God's Appointed Times

A little bit about us, our names are Johnny & Gail Williams. We have been on a spiritual journey all our lives, but we will start with where we are now after reaching our 50's. Between us both we have been immersed in several denominations, being raised Seventh Day Adventist & Baptist, we ventured out into Charismatic churches with some experience in Church of Christ coming back to Baptist, but never feeling like any of them had it right with Yehovah (God) our Creator. Our hearts were full of LOVE for Him but there were so many unanswered questions and yearning for something more. We began praying earnestly to Yehovah/God for revelation, for knowledge, for help in what we were to do. Just like always, HE began showing us in scripture things that had always been there, yet everyone(including us) washed over them as if they didn't matter.

It was kind of funny because where I had issues, Johnny was ok with, like keeping Shabbat. Where he had issues, like dietary laws, he had issues with. I was raised in SDA. It had been a bad experience for me and I was NOT going back to that(all about me and my wants). Johnny had felt for years we needed to keep the Sabbath Holy, but was ok with keeping Sunday because he was raised that way and it was comfortable. Now, we were seeing it was no where in scripture to keep Sunday as the Seventh Day Sabbath. In fact, as we dug deeper, we realized little things in Jewish culture and history on the time frame of GOD that we, in the Western world, didn't understand, changing the whole dynamics of the picture. For instance, Constantine changed the Sunday Law of Worship because the New Testament church met on Sundays for Christ's Resurrection. We couldn't find that in scripture nor the historical records. We were told that it's just what Christ followers do. When we realized that Yeshuah/Jesus and ALL His disciples did NOT do that, well that was not good enough and it changed things for us. Every time we prayed Yehovah would show us again another scripture verifying what HE said. Well, being a researcher I set off to find why and when Sabbath was changed. There had to be a very good reason or so many would not be following it! Surely it was SOUND DOCTRINE! Well, it was, MAN'S DOCTRINE. NOT from Yehovah.

So, to be clear, our son had begun following Sabbath and keeping the Feasts. We, of course knowing better than him, began questioning and urging him to get back to our way of doing things. He was very polite and calm when he suggested that we show him in scripture these things we were saying and he would be happy to comply. We could not. We ended up going down the rabbit hole of no return. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR.... GOD ANSWERED.

BUT... God knows our hearts. Yes HE does! Research scripture on what HE has to say about our hearts! That's an eye opener! I could no longer use that excuse once I decided to see what Yehovah had to say about it and NOT man or myself for that matter.

I remember sitting out in my swing crying because I had been taught to keep Shabbat but had walked away from it even to the point of becoming an Atheist for a time. Why? Why when I became a Christian did HE not show me everything right up front? Suddenly, just as the night I gave my heart to Yeshuah (Jesus' Hebrew name) I felt HIS presence and HE began to show me each place where we were at was a journey, a teaching, we were in school so to speak. He had us where HE wanted us for HIS GOOD PURPOSES. After all, that is what I had prayed, he reminded me. 'Use me Lord for your good works.' So, I surrendered yet again to His teaching me personally. I agreed with Johnny he was right to be leading us in this direction.

We also believed the 'Old Testament' was for the Old Covenant and Jews not for us Christians. Again, no one could show us in scripture where that was. They sure could show us their 'good ideas i.e. doctrine. But no where in scripture. The more we searched the more we found if we followed Jesus, Yeshuah as the Angel Gabriel called Him, in repetition.... follow as HE DID, DO AS HE DID, AS THE DISCIPLES DID...and they followed the OLD TESTAMENT...Wow! We are to follow the Feast and the Commandments! Now reading the scriptures new and old testaments has a WHOLE NEW MEANING!

But, as with anything, I do 500%, I began scouring the scriptures, learning so much. We still had the issue of clean biblical diet. I was good with it, but Johnny... not so much. He did not want to give up a few things specifically PORK, lol. With my upbringing, I knew it was bad for you anyway and I gave it up quickly. It was a struggle for Johnny. He would justify and even use those cherry picked scriptures for awhile. I tried to keep quiet for the most part. Sometimes, ok more than sometimes my eyebrow would go up. The Lord assured me to just worry about myself and HE would work with Johnny. I had enough stuff ahead of me to work on and didn't need to worry about him or anyone else for that matter. Oh boy did I. Funny, a year or so later out of the blue Johnny started talking about eating clean and letting people know we did not eat pork or shell fish, mainly bottom feeders. They were the cleaners of the earth and Yehovah instructed us not to eat them. He pointed out that Noah only took two of the UNCLEAN animals on the ark and SEVEN of the CLEAN. I was shocked. I asked him what happened. He said Yehovah had been showing him scripture after scripture till he could not turn from it any longer. He had been following it for some time and didn't even tell me. The stinker.

