covid-19

  • Celebrating Passover & Communion

    Today’s Devotion is talking about the power of celebrating Passover & Communion Together.

    “This day is to be a memorial for you,
    and you must celebrate it
    as a festival to the LORD.
    You are to celebrate it
    throughout your generations
    as a permanent statute.
    ~Exodus 12:14 NIV

    TODAY IS THE BEGINNING OF PASSOVER

    Celebrating Passover & Communion

    When you sit down to have lunch today at 12noon Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, April 8, 2020; people in Israel will start their Passover celebrations and continue until Thursday, April 16th. Hebrew people living outside of Jerusalem will start their celebrations the next day.  Every year the Jewish people set aside 12 days to remember how God delivered their nation out of Egyptian bondage and how the angel of death passed-over their homes after the 10 plagues when they applied the blood to the doorframes of their homes.

    This Year Is Monumental

    This year’s Passover celebrations have much more in common with the first Passover experience than most as Jewish people and others join in to pray and ask God to stop the spread of this corona virus and let it pass-over our homes.

    TODAY IS THE BEGINNING OF PASSOVER! Learn about joining Passover & Communion.

    When I was growing up in church there wasn’t a whole lot of talk about Jewish traditions.  It wasn’t until I was a late teen that I heard the term Seder meal when our pastor brought in a special speaker in to show and explain this Jewish Passover meal; revealing Christ as the sacrifice of Passover.

    I remember being awed at the parallels of Jesus’ life and the Passover traditions. Jewish people were instructed to take a 1-year old sheep or goat (sorry to my vegan/vegetarian friends) without any blemish.  They had to shelter it for 5 days and then they would roast it in bitter herbs, serving it with bread that has no yeast.

    How Passover Is Celebrated Today

    Today, the Seder meal is most often lamb served with bitter herbs and vegetables dipped in salt-water to remind them of the bitter sufferings they experienced in Egypt or that life brings.

    They eat matzah bread, breaking the middle piece in half to remind them of how God parted the Red Sea for them to crossover. Half of the broken matzah bread is wrapped in a cloth and hidden for children to find later.

    At one point in the meal, the children ask four questions that lead into a retelling of Israel’s history, the difficulties they’ve faced and how God miraculously set them free! They tell the stories in a way that connects them to their ancestors experience.  The Jewish website Chabad.org gives direction that…

    “At the Seder, every person should feel as if he or she were going out of Egypt… We are with them as G‑d sends the ten plagues to punish Pharaoh and his nation, and follow along as they leave Egypt and cross the Sea of Reeds. We witness the miraculous hand of G‑d as the waters part, allowing the Israelites to pass, then return to inundate the Egyptian legions… As we eat bitter foods of affliction and poverty, the Exodus becomes a reality—as real as the festive meal and celebratory toasts that follow.”1

    With thankfulness they drink four glasses of wine to pronounce blessings with (something we might call a toast), that end in pronouncing their faith in a coming Messiah. They end the Seder with songs of worship.

    Passover & Communion Connected

    It’s with the broken bread and glasses of wine where the connection with Jesus work on the cross powerfully connects the celebration of Passover and the observance of Communion. Jesus makes this clear during the last supper with His disciples in Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26 & Luke 22:14-23.Jesus explains how He is the promised Messiah and how Christians are to take communion to remember the freedom He brought us through His shed blood on the cross.

    It’s only in the past few years where I’m coming to understand the importance of commemorating Passover and Communion combined. I feel strongly that this year is more important than ever for us to take part in Passover celebrations and take communion, asking God to have Covid-19 pass-over our homes, our countries, our globe.

