May the mumbling commence!
Keep the Sabbath holy.
It is a commandment of the Lord.
And it’s the only commandment that practicing Christians will brag that
they break. Though Jesus speaks a lot
about doing the Lord’s work even on the Sabbath, people from our time and
culture need to be reminded about the necessity of Sabbath.
It is more than all right to rest and worship the
Lord. We can depend on the lord to
provide. Depending only on ourselves
will eventually end us up in a ditch.
For this reason, a passage from Nehemiah chapter thirteen caught my
attention. Read it below:
One Sabbath
day I saw some men of Judah treading
their winepresses. They were also bringing
in bundles of grain and loading them on their donkeys. And on that day they
were bringing their wine, grapes, figs,
and all sorts of produce to Jerusalem to sell. So I rebuked them for
selling their produce on the Sabbath. There were also some men from Tyre bringing in fish and
all kinds of merchandise. They were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of
Judah – and in Jerusalem at that!
So I confronted the leaders of Judah, "Why are
you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?
Wasn't it enough that your ancestors did this sort of thing, so that our
God brought the present troubles upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon the people of Israel
by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way!"
So I commanded
that from then on the gates of the city
should be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening, not to be opened until
the Sabbath ended. I also sent some of my own servants to guard the gates
so that no merchandise could be brought
in on the Sabbath day.
The merchants and
tradesmen with a variety of wares camped outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I spoke sharply to them and said, "What are you doing out here, camping
around the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you!" And that was
the last time they came on the Sabbath.
Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the gates
in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.
Remember this good deed also, O
my God! Have compassion on me according to your great and unfailing love. (Verses 15-22)
How often do we do our livelihood work on the
Sabbath? How often do we tread our
grapes? How often do we ask our animals
(which by the way are supposed to have a Sabbath too) to work on the Sabbath?
Sometimes, we feel that we cannot stop or we will get
behind. Gotta keep up with the Joneses! NO!
WRONG!
We depend upon God to provide for us. We can and should take rest in the Lord. Rest and worship will help to put our lives
into a more proper perspective.
That is one of the reasons honoring the Sabbath and
keeping it holy is so important. And we
must not ask other people to work on the Sabbath or buy their wares. To honor the Sabbath will all people in mind
is to develop compassion and harvest love.
Honoring the Sabbath helps us to extend forgiveness to ourselves and to
the people we care so deeply about. Read
from Second Corinthians chapter two:
I am not overstating it when I say that the man who
caused all the trouble hurt your entire church more than he hurt me. He was punished enough when most of you were
united in your judgment against him. Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise
he may become so discouraged that he won't be able to recover. Now show him that you still love him.
I wrote to you as I did to find out how far you would go
in obeying me. When you forgive this man, I forgive him,
too. And when I forgive him (for whatever is to be forgiven), I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit, so
that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil
schemes. (Verses 5-11)
Forgive one another.
It shows that love runs far deeper than hurt. And we forgive with Christ’s authority. Forgiveness disarms one of Satan’s strongest
tactics – to divide us. May we be united
in Christ Jesus.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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