"Q. 119. What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments and recreations." Puritan Board

It is such a hard thing sometimes to draw a line between honestly seeking to obey God's Will and honestly trying to earn God's favor by observing the letter of His Law. I began my search following my own curiosity down a rabbit hole through My Utmost quote from Galatians 4 to whether or not Paul tells the Galatian church that they should stop observing holidays, to Christmas and pagan roots, and then holidays in general, and then days in general... Something struck me - I was reading an article and it said "God's days begin at sundown." I have been interested in Jewish perspectives for a long time now, since I realized that the Jewish faith is my heritage even as a Gentile Christian. So much meaning is lost by virtue of the cultural slant I've been raised to accept. It's so helpful to seek to see things from the point of view of the people who received the revelations in the first place!

Yahweh, I cannot even imagine how great a privilege it is to be able to call You by Name! It is so easy to take that for granted and to become irreverent because I know You as a friend. But You are HOLY HOLY HOLY! If I were to see You in Your glory, I would fall on my face and exclaim "WOE is ME! I am so unworthy!" At the same time, I also miss much of what You want to say to me through Your Word because though I have been grafted into the vine, have the same "Holy Spirit sap" running through my body, can claim the root of Jesse, and am part of the Bride of Christ (all evidence of my membership in God's family), I do not have the amazing blessing of an orthodox childhood. Your Word and Your Ways have not been sewn into the fabric of my consciousness since I could crawl. How can I teach my child this wonderful perspective? Or should I attempt it? After all, You have called Gentiles - not to become Jews, but to be saved Gentiles. You need saved Jews, saved Gentiles, saved blacks and whites, saved ex-Muslims, saved adulterers, saved cancer patients, saved type A personalities, saved disabled, saved left-handers, saved Canadians, saved garbage men, saved kings and slaves, etc etc. People who come from diverse backgrounds, diverse races, diverse personality types, diverse states of sin, diverse states of health, diverse abilities and talents, diverse occupations, diverse positions of power. That ALL may come to know You and accept Your fullest formation in their souls.

Yet still... I do want to know You more! And to know You more is to know Your Words, and to know Your Words more clearly is to know the context through which You spoke them - namely, the people You chose to speak through. When You picked out this particular people group and called them Your Chosen, You could have picked any system You wanted. Yet You chose the Jewish cultural practices. I have a feeling that if I could understand why You picked what You did, I would be a whole lot closer to knowing Your heart.

But maybe that's even flawed logic. Oh, sure, You love beyond measure Your special 12 tribes. But You also knew they were stiff-necked people. You knew they would live in the desert. You knew they would live surrounded by other desert peoples. You knew they would have certain visual reminders in their particular geography. You knew their tendencies to sin as well as to obey. Just as Your plan for me is not the exact same as Your plan for my neighbor, I can't look at the history of another and say it's exactly appropriate for me. It is perfectly possible to imagine that You did it the way You did not because that's the way You wanted it (clearly not, since Your beginning plan was Eden), but because that's the way it had to be for the people You had on Your hands to work with! And though the beginning plan was Eden, Your ORIGINAL plan was always Christ. Before the foundation of the earth.

Still, to know Your Word, which almost entirely deals with the Jewish race, I think it just makes sense to study what that culture was all about. To be able to reset my mind to think about things through a more Hebrew lens. So, since I've been hogging all the air time, without letting You get a word in edgewise, what do You think?

Does this approach honor You?

Would You help direct me to places and people and materials that would help me develop a Jerusalem Perspective? I would love to find a Jewish friend somewhere! I would love to participate in an orthodox Jewish custom someday!

Lord, please pull me to You so that I might Walk with You. May I be with YOU, instead of expecting You to be with ME. Help me resist the urge to take the lead in our relationship. You are NOT a tame, submissive pet. You are the wildly Powerful, Holy, Lord of All, Creator God, Almighty. Friend and Counselor, but never my equal. Yet You became a servant and continue to serve me as a loving Father. So complex, so huge, so impossible to encompass in any human reasoning! What box could ever hold You, oh God?!? Who would ever want to box You in? You are beautiful and majestic and perfect just the way You are :).