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HumbleDisciple Calling believers back to the whole Word of God. Walking in truth, love, and obedience through Yeshua.

As the first day of the seventh month approaches, many Jewish families are preparing for Rosh Hashanah, the traditional ...
08/09/2026

As the first day of the seventh month approaches, many Jewish families are preparing for Rosh Hashanah, the traditional Jewish New Year. I respect what this season means to them. In my own observance, I call this day Yom Teruah because I want its biblical purpose to shape how I keep it.

Num 29:1 calls it a day of teruah, a word that can describe a shout or trumpet blast. Lev 23:23–25 commands rest from ordinary work, a holy gathering and a memorial of teruah. These are the instructions I want to honour.

Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year.” Yet in Exod 12:2, Yehovah establishes the month of Passover as the first month. This appointed day falls in the seventh.

Jewish tradition still recognises that numbering. It distinguishes different beginnings of the year for different purposes, with Rosh Hashanah marking the civil new year. Some say that Jewish people simply erased Yehovah’s calendar but that would misrepresent their practice. However, Torah does not name this feast Rosh Hashanah or command a New Year celebration. That is why I observe it as Yom Teruah.

As a believer in Yeshua, I also hear hope in the trumpet. He spoke of His elect being gathered with a great trumpet. Paul connects the trumpet with resurrection and our gathering to Messiah (Mat 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thes 4:16–17).

I believe Yom Teruah points prophetically to His return. My understanding of these passages leads me to expect that He will return on this appointed day. I hold that as an interpretation, recognising that Scripture does not explicitly identify Yom Teruah as the day of His return. I am not claiming to know the year.

That hope gives me reason to examine how I am living now. Am I listening to His Word? Is there something I keep excusing that He has called me to turn from? Awaiting our King should shape how we live.

When the day arrives, I want to set aside my ordinary work and gather for worship. I’ll be observing Yom Teruah this Friday, 11 September, from sunset until sunset on Saturday, 12 September, so this year it coincides with the weekly Shabbat. I follow the Hillel II calendar, though I know others follow different calendars based on their own study and convictions. I’m comfortable with us reaching different conclusions while continuing to study and seek to honour His instructions. I want to hear the sound of teruah and remember the One who appointed this day.

I respect what Rosh Hashanah means to Jewish families. But in my own observance, the instructions Yehovah gave for this day must take priority over later traditions. Torah identifies it as a day of teruah, with rest from ordinary work and a holy gathering. Those instructions shape why and how I keep it.

Yom Teruah, often called the Feast of Trumpets, falls on the first day of the seventh biblical month, at the new moon. F...
07/09/2026

Yom Teruah, often called the Feast of Trumpets, falls on the first day of the seventh biblical month, at the new moon. Following the Hebrew calendar we observe, we will welcome it next Friday, September 11, at sunset. This year, it coincides with the weekly Sabbath.

In Lev 23:23–25, Yehovah sets apart the first day of the seventh month as a day of rest, a sacred assembly and a memorial marked by sounding. Num 29:1 calls it a day for sounding the shofar. Before we explore what this day might point towards, we have something clear to honour: stop our ordinary work, gather before Him and mark the day with a sound that demands attention.

Teruah can describe a shout or a trumpet blast. It is a sound you notice. And as I prepare for this appointed time, I keep thinking about how easily we hear God’s Word without letting it interrupt us.

We can know the feast dates and still keep putting off something He has already asked of us. An apology. A change in how we speak at home. Turning away from a sin we have grown comfortable with. Jam 1:22 calls us to be doers of the Word. That reaches into the ordinary parts of our lives, long after the shofar has gone quiet.

There is hope in this day too. Paul writes that Yeshua will descend from heaven with a commanding shout and the shofar of God, and that the dead in Messiah will rise (1 Thes 4:16–18). He tells believers to encourage one another with these words. Our waiting has hope in it. Death will not have the final word.

That passage gives us reason to hear the shofar with expectation, though it does not tell us that Yeshua must return on Yom Teruah or give us a year to calculate.

If this is your first time observing, Yom Teruah itself is a day when Yehovah commands us to set aside ordinary work. This year it coincides with the weekly Sabbath, so prepare before sunset as you would for Shabbat. Alongside that rest, mark Yom Teruah by gathering for prayer and worship, reading Lev 23:23–25 and Num 29:1–6, and sounding the shofar if you have one. If you don’t, raise your voice in joyful praise to Yehovah. Teruah can also describe a shout of joy, so you need not remain silent. A shared meal can be a lovely part of gathering, though no special menu is commanded. Make time to consider what you have read and how you need to respond.

