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Introduction: A few funny fortune cookie messages that you’ll never see

• That wasn’t chicken you just ate.
• You need a mint… like, bad!
• Error 404: fortune not found
• Why bother reading this? You never listen, anyway.
• The Chinese invented gunpowder, fireworks and philosophy… what have YOU done lately?
• It’s your mother. Would it absolutely kill you to call me? But, I want you should enjoy your Chinese food… I’ll sit here in the dark.

Fortune cookies are cute, but does anyone really think your entire future can be summed up in a pithy saying on a little slip of paper? Yet, it is a fact that ours is an impatient generation; we expect things to come to us easily and almost instantly. Maybe it all started out with Folgers Crystals. In any case, gone are the days of walking to the local public library, looking up book titles on index cards in file drawers, finding the book, checking it out, taking it home and reading it in order to find answers to your questions. Today, you only need to type your question into a search engine, and a few clicks later it’s all spelled out for you. We’ve come to expect instant gratification, and neat, convenient, simple solutions to our problems.

But life isn’t simple. Real life consists of snaggled relationships, demands put upon us that may or may not be reasonable, big responsibilities, besetting problems and it’s often complicated and messy. Meaningful, lasting solutions aren’t to be found on a little strip of paper in a tasty fortune cookie. And, more often than not, there won’t be any sweetness in the process.

So is it reasonable to think that a year’s worth of foolish decisions, sinful actions, broken promises and self-centeredness can be erased in a day?

No… and… Yes!

No – because, first of all, Yom Kippur was never meant to atone for the sins of individuals, but rather was given by Adonai as a national observance, and the atonement was for Israel’s collective sins.

Also, no – because to fulfill the commandment for the Day of Atonement would require the Temple to still be standing, and the presence of a High Priest to offer the animal sacrifices prescribed in the Torah (a bull, a ram, and two male goats). The Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, and hasn’t yet been rebuilt; and nowhere in the Jewish Scriptures was the demand for those sacrifices rescinded.

On the other hand, yes… it is possible, not only for a year’s worth of sins, but a lifetime’s worth of sin to be erased, and in a mere moment. Yeshua – Jesus – Israel’s true Messiah, and the Son of God made it possible. But in order to have atonement, the forgiveness of sin, and to be reconciled to God, you have to acknowledge these five things

(and this applies to every human being – Jew and Gentile alike):

1) Acknowledge that you have sinned against God (and rejecting Yeshua tops the list of your sins)

2) You are powerless to remedy the situation by your own efforts

3) Yeshua is the Righteous Promised Messiah

4) His death paid the penalty for your sin, and…

5) God raised Him from the dead

And having acknowledged those things, you must invite Him to take His rightful place on the throne of your heart and to surrender your will to His. You see, that’s what real repentance means: turning away from your own will and ways (having said “No” to Yeshua all these years), and turning toward God and beginning to do things His way (saying “Yes” to Yeshua from this day forward). And when you do that, you will have joy and a newfound relationship with God like you’ve never known.

The Day of Atonement is coming to a close. In the rabbinical understanding, it means the gates are closing. Has your repentance been sufficient? If it doesn’t begin and end with Messiah as your perfect Lamb of God, then it isn’t anywhere close to sufficient.

And so my prayer is that God will give those of you still on the outside, not yet believing, the wisdom and the courage to turn to Messiah Yeshua; and that you will discover, as I and so many others have, the joy of knowing you have eternal life, and are completely reconciled to the Living God, and that your name is recorded indelibly and forever in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Beats the heck out of a fortune cookie, wouldn’t you agree?