u/hanxiousme

I've posted before but just for some context: Born Jewish, raised half heartedly with some holidays and no bacon, became Christian in the Pentecostal movement over a decade ago and was struggling, HARD. felt empty and apathetic for years. Have a great testimony - wholeheartedly believe I have seen Abba move miracles in my life but always felt so far away.

"Obedience" was my word of the season that started two or so months ago and I have found myself here, yearning to observe the Torah. Hallelujah! He has put the desire in my heart like I have prayed for and now we're just figuring it out. We started (trying) to observe Shabbat and next naturally came clean eating (still figuring this one out).

I just want to get stuck in. The more I explore this, the more I feel like life is beginning to have some meaning and it's both wonderful and terrifying. My husband is drawn to it too, and my lovely sister in faith. She and I have spoken about starting a Torah Parashah study group together, which will include my mother - who was the whole reason we became Christian in the first place! How wonderful!

We live in small town New Zealand and the closest congregation is 1.5hrs away over a big hill that is definitely not very restful to travel on Shabbat, especially with three young children haha.. definitely keen to meet them for festivals but in the meantime, how do you fellowship when you're possibly the only one in town?! I have asked on my community groups and mum pages (country-wide too) if anyone else is practicing any kind of Torah Observance as a follower of Yeshua and... Crickets. Welp.

Shabbat shalom (here in NZ).

I am a Jew by birth, had a very non-committal upbringing where most of my Jewish customs were experienced through my grandparents and then met Christ over a decade ago… fast forward to 6 months ago, I finally released my life to him and I’ve been flipped upside down!

Anyway - Sabbath has been on my heart for many years and now especially as I realise that yes, the commandments are still SO relevant! This will be a bit of a word vomit sorry!

I’m really struggling on how to interpret and implement the restrictions and rules - being very aware that Jesus himself “broke” the laws the Pharisees had set themselves (picking grain, asking a man to carry his mat in public) and I don’t want to get caught up in the logistic practice of Sabbath, but I want to honour and observe it in the best way I can - even if I have to sacrifice some of my own expectations and understanding.

I have three young kids, two still in nappies. Sabbath law states that I can’t rip their nappy pants if I have to change it (anyone with kids should understand, lol), nor can we rip toilet paper. I’ve seen so many videos on “hacks” people use to live a normal life while observing the rules… it just doesn’t sit well with me? If our day is longer and more arduous trying to keep a long set of rules so we can do basic tasks during Sabbath day, then doesn’t that defeat the point?

I am finding it hard to find wise counsel to discuss this with - my church do believe that Sabbath is a choice rather than a commandment we are still required to keep, and I don’t know anyone else who practices Sabbath.

practically, I’m having a very hard time figuring out how to navigate everything especially with cooking and getting kids ready. Sundown is around 4:30pm at the moment as we are in the middle of winter here and my husband is still working at that time and travels an hour and a half home so is usually back just before 7 o’clock.. should he be coming home earlier on Sabbath? I don’t know that I could convince him of that and sometimes he’s required to work late as he‘s the manager and if he has no staff, he simply can’t leave. Dinner is usually 3 hours after the kids eat and so keeping a crock pot on warm isn’t food safe.

Then we have Saturday - hubby sleeps until 9/10am because he’s desperately in need of sleep after travelling 3hrs a day to work and back during the week, and I’m up from between 5am/6am with three kids who are very easily bored, VERY noisy and slowly learning about Sabbath with me but I still don’t know what to implement. Do I pack away all their toys (magnet tiles, duplo, cars)? Do I pack away all the books in our house that aren’t bible-related? This morning I’ve had them watching kids Sabbath day teachings and various bible stories on telly while I make them brekkie but we haven’t figured out how to actually navigate the day, we’ve been “practicing” for about two months and each Sabbath has been very stressful and boring, lol. I do wonder if I’m the only one really on board and therefore it’s not something i can enforce in our home as dramatically as I’d like to - so not sure how I try teach and encourage the Sabbath to the children while practicing it myself but also allowing for the non-observance of it if my husband isn’t wanting to go “as far” as me yet.

