Our guest blogger today is Susan Feaster. Susan is one of our Life Group Connectors for FBS Women's Ministry. God may not answer your prayer the same as He answered Susan's, but He always answers in the way that fits with His plan for your life. You can trust Him to work all things for your good!

 

HANNAH AND ME

 

Hannah had a significant impact on my life.  I relate to Hannah.  You see, our stories are quite similar.

Many years ago, I was a young married woman who wanted very much to be a mother.  Yet I remained childless.  And month after month, as it became obvious that conception had not taken place and no baby was on the way, I became more and more despondent.  My husband and I longed to be parents, but it seemed that was not going to happen.  The doctors recommended that we consider adoption.

During this challenging period of my life, I turned to the Scriptures, and I became acquainted with Hannah.  I had known about Hannah since childhood.  But my focus had always been on Samuel, not on Hannah.  I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I became reacquainted with Hannah.

I turned to the book of 1 Samuel and read these words:

“She (Hannah) was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.”  (1 Samuel 1:10 ESV)

I related to Hannah.  I was deeply distressed.  I wept bitterly.  And often!  I prayed to the Lord. 

Please, Lord!  You know how much we want a baby!  Please, please, please…….Why can’t I get pregnant?  Please, please, please.

Even so, month after month passed and no baby was on the way.  I began to pray Hannah’s prayer.

“O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”  (1 Samuel 1:11 ESV)

That was my prayer.  While I didn’t pray those exact words, that was the prayer of my heart.  After all, saying things like “if you will indeed look on the affliction….” is not really my typical vocabulary! And just as He did for Hannah, God heard the cry of my heart.  He not only heard, but He answered.  Just as we were about to initiate adoption proceedings, we learned that God had answered our prayers and we were going to be parents!  Several months later, a few weeks ahead of schedule, I gave birth to a son!  And a few years after that, our second son was born. 

When Brian, our first son was born, I prayed Hannah’s prayer a second time…..this time her prayer of thanksgiving:

“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to Him.  My heart exults in the LORD.”  (1 Samuel 1:27; 1 Samuel 2:1 ESV)

That was my prayer again three years later when Brandon, our second son, was born.

Hannah’s story – and mine – taught me a few life lessons.  First and foremost, I learned about the sovereignty of God.  I learned that God is in control.  Doctors are wonderful, but they don’t have all the answers.  They are, after all, only human.

This experience in my life was a reminder that God hears and answers prayer.  The answer may not always be what we want or expect – although in this case, for me, it was – but He always hears and He always answers.  God heard Hannah’s prayer and honored her request.  He did the same for me.  And He can do the same for you.  What an awesome God!

Through this life experience I also learned persistence.  I learned to never give up.  I learned to keep on praying.  My prayer wasn’t answered the first time I prayed it.  Or the second.  I prayed this prayer for months.  I continued to pray.  I prayed “without ceasing”, as we read in the New Testament.  My answer came after I continued to pray, not knowing when God would answer, but knowing that He would answer.

Through it all, I learned a lot about the character of God.  I learned about His faithfulness.  I had been taught all these things from childhood, but now I was learning these lessons personally.  This experience reaffirmed my confidence in, my trust in, a God who said “Call to me and I will answer you.”  (Jeremiah 33:3 ESV)

I’ve never forgotten these lessons.  Now that I am no longer a young woman, these lessons remain core beliefs for my life.  God is sovereign.  God answers prayer.  His answer is always best.  I can trust Him.

My sons are grown men now with sons of their own.  And every time I look at them, every time I think of them, I am reminded that God answers prayer.

Our guest blogger today is Tonja Smith who leads our Single Moms Ministry at First Baptist. Thank you Tonja for blessing us with information about the Passover!

THE LORD’S PASSOVER

 

“These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.” Leviticus 23:4-5

 

Several years ago I began to study the Feasts of the Lord as outlined in Leviticus 23.  I cannot understate the change in my heart that came with learning about these Feasts. I read and studied realizing there was a lot to glean, but it wasn’t until I began to actually celebrate the Feasts that the dim picture began to clarify and become multi-dimensional. They are a key that opens up layers in the Scriptures. Every time I seek God’s face through His Feasts, He blesses me in ways that I don’t believe I could receive in any other way. The depth of what our Savior did for us, and will do for us, is so beautifully outlined in these Feasts.  When I started this journey, the Scriptures literally began to come off the pages of my Bible and transform my life. I became a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer, as outlined in James.

 

There are 7 Feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23) and together they depict the entire redemptive career of Messiah. The spring feasts are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost. These were all fulfilled completely and to the letter by Jesus when he came the first time.  The three remaining feasts occur in the fall and will be fulfilled when Jesus returns. They are all set to the backdrop of agricultural harvests, but symbolize the picture of human history through the ages.  Spring has come and we have been in the summer for 2000 years, but I personally believe we are nearing the end of summer and fall is near.

 

The Passover is the foundation for all the feasts, and it is directly linked to two more, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits, all of which fall within a 7 day span. To understand more fully the sacrifice made by Jesus, we can look at the original Passover of Exodus, the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. After over 400 years as slaves, the Lord delivers them through Moses, who is a “picture type” of the Messiah to come. Ten plagues come on Egypt, each one aimed at false gods they worshiped. The tenth plague was severe and God instructed the Israelites very specifically in Exodus 12 how to be protected and delivered from the plague. All the firstborn in Egypt would die, except for those that followed the specific instructions of the Lord as spelled out in Exodus 12. Here is how Jesus fulfilled the Passover:

 

“On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household….your animal must be without defect….you are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it at dusk. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the doorframe at the entrance of the house in which they eat it.” Ex 12:3,5,6,7

 

This was fulfilled by Jesus when He entered Jerusalem on the tenth day of the first month, to the cheers and praises of the people. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Mat 21:9 This is a quote of The Hillel, Psalms 113-118, which is recited at each Passover Feast, and this scene of the Triumphal Entry also fulfills Zech 9:9.  Hosanna in Hebrew is Hoshiana which means “save, please!”  For four days Jesus was in Jerusalem observed by all, questioned by the Pharisees and Sadducees, put on trial, inspected and found blameless – the lamb without defect. He was crucified and died at the precise time that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple on the fourteenth day of the month.

 

“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.” Ex 12:21-24

 

What happened in Egypt was an actual event that brought freedom from slavery for the Israelites.  It was a physical foreshadowing of what would later be an actual event when Jesus, the Passover lamb, would bring freedom to the world through the shedding of His blood. All who apply the blood of Jesus to the doorposts of their heart will be saved!

“BEHOLD THE LAMB WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!” John 1:29

 

The Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover Seder He celebrated with them, His family, where He showed them the significance of what He was about to do.  The bread would symbolize His body, unleavened (sinless), and broken for us. There were 4 cups of wine, each symbolizing something different, but He drank the cup of redemption which symbolized His blood shed for the New Covenant of freedom from sin.

 

The Passover has been celebrated by Jews and many Christians alike for over 3,000 years now. Spartanburg is blessed to have Beth Shiloh Messianic Synagogue where Rabbi Andy Meyerson leads Jewish Christians to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you will be able to join us for the Passover Seder this year for the entire community of Spartanburg. I invite you to join with us to celebrate all that Christ has done for us during the Easter Season. Don’t miss the blessing!

 

 

Tonja Smith

April 2014