Thursday, October 18, 2012

Costa Rica Sukkot 2012

Shalom Mispocha in Messiah! I pray that you are being blessed
wherever you are and that YHVH is using you for His Glory. 

It is always a big blessing for Sukkot to come around, physically and spiritually.
Before we go into what we did, let us look into the Scriptures and
see the passages where this great Feast of YAH is found:

Leviticus 23:34-36, 39-43
“Speak to the children of Yisra’el, saying, ‘On the fifteenth day of this
 seventh month is the Festival of Booths for seven days to YHVH.
35 ‘On the first day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.
36 ‘For seven days you bring an offering made by fire to YHVH. On the eighth day there 

shall be a set-apart gathering for you, and you shall bring an offering made
 by fire to YHVH. It is a closing festival, you do no servile work.
‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the fruit of the land,
 observe the festival of YHVH for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day a rest.
40 ‘And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, 

twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before YHVH your Elohim for seven days.
41 ‘And you shall observe it as a festival to YHVH for seven days in the year – 

a law forever in your generations. Observe it in the seventh month.
42 ‘Dwell in booths for seven days; all who are native Yisra’elites dwell in booths,
43 so that your generations know that I made the children of Yisra’el dwell in booths

 when I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am YHVH your Elohim.’ ” 

Deuteronomy 16:13-16
“Perform the Festival of Booths for seven days after the ingathering 
from your threshing-floor and from your winepress,
14 and you shall rejoice in your festival, you and your son and your daughter, 

and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite, 
and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates.
15 “For seven days you shall observe a festival to YHVH your Elohim 

in the place which YHVH chooses, because YHVH your Elohim does bless you 
in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be only rejoicing!
16 “Three times a year all your males appear before YHVH your Elohim in the place which He chooses: 

at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Booths.

In the time of the building of the 2nd temple there
was a great rejoicing when they found this command:

Nehemiah 8:14-17
And they found written in the Torah, which YHVH had commanded by Moshe, 
that the children of Yisra’el should dwell in booths in the festival of the seventh month,
15 and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Yerushalayim, saying, 

“Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, and myrtle branches,
 and palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”
16 So the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one 

on the roof of his house, and in their courtyards and in the courtyards of the House of Elohim, 
and in the open space of the Water Gate and in the open space of the Gate of Ephrayim.
17 And the entire assembly of those who had come back from the captivity made booths 

and sat under the booths, for since the days of Yeshua(Joshua) son of Nun until 
that day the children of Yisra’el had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. 
In Zechariah it states that in the end of days that if a gentile(of the nations) does not
 come up to Jerusalem for Sukkot, that person will not have any rain in their land:
Zechariah 14:16-17
And it shall be that all who are left from all the gentiles which came up against Yerushalayim, 
shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the Sovereign, 
YHVH of hosts, and to observe the Festival of Booths.
17 And it shall be, that if anyone of the clans of the earth does not come up to Yerushalayim 

to bow himself to the Sovereign, YHVH of hosts, on them there is to be no rain. 

Yahshua also came to the earth on the Feast of Sukkot:
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and pitched His tent(Tabernacled, Sukkot!) among us, 
and we saw His esteem, esteem as of an only brought-forth of a father, complete in favor and truth.

And finally, in the end of days, 
YHVH will send down the New Yerushalayim like a Booth:
Revelation 21:2-3
And I, Yohanan, saw the set-apart city, renewed Yerushalayim, coming down 
out of the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, 

“See, the Booth(Sukkot) of Elohim is with men, and He shall dwell with them,
 and they shall be His people, and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim.
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This feast is a true blessing from YHVH. This year we were blessed to be able to host it,
 thanks to your gifts, YHVH’s blessing, and the McDaniel’s allowing us to use
their houses here in Costa Rica. May YHVH bless you for all you have done! 

Now, saying that, it does take quite a bit of work to have any type of gathering, especially one
 that lasts 8 days. It can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months to get prepared, depending on the size. Since we didn’t know exactly how many people would show up,
we got prepared in advance. One of the things that is important, of course, is food. And lots of it.
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For the feast we made a Hispanic meal with rice, beans, and tamales.
It takes a lot of work, especially the tamales, but YHVH has blessed us
 with the bodies and the provision to make things possible!
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Thank you YHVH for able bodies!

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Psalms 111:5
He has given food to those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever. 
 
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Psalms 90:16-17
Reveal Your work to Your servants, And Your splendor to their children.
17 And let the pleasantness Of YHVH our Elohim be upon us, 

And confirm the work of our hands for us; O confirm the work of our hands!
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Another VERY important thing is transportation. In our case it is much more difficult
since the people that wanted to come don’t have any type of transportation.
But thanks to YHVH’s provision through someone’s gift, we were able to rent out a man
who had a pickup truck that was big enough to bring all the people. Without that gift, my dad would have had to go down himself, bring some people, and come back up. Then he would have had to do it again,
and probably again. That is a lot of gas, but more importantly it doesn’t give him
 an opportunity to speak YHVH’s word as much as he could because he would
be going up and down all day bringing people up and down the mountain.
But again, we thank you SO MUCH for your gift, not that we had to have it, but rather:
Philippians 4:17
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that is multiplying to your account.

