stories of an inverted tree, suspended between heaven and earth, its roots drawing God’s goodness like sap that flows through the trunk and into the branches that stretch into our world.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8 (NIV) Last week was Shavuot/Pentecost – a time of celebration and a time to reflect on our faith.

For the past nine weeks, as the coronavirus upended the world with fear, stay-at-home mandates, financial loss and isolation, we’ve turned to Scripture for the hope we each need to endure rough times.

For Believers, Shavuot is also a celebration of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out on early Believers on the Shavuot after Yeshua’s death and resurrection (Acts 2).

Shavuot marks the end of a season of anticipation. It is a harvest festival and one of three pilgrimage feasts of the Jewish year. For such holidays, each physically able, adult Jewish male was to travel to Jerusalem to present his offering. Today, Shavuot is a time of celebrating the gift of the Torah. Many Jewish people stay up all night reading it with family and friends. When Shavuot morning dawns, they pray together and read the Ten Commandments.

This year, we experienced a Passover like never before. The whole world was behind closed doors, praying for protection from a “plague.” As a result, Believers have been connecting globally through technology to worship, pray, seek the Lord and declare the Lord’s blessing over their cities and nations.

Will you join us in prayer during this critical time, for GOD TV, Ward Simpson, and Shelanu TV as the authorities in Israel decide the outcome of whether this network can continue? Let’s pray together for God’s blessing on this ministry and for His will to be done!

What do we do when what we hoped for in the way we expected it doesn’t happen? Did God's promises to us fail? Does the crush of unmet expectations and snuffed out hope mean that God cannot be trusted or that His promises are no longer true? Of course not!

Once we learn His Word, He'll empower us to do His Word. Once we do His Word, we'll be able to teach it, and by the very act of teaching His Word we'll learn more about His Word and how to do it. This is a cycle worth repeating!

The words God gave to His prophets often told about events in the current time, near future and a time even further in the future. They are always pointing us forward, but what were they pointing us forward to?