I do think that genuinely observing the Sabbath calls for a sacrifice to the way we do things- I just don’t want to get caught up in the Talmud and living a Pharisaical life and missing the true rest in Christ on that day.

Shabbat shalom 💕 I am of Jewish heritage, though my parents weren't religious and we were semi-involved with Jewish customs and I was introduced to Christianity just over a decade ago.

I have had Sabbath on my heart for years and recently even more so; my three young kids, my husband and I have been trying to observe it but have no idea how to do so in a God honouring, biblical way. I am familiar with the extremely strict Jewish way but looking at the teachings of Jesus, I feel like having so many restrictions misses the point of Sabbath where it becomes more about the rules than the rest.

Please help!

Last night I felt led to pray and out of nowhere my brain heard the words spirit of Asfetus/asphetus. I then felt and a nudge to rebuke it from my marriage and I have asked the Lord for some clarification and I thought I would post here to see if anybody had ever heard about it before... when I looked it up, both spellings translated to Latin, one means ugly (asphetus) and the other means ascetic (Asfetus) which is basically the practice of self-denial for spiritual reasons Eg fasting, meditating on scripture, denying oneself of pleasures.

I didn't find anything else about it and every time I googled it it was self-correct to asbestos lol.

I'm trusting that if the Lord wants to reveal anything, He will but also I figured that we have community for a reason so worth a shot to see if anyone has any insight! Blessings.

30F, married to 30M with kids; 7M, 4M and 2M. Been a lukewarm Christian for 15 years, then 6 months ago I prayed desperately in my lounge that the Lord would shake up my life as I could see I had no oil in the lamp. We've had a really traumatic decade honestly, lots of death and abuse and mental health issues and physical affliction. Massive marital issues, parenting issues, relationship issues..

Things have changed drastically, I feel like life was purged and stripped of pretty much everything but it's all the stuff on the outside of the cup. I'm left with just me, and a very uncomfortable view of a wicked and selfish heart.

I feel like I can't do anything right. I'm seeing clearly my intentions aren't there. I'm so fatigued I just want to curl up and give up. I have a lot of bad habits and though patterns, ones that don't match up to the new Creation in Christ I should be.

I struggle with condemnation, any time I neas up I feel like I feel like I've gone too far. Currently on week 4 of sleeping no more than 5 hours a night and so I've felt zero energy, though tonight I realised that it would be the perfect scenario to learn to trust in Him, like I asked for ahhh about month ago... But I'm too lazy (apathy). I feel so stuck and I hate what I am and I know I just need to trust Him with it all but I can't seem to surrender it.

There have been a couple of periods of life where I have been absolutely distressed and exhausted, I end up pleading in my mind with the Lord and every so often it's like there is a conversation happening up there. The answers/responses to me come just a fraction prior to my own thought finishing and I find it difficult to replicate, so far it's not been anything contradictory to scripture or the character of God, other than my concern that this may be a form of reliance on self if I attribute this to the Lord when it's not.

I have seen and also experienced times that an audible response has been made to a prayer that is being said out loud, but not anything on prayers that are being said in the mind when the body is too tired.

Would appreciate any wisdom or scripture on this, blessings to you all.

I’m in NZ and we have very few of the RX100 on the market. I’m looking for a P&S camera that I can use in place of the iPhone I sold in favour of a dumb phone. Most of my photos are family memories - kids, events, etc. would love to wait to get the V but I doubt I’ll find one and overseas will cost me heaps to import so thinking it might be a good idea to jump on this? I’m just nervous that the low light performance will be a sore point for me, for such an expensive camera.

There is also an RX100 M1 I could get for USD$310, which saves me $300 in my currency but I know we’re going backwards a couple gens.