Observing Holy Days or Holi-days?

Lambs or bunnies...I choose "The LAMB."

There is a difference between Holy days and holidays.  There is also a difference between the times and days, new moons and Sabbaths...on one hand you have those determined by Abba, on the other, you have those determined by man.

This is briefly written to point out that there days determined by Yah which are to be observed and there are days determined by man which Yah does not delight in...do we know the difference...do we care to?  

Which one should you keep?

(This post does not detail the instructions given by Abba to keep the Feasts and Sabbath.  The instructions for these days and their observances are found in Leviticus ch. 23)

Several places in the bible talk about observing times, days, new moons, and Sabbaths.  Is all observing of times, new moons and Sabbaths against Abba's instructions or is it just those "times" that man has set up...

 Let’s look at scripture to see if we can make Abba’s instructions clear:

2 Kings 21:6  (21st Century King James Version) 
6And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

II Chron. 33:3-6 3For he built again the high places (high places are places men built to worship "other" gods) which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asherah (Ashteroth/Dianna queen of heaven/easter) poles, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 
4Also he built altars in the house of the LORD (he built his alters for false idol worship in the house of God), whereof the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall My name be for ever." 
5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 
6And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.

God said:

Deuteronomy 18:10 (21st Century King James Version) 
10There shall not be found among you any one who maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or who useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 
11or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 
12For all who do these things are an abomination unto the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 
13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. 

Paul reprimands the Galatians for returning back to their old ways from which they came from…Paganism:

Galatians 4:9-10

9But now after ye have known God, or rather are known by God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements unto which ye desire again to be in bondage? 
10Ye observe days and months and times and years.

The observing of “times” that is being spoken of as evil was in reference to the "times" and practices which are NOT prescribed by God. These “times” that made God angry are the ones that come from the practice of idol worship done by those who didn't know Yah and were following after false gods and seeking signs and making sacrifice to these false gods.

Jeraboam is the prime example of this because he determined to change Abba’s Feast Days and the location where the Feast was to be held according to Torah.  Jeraboam made the change according to his desires, and did not honor the instructions given by Yah.

1 Kings 12:25-33

25Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein, and went out from thence and built Penuel. 
26And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. 
27If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah."

28Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!" 
29And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 
30And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 
31And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 
32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 
33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel; and he offered upon the altar and burned incense.

**This Feast that Jeraboam changed the date and location to, is the Feast of Sukkot.  According to Torah, it is to be kept in the seventh month on the fourteenth day in Israel.

See Hosea 2 (especially verse 11)  This chapter of scripture gives reference to the bride who is practicing adultery by following after other gods and observing false feast days. God says He will take them away from her.

Amos 5:21-22

21"I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell the scent in your solemn assemblies. 
22Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Again, you see Abba is expressing His displeasure of their idolatry practices, not displeasure in the times and feasts that are set by Him.

The days determined by God that we are to observe are set in place because of their prophetic significance to teach us what to look for and set in a time period that we are to expect to see it come to pass. They deal with the prophecy related to the Messiah and His comings. Satan desires to hide those days and replace them so that we won't see or understand who the Messiah is or what He will be coming to do or when He is to come. I believe the reason why satan puts it in men's heart to change these days is so that we will not understand what we are looking for and be blind because he hopes that we will miss Messiah. 

Remember:  The "Old Testament" is the foundation!!!  The "New Testament" or more likely, the "Re-newed Testament" MUST stand on what has already been written!!!

  

 Ultimately it is this:  We have 2 choices...one, we choose what Abba has prescribed OR what man has determined in his own heart to do and then declare it is Abba's.  The choice is ours.

Just thinkin'

Prophecy today

July 30th of this year was, on the hebrew calendar, the 9th of Av. The 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar is a very significant date in history for the Jewish people. It was on that date that the men of Israel were sent out to give report on the land that the LORD was about to give them on the other side of Jordan. The men went out and brought back evil report about the land saying that there were giants in the land and that they (the Jews) couldn't take the land because of that. The LORD was angry with those men because of this evil speaking about what the LORD had said was theirs to take because HE had given it to them. So those guys and everyone else who doubted what the LORD said didn't get to cross over into the promised land, they died in the wilderness. Since that time, on the 9th of Av bad things have befallen the Jews. On that date 2x in history their temple was destroyed. They have been thrown out of countries and many other "bad things" that you can read about have occured. This year on the 9th of Av they have begun re-building the alter near the temple mount in Jerusalem! This is one of the biblical signs that must be fullfilled before the return of Messiah. The book of Hosea talks about the restoration of the LORDs people on the 3rd day (speaking of a 1000 yrs. as being a day) after Messiah walked the earth.
The bible tells us that temple sacrifices will be resumed prior to the return of Messiah. This may be very significant to us at this particular time in history when so many things begin to unfold that point to a time that the bible says will be like no other time in history.
Scripture tells us to watch and pray as you see the day approaching. Yah is the ONE who fights the battle, we are to "be still and see the salvation of Yahuah". It is the final battle, kingdom against kingdom (Kingdom of our LORD and kingdom of satan) and it is determined which one wins already. For now, we are to be "watchmen" calling to men to be ready and to be prepared. So for now we watch, pray, and call men to keep the ways the LORD has instructed men to do because as scripture says "it is not a vain thing that you do the words of the LORD for they are life to you".

