Another restful Sabbath comes to a close and leaves us with a funny story to share about our youngest, Dalton. He turned three last Dec. and is obsessed with trains. If you have been following us you will remember this about him. This morning we gathered around our table for a yummy crock pot french toast breakfast and listened as David read the Scriptures…

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also Yahweh sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Yahweh of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:1-3

Dalton was happily eating not paying attention like the others and as David was reading this passage, Dalton jumped up and grabbed his Daddy’s face yelling “twains, twains!” It was precious!
So if you are ever around us, just ask our little Dalty if he can tell you what is in the Temple and he will happily reply “TWAINS!”

This is a repost from last May and worth revisitng…

Mark 15:42, “This all happened on Friday, the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath.”

Did you know that there is actually a day that is called the day of Preparation? Most versions of the Bible translate Preparation with a capital P. It is a significant day. An important day.
The name the Israelites used for Friday, the sixth day of the week, was “Preparation Day.” In the Greek language, this is true even today!
In the very beginning of time, Yahweh established the principle of a day of rest. It is His gift to us. But, as with many of our Father’s gifts, we often do not realize their importance, or even their blessing.
But HE never tells us to do something without giving us a way of doing it.

You cannot enjoy a day of rest, unless you have a day of Preparation the day before!

Friday is here and at our home that means cleaning and baking day! We do a thorough clean of the house which includes sheets, toilets, dusting, etc. Each child has their set of chores that they are responsible for and the younger two have an older sibling to learn from that they are paired up with. Afterwards we make our Jewish Challah bread for our Friday night (Shabbat) meal. The word Shabbat is the Hebrew word for Sabbath, which means rest. Victoria enjoys baking and has become quite good at it. She generally will make dinner rolls or pretzels and then cinnamon rolls for Sabbath (Saturday) morning. I also like to make extra food today so I do not have to cook tomorrow. After all, it is a resting day and a day to enjoy the family! So I like to make our meals ahead and stay out of the kitchen on the Sabbath until Sundown which is when the new day starts according to scripture. Our children are learning that we are honoring the Father in everything we do. When we obey Him, there is a true joy and so much peace in our lives. His ways are so much better and as we all know so well, they are SO different from our own.

Click Hereto look at a wonderful site for Challah bread recipes that you might like.

Click Here
to read a fabulous article that is very well written of the importance of this day.

There remains a keeping of the Sabbath for Yahweh’s people, now (Hebrews 4:9) and in the Kingdom (Isaiah 66:23).

Victoria and Gregory baking Challah for the first time a few years ago!

This will be just one of the beautiful songs we will be listening to today in our home…enjoy! HE shall reign FOREVER! ♥

We have truly made an effort to eat healthier in our home and for the most part it’s been quite an easy adjustment. We have always been health conscious in terms of our diet. I generally make a salad with each meal, use our juicer a few times a week for fresh live juices and keep sweets to a minimum but I have let this go with living on our camper due to the lack of refrigerator space. I am happy to say that we are now back to our healthy eating lifestyle. In all my searching and studying I am appalled at how much we put in our bodies that is flat out toxic. Everyone needs a garden that is for sure or maybe just a few pots with herbs and a few veggies growing. We won’t have a large one but it will be good enough and we’ll have fun outings to the local farmers markets twice a month to make sure we are always stocked up without all the pesticides.

My family knows that I don’t ease into any new project or task slowly. I tend to just jump in and I am thankful that my husband allows me that freedom and goes with my flow. He is extremely laid back, another reason I am convinced he was created just for me! So when he came home to find mostly veggies and fruits in the fridge, not a trace of anything processed including sugars and starches as well as most all canned food items gone, he wasn’t surprised since this isn’t a first. He has even been using our dehydrator on all sorts of fruits to make the children snacks. They love them and their favorites are the strawberries and bananas. I am trying to incorporate a mostly vegetarian, raw lifestyle in our home with animal meats used sparingly. No complaints around here except for CHOCOLATE! Oh how we missed it until I found this recipe from Hallelujah Acres.

RAW FUDGE

Ingredients:

¼ cup raw sesame seeds
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup carob powder
²/³ cup raw honey or pure maple syrup
½ teaspoon vanilla
Directions

Grind sesame seeds, oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pecans in your food processor then add other ingredients.

Mix well and pat in an 8-inch square pan that has been sprayed with extra virgin olive oil. Refrigerate until firm, and then cut into squares.

Yummy! Carob powder is now our substitute for chocolate. We even did a little research and found that carob is what John the Baptist (Yochanan ben Zechariah) ate in the wilderness. It comes from the honey locust tree pods.

“And YHWH said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Genesis 1:29

Victoria wrote this story today which is both fictional and non fictional. I am sure you can pick out the fictional. I think she found her knack, just like her Father. Enjoy!

STRAY DOG

Last January my brother Gregory and I were staying the night in our tree fort. At midnight we were getting ready for bed when Gregory said “we forgot our pillows, we should run to the house and grab them.” I agreed and we scurried down the tree and ran to grab them like two squirrels gathering nuts. Suddenly, we heard the sound of a truck, a door slam, and a dog yelp at the end of our long driveway.
Afraid and in shock we both stood still and the ranch hands sheep dog was barking. A black shadowy figure appeared between the two green barns. The figure was a medium sized animal and it had the shape of a very skinny dog. Because I thought it might be a coyote I turned to Gregory and said, “Run now.” We ran as fast as we could to the house in panic, praying aloud for the front door to be open. Panic turned to horror when the knob would not turn, realizing the door was locked we started banging on it when the porch light turned on.

