A trip to the Holy Land, by way of Loganville

Last night I did one of the more interesting and rewarding things I've done in a while on a Friday night (no, Mom, I didn't go on a date). I went to a Messianic Jewish congregation for a Purim celebration. Last week Jews celebrated Purim, the remembrance of when there was a death decree on the people and God delivered them by the hand of Queen Esther. Amazingly, the Lord had directed many of us to pray on the mic for Israel and the Middle East at IHOP this past week and it really awoke something in my heart. We just happen to have a token Messianic Jew on-staff at IHOP and so we got the 411 and headed over to Congregation Beth Ha'Mashiach.

It was so much fun! They had special dances prepared, that were of the Davidic Dance kind that were absolutely beautiful. The worship was simple, yet anointed. I felt Holy Spirit very present. I highly enjoyed the reading of the Torah and the singing in Hebrew. I felt like I was in the Holy Land myself (well, for a second anyway). Afterward, the Rabbi retold the story of Esther and the freeing of the Jews from Haman's death decree. While telling the story, he had the audience shouting, "yay," "boo," or "aww" for the different characters of Malachi, Haman, and Esther respectively. We also had these funny noisemakers that we used when we "booed" Haman. After the festivities, there was food, as I believe there is every Friday night, but they included special bottles of kosher wine, and Hamentaschen, or "Haman's Hat," which are pastries. It was very entertaining and fun, and who knows, maybe we'll go back to visit for the celebration of Passover...