REMEMBERING THOSE LOVELY APRIL SHOWERS
Forget the rain!
April began with Resurrection Day!
Can you think of a better beginning?
This month is known for its sudden rain showers; but here we have discovered it is also known for it’s sudden showers of blessings.
UNLEAVENED BREAD AND EARLY FIRST FRUITS
In early April we were off to a wonderful week of fulfilling The Seven Days of Unleavened Bread. God surely rained down blessings from Heaven. It was a discovery-packed week for most of us.
I hope you all enjoyed the articles in our SEASONS column on the subject of The Days of Unleavened Bread. It is a topic near and dear to my heart.
I especially loved sharing the concept of Early First Fruits and Resurrection.
Based on the comments received; many of you had not considered the early first fruits perspective of this subject before. Welcome to the place where God is constantly surprising us and opening our eyes wider. You have come to The IN SEASON Lifestyle Community.
Please make yourself right at home; and if you want to review those unleavened bread and early first fruits articles just click here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seasons-celebrating-early-first-fruits-during-passover-week-in-gods-spring-holy-days/ https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seasons-why-do-we-keep-the-seven-days-of-unleavened-bread/
COUNTING THE OMER
Another subject from our SEASONS section which got a lot of attention in the month of April was the topic of counting of the omer; where we begin on the day of Early First Fruits (Resurrection Day) to count down the days until Pentecost.
In this exciting 2 Timothy 4:2 world we always have something to be looking forward to. The days in between can be very enlightening though. I subscribe to a daily e-mail that helps me to count the days and reminds me of the attributes of God’s Character as we go through each and every day on the counting. I’ve done this for many years now and God always teaches me something new about Who He is, and even things about myself.
This year the topics that hit my heart were those about momentum and endurance. I caught myself thinking of how well (or not) I’ve been enduring the time on earth until the day I will meet Jesus face-to-face and heart-to-heart. Endurance put in that perspective can be a huge and intriguing subject. We wrote about this subject in our GROW OLD WITH ME section of the blog in April. I hope you caught the article; but if not you can find it here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/paul-apostle-of-christ-movie-review/.
If you are more interested in my thoughts on the subject of momentum – you may review that article here https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/momentum-matters/ I truly believe that both endurance and momentum are very important in living The IN SEASON Lifestyle. If you decide to endure and you keep to the momentum of God’s Holy Calendar; you will see what people mean when they say that Jesus turned the world “upside-down and inside-out.”
MOVIES AND BOOKS IN THE PEN ART SECTION OF THE BLOG
One person who is good to model when thinking about endurance is The Apostle Paul.
I hope you all had a chance to go see the recent movie called Paul; Apostle of Christ. My Mom and I loved this movie about the last days of The Apostle Paul’s life. How wonderful it was! It made such a profound impression on me that I gave it a review in our PEN ART section of the blog. You can catch it here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/paul-apostle-of-christ-movie-review/.
This article actually got published in two sections of the blog in April; GROW OLD WITH ME and PEN ART; because God showed me thoughts on how the two tied together beautifully. So don’t think you are seeing double if you find one article copied into two separate sections of the blog. It happens a lot. That is one of the elements of the Hebraic way of thinking about life; everything overlaps and flows in and out of each other and things are not ever compartmentalized into neat little boxes that come to us separately and exclusively for one reason. Life flows more like a river with streams joining and separating and coming back together in the most unlikely ways and places.
It is rare for me to do a movie review; I don’t think many good movies are being made anymore. When one springs up that is different I like to point it out and give that production crew and cast some support.
Book are a different subject. Today’s world is undernourished from not eating the good food of the marketing of so many fine-quality books; and I suppose it is because we are doing most of our reading free and on-line. I stand accused as a main contributor to this bad habit of our culture; but I also do my part to promote fine literature whenever possible.
Unlike reviewing popular movies; it is never very rare to hear that I’ve done a book review. You are likely to find a different book review here every month if you browse our PEN ART column very often. This month’s favorite book was “The Writing Desk” by Rachel Hauck.
I not only reviewed Rachel Hauck’s amazing book; but we gave you a little glimpse into many other works of this author I’ve admired from afar for many years.
It probably will not surprise you to learn that I (at first) found romance novels (even Christian ones) to be a bit boring. Read the article and find out why Rachel Hauck was instrumental in totally changing my outlook on Christian Romance Novels. https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/rachel-hauck-christian-romance-novels/.
EXCITING LEVITICUS BIBLE STUDY CONTINUES
Our COME AS A CHILD page-by-page, verse-by-verse bible study has now journeyed deep into the heart of Leviticus.
We are already in Chapter Seven and moving on at a quick speed.
The weekly articles have followed God’s instructions to Moses about how the priests are to offer the sacrifices in the wilderness tabernacle; but God has given us some deeper insights with each lesson.
How surprising to finally realize that those ancient priests are symbolic of today’s Christians. If you want to review the lessons we covered in April – you can find them here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seeing-christ-sacrifices/ https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/sin-offerings/ https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/grain-offerings/ https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/grain-offerings/.
The upcoming month of May will hold even more exciting articles about the Children of God in the days of The Wilderness Tabernacle. Keep watching for these articles every Thursday.
THE BOOK ON GENESIS IS COMING ALONG WELL
I know you all have probably heard this news before; but I have been hard at work on compiling all of our past weekly lessons from The Book of Genesis into one whole book. It is coming together like a beautiful work of art. Looking at the whole is so much fun after reviewing all the pieces we’ve studied from week to week. Pray for this compilation to continue on course. We are including some lovely photographs and this book may turn out to be a nice work of art as well as a good study summary.
