I was born and raised mostly in a small rural fishing town that's off the road system in south central Alaska. Some time each summer was spent in Seattle, Washington. In adulthood, much time was spent in Washington state with a fare amount of travel up and down the West Coast with a few international trips.
Being from a secular family I knew basically nothing of God and His Word, the Holy Bible. I was thirty-years-old and didn't even know why Jesus dying on the Cross should save anyone.
My fiancee at the time, asked me if I'd ever read the Bible and since I had not we took to the task of reading it out loud to one another over the phone in our unusual long distance relationship that never manifested. That process took two years, and because of her I was removed from my usual bachelor life of partying around. I was in a situation where I was able to access what I knew of the world against what the Bible said, as well as the preachers I found to watch on TV.
About a year into reading the Bible I was born-again by the power of the Holy Spirit. I was then empowered to stop with my long habits of smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, and I even was able to snap out of swearing as I used a rubber band on my wrist to snap myself when using profanity to train my mind like a dog! Of course my fiancee was integral in convicting me of abandoning those unrighteous behaviors.
Then after another year or so of following the Messiah, Yeshua, I decided to go ahead with what originally started as a worldly idea to change my name to something cool and unique, and changed my full name as a sign of being born-again and to emphasize the significance of becoming a new Creation in Christ Jesus. As the Scriptures say, “You must be born-again to see the Kingdom of Yehovah.” (John 3:3)
Then my new unique name would be used as an opportunity to testify of the Truth of God's Word and the power of His Holy Spirit and of the Way of Yeshua Messiah that is the only Way to reach Yehovah and His Kingdom. (John 14:6)
And early in my transformation into proper Biblical living I even found the 4th Commandment concept compelling and I began taking Sunday for a day of rest and also to be kept holy. And as I studied the Scriptures and teachings on the function of the 10 Commandments, I found that the modern Evangelical theology that has changed the original Sabbath day to the quazi-sabbath Sunday to be a great error.
The longer I kept the Sabbath hallowed as Elohim did on the 7th day of Creation, the more convicted I became of it being Yehovah's unchanged will. This was the door that led to studying and embracing what is called a Torah observant Christianity or a Messianic Judaism that is ultimately adherent to the Scriptures of God's Word, the Holy Bible, as the final authority, and not respecting extra-biblical Jewish man-made traditions and “laws”.
The very night I made my 1st two commitments to enter Torah, by keeping the clean/unclean food laws given in the Tanakh and observing the specified High Holy Feast Days, I was given a miraculous healing of a chronic neck injury that had become an increasing limitation and concern. Then following that on the Sabbath the core area of my upper back injury that was connected to the neck issue was also healed. I believe these two miracles were two witnesses of God's support of my two commitments that would lead me into Torah observance.
Then another miracle of strength into my back was given when I subsequently committed to wearing the tzitzits that are to remind us of the all the Commandments of Yehovah, to do them and not to forget them. (Numbers 15:37-41)
Since then, many years of studying the subject later, I have increased fully in my conviction that the Christian world has subtracted many standing Commandments in a modern Evangelicalism that is producing a bland fruit that reflects a watered down theology.
There is much that is said about a healthy view of the Torah in Scripture and it is Commanded that we keep it on our lips. (Joshua 1:8) And that the Torah will be written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), not that it will somehow be on our hearts in some nullified way that absolves us from having to keep it specifically.
And so the main message of the Gospel of Yeshua Messiah is that all men have broken God's Laws, the Torah, and Yehovah Elohim has appointed a Day of Judgment for those transgressions of His Law, those sins. And until you submit to the rightful authority of the God that Created you, and you repent of your disobedience before Him and ask for your forgiveness with faith in the work of the Messiah, Yeshua, Who was sacrificed on the Cross for this purpose, then you will be left to your own devices and you will face Judgment from a Holy God in your own strength, which will melt like wax before the Sun and you will suffer the consequences of your pride and bad decision making for eternity with no one to blame but yourself. So be zealous and repent! (Revelation 3:19)