The first Sabbath

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Thus the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it Holy.      ---Exodus 8:8,11

 God is so merciful, He cleans our hearts and our lives when we repent and become new in Him.   He makes us into a new creation in Christ.  It is something miraculous.  Little by little I was shedding many things from my old life.    

(I don`t exactly know where to start, so I will start from the first Challah and let the story take its twists from there!)

O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how incomprehensible His ways!  --Romans 11:33

When we moved into a new apartment this year God showed me that he wanted me to leave everything behind, and only bring 3 boxes with me.  It was not easy but in the end, I did it and understood why.  It was so I could make this home new and holy for Him.   I delighted in choosing each new thing,  from the rice bowl to the color of the curtains. 

Then once we were set up, He asked me to observe his Shabbat. (Yom Shabbat is Hebrew for Sabbath Day).

When I think of it now its romantic that He asked me to do that.  
Perhaps like a new bride I didn`t quite know how to set up house for him or even what it meant to keep the Shabbat.

I didn`t know how to start, but knew the special Jewish bread called Challah and that Jesus is the bread of Life, so I decided to start by making a Challah.

Something new was happening.  We were celebrating the first Shabbat.

 I read a book around that time about the Kingdom Calendar and the importance to God of observing His feast days, for both Jews and Gentiles, called Touching the Heart of God (Touching the Heart of God by Paul Wilbur).  This book (I highly recommend it!) spoke to me strongly and I saw how important the Sabbath is for God.  Now that I loved Him I wanted to do the things that pleased Him.  It was not out of obligation but rather out of hearing something that was in His heart and obeying that call to observe His fourth commandment.

It was a wonderful time to make the dough while meditating on my Savior.
Our Father, Our King.
I never celebrated the Sabbath as a child, even though we were Jewish, so this was my first time ever to observe it,
here in our new apartment in Japan.

So there it is my first Challah!

When my daughter came home from school that Friday evening and saw the Challah she got excited!
My love for Jesus went into making it.  It was a holy bread.  It emanated light! I attempted a six braided challah, but as you can see it is quite different!! But even as I see it now, it is my first and came from my heart.  It was an offering to God. After years of separation from my Jewish faith--- forty years in the wilderness!!-- I had returned to Him through Salvation in Yeshua.

No one comes to the Father except through the Son!

 He was pleased.  The first Sabbath.