I want to come into this day thankful, with a heart willing to be corrected. Yehovah has given us His Word, and through Yeshua we have hope. There is still so much in my own life that needs to respond to what I already know.

The Sabbath was given as an enduring sign between Yehovah and Israel, tied to a perpetual covenant (Exo. 31:16–17). It h...
05/09/2026

The Sabbath was given as an enduring sign between Yehovah and Israel, tied to a perpetual covenant (Exo. 31:16–17). It has never been redefined as another day. The seventh day remains the seventh day, from Friday evening at sunset until Saturday evening at sunset.

Luke gives us a quiet but powerful picture of this after Yeshua’s death.

The women prepared spices and perfumes for His body. This was an act of deep love. They wanted to honour their Messiah after the horror of the crucifixion. Yet when the Sabbath arrived, “they rested on Shabbat according to the commandment” (Lk. 23:56, TLV).

Think about that.

The body of Yeshua lay in the tomb, and His burial preparations were unfinished. Few duties could have felt more urgent or sacred. Still, the women stopped. They waited. They honoured the day Yehovah had made holy.

And Luke, writing after the crucifixion, does not say they rested because they had not yet understood grace. He simply says they rested according to the commandment.

Today, many look at the empty tomb and speak only about salvation. Praise God for salvation. But salvation does not leave us outside God’s covenant people. Through Messiah, those who were once strangers to the covenants of promise are brought near and made fellow citizens with the saints (Eph. 2:12–19). Gentile believers are grafted into Israel’s cultivated olive tree, not planted in a separate one (Rom. 11:17–24).

The renewed covenant does not remove Torah. Yehovah says, “I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart” (Jer. 31:33, TLV).

That includes the day He blessed, made holy and called His own.

“So there remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9, TLV).

The Sabbath is still here. The invitation remains: stop working, trust your Father, remember creation and redemption, and receive the gift He placed within the covenant.

Shabbat shalom, covenant keepers. Enjoy the day Yehovah has blessed.

I recently wrote about how much of Christianity separated itself from the Jewish people and, in doing so, separated itse...
04/09/2026

I recently wrote about how much of Christianity separated itself from the Jewish people and, in doing so, separated itself from Torah. The comments revealed how necessary that conversation still is.

Jewish people were called “Christ-killers,” followers of Satan and “genocidal maniacs.” Misleading Talmud memes were shared, and some even denied that modern Jews are descended from ancient Israel. Others quoted Romans 11 while displaying the very Gentile pride Paul condemns in that chapter.

On another post, I quoted Jeremiah’s promise that God would write His Torah upon our hearts. Again, many Christians rushed to explain why “My Torah” could not possibly mean Torah. The New Covenant was being used to erase the words of the New Covenant.

This grieves me deeply.

But I also need to be honest about something else.

I have spent time reading a Jewish humour page called Kosher Memes, which is run by Jewish people. The amount of contempt toward Christianity in some of its posts and comment sections is mind-boggling. It is painful to read. Christians are often treated as stupid, hateful or beyond any honest understanding.

I understand where some of that anger comes from. Christian anti-Jewish teaching gained institutional power and led to centuries of persecution, forced conversions, expulsions and bloodshed, often while using the name of Yeshua. That history is real. It should never be softened or forgotten.

The histories are not identical. Acknowledging hostility toward Christians today does not minimise the terrible consequences of Christian antisemitism. But inherited wounds do not make present contempt righteous. Hatred still poisons the person carrying it.

I will not excuse antisemitism from Christians, and I will not excuse hatred of Christians from Jewish people. Neither community has one mind or one voice. The worst examples should never be used to condemn everyone.

Criticising the policies of the Israeli government is not automatically antisemitic. Governments can and should be held accountable. But blaming Jewish people everywhere for those policies, or using them to justify contempt for Jews as a people, is collective guilt. Jewish identity is not government policy. And supporting Israel does not require Christians to defend every decision its government makes.

Torah says, “You are not to hate your brother in your heart” and “love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:17–18). Paul tells Gentile believers, “Do not boast against the branches” (Romans 11:18). Yeshua commands us to love even our enemies and pray for those who mistreat us (Matthew 5:44).

Those words leave very little room for the hatred I keep seeing.

