The Art Of Religion Book

By Dennis Mitchell……5/21/26

Shavuot (Sha-vu-oat) is one of God’s 7 specially appointed Feast Days that He personally declared in His Torah to be Holy unto Him. Traditionally, Shavuot was declared by God to become one of the 3 times per year that Hebrew men were required to come to the temple in Jerusalem and stand before their God to pay Him homage.

After King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem, Shavuot became one of 3 times per year (that also included Passover and Tabernacles) that Hebrew men were required to pilgrimage to Jerusalem and pay homage to their God at the Temple.

Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, they could no longer visit the temple, but the people would continue their annual pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem. Much of that holy pilgrimage on those special Feast Days still continues on even today, in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Temple Mount.

There are 2 very specific days that Shavuot is designed to commemorate. The first being the day that God originally spoke to Moses and the Children of Israel from the top of Mt. Sinai. On this day, He originally declared His Covenant with His people and gave them the basic content of His Torah, which taught His people how to keep His Covenant. You can read that basic content in Exodus Chapters 20-31.

Most Christians, however, typically dismiss those 11 important Chapters in Exodus, where God first spoke to our ancestors about His Torah. The word Torah in Hebrew basically means “God’s teachings and instructions.”

Most people, especially Christians, relate God’s Torah to the word “Law,” referring to the “Law of Moses.” Unfortunately, some people go to the extreme and deem the Mosaic Law, in their own minds, as being something evil that they want to run away and hide from. I can assure you that nothing that God has ever declared to be Holy is evil.

It seems very sad to me that anyone would think that way about the teachings and instructions of their Heavenly Father. Especially since Yeshua, Jesus Himself, lived His whole life, taught others to follow His ways, then died to fulfill the exact letter of the Mosaic Law, to fulfill His personal prophetic portion of His Father’s will for His life according to Torah.  

Christianity, in its early stages of development during the days of Constantine, basically outlawed “all things Hebrew.” They basically tried to purge everything Jewish out of the new Roman Catholic Church. It was decided to only focus on the “10 Commandments” that God originally wrote with His finger on stone tablets. The 10 Commandments might be considered a summary or short version of the Torah, but obviously, a summary cannot possibly explain in any detail what God spent 11 chapters trying to teach us.   

The early Church Fathers decided that most everything else in the Old Testament, except for a few select verses about the giving of “tithes and offerings,” was only for the Jews. As Christians, they only had to follow the New Testament teachings of Jesus and His Disciples, who were all Messianic (Jesus believing) Hebrews who kept the Torah that Jesus taught them.

I spent many long months researching Scriptures for my Art of Religion book. What I discovered by starting in Genesis and working myself slowly forward, was that Jesus taught Torah from a Holy Spirit-inspired perspective. A perspective so amazing and enlightening, that some people called it “A new type of doctrine,” which some people interpreted as being Christianity. Actually, it was a divinely inspired interpretation of God’s Torah.

The second Biblical and more popular use of Shavuot, happened on what Christians call the “Day of Pentecost,” that we read about in Acts Chapter 2. This was the same day that Jesus told His Disciples to tarry in prayer and fasting for in Jerusalem.

Many people do not realize the significance of Shavuot, (Pentecost) as it relates to Hebrew teachings and traditions. On Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit fell on the Disciples of Jesus as tongues of fire and a mighty roaring wind, 3,000 people were “Saved, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and then water baptized.”

Traditional Hebrew teaching tells us that those 3,000 souls were meant to become a replacement, of sort, for the 3,000 “rabble rousers” who revolted against God and created an idol of a golden calf which they worshiped during the original event of Shavuot. All who rebelled were put to death for their blatant sin against God, while Moses was spending 40 days and nights with God upon the mountaintop.  

Another name that is sometimes given to Shavuot, by certain Christians is called “Whitsunday,” which is interpreted as “White Sunday.” This traditional term started with the recognition of the 3,000 people baptized on the first day of Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection. This inspired the Day of Pentecost to become a traditional church day to baptize people. The term “White Sunday” was a reference to all those who were later baptized wearing white baptismal gowns at these church events.   

Today at Sundown, starts God’s official Hebrew calendar day of Shavuot that lasts for 24 hours. It is a day which is also considered to be a Sabbath day, which means that no work other than minimum requirements, are supposed to be done. A day when God’s people, His “True Believers,” should spend time showing Him the praise and honor that He deserves from us.

