The Lord (YHVH) commanded the grain offering on Shavuot, (known as Pentecost among Christians), to be made of the finest flour, baked with yeast, that is, leaven. Leaven, in the Bible, is almost universally, a symbol for "sin", and in the OT is strictly forbidden on the altar of YHVH., yet here, in the Feast of Weeks it is commanded as part of the offering. Just six weeks prior to this festival, Israel had spent a week eating unleavened bread, a clear picture of the connection between the Passover Lamb and the removal of sin from our lives. Now the grain offering for Shavuot contains yeast; two loaves with it. Why? A common interpretation of this for NT believers is that the loaves represent Jews and Gentiles, the two types of redeemed people, who, of course, still contain sin in our lives.

So the sequence of these two spring festivals can be seen to illustrate, on the one hand, our perfect deliverance from sin and death through the Passover Lamb (Yeshua); and subsequently, the reality of our true condition as "leavened loaves" offered to the Lord as "first-fruits". We know that having come to faith in Yeshua (Jesus), cleansed by His shed blood, we stand righteous and perfect in Him; and yet, we constantly struggle with our Adamic nature. In this light, Shavuot begins to emerge as a festival marking and illustrating the opportunity and means for our transformation. The Lord's sending forth of His Holy Spirit at this time awakens and empowers us to change; to be inwardly transformed from the old creation into a new creation.

On the day of Pentecost, 2000 years ago, this transformation process was dynamically accelerated and made accessible to every believer. Baptized with the Holy Spirit of God, and with His fire, our sinful nature with all its impurities and "leaven" takes a back seat to the powerful indwelling of the Spirit of Messiah, so that as we continually pray, walk in obedience, and thus cooperate to be filled with His Spirit, we are sanctified and transformed into His likeness – "from glory to glory", and so become His effective witnesses. Praise God that He works with our issues– and is transforming us into a bride without wrinkle or spot!

Allow the Holy Spirit to burn away the impurity of your sinful nature; to purge out the dross, and deeply penetrate your life. The process can be "firey" and involve some painful sacrifices, but the result is purity and the holiness without which no one will see God. And remember that Yeshua is returning soon, greatly anticipating a bride who is prepared for His arrival!

by George Whitten, Editor of Worthy Devotions.

Matthew 21:10-14 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.  And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.  And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

There is a long standing tradition of cleaning one's house in the springtime – hence the term "spring cleaning". One source for this tradition is certainly the Jewish Passover (Pesach). Each spring as the holiday approaches observant householders in Israel and around the world perform a meticulous cleaning of their homes, especially to be sure there is no leaven in the house before Pesach begins. Leaven, in scripture, is often a metaphor for sin and impurity; and this season of the year is often a time for emphasizing "spiritual housecleaning".

When Yeshua (Jesus) entered Jerusalem for the last time in His earthly life, before the Passover, and just before He was sacrificed, He went to the Temple and "cleansed" it by driving out the money changers and religious merchandisers. Apparently, these were "religious" people with impure motives, and the Lord considered them to be "leaven" in his Father's house. Immediately after this, the Lord miraculously healed the blind and lame.

We can also be "religious" people with impure motives; seeking financial gain, or prestige, from "spiritual" activity, when the Lord desires a devoted heart of worship and prayer in His "house". Perhaps this is why we see so few miracles in our lives and "ministries". Let us also do a "housecleaning" for impure motivations. The Lord may then be freer to work His miracles through us.

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

According to ancient Jewish legend, one day Abraham was shown his father, Terah's room of many idols. Young Abraham, thinking that perhaps he could discover intimacy with them, made some desirable delicacies and placed them before the idols. When nothing happened, he realized that these idols were nothing more than clay — they could do nothing for him or anyone else for that matter. So he proceeded to destroy all the idols, except for one.

