Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy 1

What is the Sabbath?

Phillip Cary, in his book Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don't Have to Do, says: “Every time we turn to Christ in faith it is like a moment of Sabbath, a little foretaste of eternal rest and glory. The gift of that moment lies not in what we do but what we receive. It is the holy time set aside to receive the greatest gift of God ever has to give, which is himself, in his own beloved Son.”

 
What does this mean to the people today? For me personally. Today people want to be connected 24/7. 

I find myself waking up and checking out what is happening in Google+, Facebook and in my blog. 

Since I am ex-pat, living abroad, far away from most of my family and friends, this is the easiest, and sometimes only, way to keep in contact with the people I miss.

Besides my family and friends, I have met new people and made new friendships online. Many of these friendships are very meaningful and the people are real for me. We share our lives and we share our faith, we encourage each other and let each other know that we are facing similar challenges in our lives and faith.

There is a lot of talk about this phenomenon. People don’t exactly know how to deal with it. Many people talk about their “real-life” and “virtual” friends. Others say that people online are as real as the ones we meet elsewhere.

In churches there is talk about online services, online evangelism, online preaching and reaching out online to win more souls.

I want to think myself to be part of this.

All this seems good but still, people worry. 

Is it OK to use internet on Sabbath? Should we do it as Christians or should we keep ourselves away from the computer as part of the Sabbath rest? Will the computer only keep us busy and not allow the use of internet as a way to sanctify the day? 

Mark Buchanan says in his book The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God:  “Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.”

There are people that feel this means we should not be online, we should turn off our cellphones and disconnect from the world.

I feel that we should not make rules and regulations. After all, like Jesus says in Mark: And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)

It would be easy to say, "Don't use computer on Sunday!" "Turn off your cellphone during the Sunday!".

Rules are easy to make and easy to break.

But life isn't easy. What if someone uses the phone or computer to read Bible? What if they use it to listen to the Gospel and Christian music?

So, using the computer or phone to do "Christian things" is OK.

But shouldn't everything be then just Christian on Sunday?Does that mean watching movies on Sunday is a sin? Or going out with your family?

Here comes the difficulty of the rules.

Maybe we should explore further what Sabbath means in the Bible. Why it was given to people.

In Ezekiel we can find that the Sabbath is a sign of covenant between the man and God. God tells the prophet: Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy. (Ezekiel 20:12)

I think it is very important today to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. But there are different ways to keep Sabbath holy. As Emily Dickinson said: “Some keep the Sabbath going to church, I keep it staying at home, with a bobolink for a chorister, and an orchard for a dome. ”

This is the first part of three part consideration on what is the Sabbath. In the next part I will concentrate on the reason why God Himself celebrated Sabbath and gave it to men. 

You can find the second part of this series here.

God of justice and righteousness

What should I do when I see injustice?

As a Christian we should fight for justice. Seek justice for the poor and underprivileged, for the widow and the orphan.

In the Old Testament the prophets claim justice for their people and terrify the wrongdoers with awful punishments.

Is this current today? 

I find that many people don't care about this issue. There is an apathy growing inside the believers.

“Apathy is the acceptance of the unacceptable.”- John Stott

But doesn't Paul say that who does not work should not eat? (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

How can we apply that in the context of the rest of the Bible urging us to take care of the less fortunate?

Paul continues ¹¹ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹² Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. 2 Thess 3:11-12 

It seems that in the early church in Thessalonica there were people too busy to work. They were busybodies. They would go around being idle and disruptive of other people’s work. And then at the supper time they would sit down with everyone else and expect to be served.

According to Wikipedia “A busybody, do-gooder, meddler or marplot is someone who meddles in the affairs of others. An early study of the type was made by the ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus in his typology, Characters, "In the proffered services of the busybody there is much of the affectation of kind-heartedness, and little efficient aid”."

 

So, a busybody is someone who wants to help but instead of it just causes problems and delays.

What Paul is saying is that we shouldn't let these people keep meddling but make them work for their food.

That sounds very different to me than leaving a child to starve or a disabled person without his or her medicine because they should work for it.

In Proverbs 20:24 it says “A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?”.

We can find in Exodus 23:2 “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd".

So, we should not be fooled by the common opinion to pervert the justice just because it's popular.

In Leviticus 19:15 it says: “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly"."

We should not side neither with the rich nor with the poor but be impartial in our judgment.

In Deuteronomy 24:17 we can find that God cares about the immigrants and foreigners also: "Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge".

 

We can see that justice and righteousness are important to God both in 1 Kings 10:9 "Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness". And 2 Chronicles 9:8 "Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness”.

We also can deduct that Israel as a nation needs to be just and righteous. A country needs to take care of its people in a just and righteous manner.

Jim Elliot talks about a God whose word could be found not in the thunder and the wind but in the gentle stillness. “The sound of 'gentle stillness' after all the thunder and wind have passed will the ultimate Word from God.” - Jim Elliot

What could we learn from a God that is just and righteous and talks to us gently, in the stillness?

This is the God of the new covenant, about whom the psalmist talks: PSALM 89:28 “I will keep my loving kindness for him forevermore. My covenant will stand firm with him.”. 

Have we kept our part of the covenant? Are we seeking God's will or are we interpreting His word as our will dictate?

There has always been one guardian for the homeless, foreigner, poor and orphan “But the LORD has been my high tower, my God, the rock of my refuge.” Psalm 94:22.