As January approaches we can hardly help looking at the many goals for the coming year.
For many, in the messianic lifestyle, January 1 represents the Gregorian new year and not the biblical new year.
Biblically, Yah commanded the month Aviv to be the beginning of the year.
So we don’t have a big New Year’s eve service or celebration because we know that January 1 is not the biblical celebration of a new year.
That being said it is almost impossible to go away from operating under the calendar system that is ordained by our land. So there are many things that we are sort of "captive" to. Such as using the Calendar system for our checking account, drivers license, birthdays etc.
We don’t believe in getting what some people would consider legalistic about the factors, and they are not in regards to our salvation. But what we are able to do is to open up the gates of understanding, if you will, in order to guard the actual biblical designations of days and months and seasons. In some sense, getting too carried away with regulating our calendar can tend to make one a little hyper-vigilant and kind of hard to accommodate in regards to conversation.
For instance, what if I have a court date for jury duty that is on a certain calendar date. It is guaranteed that they will not adjust that Calender according to the new moon. It is my duty to actually know that calendar date that they are referring to, which is Gregorian in nature, and adjust to that date with my own scheduling system.
In other words if they scheduled me to appear on January 20 they will require me to appear on January 20. They are not going to adjust their court system so that I can count the days from the new moon.
The easiest way that I have found is to use a combination calendar which gives the standard calendar dates with the biblical (Jewish) calendar dates in a separate color or shade color.
There is also a challenge as the biblical day begins at sundown. So the biblical first of the month may appear on the middle of the calendar month and it will appear on the sunset of the previous days listing. I know that that can sound confusing, but once you observe for a short period of time, you will get used to it.
If you are interested in tracking the biblical calendar in connection with our current Gregorian calendar, send us a message and we can provide you with connections in order to take part in such tracking. We can show you some of the best calendars available for download or mail order.
At one in Messiah we celebrate the new moon which is the biblical new month. We gather together and have a meal after our service to celebrate and blow a shofar horn.
Come join us and enjoy family meal, and, if you have no other biblical calendar tracking, at least you’ll know when your dining with us that it is a new month.
