THE FEASTS OF THE LORD: WHAT HAS BEEN / WHAT IS TO COME

From my limited knowledge of the Feasts of our Lord, the time between Rosh Hashana (aka:Feast of Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (aka: Day of Atonement) is referred to as 10 days of repentance and reflection (aka: Ten Days of Awe). It is the beginning of a New Year and is a time to specifically look at our lives, repent of what is not pleasing to God and ask ourselves how can we better serve Him. Taking time to reflect on our lives in light of the Word of God is something we should be doing always, but our Father intended us to specifically and deliberately make time to focus on just that on His schedule, His time clock. I'm sure we can agree that these 'traditions' that we have overlooked for 1600 years are rich with God's plan in helping us stay focused and obedient. And I have found that knowing what little I do know about them and how they are not only rich in the traditions of our Lord and His ideas of how things should work, they are also a reflection of our Savior. Spring Feasts have already been fulfilled and Fall feasts are yet to be fulfilled by the coming of the Son of God, Christ Jesus, Yeshua Ha Mashiach, the King of Glory. We know that our Messiah's return will be announced by the sound of trumpets (Feast of Trumpets) and conclude with that awesome Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and then comes the Feast of Tabernacles which remembers when Israel dwelt in tents in the desert after coming out of Egypt ( aka: reflective of sin or separation from God) and God tabernacled with them in the desert. The Feast also reminds us that when the trumpet sounds, and Christ returns, He will Tabernacle with us, in Person, on earth. The Feast of Tabernacles will continue to be celebrated even after our Lord returns, according to Zechariah 14:16-19. I do not share this information to bring confusion to the Body of Christ. My knowledge is very limited but enough for me to believe celebrating what our Father established from the beginning, only for our benefit, adds a richness in our understanding of His plans for us. I understand and every evidence recorded in secular history, proves that man changed the traditions of God and made their own traditions by rearranging these celebrations to accomplish their political agenda and having done all of this without any authority to do so. Man does not have authority to change what God has written in His Book. I can't help but believe that as that Day draws nearer, the Church would be stronger, and more prepared to finish the race, if we could enjoy the connectedness of knowing the plans that our Father set forth from the beginning to help us develop strong bonds with Him and strong bonds in our families when children are raised to celebrate, on God's timetable, the Feasts which not only remind us of our past but point to our future in Christ Jesus as well. For my seminary educated brothers and sisters, for the Messianic Community, and my Jewish friends, please understand that my knowledge is limited and here only expresses what I have in my heart. Salvation is in Christ alone but at some point we have to ask ourselves, if none of this means anything, why did the apostles, the early Church and Jesus Himself keep these traditions. Ask yourself how they got changed and then ask yourself if it is time to get on God's time clock, God's schedule. I believe when the Church returns to her Jewish roots, we will see God's power unleashed in our lives and in these last days. I believe the Feasts of the Lord are one more component of knowing our Father and how He thinks and how He has planned for us. Galatians 3 teaches that "they who are of the faith, the same are the children of Abraham." That gives us the same DNA, by adoption, as those who believed before us. Why then should we resist the blessings of keeping God's plan for us, for our families to remember what has been and what is to come?