Good reading for today. Following a link from Jonathan Sjordal's website, I found this great article: The "Spirit guidance" Explosion, on the Torah of Messiah website. The article is written from a Torah-keeping, semi-charismatic perspective. That is, the author is open to the gifts of the holy spirit, but can see that most people practicing them are frauds, and that to really get the outpouring of the ruach we need to be Torah observant. It also has a great article on The Real Mark of the Beast, which puts in writing the exact argument I myself have been using for several years to explain the meaning of the mark to people.
Jonathan Sjordal lives in a rural community. He told me that the Amish are reaping the fruit of their Law-breaking. Yes, Amish and Mennonites still have large families of ten children each. But they are dying of cancer and many other diseases caused by eating pork and violating the other commands. I asked Jonathan, why is it that the Amish still have the blessing of fertility, while we Messianics still have an average of four children. He didn't have an answer, but it is a question of great interest to him as well. What commands are we still breaking? Where are we still erring in our Christian walk? The fruit of the womb is the biggest blessing YHWH gives us.
Jonathan said he will be writing an article about beards soon. It should be interesting when it comes out; Jonathan is a good writer. Keep checking his website, Creator God.
Jonathan Sjordal and the webpages linked above are not affiliated with Lunar Sabbatarianism in any way. But one article linked from Jonathan's site caught my interest. The author makes an excellent Biblical case that the day really is only 12 hours, and that our modern notion of a day and a night together being "one day" is from Babylon. Read it here: A CASE FOR THE 12 HOUR SABBATH. If you accept the 12 hour sabbath, the lunar sabbath becomes even MORE firmly established; just as the night isn't counted as day, so the period of the moons darkness is not counted as part of the month. At first it can seem like a stretcher, believing that some days just aren't counted in the month. But it makes sense. If the world was created in six days, and God rested on the seventh, then what came before the seven days? Nothing. The unpredictable time of the hidden moon represents the expectant hush before creation, when God began to speak the universe into existence. This fits beautifully with the creation meaning of the lunar sabbath.