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Hey – it’s Pastor Allen, and you submitted
some questions, and I’m answering questions.
So the question for the day is,
“How do we honor the Sabbath in the twenty-first century?”
Probably a couple of questions there.
How do we understand what the Sabbath is?
In Judaism, the Sabbath begins at sundown
on Friday and goes until sundown on Saturday.
In Christianity, we have celebrated, typically,
the Sabbath as Sunday.
The New Testament says, “Don’t let anybody
judge you with regard to holy days.”
So I honestly don’t think it makes a difference
what day you choose as a Sabbath.
I think what’s important is you take a Sabbath in your week.
And as I understand it, the Sabbath is a day
you set apart for the purposes of the Lord.
It’s not really a day you set apart for
recreation or even your personal day.
But it’s a day when you dial it back – you
turn back the busyness of your life, and you
make an effort and take time to think about
the things of the Lord – to give time, to
turn your heart towards the Lord.
You know, we can learn some lessons from Judaism.
They limited work and structure and behavior
– all kinds of limits around the Sabbath.
The intent being you would turn your heart to the Lord.
Any time you get rules, it can be more about
legalism than it is about the intent.
So I’m not really looking for the rules,
but I think the idea is that in every week
you take a day as a apart of your weekly routine
and let your attention be directly more fully
towards the Lord.
So the weekends are more than about recreation
or catching up on your personal stuff.
They’re about giving God some attention.
I hope that helps with the notion of the Sabbath.
I want to pray: Lord, help us to honor You
with our lives on the Sabbath and every day, in Jesus’ name, amen.
God bless you!