Greetings,
This week a member was diagnosed with a medical condition and while trying to figure out how best to treat it she came across this advice from a medical source. “To reduce stress I recommend getting more sleep, schedule fun into your week, rest one day a week, meditate on scripture, and hang out with positive uplifting people.” God has built into His law all the benefits we as humans need for optimum health. The weekly Sabbath is such a blessing in this stress oriented world as it serves to strengthen us spiritually and physically.
Similarly the Feast of Tabernacles provides us with a much needed period of time to take our minds out of this world and its environment. It is clear from scripture that God’s intent in requiring us to leave our homes and assemble before Him is for the purpose of focusing our minds on His great plan of salvation and our part in that plan. It is a time to rest and meditate on the development of His plan while hanging out with people of positive, like minds. The end conclusion of observing the Holy Days and Feast of Tabernacles is that we will know with greater certainty that, “I am the Lord your God.”
Satan will do everything he can to keep you mentally in his world even if we are physically at the Feast. Issues cropping up with employers and the need for time off, health problems, threats of legal action, financial difficulties – and so it goes. Unfortunately these are all issues that are current and serve to distract from a peaceful time to rejoice.
Let us collectively pray that as we put out the effort to obey God by assembling before Him, that He would move our minds by the power of His Spirit to be free from distractions and to focus on Him and the important things He has prepared for us. Let’s be praying for God’s protection and involvement with each other. Let’s ask God to help us mentally leave this physical world and embrace with joy the spiritual future He is preparing us for. We will need His help to do this effectively.
Baptism
The El Paso congregation is encouraged by the addition of a newly baptized member. Judith Shade from Las Cruces was baptized on September 13. Congratulations and welcome to God’s family.
Atonement
There is only one service scheduled for Atonement. This service will originate from Duarte at 11:00 am Pacific time.
Feast of Tabernacles
Opening night services are planned for 7:30 pm on Wednesday evening in both Tulsa and Oxnard – these will be live services. Since the service in Oxnard is the service that will be streamed, a prerecorded opening night message will be available on demand for those in other times zones if needed.
During the Feast, each day’s service in Oxnard will be streamed live as well as posted to the website and available on demand. They will be posted under “Messages” and in the “Feast of Tabernacles” folder.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Warm Regards,
Brian Orchard
