Dear John Tng and all Doves,
      I have enjoyed our recent postings about Hanukkah by Tony Ellsworth, Gary Rich, and Dan Matson. Thank you each and all. We tend to see this 8 day event as a memorial of events in space and time from 168BC to 165BC. But there are two more contexts that I believe are worth mentioning. One is about the rise of the anti, or false Christ, in the years ahead. He too will lead people away from Abba Father, the Christ, the Spirit, and the Scriptures. The man in the Hanukkah story is earlier version of this son of perdition.
      But so much of the Hanukkah story is about the fighting to take back a way of life as well as the taking back of the temple. Why was this so necessary? The Christ/Messiah needed to be born into a world with that way of living commanded in the Torah. The five generations leading up to him had to consist of people and families of profound faith and obedience. These were foundational for the life values he learned and lived in all truth.  Before we can arrive at the narratives about his birth we need to see the context of that spiritual womb or gestation in those 160-165 years of the restoration and rededication of the people. The people are like a restored temple!
      I pray we will be the cleansed, restored, and rededicated living stones of the temple our Christ made possible for us to become. May his light shine out from us this season of Hanukkah and every day we have until he comes again for us.

With Love and Shalom,
Jean Stepnoski