We obviously cannot come before God in the Jerusalem Temple any longer, but we can certainly enter into our prayer closet, wherever that may be, and spend time with our Heavenly Father there.  It is my prayer that you will enjoy the time you devote to fellowship with your Heavenly Father.

By Dennis Mitchell     5/15/2026

In my Art of Religion book, I wrote a story about a young visiting preacher named Eddie, who shared a profound revelation that I have never forgotten. The book version is longer, detail oriented and more fun to read, but here is the shorter Readers Digest version of Eddie’s revelation.

Eddie walked up and quietly stood in front of our church one Sunday morning, many years ago. Slowly and methodically, he began slapping his hand against his chest, next to his hand-held microphone. That action created a sound that was meant to and did, represent the heartbeat of God. In less than a minute, the entire congregation was silently sitting on the edge of their chairs wondering what was happening. A baby in the back of the sanctuary even stopped crying.

Then, while continuing his simulated heartbeat rhythm, Eddie stoically spoke out these amazing words. “Ya’ll think you can see me, don’t you, but you can’t!” Many mouths in the congregation now began to gape open, in anticipation of what words could possibly follow such a bodacious statement.

Eddie continued by saying, “What you are looking at, is not me, it’s my earth-suit. I am a spirit being who lives inside of this earth-suit.” Eddie then began to smile as he finished his profound statement. “God has given me this earth-suit to use and live in temporarily during my stay here on earth. When my allotted time here on earth is finished, I will leave this earth-suit behind and go to live with my Heavenly Father.”

If you are a reader who is a believer in God, then let that revelation sink in, because it will change your life. The Bible says, “There is an appointed time for a man (person) to be born and an appointed time for that person to die.” If we trust God and live by His rules and time schedule, nothing will cause us to die, until our “appointed time” arrives.

I believe that the term “sting of death,” that we hear spoken about at funerals, directly ties into the “fear of death.” I also believe that God wants us to learn how to turn our “fear” into “trust” for Him, which negates that sting. If you have confidence in your Salvation Covenant, then going to heaven is a grand reward.

This short story about Eddie, sets the scene for a recent encounter that brought me near to the edge of eternity. I was first transported to the ER a local hospital, and then 12 hours later admitted into a critical care hospital. The doctors agreed, that I was at the brink of “death,” that led to an 8-day hospital stay. Thankfully, it was not yet my time to die.

Other than now being left with unwanted doctor and hospital bills to pay off, my hospital stay ended up becoming a surprise spiritual adventure. The personal interactions that God allowed me to experience with various hospital employees, was a fantastically fruitful experience.

Despite the pain and discomfort that I was dealing with in my physical body at the time, every day brought new opportunities for me to share my faith. Those inspired opportunities led to what I call “God Moments.”

Hearing my testimonial stories, encouraged numerous people to begin sharing their own personal “God moments” with me. In several cases, after they had finished, they admitted that they had never before shared those amazing testimonies with anyone else.

Part of their reasoning for sharing them with me, I believe, was because they trusted that I would not mock or scoff at them. Many people carry around the memories of supernatural God experiences in their hearts. Sadly, not everyone feels the trust, freedom and confidence to share them with others.   

I was given several opportunities to pray with hurting people during my stay, which always excites me when I am able to do so. It is amazing what opportunities will avail themselves, when we are bold enough to ask. I entered that hospital on a stretcher, carrying what felt like a tiny little candle. During my adventure that small candle grew in significance, into a spiritual bonfire.  

There were both physical and spiritual benefits that I brought home from my hospital stay. A short time after arriving back home again, which included many hours of fervent prayers, I woke up one morning feeling pain free. More importantly, it felt like God had just given me a fresh “Restart” on life again!

My life journey had led me to the precipice of reaching a “Mostly Dead” status. For a short while, the pain I was enduring led me to question whether I really wanted to keep living or die. I finally gave that decision over to God as I began to fall asleep briefly, on the ER stretcher.  Obviously, it was not yet my time to die.

In retrospect, I have been giving much thought and prayer to that whole Mostly Dead experience. I have decided that perhaps, God occasionally takes people like me on those types of near-death adventures. Not to be mean, but to help us fully appreciate and be able to share with others, the joys of receiving His free “Covenantal Gift of Eternal Life,” when we ask.

The good news witness to that, is despite going through all of the torment, pain and angst in my physical body, my spirit man remained just fine. Having the opportunity to let my light shine, as I ministered to different hospital workers, became an unforeseen blessing that I never expected.

