Take your Sabbath

I picked up one thing this week, that added to my understanding of the Sabbath and the importance of rest. I spent some time thinking in context of the commandment "Thou shall keep the Sabbath." If we were to read in Exodus 20, we would see the example that God worked six days and rested on the seventh. I cross-referenced this with the ten commandments passage in Deuteronomy, funny, it doesn't use this illustration and uses a totally different illustration.

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:12-15

The illustration used is that of the Israelites in Egypt as slaves! Wow, this is perspective! The Israelites had just came out of 400 years of bondage; where they most likely worked ever day as slaves. Then in all reality this commandment would have been a blessing to them, when Moses read God's commands. They could work six days and then they could rest a day.

Many times we look at God's commandments and see them as just a bunch of rules. When in all reality they help us with our relationship with God and our relationships with others! The Israelites needed these commands, because they had just came out of 400 years of slavery where they were not allowed to have free choice in obeying laws. Over time, we would see legalism soak into God's commands. Once a command that would give rest to people, the Sabbath would become a yoke of slavery of what you could or not do on the Sabbath.

Man has always been good at that; God says one thing and we add to it...Even in the Garden of Eden we see this! God said to man that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil or you will die. What does Eve say to the serpent? We are not allowed to touch the tree or we will die. So Sabbath has been debated back and forth with questions like: what day is the Sabbath? Should we not work on the Sabbath? If I am off on my Sabbath, why don't others take off?

My Sabbath falls on a Monday! It is a day that I can take for rest. It is guarded as a day for me; a day to refill me. Everyone needs a day of rest, God intended for man to take a day of rest. Make sure you find your day of rest!

I remember the devotion of your youth

The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem," Thus sayeth the Lord, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them," declares the Lord (Jeremiah 2:1-3)

My reading for tonight's youth group had 22 chapters from all over the Old Testament! When I read these verses, I had to stop and process and think of my life! How much am I like this???

I feel called to proclaim the Words of God! I feel his calling in my life! I feel the need to persevere through hard times! I desire to follow full-hearted! BUT I feel like I have settled...

I had devotion in my youth! I jumped in a car and headed in the direction God called me. I went to lands I had never been. Security was not in wealth and possessions; it was in God's direction! My love for God's calling drove me to talk to people I wouldn't have, invested in people I would normally have looked the other way, it moved me in directions of unsafe and unknown territories, it gave me life and love. Where has my devotion gone? The love of God's calling to reach people? The call to make a difference and not to settle...