When Terah received word of this, he went to Abraham and said, "Son, what did you do to my idols?!" "I brought them delicacies," Abraham replied, "and then the biggest idol became envious of the others, and destroyed them all." Terah, furious with Abraham, said, "You're lying to me! How can idols made by my own hands do such things?" "You're right father." Replied Abraham, "Now tell me, then, why do we worship idols that can not eat, drink or even move?"

This kind of idol worship may sound far removed from us, but we too, have our idols. They may not be made of clay but they are very real! The love of money, possessions, success, leisure, food, sensuality, security and outward beauty — the love of tradition and even our friends and family — the pursuit of our goals and dreams are among some just off the top of my head. Most of these are not bad things in and of themselves, don't get me wrong. But if we are not careful, they can all easily become idols in our lives!

What is the object of our affections today? What takes up the majority of our time, effort, and resources? These are our idols. Anything that we allow to run our life becomes our god.

There is only One God we ought to be worshiping — and He will not have any other god's before Him! Let's crush our idols today. We need to get right with the Lord so that we may be used mightily for His Kingdom!

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

An elderly teacher, with a pupil by his side, took a walk through a forest. Suddenly he stopped and pointed to four plants close at hand. The first was just beginning to peep above the ground, the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth, the third was a small shrub, while the fourth was a full-sized tree. The tutor said to his young companion, 'Pull up the first plant.' The boy did so eagerly, using only his fingers. 'Now pull up the second.' The youth obeyed but found the task more difficult. 'Do the same with the third,' he urged. The boy had to use all his strength to uproot it. 'Now,' said the instructor, 'try your hand with the fourth.' The pupil put his arms around the trunk of the tall tree and couldn't even shake its leaves. 'This, my son, is just what happens with our bad habits. When they are young, we can remove them readily; but when they are old, it's hard to uproot them, though we try and struggle ever so sincerely.'"

We all have weeds and even enormous Redwoods that need uprooting in our lives. It takes a LOT of effort to get strong enough to move those big ones on our own. Instead, let's take that same effort and start practicing faith in the Lord!

Perhaps you're weary of pulling. God doesn't expect us to pull these bad habits ourselves. Let's ask the Lord to do the uprooting today and watch Him gain the victory!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

As we mentioned a couple of days ago, Chanukah commemorates of the desecration of the holy temple of old, (just another attempt of the enemy to wipe out the Jewish people and the things of God), God's great grace and the rededication of the temple to Him.

While there is no longer a physical temple today, the Bible declares that we, as believers in Yeshua (Jesus), are living temples of God. But we need to recognize that our enemy is constantly at work, trying to erect idols and desecrate our temple in various ways so that we cannot be used to glorify God. How long has it been since we cleansed and rededicated our temple to the Lord? We should really be be doing it daily!

We want to be more holy — more pure — more righteous so that we can be found a peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, as the scripture says. Let's strive to be a people who shine forth the glory of God today! Let's pull down the strongholds and destroy the idols that pollute us!

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Picture this — you come home from a long day of work — you walk into your living room — plop down on your couch in exhaustion — and there in the corner of the room — your eyes are drawn to something moving — it's a rattlesnake! Do you say to yourself, "Oh, I'm too tired to worry about that now, I'll deal with it later?" Of course not! You'd jump up right away, find a bat or something of the like, alert your family, call the neighbors, call 911, call the fire department and who knows what else! It's a life-threatening situation!

In the same way, we need to consider it an emergency when a negative thought enters our minds! We immediately need to jump up, put our armor on, alert others and ask for help if needed and take cover in the promises of God! When those unrighteous thoughts enter our minds, we must deal with them immediately — lest they linger and fester — and before we know it, poison our entirety.

Sadly this is a battle that continuously rages on. We must renew our minds daily — and even hourly in order to remain in a place of peace. Let's not wait 'till the enemy has us in his grip! Let's put him in his place at the first sign of attack!

One of my favorite ministers of the Gospel is D.L. Moody. He tells a story about having heard Pastor Henry Varley once say that, "The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him."

