Michelle Van Loon - Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith

Where has this book been? Now that we have it, what did the church ever do without it, and can I ever not have it nearby? I am savoring this book like a black iron skillet that gets better with age and will use it to cook up some theological dishes I never thought possible.

LEONARD SWEET

Author of From Tablet to Table and creator of preachthestory.com

We lose time, save time, waste time, find time. But what about inhabiting time? That is Michelle Van Loons important invitation through her well-studied exploration of the Jewish and Christian calendars. She bids us to keep holy days (not just holidays) and relieve our cultural anxiety that time is running out.

JEN POLLOCK MICHEL

Author of Teach Us to Want

One of Gods earliest gifts to Israel after forming them into a covenant people was a calendar to celebrate and to remind Israel of the major moments of Gods redemption. Israels year was shaped by those redemptive events so that every major holiday was simultaneously a memorial of Gods gracious redemption. The New Testament era of history was not long enough to form a Christian calendar, and even more the Jewish Christians already had their own calendarwhich they were adapting and adjusting in their worship of the Messiah. So it was nothing but Spirit-led wisdom for the church as it spread into the Roman Empire to adapt the Jewish calendar into a Christian calendar. Michelle Van Loons wise, readable, and informed study of the two calendars is a gift for all of us. Try one year of using the Christian calendar and you will be reminded, not of our presidents or our heroes, but of Gods redemption in Christ.

SCOT M c KNIGHT

Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament, Northern Seminary, and author of The Jesus Creed

This wonderful book is full of both information and inspiration about times we call holidays. The author offers rich background on the origins of both Jewish and Christian observances and includes practical ideas for making these times more meaningful. This book will be an invaluable resource for every home and will make a wonderful gift.

DALE HANSON BOURKE

Author of Everyday Miracles

This is an absolutely wonderful book for any who want to understand the grace-filled rhythms that God has built in to our days. As a pastor and parent, I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

REVEREND TRACEY BIANCHI

Worship and teaching pastor, Christ Church of Oak Brook, traceybianchi.com

Many books have been written about how to honor God with our talents and treasures but very few about how to honor Him with our time. Michelle has provided a much-needed resource for those who want to benefit from engaging in the sacred festivals within the Jewish calendar that were observed by Jesus himself or the Christian ones that were inspired by his life and ministry. This book will teach you how to see time from Gods perspective and how to leverage it for His glory and your delight. A must-read for anyone who takes the Bibleand their daysseriously.

JUSTIN KRON

The Kesher Forum

Herein lies a vast storehouse of riches that Michelle Van Loon unlocks for us. In Moments & Days, we discover our spiritual roots and the rhythms of our days. Van Loon, a Jewish follower of Jesus, wisely and deftly explores the formative implications of living by the Jewish and Christian festal calendars throughout the year. Jesus himself was spiritually formed by living according to the festal rhythms. If you long to become more like Jesus, then read this book. It is a unique and important worka gift. Dont miss out.

MARLENA GRAVES

Author of A Beautiful Disaster

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For a free catalog go to www.NavPress.com.

Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith

Copyright 2016 by Michelle Van Loon. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

Cover and back cover photographs are the properties of their respective copyright holders, and all rights are reserved: Communion tray ptnphotof/Adobe Stock. Candles tashka2000/Adobe Stock. Grapes kyonnta/Adobe Stock. Passover objects maglara/Adobe Stock. Alarm clock Pavlo Kucherov/Adobe Stock. Egg topnat/123RF Stock.

The Team:

Don Pape, Publisher

David Zimmerman, Acquisitions Editor

Ron Kaufmann, Designer

Published in association with The Steve Laube Agency, 24 W. Camelback Rd. A-635, Phoenix, AZ 85013.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Van Loon, Michelle, author.

Title: Moments and days : how our holy celebrations shape our faith / Michelle Van Loon.

Description: Colorado Springs : NavPress, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016015629| ISBN 9781631464638 | ISBN 9781631464645 (e-pub) | ISBN 9781631464652 (kindle) | ISBN 9781631464669

Subjects: LCSH: Fasts and feastsJudaism. | Fasts and feasts in the Bible. | Rites and ceremonies in the Bible. | Fasts and feasts. | Church calendar. | Christianity and other religionsJudaism. | JudaismRelationsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BM690 .V357 2016 | DDC 263dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015629

Build: 2016-08-08 15:01:46

To my forever family

(Revelation 19:6-9)

INTRODUCTION

Take My Moments and My Days

FOR 85 PERCENT OF EACH WEEK, modern Jerusalem is a noisy place. Each year, one and a half million camera-wielding pilgrims jostle for space with the citys eight hundred thousand permanent residents. Mix fervent prayer, the chatter of mothers walking their children to the market in strollers, the dialed-to-eleven volume of debate in cafs and at bus stops, car and taxi horns honking, sirens blaring, and feral cats fighting, and you have a mad symphony of sound.