Posts Tagged: Sabbath
A Pitch-Back Baseball Training Aid, The Sabbath, & the Happiest Moment of My Day!
A story that leads to the happiest moment of my day:
After much pleading I bought Dayton a pitch back baseball training aid today. He said he wanted it because he wanted “to practice [his] baseball catching.”
It was $20, so on the condition, my exact words, “he practice EVERY SINGLE DAY” I bought it.
Well I have to say I was impressed immediately after I put it together; he & his little brother spent close to an hour playing with it.
Then after dinner outside (we live in California 😉 ), he spent another hour practicing.
It was during this second stint of practice as I was sitting at the computer working on something and watching the boys through the window that I saw Dayton suddenly stop and he came running into the house.
Dayton ran up to me baseball mitt and ball in hand–I noticed a concerned, maybe even distressed look on his face and then these words flowed out of his mouth,
“Daddy I will practice all the other days I promise; but I don’t want to practice baseball on the Sabbath.”
I smiled gently though inside I was absolutely beaming!
I said, “Dayton I think that is a good idea. Thank you for correcting & reminding me.”
He got a big ‘ole smile on his face and ran back outside to play some more.
He made a deal with his Dad, he was concerned about breaking the deal, but he was willing to do it for his convictions on the Sabbath. Even though I would have told him I didn’t mean Sabbath too, he didn’t know that. All he knew was that he told his Dad he would practice every day, but then his little 5 year old mind remembered that he had a more important Dad that asked him to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy…” And to Dayton without anyone prompting him, practicing baseball and keeping Sabbath holy didn’t jive and so he had to break the deal with me. His face showed this concerned him, but his convictions were more important.
He didn’t ask, he said, “”Daddy I will practice all the other days I promise; but I don’t want to practice baseball on The Sabbath.”
Childhood Friday Night’s
I don’t have a ton of Spiritual moment memories as a child growing-up. But the few I do have almost all center on music and Friday nights. On Friday nights in our home it would get very peaceful!!! My Dad would often read to us, I remember us reading the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and all the Uncle Arthur Bedtime Stories. Even more than reading though we would enjoy music. My Dad loved music of all kinds and taught us to do the same.
Today I got nostalgic and decided to try and find some of the songs that still are in my head from those Friday nights at the Stuart’s.
I believe God used these songs to plant seeds in my heart that began to grow roots that kept me in a small way connected, even in the years I was trying to go far from Jesus. I believe this because in the days when I was listening to Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Cypress Hill, etc. In the days when I was depressed and stoned and pondering what value life had. I remember pulling out a mixed tape my Dad had made of all that great Friday night music, and I’d listen and sing at the top of my lungs, “Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus and He will turn your sorrows into joy.” I didn’t believe it then, but Jesus kept a seed in me, He kept me singing, and He kept knocking at the door of my heart.
So here is a little Friday night music for you to enjoy. I pray that if you haven’t opened your heart to Jesus that one day very soon you will sing the songs hear the knock and accept Him as your Savior!
Dallas Holm–Rise Again
Sandi Patty–Via Dolorosa
Evie–Give Them All
Heritage Singers–Me & My House
Gaither Vocal Band–I’m The Lighthouse
Amy Grant–El Shaddai
Larnelle Harris & Sandy Patti–I’ve Just Seen Jesus
The Gaither Vocal Band–I Believe In A Hill Called Mount Calvary
Del Delker & The King’s Heralds–Holy
The Destruction of Creation
The theory that God created this world in 6 literal days just a few thousand years ago, is a belief that is seen as foolish by much of the world (around 40% of the United States believes in a literal Creation by God less than 10,000 years ago), even many in Christian circles (less 40% have absolute belief in the Genesis creation account but 78.4% claim to be Christians). The attacks to this theory often come through scientific arguments, but I believe that the attacks on what happened at creation are even more visible elsewhere. And that place is RELATIONSHIPS!
Scientists have been blamed for trashing Genesis 1 & 2, but the real trashing of the creation account is ALL OF US, because the great theme of the creation accoun is not how many days God made the earth or how many years ago that was, the great theme of the creation story is: Relationship.