Now that we could see we turned around to find a dog. The poor thing was half skin and bones and had holes on both of his front paws. He had a blue eye and a green eye and his color was a mix of black and brown. He looked to be a mix of blue healer and pit bull. My dad was standing at the door; half asleep trying to wake up and see what on earth was standing behind us. We told him the whole story and asked if we could give him some food. He said “go and grab some food for him and then go and get your pillows.” We went into the living room closet which is where we kept our cat and dog food. Gregory grabbed the dog food and I grabbed the pillows. We gave our dad a hug and ran out the door. We waited for the stray dog to finish eating and then we went back to the tree fort.

On the way back we were talking and I said “I can’t believe that someone would ever try to hurt such a sweet dog.” Gregory said “I know, this dog has the softest eyes and the sweetest personality.” Arriving at the tree house we gave the dog one last pat on the head and went to bed. The next morning we woke up to a big surprise, the stray dog was still there. We gave him a slice of bread from a food box in the tree fort. We then ran up to the house with cooper the stray dog at our side. We reached the house and my mom was sitting on the front porch polishing her halo with my little brother Dalton. When she saw us she said “I’ve been waiting for you guys your dad told me the whole story.” So we showed her cooper and she said “O my goodness who could do such a thing to such a sweet dog. We better take him to the no kill shelter were they will feed him and give him proper treatment.” So we all jumped in the car and went to the shelter. When we got there a man from the shelter was there to meet us. He told us that they would take good care of cooper until he could be put up for adoption.

Polishing my HALO? Oh what a good child! ha!

“This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am YHWH your Elohim, who makes you holy.” Exodus 13:12

I just love our weekends together as a family. Our Sabbath rest is never long enough and it leaves us looking forward to it’s return. We had special friends in our home this Shabbat (Sabbath in Hebrew) to read the Torah and fellowship. I love to come together and share what the Father is doing in our lives and to learn from one another in an intimate setting. Most Sabbaths we have our Shabbat meal and it is my favorite time of the week. I will never tire of hearing my husband bless me as his wife and each of our children and then read special scriptures over us. Each Shabbat we are partaking in “communion” and remembering what our Messiah did for us on the tree when he died for us as we gather around our table and share a meal. Sometimes I bring out the nice dinnerware but always we have our Challah bread and dress up the table to make this night different from all the rest so that we bring in the Sabbath on Friday evening and set this day apart as we are commanded to. There is very little in the scriptures that tell us how to observe keeping the Sabbath holy and set apart but just that we do it. This leaves opportunity to show our uniqueness and we have incorporated Jewish traditions that we enjoy. In the event that we are moving (as we do quite often) or away from home, we miss this time and look forward to it. It is such a beautiful, special time and my words do not do it justice but prayerfully you will hear my heart speaking. One thing I love about the Hebrew language and traditions is that it involves our 5 senses.

What I have been most blessed by after leaving the church building is that my husband has been encouraged as the priest in our home to lead us spiritually, which most homes are lacking. YHWH caused things to happen so that we would leave and HE alone brought us out there to the land to reveal himself to us in a fresh new way and to teach us. It is during last year that we relied on Yahweh to be our teacher and to give us understanding. We were able to see why he called us out and that is why. I am so thankful that we listened and left because we would have missed out on so much!! Now HE has emerged our family back into “society” and we acknowledge that we are held accountable for that knowledge to share with others but we understand that it is only HE that can give the understanding.

Over these last four years of keeping Sabbath, celebrating and observing the Biblical feasts we knew we were not Jewish but it was so strong on our hearts to live obedient to the scriptures, and over and over again in the Tanakh (Old testament) the Father says that all his statutes and laws (truth) that he put into place were to be kept forever. I say often that understanding comes with obedience. For us the understanding is coming so quickly that our heads are spinning and we are hungry for more and to share it with everyone. It is sad that so many are opposed to truth because it seems so different to what they have always believed and have been taught. The flesh takes over and we reject the knowledge that is being given without even seeking it out.
Tonight after dinner our family read through Hosea as we have been for the last few days and came to the verse “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because they have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shalt be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of you Elohim (God), I will also forget your children.” We miss out on so much blessing when we reject knowledge. In this instance for our family we missed the blessing of Shabbat simply because we were taught that it wasn’t for us because we were not Jewish! Little did we realize that Judah (Jews) is only ONE tribe of the twelve that make up Israel.

“But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry… But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.”
– Romans 11:13, 17, 18,

Therefore Gentile believers are fellow citizens and participants with the Commonwealth of Isra’el (Eph. 2) and are granted the divine privilege of following the entire Torah. The Torah is really the description of the lifestyle of the redeemed.

As we read through Hosea we have come to have a deeper understanding of the two houses that make up Israel and our responsibility as watchmen for Ephraim as the Messiah’s return draws closer. It is so beautiful how the Father gives us time to digest what he is giving us before giving more. So many times we have said “Wow, that makes so much sense why didn’t I see that before!” It’s all in HIS timing! Reading through this short book I find I am even more fascinated by the betrothal process of the Hebrew customs and how it relates to us the bride of Messiah and he as our groom! I’ll share more later. For now I am closing and praying this will soak in and give you more desire to seek out the truth for yourselves!

We have around 130 visits each day to our blog and I realize that most of you are coming to check in on our family to get an update only to have to endure reading about our spiritual journey but this is my journal that I actually print off and keep for our children (I think one day I may splurge and get my entries bound). It is my hearts desire that the Father will speak to your heart while you visit us here and that you are blessed by what you read. Thank you for caring about our family, for your emails and comments. We love you!