https://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com<br /><br />But before the festival, <br />the entire village comes out to the fields to lend a hand --- <br />for the time of the wheat harvest has arrived.<br /><br />Our Harvest Festival, Shavuot - also called the feast of First Fruits -- is the third and final pilgrimage festival. <br /><br />At Shavuot we go up to the Temple to give back to God, in thanks, <br />that which the Almighty has given us in his bounty. <br />You also may get our products in the Holy Land Kitchen category of The Jerusalem Gift Shop<br /><br />As the reapers gather in the wheat, <br />they separate out the weeds that have also grown up in the fields.<br /> <br />The weeds are put aside for burning -- <br />so that no one will eat of their poison and become sick.<br /><br />Jesus told us that these weeds are like the evildoers <br />who will be thrown into the fire at the end of days.<br /><br />The good wheat is gathered into loose sheaves, <br />And these are carried across to the threshing floor. <br /><br />This is the center of the harvest activity.<br /><br />At harvest time, I can't help recalling the prophetic words of John the Baptist:<br />After me will come one who is more powerful than I, <br />whose sandals I am not fit to carry. <br />He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. <br />His winnowing fork is in his hand, <br />and he will clear his threshing floor, <br />gather his wheat into the barn <br />and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11-12) <br /><br />Shavuot is also the time when the Holy Spirit <br />descended upon us followers of Jesus. <br /><br />That wondrous day -- that we now call Pentecost -- <br />marks the birth of the congregation of the Christian Church.
