Isaiah 56 and Sabbath

If you were to hear the word “Sabbath” what thoughts come to your mind?

In the Christian world there is some debate over the idea of the Sabbath, most main stream denominations do not follow the biblical sabbath of Saturday, as do the Jews and some Christian denominations such as the Seventh Day Adventist, because it is said by many that the “laws and ordinances were done away with at the cross” and so therefore the requirements of the law no longer apply. This, I believe, is wrong for several reasons, not just because I am not a Christian and wouldn't believe that in the first place but because its wrong for another more important reason, by not honoring the Sabbath, whether you believe it to be on Saturday or Sunday, you are missing out on a great excuse to stop and rest from the insanity of this world.

The word Sabbath simply means “to rest.” It means that we are to stop doing all the crazy things that we do all week and slow down. It means that this is a day that we should stop and worship God and focus on Him and the world that He has created and the blessing He has given us.

I have been a pastor. I have seen just how hectic “Sabbath” can be no matter what day you keep it and I have to wonder is that really what G-d meant for us when the Sabbath was instituted? I don't think so. Probably the sad part, for pastors anyhow, is that they can miss the sabbath rest because they are so busy they have to take another day off just to get the rest they should have had on the Sabbath.

I also tend to believe that by not keeping the Sabbath we are depriving ourselves from a great blessing.

I know that in Jewish communities that the Sabbath is a time of family and worship and that they literally stop doing anything that might resemble work of any kind, they even make sure that their food is cooked ahead of time so that during the Sabbath all they have to do is serve the food and eat. For them its a blessing and a day of rest.

For us we start with Kiddish(sp?) that's the traditional blessing of the bread and wine that the Jews do to welcome in the Sabbath on Friday night, we light candles and let them burn and we remember the blessings that G-d has given us during the past week. Saturday mornings my wife likes to make a special breakfast for us that is usually large and quite filling. We don't usually rush the process though and many times it will be close to noon before we even eat. After that we may go hike in the woods either outback or somewhere else and just make a relaxing day out of it. We try to leave everything else behind. Its usually the most peaceful day of the week.

I have a friend who is a Baptist minister who believes in the spirit of Sabbath. He doesn't believe that the day is important ,especially for Gentiles, but rather we keep the spirit of the law. In his case as soon as he is finished at the church he and his family go home and they literally do nothing but relax. They eat and play outside but nothing resembling any work is done, they literally rest.

G-d Himself promises us a blessing if we honor the Sabbath and yes that means us Gentiles. Isaiah 56 starting with verse 2-3, 6-8 “Happy is the man who does this,The man who holds fast to it: Who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and stays his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner say,Who has attached himself to the Lord,The lord will keep me apart from His people;...” “As for the foreigners Who attach themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him,And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—all who keeps the Sabbath, and do not profane it,And holds fast to My covenant—I will bring them to My sacred mountain,And let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be welcome on My altar;For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”Thus declares the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel.

I don't know about you, but for me it fills me with great happiness and brings me comfort to know that my prayers and my sacrifices will be welcomed by G-d because I choose to keep and honor His sabbath and his commandments.

So given my choice between believing that it all been abolished, which I suppose for me is a moot point, or keeping His commandments,especially the Sabbath, I am going to go with keeping them.

Shalom

You Are Unique

Have you ever played the game I like to call “what if ?” You know the game where you wonder about how things might be different if you had chosen to do something different than you did? One of the episodes of “Dr. Who” has Donna, Dr. Who's companion, making a a right turn when she had originally made a left and not only did that effect her life but it effected the whole course of human events from that point on. The episode not only shows how one individual choice makes a difference, but how much one individual can truly effect the course of events and just how unique we all are.

I look back at my own family history and it amazes me just how many things had to come together for my children to even be here today.

My grandparents meeting was pure chance. My grandfather had had a boxing match the night before and was walking to work when he stopped at a farm house for a glass of water, the person who answered the door was my grandmother. What if my great grandmother had answered the door instead? What if he had gone to a different house?

My mother was in love with a man from her hometown, so much so that she wanted to run off with him, but my grandmother interfered, so instead my mother went to Boston where she met my father. What would have happened if she had run off with the other man? My father was here in the United States because Castro had taken over in Cuba, he too had someone in Cuba that he had loved, yet he had no real choice he had to leave. What would have happened if he had stayed in Cuba because Castro hadn't taken over? Luckily for me things turned out the way that they did and so here I am.

What about my own children and wife? When I was 19 I joined the Marine Corp. While I was at the hotel ,that they put us up in, a very pretty young lady spent a good chunk of the night trying to convince me to join her and many of the others in going to the Air Force. I didn't have to go to the Marines at that point because we hadn't been sworn in yet and we hadn't signed any papers so I could have switched. I didn't , but if I had, I would not have ever met my ex and as a result my oldest would not have been born. If I had re enlisted at that time I wouldn't have come home, after my divorce, and would not have run across an old roommate of mine who consequently introduced me to my wife and as a result, years later, the birth of my other two children.

Just using my own family history, what little I know of it, shows me just how unique all of us are. Thousands of years in the making and here we are; there is no one else in the world just like you.

I believe that the spirit in us belongs to God and is from God (how you view God is up to you) so I believe that even if things had been different we would have been born anyhow because really it's not the DNA that counts nor our ethnicity its the spirit of life that God gives that matters.

So next time someone is trying to put you down and tear you apart just remember how unique you are and that you are who you are because of the spirit in you. Whether you turn left or right will make all the difference in the world.