Here's the article: Temple Institute to Build Sacrificial Altar on Tisha B'av (9th of Av)
by Yehudah Lev Kay


(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute will begin building the sacrificial altar on Thursday, Tisha B’av (9th of Av), a fast day when Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple some 2,000 years ago.
Email readers, please click here to view the video report.The sacrificial altar was located in the center of the Temple, and upon it the Kohanim (priests) offered the numerous voluntary and obligatory sacrifices commanded in the Bible. The Temple Institute, which has already built many of the vessels for the Holy Temple, such as the ark and the menorah, has now embarked on a project to build the altar. Construction begins Thursday in Mitzpe Yericho (east of Jerusalem) at 5:30 p.m.“Unfortunately, we cannot currently build the altar in its proper place, on the Temple Mount,” Temple Institute director Yehudah Glick said. “We are building an altar of the minimum possible size so that we will be able to transport it to the Temple when it is rebuilt." Even a minimum size altar will work out to be approximately 2 meters tall, 3 meters long, and 3 meters wide. Workers have collected around 10 cubic meters of rocks weighing several tons already. The rocks were gathered from the Dead Sea area and wrapped individually to assure they remain whole and are not touched by metal, as the Bible requires.“The Torah says that no iron tools should be used on the altar’s stones,” Glick explained. “The altar represents a connection to life and to the creation of the world. Iron is the opposite – it is used to build tools of war, death, and destruction.”The stones will be cemented together with a mixture of sand, clay, tar, and asphalt. Researchers from the Temple Institute visited the Finish glass factory near Yerucham to learn how to create a mixture which would remain as cool as possible under the altar’s unremitting fires and protect the Kohanim, who always worked in the Temple barefoot.Glick said that Tisha B’av, a day associated with mourning, is really the ideal time to begin to build the Temple. “People mistakenly think Tisha B’av is only a day to cry,” he explained. “It also has to be a day of action. We have the ability in our era to begin the construction of the Temple." “There are many positive developments recently with regard to the Temple,” Glick added. “Hundreds of Jews visited the Temple Mount this week, and more and more continue to come, after undergoing the requisite ritual immersion.”The Temple Institute is searching for donations to help build the altar, which will cost around NIS 100,000 (approximately $26,000). More information is available at http://www.templeinstitute.org/main.htm.

Watch and pray

Tanner's starting Highschool!!! OMGOSH!

Here's Tanner and "B". Tanner is going to be starting 9th grade this year...High school!! I can't believe it's here already. So, we've been planning what classes (a rough idea anyway) he will be taking over the next 4 years in the event he chooses to go onto college. This year he'll be taking Algebra 1, Biology, Language thru literature, US History, Typing, Computer Sci., AND Foreign Language: Hebrew. Sounds like waaaaaaay too much stuff to me. I will be very busy working with him, although he is very independent and usually doesn't ask for much help, I find it's easier if I do some learning with him so I can keep up with him and help him if he needs it as he goes along. I learn a LOT of stuff with these guys! (I don't remember it all but It's more fun to learn now than it was when I was their age!) For Algebra, if he gets into trouble, I have a friend who has volunteered herself to us if we get stuck...is that awesome or what? He did pre-algebra last year and really didn't need any help. If he runs into trouble, he usually just works on it for a while until he figures it out. He's a smart guy. He's kinda quiet but smart. He's always smilin' and he likes to make ya happy. He's a good guy!!!

Right now most of his interests involve thinking up business ideas, designing computer games, and graphics, reading, riding bikes, basketball, camping. His first job was selling eggs from our chickens (when we still had them) and he made quite a bit of money from that...because he never spent ANY of it (I told you he's smart)! Right now, he's been making and selling colloidal silver machines. We started it as a science project and as a way he could make a few bucks. It's a specialty item but he hasn't done too bad with it. He likes doing his own stuff. He would like to have his own business and work for himself. I think he could!

You're a great guy Tan, I hope ya have a great school year (and me too) and that we don't get overwhelmed! Love ya, Mom


Here is one of those distorted pics Tanner took of himself with his computer...fortunately he doesn't look anything like this but it is a hoot! He looks like one of those animated super hero guys!