Setting a day aside each week for the Sabbath

Proverbs 1:7

Our daughter Heather, her husband Kyle, and their two daughters have been visiting a new church lately to see if it may be the right fit for them. Today at Heather's invitation, I went to visit it, too, and really enjoyed it. Friendly door greeters, contemporary worship by a live band, a great kids' church, and practical, Biblical teaching by the pastor on getting out of debt, in order to bless and help others, were just a few of the things this church had to offer.

Some people get together on Sundays to honor the Sabbath, and others on Saturday or another day of the week. No matter what day you and your family set aside to worship God, take time each week to honor God, to rest, and to be rejuvenated. We were not designed by God to go 24/7, 365 days a year. Our bodies require both spiritual and physical rest. Even God rested on the seventh day after He created the earth and all in it! And how much more so do we need it!

Very often, as Joyce Meyer says, we get our who (who we are) mixed up with our do. We are caught in that trap of the tyranny of the urgent....doing all we can every day - going, going, going, like the energizer bunny. Then we wonder why we feel so tired and can't seem to get anything done. Sometimes we just need to be.

Taking a day to study God's word, to worship Him, to celebrate, to relax and have fun with our family and friends, and even to take a siesta after lunch will refill us and energize us for the week ahead. God commanded us to honor the Sabbath and to keep it holy in the 10 commandments. God didn't just forget about the Old Testament and the commandments when the New Testament came along. He still means what He said! There is a reason for everything God tells us - it's for our own good! Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."

So let's be wise, honoring God and observing a day of rest each week...for Him, for us, and for those around us. :)

Here are a few helpful articles on setting time aside to enter Sabbath rest, including some very interesting articles from the Jewish perspective on the purpose of the Sabbath:

http://www.surfinthespirit.com/business/rest.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2004/janfeb/14.16.html

http://www.churchsolutionsmag.com/articles/honoring-the-sabbath-its-not-a-suggestion.html

http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/holidays/shabbat.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/shabbat.html

http://www.orgcoach.net/newsletter/april2001.html