Relationship with God
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” –Genesis 1:26-28
The IMAGE language of Genesis 1 is relationship language. I am a parent and since the day both my boys have been born one of the most common conversations, especially with new people we meet is the conversation of, “Oh he looks just like you!” “He looks just like his dad.” “Oh but I see some of his mom in him too.” Why do people say these things? Why do we have this conversation over and over again? Because we like the idea that someone looks like us, someone is like us, someone is from us. Why do we like this idea? Because it holds with it the idea that there will always be this person to be in relationship with! I believe, and I see the totality of scripture supporting this idea, that God was saying with each statement of image, “this is my child who will always be mine.” So when we do not reflect the image of God by being loving, (1 John 4:8), we are in fact rejecting the creation story and trashing the creation story.
Another area in the creation account where God illustrated the relationship idea between God and man is in what happened after the 6 literal days, it was God’s lack for creation on the 7th day that emphasized relationship with Him.
“1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” –Genesis 2:1-3
The Sabbath was specifically established as a day of relationship, primarily relationship with God to delight in God (Isaiah 58:13-14). When we do what we want on the Sabbath that is not something done in communion with God, or when we don’t keep the Sabbath (both of these are the exact same thing, not keeping the Sabbath at all is just as much a denial of God’s day as doing things that are not in accordance with Relationship to God on the Sabbath) we are trashing and denying the creation story, the creation account.
Basically what I am saying is this. Folk can blame the evolutionists all they want for destroying the validity of the Bible. And people can condemn the certain scientists all they want for weakening the belief in God’s literal creation.
But by being unloving and by not honoring the Sabbath. You and I, we are equal to the evolutionists in the destruction of God as Creator and in creating doubt in people’s minds for the infallibility of scripture.
I’m Not Convicted…
I received an e-mail tonight from one of my members and in that e-mail it prompted some questions about the phrase, “I am not convicted yet…” in my mind. Would you please discuss and let me know what you think about my following thoughts:
I hear people say a lot, “I haven’t been convicted on that yet.” Or “God hasn’t convicted me.” Most the time we as Christians accept these statements as a legitimite position for an individual to hold, but I wonder have we taken these positions to far? I know in scripture there are a few texts when Paul talks about being “convinced,” and this is a synonym to conviction. But is there ever a story in scripture where someone is clearly presented truth and they say, “yes I see that, but I am not convicted.” ? It seems in scripture when folk are confronted with truth, they either reject it or accept it, the area of gray seems to be minimal compared to what we accept now. And also our acceptance of this answer in regards to conviction seems to be based more on certain areas rather than a universal position of all of scripture. An example: When it comes to the Sabbath, if we teach someone that 7th day is the Sabbath and we show them from scripture this truth. Now if the person responded, “I see where you are coming from, but I am not convicted on this yet.” Most of us…at least I know I have…would say, “That is okay God will convict you in your own time.” If we were presenting to the exact same person and we showed them from scripture that adultery is wrong, if said person responded by saying, “I can see where you are coming from, but God hasn’t convicted me on that yet” I believe we would be much less likely to accept that position, and we would begin to think that the person was just making an excuse for sin. It is the same with “tithe” if people don’t feel “convicted” to tithe we say, “ok.” But if they don’t feel convicted to “love their neighbor” we wouldn’t accept that position.
If truth is truth. When it is presented and understood. Should our conviction even be an issue? It is in scripture. Period! Wouldn’t this nullify a lot of those, “I’m not convicted” statements and wouldn’t this force us as Christians to be more real with ourselves and with God and more honest and just admit, it isn’t about conviction, it is about my unwillingness to follow truth?
Am I making any sense? Am I off base in what I am saying? Have we gone to far with the idea of “conviction” and what subjects of the Bible this can or cannot be used for?
Please share?
Memorize Scripture: Exodus 20:11
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” –Exodus 20:11
Exodus 20:11 points us back to creation, back to the institution of the Sabbath,
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” –Genesis 2: 2, 3.
This text reminds us that the Sabbath is not some arbitrary law. It’s establishment was not at Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, but rather was a part of God’s original plan before sin ever entered the world. The Sabbath is as Holy as the establishment of unity between one man and one woman at the beginning of time. The commandment is simply a reminder to all mankind to worship the creator on His holy day.
Memorize Scripture: Exodus 20:10
“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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.” –Exodus 20:10
We most often think of the Sabbath from a very selfish point of view, as a day for us. The reality is that we have responsibility not only to teach others about the Sabbath, but also to not put them in a position where they may be breaking the Sabbath, such as ignoring the command to not work. Are people working for you on God’s holy day?