Happy Sabbath!

"Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:2-3).

This set of verses holds much meaning for us, especially this time of the year. Our hearts and minds are focusing on going to where God places His name. Not only do we reflect on when this passage will be fulfilled in the Millennium, but we see the exhortation for our attitude now.

The Feast of Tabernacles presents us with the privilege and blessing of spending eight days in temporary dwellings and rejoicing. To this end, God commanded that we save ten percent of our income so we can physically feast during this time. This rejoicing, however, should not take away from our need to "learn to fear the Lord your God always." (Deuteronomy 14:23). In turn, that fear or reverence drives us to approach the Feasts with the attitude expressed in Isaiah. One of the main focuses we should have is to learn the ways of God during the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Feast is an invaluable time to hear God's Word expounded. The Church of God recognizes this, which is why we have services every day. Each day we will have the opportunity to learn the ways of God, His law, and commit ourselves to walk accordingly. The men who are called upon to speak spend many hours praying for God's inspiration and studying His Word, so that we will speak His Words.

In the Millennium, we will assist Christ in teaching the whole world to do as we are doing now. Taking these instructions to heart serve to prepare us to teach the very same to others in the future. Will we be at services? Not only will we be at services, but will we be fully attentive to learn as effectively as possible? Will we maintain our prayer and study habits throughout the Feast? We can if we decide to do so. As we make our final preparations to observe the Feat of Tabernacles, lets commit ourselves to learning the ways of God and filling up on the spiritual food that has been prepared for us each day.

This will be the last Sharing Thoughts until after the Feast of Tabernacles. I pray that we all have a wonderful Atonement and spiritually uplifting Feast of Tabernacles. Let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord!

In God's Love,

Devin Schulz