Soon I hope to offer the book for publication from the Wordcastle Publications LLC offices. Our IN SEASON Lifestyle readers will be the first to receive their copies; then the book will be offered to the general public.
ANNOUNCING The IN SEASON Lifestyle COMMUNITY STORE
Another very exciting part of April was the compilation of the first monthly page summary of our April products from The IN SEASON Community Store.
Now you can peak into the store’s doors and see all the April products at once by clicking here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/store-products/.
Our products are all already advertised at the end of each of their pertinent articles during the month of April; but I think you will enjoy everything being re-displayed in a logical summarized format at the end of each month; especially if you have forgotten to bookmark the articles with the product information that you wanted to use.
I will quickly tell you that we are not product focused here; but having some products as an added little “extra” at the end of the day makes for a lot of fun. The seasonal shopping is forever changing and this helps to assist with your seasonal shopping; which saves you more time and effort for reading and celebrating the seasons.
It is so much easier to purchase these unique items on-line, rather than spending hours and hours looking for seasonal products you can’t find in the physical stores. That makes shopping in the stores more of a fun past-time activity in the end because instead of a constant frantic rush to find what you need for the activities you will be participating in each month; you can just browse at your leisure and for fun. Order those specific things here and miss all the rush-rush and panic shopping whenever you want to follow an idea or theme that we have presented.
Enjoy!
LOOKING FORWARD TO ALL THOSE MAY FLOWERS
May seems to be coming to us with beauty and the harvest of the seeds that those April showers watered for us.
SUMMER GARDENS
One subject we will bring during the month of May is how to enjoy a summer garden. Here we love both flower gardens in the yard as well as container gardens for growing our food. Look for articles on how to grow your own produce even if you live in the suburbs. Ah – sometimes I miss those good old farm days of my youth; but I think we have found a way to bring some of the farm to the city.
By the way; have you ever noticed how gardens speak of God The Father?
A LITTLE TRIP TO KENTUCKY FOR DERBY DAY
We could not let Derby Day pass us by. Look for some fresh and exciting news about this year’s derby. The Kentucky Derby is so much fun; and let’s admit it; horses in general are such amazing animals. When is the last time you ventured into the world of horses? Would you enjoy racing, trail riding or western horse shows? They are all so different. We have a few things to say about horses this May so stay turned if you are an equestrian.
MOTHER’S DAY
Right after Derby Day is done; along comes Mother’s Day.
What a beautiful day for families all across the world to honor all the special Moms that keep our world turning.
I have some articles from previous Mother’s Day celebrations to show you this May. It might be a little walk down memory lane. The review will be fun. It is always a special day full of sweet memories at our home.
There are also some very new memory-making times going on as our daughter’s now grow into amazing mothers in their own rights. Hopefully we will be able to view a few of our 30-something Moms this May and get their thoughts on what Mother’s Day means to them.
Are you aware of how many amazing Moms live right in your own community? Have you noticed their tender care, their hard work, their constant ability to show love and affection to the children everywhere? Not all of these mothers gave physical birth; but there are spiritual mother’s out there making an amazing difference in our daily lives. They are often taken for granted because they are humble and have servant’s hearts. The world would not be the same without the way they all look after each of us with prayer, favors, assistance and love.
This would be a good month to reach out and share with them. We will have several suggestions for this in May.
WAITING ON PENTECOST TO ARRIVE
Like April; May is filled to the brim with eventful days to remember. The first of the month is a flurry of mankind’s ideas to celebrate; but the middle of the month finally gets us focused back on true north – God’s Holy Day Calendar.
One of the most important days of all in this busy month of May is The Day of Pentecost.
Be watching the SEASONS section of the blog for some very enlightening thoughts on the Day of Pentecost. What does it mean to you? Have you given it a lot of thought? Have you been counting the days with us and anticipating God’s blessings?
We welcome your comments and would love to hear what God is whispering into your ear about this important and exciting day.
MONDAY NIGHT MENUS
May is the month for fresh spring salad ideas. In May we get blessed with the most delicious local produce from the land. Be watching MONDAY MENUS for some new recipes as well as some delicious ice cream treats that you are going to love knowing about this summer. Who knows; we might even take a tour of one of the local places that produces ice cream for the masses. We are hoping to find the time!
We will probably even throw in an article or two about Alabama’s Open Air Markets. They are so much fun during this season of the year.
REMEMBERING OUR PAST HEROS
The end of May will bring us to Memorial Day.
Could we be approaching that time of the year so soon?
Just what does Memorial Day mean to us anyway? How will you and yours be celebrating this year? I’m taking notes and wanting to share some of the things I’m hearing from our very creative readers.
With Memorial Day always falling on a weekend; I sense some new travel destinations on the calendar. This is a long weekend for us; a time when my husband and I usually like to sneak off by ourselves and do a little exploring of our own. We may be passing a few of you as you set up your grilles and begin those BBQ’s on the lawn.
Where do you think we will go this time?
I’ll just keep you guessing until I have some solid things to tell you.
So the month of May will be amazing in every way.
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Keep reading and keep submitting your ideas for our growing IN SEASON Lifestyle Community. There is so much for us to share!
Thank you all for enjoying the journey with us and living the IN SEASON Lifestyle (2 Timothy 4:2).
Blessings!
Gail Landgraf- Editor
The IN SEASON Lifestyle Community Blog
Via – Wordcastle Publications LLC
3685 Pine Lane
Birmingham, Alabama 35242
205-532-9893
Blog: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/
E-Mail: wordcastlepublications@gmail.com