Praise YAH!
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Micah 4:2
And many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of YHVH, 
to the House of the Elohim of Yaʽaqob, and let Him teach us His ways, and let us walk in His paths.
 For out of Zion comes forth the Torah, and the word of YHVH from Yerushalayim.”
 When we read this verse, the 1st thing that we think of is the physical mountain in Yisra’el. 
But it also has a Spiritual connection as well. And it is really cool to read that verse and think, 
“Wow! These people are from the nations, and they are coming up the mountain to learn YHVH’s Word!”. YHVH has blessed us so much, physically and spiritually!
 
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Our Sukkah.
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Psalms 67
1 Elohim does favor us and bless us, Cause His face to shine upon us. Selah.
2 For Your way to be known on earth, Your deliverance among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O Elohim, Let all the peoples praise You.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You judge the peoples uprightly, 

And lead the nations on earth. Selah.
5 Let the peoples praise You, O Elohim; Let all the peoples praise You.
6 The earth shall give her increase; Elohim, our own Elohim, blesses us!
7 Elohim blesses us! And all the ends of the earth fear Him! 

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2nd Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed by Elohim and profitable for teaching, 
for reproof, for setting straight, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of Elohim might be fitted, equipped for every good work.

 
YHVH’s Word is always good. He tells us that it is the perfect way(Psalms 18:30),
that it is straight(Psalms 33:4), that it is the Good News(Acts 15:35), and that we are
 blessed by doing and obeying it(Just Read Psalms 119 and you’ll see what I mean)!

He also tells us to teach them to our children in Deuteronomy 6:
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
“And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart,
7 and you shall impress them upon your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, 

and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up,
8 and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
9 “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

HalleluYAH!
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Psalms 127:3
Look, children are an inheritance from YHVH, The fruit of the womb is the reward. 


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YHVH’s Word is always a blessing, it restores our souls and makes our minds stronger.
It is the sword with which we use for battle against the Adversary and it is our Daily Bread.
Without the Whole Word of YHVH we could not, we cannot be
what YHVH wants us to be, a servant and emissary for Him.
May YHVH be praised for all that He has done!
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Pray for each one of these men, women and children. Pray that they learn to love,
serve, trust, and obey YHVH and follow the testimony of Yahshua. Pray that they can
 be the messengers of truth and that the whole world can come to know YHVH’s Glory!
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This is where Abba has brought us as we surrendered to do His will and not ours.
Now we do our best with what has been provided by YHVH Yirei, Our Provider.
Pray for our servant family. Without His provision multiplying every gift we can’t continue
 the Journey and teach by our testimony and the Word of Elohim.

Until next time….
Shalom! 
The Montanez Family
Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH
HalleluYAH!! 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Clean and undefiled religion before Elohim is this...

Shalom brothers and sisters in Messiah! I pray that YHVH's shalom is with you and 
that He is using you to share His Good News wherever you live.

There is an elderly lady named Dona Blanca that lives down in the town of El Duruy, Costa Rica. 
She is a very sweet lady and loves to talk about Scripture.
 But as you will see here, she had been living in a rather hard environment.
  Psalms 69:1-3
 Save me, O Elohim! For waters have come up to my neck. 
2 I have sunk in deep mud, And there is no place to stand; 
I have come into deep waters, And the floods overflow me. 
3 I am worn out from my crying; My throat is dry; 
My eyes grow dim As I wait for my Elohim.
 
Psalms 69:13, 20
But as for me, my prayer is to You, O YHVH, At an acceptable time, O Elohim. 
In the greatness of Your kindness, Answer me in the truth of Your deliverance.
20 Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick; I looked for sympathy, 
but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. 
 
  She had her whole house falling down around her, the kitchen floor had big, gaping holes
 that were very difficult for her to walk through, and she slept in the rain
 with no walls and her house being flooded.
She has a grandson that stays with her named Bryan but during
 the daytime he works so she was by herself. 
She had some help from one of her sons named Don Renaldo, but he also 
worked up at the farm so he could only work at her house on the weekends.
 
Psalms 69:29-34
 But I am poor and in pain; Let Your deliverance, O Elohim, set me up on high. 
30 I praise the Name of Elohim with a song, And I make Him great with thanksgiving. 
31 And this pleases YHVH more than an ox, A bull with horns and hooves. 
32 The humble shall see, they rejoice, You who seek Elohim, and your hearts live. 
33 For YHVH hears the poor, And He shall not despise His captives. 
34 Let the heavens and earth praise Him, The seas and all that moves in them. 

 But thanks to YHVH our Elohim, her prayers were answered! 
Through YHVH's blessings and your gifts an elderly lady named Dona Blanca has a new house.
Here is just a small part of what was done to build her a new home.