With Passover coming up the end of this week, I wanted to share a very personal and life changing story that happened to me one Passover Eve many decades ago. This is another shortened and condensed excerpt story taken from my new 342 page book called, The Art of Religion.

“The Unexpected Visitor”   By Dennis Mitchell

My first full time ministry position, was working as a counselor at a locally run Teen Ministry program. Our program was set up to operate like a small version of a Teen Challenge Program.

I had spoken to Al, the program administrator, about the possibility of us putting on a Passover Seder for all of the students, staff members and volunteers who had helped us out during the previous year. Al said that he liked the idea, but would have to think and pray about it.

A week or two later, Al approached me and said that, “Yes, we could sponsor the Passover Seder, but there was a special requirement necessary. Al said that he could purchase a year old lamb from a neighbor, if I was willing to take on the responsibility of butchering the live animal.”

I was not overly thrilled about being in charge of the whole slaughtering process, but agreed to do it, if Al could find a volunteer to help me. He did find a young college student named Andy, who volunteered to help when nobody else would.

My father had trained me when I was young to become a skillful fisherman and hunter. I had previously killed and processed several deer and there is not a huge difference between the two animals. My father had also taught me the value of life, which included not killing anything that I was not going to eat.

Shooting a deer in the wild at a distance was one thing, but killing an innocent sheep while standing face to face with it, was another issue. That concept was making me feel uneasy, but I had already given my word to do it.

What made it feel even harder, was that I believed the Holy Spirit was telling me to kill the lamb in what is referred to as a “Kosher Kill” method. Back in the days of Jesus, (Yeshua) the people took their live Passover Lambs to the Temple

and the Temple Priests sacrificially killed the animals for the people. 

Technically, the only data that I could find about a kosher type kill back then, referred to taking an extra sharp knife and quickly cutting both juggler veins of the animal from the inside of the neck outward. Then allowing the animal quietly bleed out. The Torah tells us “Do not eat/drink the blood of an animal, because the life of the animal is in its blood.”

I must admit, slicing the juggler veins of an innocent lamb with a hand held knife, did seem very barbaric to me. I had never done anything like that before, or since that particular Passover.

Man’s temptation, when facing an uncomfortable situation, is to grab the reins away from God and handle things our own way. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that “God’s ways are higher (pre planned to be better) than our ways.”

When Andy showed up that morning, I had already been busy cleaning and preparing a safe and sanitary workspace in the hay mow of Al’s old barn. I took some time to explain to Andy what we were about to do and then we said a prayer. Then I quickly stepped forward and proceeded with my kosher kill.

Watching the blood of that innocent animal pump out onto the plastic covered floor boards, because of something that I had just done, suddenly made me feel terrible. The lamb had never once flinched, tried to escape, or made a sound. It just stood there silently, staring at Andy and me like it had already known and accepted its fate.

My eyes quickly pooled up and tears started to leak down my cheeks like an overfull reservoir dam. Then I looked over at Andy to see how he was doing, he was practically undone. As soon as we made eye contact, he started to sob out loud. That caused me to lose it myself for several minutes. The supernatural reality of that experience became a defining moment that has not been forgotten.

After several minutes I asked Andy if he was okay, his long awaited response was, “I never knew.” Then I asked him, “You never knew what Andy?” His response to that question caused both of us to lose it again for several more minutes. With dead serious resolve, Andy said “I never knew until just now, how much He really loves me.”  

My perspective of watching the lamb physically die, stirred up emotions of guilt inside of me, for the part that I played in causing the lambs death. Andy however, was taken to a whole new spiritual level and given a supernatural gift which changed his life forever. In a matter of minutes, he was transformed from being a perpetual class clown, to a dedicated servant of God.

Andy had been given a unique spiritual revelation that day. He was carried back in time to a previous Passover day, allowed to stand at the foot of the Cross, then shown first-hand exactly how much his Messiah did and still does love him. While I watched the neighbors lamb die, Andy watched the “True Lamb of God” die.

Suddenly, the spiritual atmosphere in the top of Al’s barn changed dramatically. The lamb still laid dead on the floor before us, but the feelings of sadness and remorse that we had previously felt, suddenly morphed into “Feelings of joy unspeakable and full of Glory!” The glory of Yeshua began to fill the old barn and our young hearts. What a testimony Andy and I had to share later that evening!