As Moody pondered the pastor's words, He realized something. Pastor Varley did not say that God would use an intelligent person. He didn't say an educated person, nor did he say a person who was ultimately gifted. What the wise pastor said was that the person with whom God will work with and for and through will be the person "who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him".

This radically changed Moody's ministry… and ours too, for that matter. We realized that God isn’t looking for people with amazing minds or hands or voices or computer skills. He’s not looking for those who are wearing the nicest suits or dresses at church. And He’s not looking for the people with the highest grade point averages at the local Christian College. What God is really looking for, are people who are simply sold out for Him!

One of the great secrets to a successful walk with the Lord, is understanding total commitment to Jesus. But being totally committed requires us to daily take up our cross — leave the past behind us — and despite all the obstacles the enemy tries to throw in our path, press forward for the Lord and His work! Let's consecrate ourselves to the Lord again today. There’s so much work to be done!

by George Whitten, Editor of Worthy Devotions

I came across a powerful parable written by a Haitian pastor illustrating to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ.

A certain man wanted to sell his house for two thousand dollars. Another man wanted very badly to buy it but couldn't afford the full price the owner was asking. After much bargaining however, he agreed to sell the house to the poor man for half the original price — along with just one stipulation: He would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.

After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

The Haitian pastor concluded that "If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ's habitation."

The devil has only come to steal, kill and destroy. He can be very crafty and he would love nothing more than to steal from us our very inhabitance in the Lord. Let's ask the Lord to reveal any pegs we may be leaving for the devil today and take back all that belongs to us in Jesus!

Last night began the solemn memorial of the 22,000 soldiers who've perished in various wars fought throughout the course of Israel's short history. Even right now, as we write this devotion, again the sirens ring aloud. Everyone in Israel can hear the sirens at this moment and just about all of them will stop what they are doing in remembrance of those who've laid their lives down for our country's freedom.

Today we mourn, but tomorrow we will celebrate. Israelis will be in the streets singing, dancing, eating and bopping each other on the head with blue and white blow-up hammers and throwing confetti. Old, young, black and white — it's really a site to see. I've never seen anything quite like it — an entire country celebrating together. It is truly a sign of the freedom that has been won for us.

We as believers have been given a freedom far greater than this, however. Jesus laid down His life that we might have freedom from sin — freedom from the chains of darkness, freedom to live as we ought to live, in purity, righteousness and holiness! How much more should we honor the Lord's sacrifice by living a life that expresses that freedom! We need to be living memorials of His sacrifice as we show forth His freedom in our lives.

Let's give our life again to the Lord today. God wants to use us to accomplish great things for His Kingdom. Let's get free! There's so much work to be done!

I've been trying to convince my wife for the longest time that we should get a dog. Well… I just happened to get word that some neighbors of ours were giving some cute ones away so I conveniently scheduled a time to see them with the whole family. When my wife saw these cute little pup faces, she had to give in. So finally we have a new addition to our family, praise God!

As many of you know, my wife is very clean-conscious, so the very first thing we had to do when we brought him home is give our little guy a bath. And as you can imagine, he wasn't liking this idea at all. The water — the shampoo — he fought tooth and nail. He didn't understand the fact that he'd been living out in a dirty yard for eight weeks and was full of fleas and other critters as a result. He couldn't believe that this bath was actually for his benefit. Yet it had to be done.

So it is with us. Unfortunately, we live in a dirty world, full of critters. And the Lord wants us clean. He wants us to stop being so busy scratching and itching so that we can do what we're called to do — cuddle — love on someone, make them smile! The Lord allows us to go through trials and tribulations that we might be refined and cleansed and more fit to do great things for His Kingdom! We might not understand or even believe that this cleansing is for our benefit, yet it has to be done.

Don't fight God's purifying process — embrace it! God has great things ahead! And there's sooo much work to be done!!!