Isn’t it a Jewish practice to count the omer?
Why would Christians participate in counting the days that are between Passover and Pentecost on God’s calendar?
It is all about growth and sanctification really.
THERE IS MORE
The world didn’t stop turning once we became saved. That was just the first step of so much more that God has in store for his people.
Are you aware of the “more” part of Christianity?
It isn’t about works; it is about coming closer to God.
Also; it isn’t about what YOU will do; but it is about what GOD will do.
You might say it is like exercise for the soul; we have some stretching and reaching to do so that we can be spiritually stronger.
These days help us to achieve that.
EXERCISE FOR THE SOUL
You can skip the counting if you want to.
You will not lose your salvation.
Just as you can rest in your easy chair on a sunny day instead of getting outside and taking a walk.
But; you might just miss some the most eye-opening and spirit-stretching experiences in obtaining the fulfillment of your destiny and bringing forth the purpose that God created you to live out.
Each year of counting brings forth new life and abundant levels of spiritual blessings.
FOUNDATION LAYING
So; this little review of what you already know and believe is simply the logical first-thought pattern which will help to motivate us and get us foundationally grounded and started. The little review will help us turn down the right road with the counting (our spiritual exercises for the next 50 days):
The ancients brought their first-fruit offerings for God to the temple after every harvest. One harvest came in the spring and one harvest came in the fall.
The spring harvest had two parts; the harvest of the early rains and the harvest of the latter rains. The early rains brought the barley harvest and the latter rains brought the wheat harvest. The offerings were offered as thanksgiving to God for providing for each before anyone partook of the rest of the harvest.
EARLY FIRST FRUITS
The early spring harvest happened in the same season as the first Passover that God used to free the Israelites from the bondage of slavery.
This time of Passover was commanded to be remembered forever by God.
Later we know that Jesus Christ came and gave his life for the sins of all people during this Passover season. Thus; we came to recognize Jesus as our Passover Lamb.
The first Passover and until the time of Christ represented physical freedom.
Today we celebrate Passover as the removal of sins which brings us to complete spiritual freedom in Christ.
LATTER FIRST FRUITS
For the ancients Pentecost represented the giving of the law of God.
They strived hard to keep these laws but there was no perfect sacrifice to cover all of their sins; until Jesus came and died as a perfect sacrifice. After the crucifixion, Jesus rose again. He was alive because the grave no longer had power, since he had given his life so that all could receive eternal life.
40 of the next 50 days were the days that Jesus walked the earth in His resurrected body and bore witness to the power of God to all people.
During this time He instructed His disciples to follow after Him and to always worship God. They heard the sermon on the mount and recognized how important the beatitudes were for living a godly life on this earth.
Jesus asked them to keep the beatitudes as well as the commandments; and to try to conform their lives to the ways of God.
Our Savior was showing us how to bear fruit with our lives. He had already demonstrated this to us in a physical way by dying and rising from the grave. Now He wanted us to realize and live out the spiritual side of this.
RESTING IN PEACE AND COMFORT
He explained that when He went away He would send the gift of a Comforter who would draw us closer to God. This would result in peace and joy for our souls.
Then Jesus ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father. He has been our advocate in that place since those times. We anxiously await the day that He will return for His Church.
Those early disciples did exactly what He had instructed them to do.
They went to Jerusalem and waited on The Day of Pentecost. God’s Holy Spirit fell on them that day and this was the beginning of God’s Church of true believers and followers of Christ. From that moment on it was as if the followers were walking around with a portion of Jesus living within them. Even if He wasn’t physically present; He was there with them in Spirit. This made them stronger and they had the ability to live more fruitful lives.
Now all followers of Christ can rest in the peace, joy and comfort of knowing that He is right here with us in all that we attempt to do from now on.
WHY WE DO THIS
All of the above is part of the reason why many of us still desire to offer a first-fruits offering of our first and best spiritual offerings to God during this season.
The ancients had already established the pattern.
We simply add the rest of the story about Jesus into our meditations and receive from what God’s Holy Spirit choses to give to us as we meditate on the truths of God that unfold when we look at the attributes of God.
For most of us; the blessings are amazing and we cherish the time.
It is a growing time for God’s church.
MEDITATING ON GOD’S ATTRIBUTES
We do this with prayer and thanksgiving for the 49 days between Passover and Pentecost.
For each day passing between these two special times of freedom; we recognize and meditate upon the attributes of God. We pray that we will one day be strong enough in our walk with Jesus to attain these qualities within ourselves.
The whole process is a lot like looking at the photo of your Beloved. Have you ever been so in love that all you wanted to do is to gaze upon a photo of the one you love whenever they are not physically with you? We are looking at a word-photo of the God we love and adore as we meditate on the attributes that make God our God.
God’s Holy Spirit helps us as we meditate on these traits and characteristics.
Our meditations reflect the fact that Messiah has come, has resurrected from the grave victorious, and has ascended to the Throne of God where He waits on the Father to proclaim the day of The Marriage Supper of The Lamb. We recognize that The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are One; and we have now become One with them.
A SANCTIFICATION PROCESS
This time in between the two holy days helps us to prepare our souls for the sanctification we will need when Christ returns for us.
We desire to be holy like Him.
The Bride of Christ (His Church) must be ready and waiting. She must be prepared for an eternity in The Kingdom of Heaven, and ready to spend the first 1,000 years of that time restoring this earth to what God intended for it to be before Satan was allowed to turn it into chaos.
So; we count the days and we meditate.
We wait on God to pour His Spirit out to us; and we soak up all of the holiness that He allows us to attain.
LIVING UNDER THE BLESSINGS
The 49 days after Passover contain helpful meditations as we travel through the time from Passover to Pentecost.
Counting the days brings great blessings into our lives.
We would love for you to join in with us.
There will be a meditational devotion posted for each of the 50 days in our page called THE ALL MY DAYS CALENDAR. This section of the blog is dedicated to following God’s calendar as close as possible in the Christian life that we love.
There could be no better way to pass the time as we wait on Pentecost to arrive.