We have fasted during this feast every year. About the only time I didn't was one year when I was 6 months pregnant during Yom Kippur and there was no way I could not eat every two hours. Fasting is such a blessing. If you have never experienced the act of fasting, it really trains you to take control of your thoughts. It seems our flesh is easily attracted to the things we shouldn't have, especially when it is food. So during a fast and a holy day such as Yom Kippur, you have to make a conscience effort to keep your mind off food and on the Lord. You reflect on the sins you know you did the last year and repent for those as well as the sins you are unaware of and you acknowledge the sacrifice that was made to cleanse you from those sins. You acknowledge Yeshua. It's a great time of reflection and worship.
Since children are usually exempt from the fasting laws and last year was the first year that my boys could really "understand" Yom Kippur, we added a family tradition. We did not turn on a television during the Yom Kippur fast. So what happened? We actually had to spend time with each other! It was great. I'm not saying we don't do that on occasion, but on Yom Kippur, it was more special because we could use the time to discuss with our children about Yeshua's sacrifice and what sin means. This year I am going to unplug completely. No television, radio, computer, or cell phone. What did we do before the cell phone? I am even going to exclude all books and magazines unless they are scripture related.
I am excited to see how the world will continue to turn and how our lives will still go on without all these technological gadgets in play. I am planning some intimate story time and discussion for my family and maybe even a craft centering around the Lamb of God and His Book of Life. This Yom Kippur is going to be off the hook!
Leviticus 16:29 "This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you;"Read last year's blog on the Fall Feasts Fever.
Leviticus 23:27 "On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement ; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD."
Revelation 21:22-27 "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there ) its gates will never be closed ; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."
