Jewish and Gentile Worship on God’s Calendar

Regarding Jewish and Gentile worship: when I was living in Nashville, I sat with a Jewish friend and we began talking about the feast days and the covenants, and he looked at me as if I were the strangest person in the world — knowing that I was a believer in Yeshua and yet speaking of these things. That tension captures the problem precisely. Both parties have a missing piece. The Jewish people have the covenant framework but need the main ingredient, which is Yeshua — and once they receive Him, the Torah will make far greater sense. The Gentiles, on the other hand, need to understand that when you receive Jesus as your Messiah, you are grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel, as Paul states in Ephesians 2. You are no longer among the Gentile nations, and so you should not be celebrating as the Gentile nations celebrate. You should be celebrating as Israel celebrates.

That does not mean returning to animal sacrifice. It means getting on God's holy days — the ones your Savior Yeshua fulfilled at His first coming and will fulfill at His second coming. It also means the Sabbath and the new moon festivals. Isaiah 66:22–24 tells us we will be celebrating the new moon and the Sabbath in eternity. Ezekiel 46:1 confirms we will be celebrating the Sabbath and the new moon in the millennial kingdom. If we are going to be doing this forever, we might as well begin now — and why wouldn't we, if we love the Lord?

I want to share a testimony that comes to mind here. In 2005 or 2006, I was living in Atlanta and watched the NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Reggie White — the Minister of Defense, as he was known, because he was an ordained minister who also played football. He had already passed away, and his family gave the acceptance speech. At the time, I did not understand what they were saying. They were speaking exactly the way we speak tonight — about the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, about Yeshua, about the true ways to worship. I was not yet born again, and I remember thinking, did he convert to Judaism? It was a complete paradigm shift I had not yet undergone.

When I was born again in 2014 and began doing serious research, that moment came rushing back. Reggie White had gone to Israel, and the revelation came to him that he had been worshiping according to man's traditions — Easter, Christmas — rather than the appointed times of the Lord. His wife has given interviews about this journey, and it is a remarkable story. He crossed over, and he caught significant criticism from the broader Christian community for it, which itself reveals how deeply those man-made traditions are defended. I was just as ignorant as his critics were, before the Lord opened my eyes. His story is another witness that we must cross over — we must understand what it means to worship in spirit and truth, according to the Holy Bible, not according to Constantine or church tradition.

If you are new to all of this, that is completely fine. I fumbled through it too when I started. The more time you give to it, the more it opens up, because God's glory is magnificent — and even the smallest glimpse of that glory changes everything.

I understand Marcia's feelings completely, because I felt the same way when I first started — and sometimes I still do, because there is simply so much. I didn't include everything in the book deliberately; I wanted to give a basic summary, and each year I'll add to it as the Holy Spirit reveals more. So don't worry about it. God knows your heart. He wants you to first get on the calendar, get on the feast days, and then the other revelation from scripture will be added over time. The more you spend with it, and the more we go through it each year, the more familiar it will become.

Sometimes we feel like a fish out of water as believers who cross over to these beautiful holy days of the Lord. I want you to take comfort in the fact that He knows your heart. He knows what you're wanting to do and trying to do. He knows we weren't raised in the true ways of God — that's just the plain truth. We have inherited man-made traditions, all of us who've been in the Gentile church, unless you were part of a Messianic congregation or a Gentile church that holds to the true ways of worship. Most of us were part of replacement theology — the festivals of man instead of the festivals of God. So take comfort. God knows you're trying your best, and He is going to fill you with His knowledge and give you what you need to speak to people about these things, whether they are Jewish or Gentile believers still observing man-made traditions. The first step is simply to get on the Divine appointments. All the other steps will follow.

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