“This little light of mine. I’m gunna let it shine”
In honor of Chanukah, I am going to write about the festival of lights.
If you are not familiar with this holiday I’ll give you a brief summary of it. During the intertestamonial period (400 years of silence) the Jews only had enough oil to last one night. Miraculously, the oil lasted eight days. Just enough time to get more oil. That’s the short version of the complex holiday. The bible only mentions the Chanukah one time. It is a holiday that is tradition based. Traditionally, the game Driedle is played because this little game came out of this period. Instead of lightning the Menorah only on Shabbat, the Hanukiah is light at sunrise during every night of the week. On the first night, one candle is light. On the second night, two candles are light. This goes on until every branch of the Hanukiah is lit.
In this world, the enemy has been fighting hard to destroy G-ds people. The devil has always tried to destroy G-ds children. In more recent times, the Messianic Jewish community lost Nicholas Thalasinos in the San Bernardino shooting that happened December 2, 2015. At Shabbat, my Rabbi drew attention to this for the congregation to be aware that the enemy is working. While my Rabbi was speaking about this I subconsciously realized that in my personal life, I have been dealing with spiritual warfare. During the service I had to make a choice. I had to decide if the Devil would win or if Christ’s blood would fight this battle.
Please keep the Jewish people in your prayers. They have and continue to go through more persecution then anyone should go through. When one of G-ds chosen people pass away, it does not hurt just the immediate family of them. It hurts all of them. The history of nation of Israel, and the descendents of Israel is filled with hardships and persecution.
In this season of the festival of lights, I challenge you to look at how long your light is shining. Is it shining only during church when your friends can see? Or do you keep shining when the Devil tries to stop your light. During Chanukah, the oil burned despite the odds of it going out. That is exactly what made Chanukah a miracle.
How long will your oil burn against all odds?
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