For years, the devil had been sneaking his way into our marriage and left a huge void in our lives. Five years ago, at our weakest and most vulnerable point, God chose to reveal himself to us in remarkable ways. The moment we humbled ourselves and agreed to be used by Him, EVERYTHING in our comfortable Christian life changed.
You see, my (Carmela) soul was seeking, but I didn’t know what it was seeking. I knew the answer had to do with God, but I wasn’t sure how that looked. I thought maybe I wasn’t getting fed at our home church. So our family left to see if we could find a church that fed us and fill the void that I felt spiritually. After visiting several churches, I realized that it wasn’t the church that was leaving us feeling spiritually void. It was something within my own heart.
Night after night I called out to God in desperation and emptiness. And He showed up in remarkable ways! He nudged me to start reading the Bible at the beginning – in the very first book of Genesis – where the story of our creation begins. Obediently, our family started reading two to three chapters every night during our devotion time. In Exodus, we came to the verse that jump started our journey:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8
The 4th Commandment
WAIT! The Seventh Day? But that’s Saturday – not Sunday! We thought we were keeping the Ten Commandments well, as we had been taught to do since childhood. This verse, however, said the Sabbath was the seventh day, not the first day. And we weren’t even keeping the Sabbath properly on Sunday! The Bible says the Sabbath is a day of rest and that we are not to work or make others work – but we were doing just that on both days!
We have read these verses many, many times over the course of our lives and never thought anything of it. Somehow, this reading was different. God lifted the veil from our eyes and we KNEW we had been sinning all these years. We finally realized that in not keeping the Sabbath as outlined in the Scriptures, we were breaking HIS Commandments.
Why were we blinded to this obvious Truth for so long? How could we have gotten this so wrong? How could our churches have gotten it wrong? The Sabbath is obviously very important to God, with over 150 mentions in the Bible (ESV version). God declared twenty-two times in the Old Testament that the Sabbath is the seventh day – and He was very specific about resting and not working on the Sabbath. So why were we disregarding God’s instruction to honor/remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy (set-apart)?
This is where our quest to find Truth began. We scoured the Scriptures, reading the book from cover to cover, taking notes and looking for reasons why we don’t and why we should honor the Sabbath appropriately. What we learned absolutely blew our minds and turned our comfortable Christian life upside-down. (Read our Sabbath blog. It will blow your mind too!)
Come to find out, nowhere in the Scripture does God change His seventh day Sabbath from Saturday to the first day, Sunday, nor does He remove the command to rest and not work on the Sabbath. It was a change made by man outside of Scriptural boundaries (“Do not add or take away from the Scriptures” Deuteronomy 4:2). In the New Testament, even Yeshua (Hebrew name for Jesus), the disciples and Paul both honored the seventh day Sabbath. Additionally, verses that mention the “first day of the week” are actually translated incorrectly from the original Greek. How, as a Christian community, did we let this change happen? How are we so deceived? If the devil can deceive us with something as foundational to our faith as the Ten Commandments – instructions spoken by the very mouth of God himself – what else is he deceiving us about?
Quest for Truth
Our quest for Truth has taken us on a journey deep into the Word of God. We have read the Bible from cover to cover many times, with countless passage studies. We have watched thousands of hours of teaching videos from others who have also desired and found Truth – weighing each teaching against the Truth found in the Scriptures. If it wasn’t Biblical, we threw it out. This quest for Truth has revitalized our spirit and renewed our passion for our Heavenly Father and His Scriptures. We have never felt so spiritually alive! Our souls are on fire for God for the first time in our lives – and now we want to share our journey with you!
We Are Not Ashamed!
Why has it taken us so long to share our story? When we began our journey, we tried to share what we learned, but our excitement was squashed by disapproval and opposition. We were warned that if we obeyed God’s laws, it would make our salvation about works and not Messiah. So if we obey Him, then we don’t love Him? But Scriptures say just the opposite! Yeshua was sinless (2 Cor. 5:21) and obeyed His Father (John 14:31). Our only desire is to be like our Messiah who was without sin (lawlessness) and did what His Father commanded Him to do. We don’t obey to earn our salvation – we obey BECAUSE of our salvation! We desire to obey out of love, fear and respect for His greatness and sovereignty. God has been calling His people to obey since the beginning of creation. It’s how we SHOW Him we love Him.
What does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statues of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13
If you love me, keep My commandments. John 14:15
And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. 1 John 2:3-6
Why Share Our Journey?
Just recently, the Father has prompted us to share our journey with you. So here we are – being obedient. Are we scared? No way! We no longer desire to be like this world. A man on our same journey said, “If the world loves you, it is because you are of it.” We are called to be IN the world, but not OF it – to be Holy (set-apart) because He is Holy. We no longer care what this world thinks of us. We only care what our Heavenly Father thinks. At the end of our lives, His opinion of us is the only thing that is going to matter.
But I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. John 14:31
This journey, although extremely rewarding, is not easy. We first had to empty ourselves of everything we thought we knew about the Bible and learn to study the Scriptures as students of the King. We had to stop trying to match the Word to what we believed/thought we knew and change our thinking to match the Word. This was tough because it threatened our entire spiritual reality. We had to put all of our own thoughts aside and learn how to listen to His voice. We realized we really didn’t KNOW the Father and Son intimately like we thought we did.
Every day we pray for wisdom and understanding as we search the Scriptures for Truth. Although our Truth journey started with the Sabbath, it didn’t end there. There is so much wisdom that God has shown us – leading us to a deeper understanding of the Almighty, a stronger love for Him, a greater peace that passes all understanding and greater blessings. Please know that we are still learning and growing in Him. This is only the beginning for us. We still have a long way to go in understanding the Scriptures. But we are super excited to see where HE will lead us next.
My dear friend, Cathy – who is also on a Truth journey – said,
“Start slowly at the beginning to tell your story. It is a beautiful journey and you had no idea where it would lead. Where it is still leading!”
We hope that we can inspire you to start your own Truth journey – to seek God with all your heart, dig into His Word and explore where He is leading you. We hope our letters, scriptures and links to others work will make it easier for you to search out the Truth. Thank you for letting us share our journey with you.
Blessings to you and your family!
Please note: Although I may not completely agree with the entire philosophy of my resources, the specific content shared has been reviewed and is found to be Biblically sound.