Letter to the Congregations: 6th September 2025
 

Our Dear Brethren,
 

The next round of God’s Feasts is fast approaching. This is a very exciting time of year for all of God’s people. The meaning of these days that our Creator has given us should not be lost in the preparation. In fact if we are keeping these days without understanding and being able to explain to others their meaning, then we are missing the point. There are several passages that come to my mind when I am preparing for many of God’s Feasts. One in particular reminds me that we should look to God for instruction and meaning rather than letting the knowledge of the world dictate how we live. I wanted to share this passage with you:
 

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 2:16- 3:2).

The festivals of God are times of celebration and rejoicing that point to the story of the redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If anyone tells us they are no longer relevant then they don’t understand the meaning behind them and truly don’t share in the hope we have been given. False, unbiblical religious regulations that the apostle Paul mentioned in this chapter (i.e. “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle”) give many people a false hope and a false sense of holiness. Do we let the word of God judge what we do rather than falsehood? Have we set our minds on things above rather than things on earth?
 

Our love is with you,

Lewis VanAusdle

Pastor, United Church of God

NYC, NJ, CT, Malawi, Zimbabwe