Jewish people are not a people Christianity has permission to erase, replace or collectively condemn. Christians are not all enemies of the Jewish people. We can disagree deeply about Yeshua, Torah and covenant. We can speak honestly about those differences. None of that requires us to strip one another of dignity.

I believe Yeshua is Israel’s Messiah. I keep Torah because I love the God of Israel. And I will continue opposing hatred, whichever direction it comes from.

I talk a lot about keeping Torah. I call it what it is: God’s Word. And the pushback is almost immediate:“It’s a burden....
03/09/2026

I talk a lot about keeping Torah. I call it what it is: God’s Word. And the pushback is almost immediate:

“It’s a burden.”
“It’s old.”
“It’s been done away with.”
“Jesus replaced it.”

But before rejecting Torah, we should understand what it is.

Torah is often translated “law,” but it carries the sense of instruction and teaching. The Greek Scriptures use nomos, meaning law. That is accurate, but “law” can sound like a cold system instead of a Father teaching His people how to live.

Context matters. Paul uses “law” in different senses. Sometimes he means Torah; elsewhere he speaks of a ruling power, such as “the law of sin” (Rom 7:23). Yeshua confronted traditions that displaced God’s commands (Mrk 7:8–13).

Torah is Genesis through Deuteronomy. It tells of creation, the fall, and Yehovah’s work to restore what was broken. It reveals His character, what He calls good, and what He defines as sin.

Yes, it contains commandments. But Yehovah redeemed Israel first, then taught them how to live as His people. That order matters.

Torah was never a way to earn redemption. It was given to a redeemed people. We obey because He has saved us, not to make Him save us.

It addresses justice, mercy, worship, rest, relationships, and approaching God. Scripture calls Torah wisdom (Deut 4:6), perfect (Psa 19:7), and a delight (Psa 119:77).

The renewed covenant does not remove Torah. Yehovah says, “I will put My Torah within them” (Jer 31:33). Ezekiel says He will put His Spirit within His people and cause them to walk in His statutes (Ezk 36:26–27).

The prophets describe nations going to Zion to learn His ways: “For Torah will go forth from Zion” (Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2).

Torah does not compete with Messiah. Yeshua lived it faithfully, taught it rightly, and showed obedience from the heart.

Not every command applies to everyone. Some require priests, judges, the land, or the sanctuary. If those conditions are absent, the commands cannot presently be carried out. That is not abolition.

So go back to Scripture. Ask why you believe Torah was replaced. Test what you have been taught.

The real question may be: how do I walk out God’s instruction faithfully through Messiah today?

Much of Christianity did not simply drift away from Torah. As the movement became increasingly Gentile, believers were t...
01/09/2026

Much of Christianity did not simply drift away from Torah. As the movement became increasingly Gentile, believers were taught to distance themselves from the Jewish people and their practices.

Yeshua and His disciples were Jewish. The Scriptures they taught from were the Tanakh. The earliest believers kept the Sabbath and God’s appointed times. Gentiles were welcomed, but Paul warned them:

“Do not boast against the branches… remember that it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you” (Rom 11:18).

Contempt for Jews was already present in the Greek and Roman world in apostolic times. Gentile pride was also a danger among believers. As Gentile leadership grew, especially after the destruction of the Temple and the Bar Kokhba (AD 132-135) revolt, separation hardened. Some early church writers, incl. Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr, argued against Sabbath observance and other practices they associated with Judaism.

By Constantine’s time, this had been developing for generations. During the dispute over Passover, he argued that believers should “have nothing in common with the Jews.” The Council of Laodicea instructed Christians not to “Judaize” by resting on the Sabbath (around AD 363–364).

Once the Jewish people were treated as rejected, the biblical calendar and Torah practices associated with them became easier to reject. The Sabbath became “Jewish.” So did Passover, the feasts and biblical food instructions. Torah observance was increasingly framed as something opposed to faith in Messiah.

This does not mean every later Christian practice arose from hatred of Jews, or that every Christian who inherited these teachings is antisemitic. History is more complex. But anti-Jewish theology played a major part in Christianity’s separation from Torah.

The New Covenant was promised to the house of Israel and Judah: “I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart” (Jer 31:31–33).

Gentiles were once “strangers to the commonwealth of Israel,” but through Messiah were “brought near” (Eph 2:12–13). We were grafted in. We did not replace the tree or plant a new one.

Perhaps some beliefs we call “Christian” need to be tested again against the Scriptures that came before them.

𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗨𝗠: 𝗔 𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Several comments are responding to claims this post never made.

I am not ethnically Jewish. I am a Gentile believer in Yeshua. I am not telling Christians to convert to rabbinic Judaism, become ethnically Jewish or accept every Jewish tradition. Nor am I claiming that Jewish ancestry saves anyone or that Jewish people can reject Messiah without consequence. Jew and Gentile alike need Yeshua.

This post is also not about Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government or Christian Zionism. Criticism of any government or political movement does not justify contempt for Jewish people.

I reject replacement theology, which teaches that the Church replaced Israel. I also reject the dispensational idea that Israel and the Church are two permanently separate covenant peoples with different standards. Scripture presents one cultivated olive tree. Believing Gentiles are grafted among Israel’s natural branches through Messiah, brought near to Israel’s covenants and made fellow citizens with God’s people (Romans 11:17–24; Ephesians 2:11–19).

Being grafted in does not mean Gentiles become ethnically Jewish. It means they no longer remain strangers to Israel’s covenant promises and God-given instructions. Torah observance does not purchase salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith, and obedience is how redeemed people respond to God.

This post does not deny that some Jewish authorities opposed Yeshua and persecuted early believers, many of whom were also Jewish. Nor does it deny that later rabbinic Judaism developed anti-Christian arguments. Those are real parts of a complex history.

But none of that erases the documented Christian side of the separation. Gentile church leaders increasingly condemned Sabbath keeping, Passover and other biblical practices as “Judaizing.” Constantine used openly anti-Jewish language concerning Passover, and the Council of Laodicea instructed Christians not to rest on the Sabbath.

Acknowledging Jewish opposition to Yeshua does not make those historical facts disappear. One wrong does not cancel or justify another.

The point of this post remains simple: when Christianity distanced itself from the Jewish people, it also became easier to reject the Torah practices associated with them. That history should be examined honestly rather than buried beneath arguments the post never made.

For years, I said “Amen” almost without thinking. It was the word that told everyone the prayer was finished. Time to op...
31/08/2026

For years, I said “Amen” almost without thinking. It was the word that told everyone the prayer was finished. Time to open your eyes.

But “Amen” does not mean “the end.”

Strong’s lists amen as H543 and traces it to the Hebrew verb aman, H539, which carries the sense of being firm, established, faithful or trustworthy. Amen can express certainty, agreement or confirmation. Depending on the context, it may be understood as ‘truly,’ ‘certainly’ or ‘so be it.’ In the Greek New Testament manuscripts, it appears as amēn, G281, a transliteration of the Hebrew word.

Depending on how it is used, amen can mean “truly,” “certainly,” or “so be it.” When spoken in response to someone else, it expresses agreement with what has been said. It is closer to saying, “I affirm this as true,” than merely closing a prayer.

That agreement could carry serious weight. In Numbers 5:22, the woman answers, “Amen, amen,” accepting the terms of an oath before Yehovah. In Deuteronomy 27, Israel repeatedly says “Amen” after hearing the covenant curses. They are acknowledging that Yehovah’s words and judgments are right.

When Ezra blessed Yehovah, “all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands” (Nehemiah 8:6). They were not politely waiting for him to finish. They were joining themselves to the blessing.

Yeshua often placed “Amen” at the beginning of His words. Most English Bibles translate it as “Truly.” When He said, “Amen, amen, I tell you,” He was not asking His listeners to make the statement true. He was declaring that what followed was certain and trustworthy.

Scripture even calls Yeshua “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14). Paul writes that all God’s promises find their “Yes” in Him, “That is why through Him is spoken the ‘Amen’ by us, to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

So perhaps we should slow down before saying it. Do I understand what was just prayed? Is it true? Can I sincerely place my agreement behind those words before Yehovah?

“Amen” is easy to say out of habit. Scripture gives it far more weight than that.

Many of us were taught to see the Torah mainly as a long list of rules that made life hard for Israel. But read Deuteron...
30/08/2026

Many of us were taught to see the Torah mainly as a long list of rules that made life hard for Israel. But read Deuteronomy 26 and notice where it begins. An Israelite brings the firstfruits of his harvest before Yehovah and remembers everything He has done for His people.

He does not simply place them in a basket and leave. He remembers where his people came from. He recalls their suffering in Egypt, Yehovah’s deliverance and the land He gave them. Then he bows down and worships.

