The Feasts of the Lord

     Guess what!  God ordered certain Feasts for His people to follow.  You can find instructions for them in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.  And then you can find multiple instances of God's people following His feasts -- including stories of Yeshua following them -- throughout the Bible.
     I will save the full discussion of whether or not Gentile believers in Yeshua are expected to follow the Feasts for another day.  It is an interesting search and one that deserves to be explored.

      The short version of the discussion is that believers in the Messiah are put into "right standing" with God through the blood of the Messiah -- not through the following of the Laws given to Moses (or Moshe, if you prefer the transliteration of his Hebrew name).  If you are returning to those things as your way to righteousness, you are missing the greatness of what the Messiah did for you.  But we also know that those things in the Law were good.  And there is no new rule that says you must break the Law in order to have grace (I've never heard a Bible teacher insist that we must now all steal something or commit murder so that it doesn't look like we are finding our righteousness through the Law).
     There are verses in the New Covenant which I believe instruct believers to not judge each other or look down on each other based on whether or not a person celebrates the Feasts or keeps the Shabbat (Shabbat: setting aside the 7th day of the week to honor God - we'll talk about that more later).  And my husband and I are still seeking out what that means for us (a couple of those verses were viewed different ways by each of us so we are still seeking for a common answer.  I will say this again...we don't have all the answers yet...but we are looking for them!)
     But, the Feasts!  Guys, they are so important!  Each of them had great meaning -- not only for the children of Israel but for every believer that has been adopted into God's house.  And all of the Feasts were not only commemorative but they were prophetic as well.  If you haven't studied them, you totally should.  It's really, really, really cool to see what God did with each one.
     Aaannnndddd, if you are going to celebrate holidays every year, why not celebrate the ones that were actually God's idea?  This is one of those cool things about being away from my old familiar acquaintances.  When I lived at home, we didn't celebrate these feasts every year.  And we DID celebrate other holidays.  But moving here has given me the chance to ask why.  Why DON'T we celebrate this one?  Is there any reason not to?  And why DID we celebrate those others?  Did they have good roots?  Is there a good reason to keep celebrating them?  I'm not just copying the culture around me. And I'm not dismissing things in the Bible just because no one around me does them.  I'm asking "WHY NOT????"  Why do we do or not do certain things?  Are we really matching our lives to Him or are we just trying to fit Him into our own way of doing things?
    This year was the first year that Garrett and I have done all the Feasts to the best of our ability.  And it was awesome.  I can hardly wait to share them with you guys!


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