Happy Feast Day Sabbath!!!

It’s the Sabbath in the middle of the Feast. I hope you all are having a great time. Unfortunately, this Sabbath means the Feast will be ending soon, but it also means that the Torah portions begin next Sabbath.

There’s something that I think I forgot to mention, and that is the haftarah. Each Torah portion includes a passage or passages from the Old Testament that are connected with the Torah portion for the week. Those passages are called the haftarah. So now, if you see that word, you’ll know what it is about. The Torah portions also include passages from the New Testament that link to the readings, but they are simply called the New Testament passages. Sorry, no fancy name for those.

So, let’s look at what Torah portion will be for next week, October 2nd.

Torah portion #1 is called B’reisheet, which means “in the beginning.”

Torah reading:
Genesis 1:1 – 6:8

Haftarah:
Isaiah 42:5 – 43:10
1 Samuel 20:18-42

New Testament:
John 1:1-18

Throughout the week, the posts will cover the sections of the readings, but the actual reading of the Torah, haftarah, and New Testament passages will be up to you. If you keep up with the readings and the posts, then you’ll be ready for a discussion of Torah Portion #1 on October 2nd.

Enjoy the rest of the Feast, and let’s get ready for Bible Study!

Reminder on the Timing of Posts

The Feast of Tabernacles begins on Monday, September 20th, as the sun goes down. That means that the first Torah portion will be the Sabbath after the Feast is over in eight days. The posts for that Torah portion will begin the Sunday before that Sabbath. Each Torah Portion will be the same way, with the post beginning the Sunday before and going through the week. Just to be clear, the first post for the first Torah portion will be on Sunday, September 26th during the Feast of Tabernacles. All the posts during that week will be for the first study on Sabbath, October 2nd.

Enjoy the Feast, and get ready for Bible Study!

The Day of Atonement

If the Messiah paid the price on the cross once and for all, why should we care about the Day of Atonement?

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How is This Bible Study Going to Work?

I decided to start this Bible Study blog for a few reasons. For starters, I’ve worked with both youth and adults and sadly have found that no matter the age, a lot of people come to a study unprepared for the topic. In other words, they don’t read the material beforehand so that they are ready to discuss it. This means that most of the time is spent going over the material rather than having discussions about it, and in a Sunday School setting that only has about 50 minutes, that means a lot of the material gets missed or overlooked simply because of time constraints.

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THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH!!!

It’s that time of year again when people start talking about when the Messiah really was born. Most theologians will agree that the December 25th date is not accurate, but there are still disagreements trying to settle on a new date. Some will argue that since the actual birth date cannot be determined, we should just leave it alone. Those that want to distance the birth from the Christmas season will still debate whether the birth happened in the spring or the fall. But does any of this matter?

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How Do You Return to a Place You’ve Never Been?

The Days of Teshuva, Part 4

In part 2, we learned that teshuva means to return to the paths of righteousness as written in the Torah. But what if you’ve never been taught the Torah? What if you were taught that Christians don’t need the Torah? Do we really need to do teshuva in that way?

Torah simply means instructions. The Torah is God’s instructions for how He wants us to live. What follower of God doesn’t want to live the way He designed for us? Maybe you’ve been taught that the Torah was just for the Jews and not for Gentile believers. Is it possible that God gave instructions to one group of people that He didn’t expect the rest of humanity to follow?

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Introduction to Emmaus Road’s Bible Study

When I started this Bible study a couple of years ago, the first session was simply called, “An Introduction to the Bible.” I won’t rehash all of that here because it would be a very long post, but I thought that since we have a new site and may attract new visitors, now would be a good time to let everyone know where we’re coming from and the sources we will be using on a regular basis. Things like that.

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To Lent or Teshuva, That is the Question

The Days of Teshuva, Part 3

So far, we’ve learned that the Days of Teshuva have begun and vaguely why they are at this time of year, and we’ve also learned what teshuva means. You may be able to see how Teshuva is similar to Lent. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that the days of teshuva are forty in number, just like Lent. One has to wonder, if the Days of Teshuva already exist, then why do most people celebrate Lent? I’ll get to that in a moment, but first I want to tell you about some observations and traditions about the 40 Days of Teshuva.

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The Meaning of Teshuva

The Days of Teshuva, Part 2

If the Days of Teshuva sound foreign to you, that is not a surprise. Most pastors don’t preach on the subject. And if they do, they tend to associate it with Easter and the days more commonly known as Lent. That’s understandable since they are both relating to the same thing. So, why the change from Teshuva to Lent? We’ll get to that in part three.

What are the Days of Teshuva?

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The Days of Teshuva

Part 1

The Days of Teshuva are upon us. And they came quicker than expected. That’s because of a calendar shift on my part as I will explain in a moment.

If the Days of Teshuva are something that is new to you, I will apologize in advance. That will be explained in part 2. For now, I need to explain the calendar change. That may also be new to you. Even though we still live under the Gregorian calendar and the posts will be dated by such, the timing of things that happen through this Bible study will follow the Creator’s calendar as mentioned throughout the Scriptures. Having said that, the Creator’s calendar is not a step-by-step method for determining when a day, month, or year begins. All you have to do is perform a web search to see that there are varying opinions on what the Scriptures say about how to keep the days, etc.

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