    Prayer

    Father… I thank You for your heart that hears your children in their distress. You hear our cries for health and healing in the midst of Covid-19. I join my voice together with believers around the globe in thankfulness for Your saving grace. Jesus I’m so thankful for your willingness to come down to earth and die on a cross for my sin.  I plead the blood of Jesus over my life… my household and the nations… may You cause Covid-19 to pass-over our homes, our countries, our globe. In Jesus Name…Amen

    Joe amaral on 100 huntley street
    Joe Amaral on 100 Huntley Street with Ron & Ann Mainse explaining the Seder Meal
    Joe Amaral Good Friday

    Joe is sharing a special Good Friday message on Facebook Live that you’re all invited to watch. Click HERE

    Drawing from the well

    1. Exodus 12:14
    2. Exodus 12:17
    3. Matthew 26:26-30/Mk 14:22-26/Lk 22:14-23
    4. 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

    Read More

  • Dealing With The Disappointment of Delays

    Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves
    rests between his shoulders.

    ~Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV)

    Today I was supposed to be flying to Kenya. 

    This is something I’ve dreamed of for decades.  I’ve felt this holy call to help the people of Africa since my thirties and God has opened up opportunities through giving in Kenya and Uganda.

    A portion of the profits from my book Water In The Desert went to a project in Turkana, Kenya with Crossroads Relief and Development. You can watch a short video that Cheryl Weber and I created to share about this project that blessed hundreds of families living in the desert with a Quarter Acre plot of irrigated land that is growing gardens in the desert! View on my website here.

    So, when I was invited to go on a Missionary Ventures Canada trip to Kenya with some friends I was excited to say yes, but that was long before the Corona Virus.

    Before Corona

    delays

    Even before the Corona Virus hit Kenya, there were locust swarms.  We had been gauging the locust situation for a while and decided we’d go regardless because locusts wouldn’t kill us, but by the time the virus hit Kenya it had been renamed COVID-19 and our missions trip had to be indefinitely postponed.  Darlene, Doreen, Judy, Carla and I were heart-broken by this delay. 

    I thought I had grieved the trip when we had to cancel two weeks ago but I found myself mourning it again yesterday and very much today; so much so, that I bumped the devotion I wrote for this week and will send out next week.  I thought maybe there are lots of you who are feeling what I’m feeling right now? Maybe you’ve had big life goals or dreams delayed. 

    Delays

    My daughter has friends who had to delay their weddings… an author friend of ours, Mark Buchanan had to come home after just arriving in Europe for his two-year-in-the-making writing trip to complete research for his next book… I had to delay the launch of my two-year-in-the-making REFRESH group… many of us are dealing with the delay of work and getting paid. 

    There are delays all around us and they can really get you down. 

    Sometimes you just have to lean into the pain and let it out.  The safest place I know where to do that is mentioned in this week’s verse… square in between the shoulders of our God; finding refuge from disappointment, laying in the hollow of His chest.

    Deuteronomy 33:12

    If you’re struggling with the disappointment of delays like me, don’t keep trying to act like it doesn’t bother you. Let it out with God and stay there long enough, so the peace of His presence washes over you and dissolves the discouragement.

    Prayer

    Father… I thank You for the invitation to place head on your chest, to nestle in and bring You my hopes, fears, triumphs, tragedies and disappointments. I’m so glad you’re not a fair-weather God who’s only wanting relationship with me for what I do for You.  Your Word makes it clear that You just want to be my friend.  So, I’m asking You to be my refuge, to be my hope today.  Help me take all that’s disappointing and discouraging me and leave it with You because I trust You’re working all things out for my good! In Jesus Name…Amen


    1. Deuteronomy 33:12, 28
    2. Psalm 60:5
    3. James 2:23
    4. John 15:15

    #musicpic SONG: Cody Carnes – Run To The Father (Live at Motion Conference)
    Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/HTHS4W1bPj8

    Soul H2O

    If you liked the refreshing in this #SoulH2O devotion, you’ll love my latest Soul H2O Devotional book: 40 Thirst Quenching Devotions for Women from our Legacy Works Online Store.


    WHERE YOU CAN OFTEN FIND ME LINKING UP MY BLOG WITH OR PLACES WHERE MY WRITING HAS BEEN FEATURED

    Read More