Dreams do come true! In June, I finished my Master of
Education in Educational Research: Adult, Community, and Higher Education. And
now on Monday, I am starting a job as a full-time instructor at a local community
college. As I embark on a new chapter of my life, I cannot help but reflect on
the gift of rest that has been given to each of us.
The seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) is my pause to remember my
Creator. My
once-a-week day of rest. A day to worship my God and rest in the knowledge of His love for
me. It is a day to shut off my busy life and find rest. It is a protest against
the commercialism of our culture and is meant to simply shut the noise of the world
out to enjoy communion with God and His people. The rest comes from trusting in
the fact that God has provided this day for us and so I need not work or worry
but only rest in His loving arms on this day of our Lord.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2
The roots of the seventh-day Sabbath come from
the 4th commandment.
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor
your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant,
nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your
gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed
it. Exodus
20:8-11
Christ tells us ....
17 “Do not think that I
have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish
them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to
you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever
relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does
them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20
Christ himself worshiped on the Saturday Sabbath and
rested on the Sabbath day in the grave after his crucifixion.
It is a reminder in this modern age of the
everlasting covenant between God and His people even to the end of time.
12 Here is
the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12
The Sabbath was twisted in 321 AD when Roman
emperor Constantine, in a political move, changed the Sabbath from Saturday to
Sunday. Hence Sunday has through the centuries has unwittingly been
adopted by many Christians as a false Sabbath.
Malachi
3:6 tells us "For I am the LORD, I do
not change;..."
There are more sinister implications with the
change of Saturday worship to Sunday worship when studying Daniel and the beast
of the end times is identified.
25 “He shall speak pompous words
against the Most High,
Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law”. Daniel 7:25
However, that is for another discussion.
Praise the Lord for his many mercies and may we all find rest and peace in this upside-down world.
Blessings
to all, Holly