“You will rejoice in all the good that Adonai your God has given to you.”
Deut 26:11

The command teaches gratitude. Remember what Yehovah has done. Give Him the first and best. Worship Him. Rejoice in His goodness. Even the produce in his hands is a reminder that he did not get there alone.

Then the Torah turns his eyes towards others.

The third-year tithe provides food for the Levite, the outsider, the orphan and the widow, “so that they may eat within your towns and be satisfied” (Deut 26:12).

This is Torah!

It teaches redeemed people to remember their Deliverer, care for the vulnerable, share what they have and refuse to live as though their blessings belong to them alone. Its commands give love a shape that can be seen in ordinary life. Gratitude towards God is meant to affect how we treat others around us, especially those in need.

Yeshua did not replace Torah with the command to love God and neighbour. He quoted Torah:
“You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut 6:5).

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).

Then He said, “The entire Torah and the Prophets 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴 on these two commandments” (Mat 22:40).

A door hangs on its hinges, but the hinges are not the whole door. They hold it together. In the same way, love for Yehovah and neighbour holds the Torah together. Yeshua revealed its heart, showing us what love looks like when lived.

When Torah is stripped away, love is easily reduced to whatever feels kind or sincere to us.

Torah teaches us how Yehovah defines love: gratitude that remembers, worship that honours Him, and obedience that does not forget the person in need.

The Sabbath was never given as a punishment. It came from the heart of a Father who knows that His children need to stop...
29/08/2026

The Sabbath was never given as a punishment. It came from the heart of a Father who knows that His children need to stop.

Before there was Sinai, before there was a nation of Israel, before sin had worn humanity down, God rested on the seventh day. He blessed it and made it holy (Genesis 2:2–3). The Sabbath began in Eden, where everything He made was still called “very good.”

Later, He told Israel:
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:9–10).

One day each week, the servant rested with the master. The foreigner rested with the native-born. Even the animals were given relief. Debts, fields and unfinished work had to wait. For a people who had lived as slaves in Egypt, being commanded to rest was an act of freedom.

Men can make the Sabbath heavy. They can cover it with rules God never gave, judge every small detail and drain the joy from it. Yeshua confronted that kind of religion, but He never treated the Sabbath itself as the problem.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Made for man. Given for our good.

The Sabbath reminds me that the world keeps turning when I stop working. My worth is not measured by what I produce. For one day, I set down the noise and remember who provides my bread, holds my life and makes me holy.

Isaiah calls the Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13–14). That does not mean every Sabbath will feel perfect. Sometimes the mind takes hours to slow down. Sometimes worries follow us into the day. But the gift remains.

God did not command His people to escape the Sabbath. He invited us to enter it.

And every seventh day, that invitation comes again.

Many say they love God. Many read the Bible, underline verses, share them and listen to teachings. But Scripture was nev...
28/08/2026

Many say they love God. Many read the Bible, underline verses, share them and listen to teachings. But Scripture was never given only to fill our minds. It was given to shape how we live.

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

That warning should make us pause. We can hear the Word every week and still deceive ourselves if we refuse to obey what we hear.

Yeshua lived every truth He taught. He kept His Father’s commandments, honoured the Sabbath and walked faithfully in the Torah. Then He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Love has feet. It walks.

Yet many believers have been taught that Yehovah’s commandments belong only to the Jews, while Gentile believers follow a different standard. But Paul says those who were once wild branches have been grafted into Israel’s cultivated olive tree (Romans 11:17–19). We do not replace Israel, and we are not planted beside Israel as a separate tree. We are grafted into the covenant people of God.

So why would we reject the ways of the tree into which we have been grafted?

Grace does not give us permission to ignore Yehovah’s instructions. Grace brings forgiveness when we fall and teaches us to leave lawlessness behind. Faith does not cancel obedience. Genuine faith produces it.

That includes the Sabbath, Yehovah’s appointed times, His instructions concerning what is clean and unclean, and the call to live as a set-apart people. We do not earn salvation by keeping Torah. Salvation is Yehovah’s gift through Yeshua. But those who have been saved should desire to walk as their Messiah walked.

Revelation describes the perseverance of the saints plainly: they “keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yeshua” (Revelation 14:12).

Both belong together.

Reading Scripture matters. Studying it matters. But eventually the book must leave the table and enter our choices, our habits, our homes and our calendars.

Are we allowing the Word to change how we live, or only collecting more knowledge about it?

Have a blessed preparation day.

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