Sacred Celebrations

About the Book

All scriptural references are from the King James Having grown up being steeped in this world’s culture, which to a great extent revolves around this world’s holidays, I know full well the great influence that celebrations involving music, art, and poetry can have on young minds. It is my hope that these poems and lyrics, based on God’s ordained Holy Days and the inspired words of God, can help develop the kind of culture among God’s people that will influence the children of God’s church in the right way. Some of these poems have already been put to music, and hopefully others will lend themselves to this venue as well. When referring to child rearing, a wise man once stated that if you take something away from a child, you should give them something else to take its place. While he was referring to a child who wants to play with something he should not, the same principle applies when we take away this world’s holidays that mean so much to children; especially those children coming into God’s church from the world. We need many more songs about the true Holy Days, the true church, and the good news of tomorrow’s world that our children can relate to and internalize. We need to develop a whole righteous culture based on true knowledge—a culture that celebrates true values and virtues with uplifting songs, jubilant dance, wonderful art, and positive literature with memorable poetry—to give to our children in place of the traditions and culture this present evil world offers. Some will argue that all these sacred Festivals and Holy Days were abolished with Christ on the cross, but careful examination of all the scriptures reveal otherwise. Luke records that after Christ died, the women prepared spices and ointments to anoint the body, then “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” The gospel writers all agree that Christ gathered with His disciples to celebrate the Passover on the very evening before His crucifixion. The book of Acts shows the faithful believers and followers of Christ gathering together “in one accord” more than 50 days after the crucifixion for the Feastof Pentecost, called “the Feast of Firstfruits” in the Old Testament. Concerning the Days of Unleavened Bread, Paul told believers in Corinth to “keep the Feast.” Luke records that Paul, referring either to a spring or fall Festival, stated he “must by all means keep the feast that comes to Jerusalem.” Luke mentions other Holy Days and Festivals in the book of Acts. Jude, the brother of Christ, lamented that certain evil doers had crept into the church, and were “spots in your feasts of charity”—undoubtedly referring to those Feasts ordained of God. One cannot clearly see the incredible step by step plan God has for all of mankind without recognizing the outline for that plan as pictured to us by these sacred Holy Days: played out year by year in the very order by which God is carrying out His amazing plan of salvation. The poems in this collection have been written over a period of about 20 years. Several small booklets have been printed and handed out in a limited way to a number of members. Some have been sent to the elderly or infirm who were unable to attend the fall Feast of Tabernacles. Several requests have come from the brethren since, wanting copies of these earlier booklets which are currently out of print. More poems have been written and added to my collection since these were published; including a number of poems and lyrics for younger children. I would have desired for all these poems to be made available free of charge to all of God’s people, but being a man of limited resources, I knew of no way to do so. While it has never been my desire to profit from the brethren with these poems, the brethren could use second tithe funds during God’s annual Feast of Tabernacles to purchase this collection and defray printing costs. Perhaps in the future they can be used as fund raisers

About the Author

Moses L. Hochstetler, known as “Lee” by many of his friends and acquaintances, was born and raised Amish, and along with his 13 older siblings, lived on a dairy farm in northern Indiana. By the time he was 10 years old Moses was reading the Plain Truth through an older brother’s subscription. By the age of 14 he was a regular listener to “The World Tomorrow” TV program. Soon after turning 15, Moses was taking the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. Wanting to be certain and “prove all things” before making his decision, Moses read the Bible through from cover to cover 6 times before he turned 18. On July 28, 1968, shortly before his 20th birthday, Moses was baptized and had hands laid on him to become a begotten son of God. When Moses was a mere 7 or 8 years old he had a vivid dream of reciting poetry before a huge crowd of people. He couldn’t remember any of the poetry he recited when he awoke, and soon dismissed the dream out of his mind. More than 30 years later he discovered that he had a real God-given talent for writing poetry. He has a collection of well over 600 poems which he has written over the years. His HTR&JP guidelines http://allpoetry.com//7522123 (How To rate and Judge Poetry) has become the standard for several on-line poetry sites. Moses is the author of 3 other self-published books: Levi R. and Tillie M. (Schmucker) Hochstetler Family Record, Recollections of An Amish Childhood, and Poems To Cheer the Heart. In addition, Moses has written his own personal Bible Handbook, covering more than 1300 biblical and religious topics, which he hopes to make available on-line some day.