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Doorkeeper Watch Blog
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Well, it's that time of the year again - the time when we take our "trumpets" (our shofars) and go out to search the skies for the sliver of new moon on the first day of the seventh Hebrew month. As it says in Leviticus 23:23-24: "The LORD said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts." Why? Why keep a day unto the Lord that just involves rest and trumpet-blowing? I guess that would have been Louis Armstrong's favorite day! Haha. But actually, it is one of MY favorite days, because of what it portends. Searching the Scriptures we find several verses that give us clues about a day when a trumpet will sound and the more we spend time in these verses, the more we get excited about "that day." Here are four verses which I believe are tied to Yom Teruah (the Day of Blowing): 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." SO - there is a "last trumpet" and as it is blown, the dead receive their resurrected bodies and the living people of God are "changed in a flash" into imperishable bodies! Wow! 1 Thessalonians 4:16: "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." This verse has very similar language to the one in 1st Corinthians, but we are also told that this occurs WHEN THE LORD HIMSELF COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN! Isaiah 27:12-13: "In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem." Yes! Another powerful picture of that thrilling, extraordinary day when a great trumpet sounds and those survivors of the tribulation in Assyria and Egypt (and other places) are gathered to Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, to worship the King, the Messiah, who has come! Matthew 24:30-31: "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from one end of the heavens to the other." God's people from all over the earth will hear this "loud trumpet call" and then see - with their own eyeballs - the Messiah, King Yeshua, coming with His angels, and they will be gathered together. Putting all these scriptures together we see these things in common: A shout! The presence and the voice of angels! The dead rising from their graves! A loud trumpet call! A gathering of God's people! And so I ask you: why else would the Lord have given a prophetic feast day for all His people to look up to the sky and sound a blast on the trumpet? Surely it must please His heart to see our little troup of faithful people, our trumpets (shofars) in hand, going out to gaze at the western sky at twilight, looking for the sliver of new moon that would verify for us the first day of the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar. Surely it makes Him smile when we site the moon, then sound blasts on our shofars, hoping that a much greater, ear-splitting Trumpet Call might overtake our blowing and praying that we might witness the heavens opened and the Son of Man coming in His shining, radiant glory as our own bodies are changed into immortality! Yes, I know....there is much that still must happen to fulfill all bible prophecy before this Last Yom Teruah arrives. But you see, we are rehearsing. We are doing the only thing we know to do to keep this feast day. We are gathering together to look, to watch, and to let Him know that our hearts are eagerly, joyfully awaiting His Coming at that Last Trumpet Call! Are we ready? Are you ready?
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Proverbs 17: 22: A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Fifty-nine years ago today at age (almost) 18, I married Michael, my first love. He was so handsome, athletic, charismatic and sexy! I adored him but sadly, I despised my father; it was mostly about getting out from under his fierce control. Foolish decisions of a young, immature mind. So long ago. So young, ambitious, eager and in love! I never thought I would grow old. All the way through my 60s I remained vibrant, healthy, strong, joyful, driven, and eager to take the next plunge and experience the next great adventure that God would bring! In my 50s I traveled the globe on missions, crossing rivers in Africa and riding an elephant into the jungles of Nepal! I honestly and truly thought I was going to be just like the 85-year-old ma wnho was on our mission team in Nigeria. He was physically strong and mentally sharp. Yes - I would be JUST LIKE HIM! Right now I am ten years younger than he was and physically spent, mentally struggling. I never saw this coming! Never mind that most people my age are experiencing the same challenges that I am - it just wasn't supposed to be MY STORY. Sigh. Okay, Father, so eleven years of intense caregiving apparently aged me much more than I realized and now it IS my story. So, how do I learn to age gracefully? I asked the question and immediately He showed me a picture of my mother and asked me, "How did SHE do it? How did she age with grace and beauty, contented and at peace?" The answer was so obvious. Anyone who knew my mother remembers this one thing about her: her laughter. She literally laughed her way through Alzheimer's Disease! She had a genuinely cheerful heart. When she said a word incorrectly, she caught herself and giggled with joy. She really thought it was so funny! When Dad taught her how to use her pill-cutter, she wacked those pills in two and laughed like a child playing with his little toy sword. Her cheerful heart was good medicine. In their older age my parents moved into an independent living facility and when they would go into the common dining area for dinner, Mom would exclaim with robust joy, "I LOVE this cruise!" She accepted where she was and found joy. She knew her brain was losing words and she thought her word-errors were hilarious. As the old saying goes, she took the lemons life handed her and made lemonade. Thank You, Father, for showing me this example that my own mom gave to me. My heart is lighter - even more cheerful! If my mother laughed her way through Alzheimer's, I can surely find the way to age with grace...sprinkling the grace with humor and discovering joyful gratitude in all the things I can still do. Fifty-nine years ago today, I married the one my heart loved. I put on a white veil of lace and sailed into the unknown future, full of unbridled expectation! Today I wear a head of white hair - my crown of glory - and I patter with slow, careful steps out to my garden to see if the acorn squash has grown big enough to pick. I bend over to look and my bones don't feel so dry anymore. Then I look up with expectation because my Redemption draws near! And I can - like my mother - know contentment and peace with a cheerful heart. |
AuthorKelly Ferrari Mills 
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October 2026
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