We still both had the 'Christian Holidays' to deal with. Easter was easy. We just celebrate Passover and it was not a big deal. Christmas, well this has been a hard one for us. We have taught our kids to honor Christmas as it was our savior's birth. It's a family tradition. It's a family holy day to celebrate the birth of our savior. We told them to stay away from the Santa thing as that was not what we celebrated. Honestly, when they were little, until 7-8, we did do the Santa thing in a ridiculous over done way. Then we backed off and focussed on it being holy and all about Christ. What was the harm in that? Right?

Jeremiah 10:1-4

The Sovereignty of God

1Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

When I read this, I stopped in my tracks. What in the world have I been doing all these years? I get that I didn't know. But now.... I knew! I knew Yehovah hates these things. Leviticus 18, Deuteronomy 12, 1John 2, John 4, Mark 7:6-9, Matthew 15 and it goes on and on. Apparently, this has been an on going problem with Israel. They would 'find Torah', repent and turn back to God; God would rescue them from their sin and folly; after a couple of generations they would forget God and Torah(HIS instructions) and venture off on their own ways adopting the Pagan's ways, the very thing Yehovah told them NOT to do and then call it God's i.e. 'I am doing this for God'. This is detestable to HIM. After all, HE gave detailed instructions on HOW to honor and serve HIM.

Side note, understanding who Israel, Judah, Gentiles, Nations and.... YOU are is critical to understanding the Bible. This is another story. Just know for now, Israel, for the most part, is NOT Judah. Judah are the Jews. Ezekiel 37 is a good read and so is Hosea for the whole book is about the 10 lost tribes of Israel, again... not Judah.

You could have took nails to a chalkboard when we come upon the scriptures on how Yehovah felt about that. We hung our heads low. Began to take a back seat in all the festivities as the world was vamping it up. We found our selves pulling back to the point of not decorating for it. The last year we ended up putting up a white 'Colorado Tree with lights' as a winter tree not a Christmas tree. NO gifts under it. We decorated for 'winter'. After all I decorated for Fall and there was nothing wrong with that. Well, we soon realized this was just a 'workaround' to keep celebrating the pagan holiday. I sat in that trusty swing of mine and again I felt HE comforted me by assuring me if I would just trust HIM HE had something FAR better than that old holiday I had cherished so much. AND HOW! HE WAS RIGHT! It's been a few years since then and we do not acknowledge the holiday any longer. We DO NOT MISS IT ONE BIT!

So, we began to dive into all sorts of new things we had never seen before. Do we have it all down? NO! Emphatically, we are learning new things everyday! We feel like new Christians again discovering the depths of Yeshua in Yehovah! It's thrilling! It's exciting! We can't wait for Shabbat to get here each week! We yearn for each Feast! We learn so much each time we go through them! They all point and scream Yeshua! Yehovah never ceases to amaze me! There is so so much right there in scripture we never saw because we were following a doctrine and not Yehovah!

Johnny always says in the words of Rico Cortez, "Don't take my word for it, go research it for yourselves in fear and trembling." and Zack Bauer "Go Home and Read Your Bible." So, we did! We are doing this very thing! We keep doing it and are amazed at just how much we were following traditions and man, nothing of Yehovah and HIS word, Yeshuah!

We have to say, we have experienced some of the most difficult times of our lives in the last few years, but yet we have also experienced the MOST JOY AND PEACE that is beyond understanding in our entire lives. Who can describe it?

We have had so many ask us what in the world are we doing and why. We decided to put this together for those who are interested, they can follow our data trail and decide for themselves. As we learn, we post. For those who truly search out Yeshua, who LOVE HIM, who LOVE Truth, we sincerely hope this helps you on your journey/school. REMEMBER, you will have to lay down everything you have learned from man, from denominations and theology, and just be open to Yehovah teaching you and receiving it. ALWAYS check it with scripture. If it's not there then don't run with it. We never knew how much we were holding onto tradition and denominational theology instead of Yehovah. Hang on for the ride of your life! There is nothing like riding with Yehovah!

For scriptures on Holidays go here!

We leave you with the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6:22-27