Appointed Times
The Sacred Seasons
These feasts are woven into the rhythm of creation itself—the seasons God established from the beginning. They are appointed times to pause, gather as families, and remember why we are here: to know God the Father and His Son the Messiah.
Sacred Time
From the beginning, God taught Adam how to mark sacred time by observing the signs He placed in creation. There was no written calendar, no numbered months, and no fixed dates. Time was not abstract or mechanical; it was lived and discerned. Adam learned to watch both heaven and earth, because God had joined them together as witnesses of His appointed seasons.
The year did not begin on a predetermined day. It began when life returned to the land. After the stillness of winter, Adam watched the earth respond again to God's sustaining power. When the grain in the fields began to mature—tender and alive after a season of death—it bore witness that God had renewed the earth. At the same time, Adam watched the heavens for the renewal of light.
Sacred time was not controlled by man but revealed by God. The land testified, the heavens confirmed, and the people responded in worship.
Today, most families cannot observe grain in the fields or personally sight the new moon. For this reason, families should choose the method that best allows them to worship God in peace and unity—whether observing creation directly or following the Hebrew calendar as a faithful guide. The method serves the worship; worship does not exist to serve the method.
Spring
Feast of Deliverance
Seven Days
The Feast of Deliverance is a seven-day period set apart to remember the gift of life that God has given to all His children. It draws attention to the life-giving blood that sustains every living thing, reminding us that all who live have a time to be born, a purpose on earth, and an appointed time to die.
Life is not accidental, nor is it sustained by chance. We come into this world by the grace of God and remain here only as long as He permits. Alongside this remembrance of mortal life, the feast centers on the blood of the covenant and the acts of deliverance God has performed for His people.
Gathering the Family
This feast is an occasion for extended family to gather. In the patriarchal order, family included grandparents, married sons and their wives and children, aunts and uncles, cousins, and all who belonged to the household by blood or by welcome. The Feast of Deliverance calls this larger family together.
The feast also extends welcome to those who have no family with whom to worship. Some have turned to God while their relatives have not. Others have been rejected by their families for choosing to follow Him. These should not be left to observe the feast in isolation.
The Week
The feast begins the night before the seven days with the offering of a lamb, directing the family's focus to the sacred nature of blood and sacrifice. Throughout the seven days, worship should be intentionally different from the normal rhythm of life. Each day should include personal and family prayer, with special focus on God's deliverance.
Storytelling is central to the feast. Each day, time should be set aside to tell and retell stories of deliverance—especially those that belong to the family.
These may include moments when God preserved life, provided unexpectedly, protected in danger, healed, guided through hardship, or corrected a course that would have led to loss. A family prepares for future deliverance by remembering past deliverance.
The final day concludes with a celebratory meal, giving glory to God for the life He has granted us to live and for the sacrifice of the Messiah, who shed His blood so that God's children might receive eternal life.
Late Spring to Early Summer
Season of Gratitude
Fifty Days
The fifty days between the Feast of Deliverance and the Feast of Thankfulness are set apart as a Season of Gratitude. In ancient times, this period followed the rhythm of the harvest—days counted from the first grain offered to God until the fullness of the crop was gathered. The patriarchs understood this counting as an act of faith. They had planted, but God gave the increase.
Though most families today do not work the land, the pattern remains: life is given, tended, and brought to fullness by God's hand, not by human effort alone. Every good thing a family possesses—health, provision, shelter, relationships, understanding—has come from God.
How to Observe
This season is not a program to complete or a list of requirements to fulfill. It is an attitude of the heart that shapes daily life. These fifty days invite deeper attention to the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love one's fellow man.
During this season, the father seeks guidance from God and counsels with his family about how they might offer service as an act of worship. This may take the form of a single project carried out together, or it may be found in quiet, unplanned acts of kindness.
Families may also use this time to review the covenants they have made and to reflect on their growth as a household seeking to walk in God's ways. Have we kept the commitments we made? Have we grown closer to God and to one another? Where have we fallen short, and how might we improve?
Early Summer
Feast of Thankfulness
One Day
The Feast of Thankfulness is a single day set apart to give thanks to God for the abundance of all things He gives us on this earth that we may have joy. From the days of Adam, God's children have paused at the fullness of harvest to acknowledge that every good thing comes from Him.
This feast celebrates the covenants made over time as the family grows. Through ordinances and covenants—kept, remembered, and renewed—individuals and households are sanctified, becoming one with each other, the Messiah, and the Father.
The Celebration
On the evening before the feast, the family gathers for a meal of thanksgiving. This meal marks the close of the Season of Gratitude and the arrival of the feast itself. It is a time of celebration and reflection—looking back on the fifty days that have passed, the service that was offered, and the growth that has occurred.
On the day of the Feast of Thankfulness, no work is done. It is kept as a day of worship, rest, and family togetherness.
The father presides over the day, guiding the family in prayer, in reflection, and in enjoyment of one another's company. Time may be spent in conversation, in walking together, in singing, in reading from scripture, or simply in restful gratitude.
Extended family should gather whenever possible. Where distance makes gathering difficult, families may observe the feast in smaller groups while holding the larger family in prayer. Those who have no family with whom to worship should be welcomed to the table.
Autumn
Feast of Sojourning
Seven Days
The purpose of this feast is to remember that we are only on this earth for a time and that our objective while here is to live so that we might be worthy for the Messiah and God the Father to dwell with us in person.
From the days of the patriarchs, God's children have observed a time of dwelling in temporary shelters to remember that mortality itself is temporary. Adam knew that he had been cast out from God's presence and that his time on earth was a journey back toward that presence.
This feast teaches each generation what Adam knew—that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seeking a better country, a heavenly one, where God will dwell with us forever.
The Shelter
For seven days, the family sets apart time to dwell in awareness of their temporary state. A shelter is built—simple and impermanent—as a physical reminder that mortality itself is a temporary dwelling. The shelter may be decorated with harvest fruits and symbols of thanksgiving. It may be constructed from branches, fabric, or whatever materials are available.
What matters is that it is temporary—something that will be taken down when the feast ends—and that it draws the family out of the permanence they have built around themselves.
Becoming Zion
God has always desired to dwell with His people. He walked with Adam in the garden. It was with Enoch that God revealed what becomes possible when a family aligns itself fully with heaven.
Enoch's people became Zion not by their own effort but by aligning themselves with heaven through the worship God had given. They received the ordinances, made the covenants, and became of one heart and one mind. And God came to dwell among them.
What was possible then remains possible now. The invitation has never been withdrawn. Through the Feast of Sojourning, the family learns this enduring truth: God desires to dwell with us. Year after year, as families gather in temporary shelters, remember their sojourning, and seek God together, they are being shaped into a people with whom He can dwell.