 

James 1:22-27
And become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 
23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, 
he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, 
24 for he looks at himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what he was like. 
25 But he that looked into the perfect Torah, that of freedom, and continues in it, not becoming 
a hearer that forgets, but a doer of work, this one shall be blessed in his doing of the Torah.. 
26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle 
his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is worthless. 
27 Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this:
 to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 

 Matthew 25:31-46
 “And when the Son of Aḏam comes in His esteem, and all the set-apart messengers with Him, 
then He shall sit on the throne of His esteem. 
32 “And all the nations shall be gathered before Him, and He shall 
separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. 
33 “And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 
34 “Then the Sovereign shall say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, 
inherit the reign prepared for you from the foundation of the world – 
35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty 
and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, 
36 was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and 
you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 
37 “Then the righteous shall answer Him, saying, ‘Master, when did we see 
You hungry and we fed You, or thirsty and gave You to drink? 
38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger and took You in, or naked and clothed You? 
39 ‘And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and we came to You?’ 
40 “And the Sovereign shall answer and say to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, 
in so far as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’ 
41 “He shall then also say to those on the left hand, ‘Go away from Me, 
accursed ones, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his messengers – 
42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, 
43 ‘I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, was naked and 
you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 
44 “Then they also shall answer Him, saying, ‘Master, when did we see You
 hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not serve You?’ 
45 “Then He shall answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, in so far as you 
did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 
46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.” 

There are many who have contributed to 
building Dona Blana's house, 
and to all who have helped, 
may YHVH multiply your Blessings. 

Philippians 4:17
Not that I seek the gift, 
but I seek the fruit that is multiplying to your account. 

Until next time...

 Shalom!
The Montanez Family
 Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH
HalleluYAH! 

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Fast of Isaiah 58... Yom Kippur 2012

Shalom brothers and sisters in Messiah! I pray that you all have had a blessed Moedim(Feast Days)
and that YHVH can use you to share His good news with others.

We have been busy lately but I do want to update you on what we have been doing. 
10 days ago was Yom Kippur, and as you know, it is called the Day of Atonement/Repentance.
 In Leviticus 23 it says:

Leviticus 23:26-32
.  And YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying, 
27 “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart 
gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire to YHVH. 
28 “And you do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, 
to make atonement for you before YHVH your Elohim. 
29 “For any being who is not afflicted on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. 
30 “And any being who does any work on that same day, 
that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. 
31 “You do no work – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 
32 ‘It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day
 of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your Sabbath.”

This is the only day of the year that the high priest was able to go
 into the Most Holy Place and make an offering for the sins of all of Yisra'el
 as it says in Leviticus 16:

Leviticus 16:29-34
  “And this shall be for you a law forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, 
you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 
30 “For on that day he makes atonement for you, to cleanse you, 
to be clean from all your sins before YHVH.. 
31 “It is a Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall afflict your beings – a law forever. 
32 “And the priest, who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place, 
shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the set-apart garments,
33 And he shall make atonement for the Most Set-apart Place, and make atonement for the Tent of Meeting and for the altar, and make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 
34 “And this shall be for you a law forever, to make atonement for the children of Yisra'el, 
for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as YHVH commanded Moshe.

Now, on this day He tells us to afflict our beings and fast. Now most people think of fasting as praying all day and not eating. But a couple of years ago we found a passage in Isaiah that talks about the true fast that YHVH really wants, and since we should be doers of the Word and not just hearers, we paid special attention:

Isaiah 58:1-5
“Cry aloud, do not spare. Lift up your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to 
My people their transgression, and the house of Yaʽaqob their sins. 
2 “Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness,
and did not forsake the right-ruling of their Elohim. They ask of Me rulings
 of righteousness, they delight in drawing near to Elohim. 
3 They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, 
and You took no note?’ “Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your laborers. 
4 “Look, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wrongness. 
You do not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. 
5 “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to YHVH?

So if the real fast isn't to not eat and put sackcloth on, then what is it that we are supposed to do...?


James 1:27
Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this: to visit orphans
 and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Isaiah 58:6-7
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke? 
7 “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, and cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Yahshua promises us in Matthew 25 that those who will inherit the kingdom of Elohim will be the ones who give food and water to the hungry and thirsty brings in the strangers clothes the naked, and goes to the prisons, because He says:
Matthew 25:40
“And the Sovereign(Yahshua) shall answer and say to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in so far
 as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’
So basically in essence, what is the real fast?
Matthew 22:37-40
And Yahshua said to him, "You shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart,
 and with all your being, and with all your mind."
38 “This is the first and great command. 
39 “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 
40 “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”
That is what it truly is, to love, and Yahshua was the perfect example of that. 1st Peter says:
1 Peter 2:21-25 
For to this you were called, because Messiah also suffered for us,
 leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps, “
22 who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth,” 
23 who, being reviled, did not revile in return; suffering, did not threaten,
 but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 
24 who Himself bore our sins in His body on the timber, so that we, 
having died to sins, might live unto righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.  
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now 
 returned(Teshuvah) to the Shepherd and Overseer of your lives.
May we all learn to LOVE YHVH and show our LOVE by LOVING our neighbor, whether it be your best friend, some kid down the block, a homeless man, or a poor widow. 
May YHVH bless you!
Until next time...
Shalom!
The Montanez Family
Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH
HalleluYAH!