Saturday, August 25, 2012

A Special Day, A Special Gift Just for Us!

Remember the Sabbath day.

Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Six days BELONG to us.
One day ESPECIALLY BELONGS to us.

Mar 2:27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath

Do you see? Do you comprehend?

The Sabbath was MADE for US.

The Sabbath was a GIFT to us. A GIFT, MADE for us.

Without the Sabbath every day would be the same.

How do you think we came about a Week and a Weekend?

'The present-day concept of the weekend first arose from the Dies Solis (Day of the Sun) decreed by Constantine and from Biblical Sabbath.'-- Pasted from

Sunday- Day of the Sun.
Saturday- Biblical Sabbath.

Pagan.
Biblical.

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Day of the Sun (Sunday) -

'Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the sun, "Sunday"—as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:
        On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.[33]
       
Constantine's triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum, so that Sol formed the dominant backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.[34]'

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Sabbath-

'The Biblical Sabbath is a weekly day of rest or time of worship. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in several other faiths. Though many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia, most originate in the same textual tradition.

Sabbath is first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative, where the seventh day is set aside as a day of rest and made holy by God. Observation and remembrance of Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Most people who observe Biblical Sabbath regard it as having been instituted as a "perpetual covenant [for] the people of Israel" and proselytes (Exodus 31:13-17, Exodus 23:12, Deuteronomy 5:13-14), a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed Creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11).'

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These two days of worship came from two sources-  Man and God.

Who do you worship? Man or God?

Contrary to the belief of most of Christianity, the BIBLE does NOT authorize a change of the Sabbath day. Jesus did NOT authorize a change of the Sabbath, He KEPT the Sabbath- even in the GRAVE.

God ceased from all HIS work on the seventh day.  Have you ever ask yourself why?

Did God need to rest? Had He worn Himself out? Is that even possible? No, no, and no.

God included the REST day along with the WORK days as an EXAMPLE TO US, as a GIFT TO US.

Told to REMEMBER that day He set aside so long ago, the people of God were given GUIDELINES to follow so they'd be able to understand what the day really meant. 

Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Following these guidelines would mean we recognize the GIFT day from GOD. The DAY GOD RESTED! GOD RESTED! The  blessing of that REST is something we tend to overlook.  GOD RESTED! I know I keep saying that, but the importance of it is astounding.

Let's say hypothetically that a revered leader, a wonderfully kind, fair, loving man worked alongside the people who followed him day in and day out. This man never missed a day and expected his followers to live after his example.  Day after day they all worked together in harmony, no ire, no bickering, no upset, no overtiring, just pleasant days of working.   Then one day the leader decided to rest and not work and he told his followers that they too were to rest on that day WITH HIM. Of course there was no objection, why would there be? The followers were only too happy to obey and spend a day of rest with their leader and it became a day they looked forward to because on that day of rest they had a more intimate encounter with their leader without any work activities to interfere. 

What a nice situation to imagine, right?

God created man and He created Him in His image- man would work even as God worked.

Gen 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 

Man was to dress and keep the garden- work.

Man wasn't made to be idle, to seek selfish flesh pleasure. There was JOY, true, selfless joy in that GARDEN, in LIFE, in LIVING.

Work for the most part has come to mean doing some menial task over and over and getting paid for it, whether it's enjoyable or not. 

The Israelis weren't doing that at all when they were being led out of Egypt to the promised land. There was no monetary system set up. Yet God set up a covenant with them and gave Him His MORAL LAWS. In those MORAL LAWS was the reminder of CREATION! A reminder of God's WORK and REST. 

God, even before man sinned, wanted mankind to follow His example of work and rest. And that didn't mean taking a day off work to go selfishly indulge yourself! The REST God took was TIME HE took to SPEND WITH MAN!  The TIME the CREATOR of ALL, the GREAT I AM, the EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING, took to BOND with MANKIND, to allow HIMSELF and man to ENJOY BEING WITH EACH OTHER without any distractions. 

Man and God TIME!

After creating the earth and all therein and taking that day to rest, God would continue to work, He didn't stop working. To think He simply stopped everything and made earth His total focus would be very vain of us, wouldn't? Thinking we were made to be worshipped by God! NEVER! God would continue being God, creating from everlasting to everlasting and yet HE RESTED for US and created a special rest period of time for us based on His creation plan.  

Imagine Adam in the garden tending it and every seventh day God met with Him so they could be together - Creator and Creature.  Just imagine the perfection of it all.

After man sinned He separated Himself from God. He was banished from the Garden, everything changed.  And yet God did NOT give up on mankind. A way had been made for God and Man to be restored to that special communion with each other, a MEDIATOR had been ordained and the salvation plan instantly underway.  God wanted His communion with mankind to be restored, the perfect ideal Creation He designed, He wanted that back.  Man wanted that too.

Remember this:

Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering

Offerings to the LORD.  They were still acknowledging GOD as their  CREATOR. Just imagine it…

After the fall Adam and Eve were living outside of the garden in a much harsher place but they were still living on the planet God created. They weren't allowed access to the Tree of Life, and that is why they were banished from the lush Garden they'd been tending. They had changed everything by their actions  and their environment was changed, but not so that they were in a totally alien atmosphere. There was still greenery, animals, still the earth the LORD had created.  They could probably see where the garden they'd been banished from was at, surely as they were leaving it they noted the changes from lush to less so.  They weren't flown off the planet, they weren't put to sleep and woken up somewhere else. They knew they'd done wrong and they knew they were being punished, but the knowledge of their previous  life hadn't disappeared, their memories most assuredly were NOT erased!

They KNEW what they'd done! They felt keenly that separation from their CREATOR! Do you HONESTLY think they forgot about the rest they took with their God, their Creator every seventh day? NO! Every seventh day as it came along had to bring with it a renewed sense of that loss and yet they were still giving OFFERINGS to God and HE was STILL communing with them through those OFFERINGS.

The LORD had RESPECT unto Abel and his offering.

This is a form of communing, isn't it?  Abel knew God was pleased, just as Cain knew God was not pleased with his offering.

Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

And the LORD SPOKE WITH HIM!

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door…

The LORD SAID unto Cain.

The Lord spoke to them! They'd been separated from God and the close communion they had with Him in the garden had ended, but they were still talking with HIM!

Imagine it… come on, try and imagine it.  Every seventh day man rested and God would commune with man in the garden- Creator and Creature. Then the Creature turned on His Creator and the Creator was betrayed. This betrayal could not go unpunished and life became exceedingly harder for mankind, death was even introduced- death in the beloved animals, and a slow decay to death even of the Creatures themselves. Yet, not abandoning the Creatures, the Creator would still commune with them. That communing would begin with the Creature making an offering to the Creator. The Creature sacrificed something which would make the offering a token of their desire to have the breech they'd created repaired. By the Creature giving up a part of their own selfishness in that sacrifice, by the Creature realizing the gravity of the sin they'd committed towards their Creator they were acknowledging their sinfulness and their Creator's sinlessness all through their Creator's love.

The Creatures didn't want the special communing with their Creator to end! They were blessed by His continued desire to have them be HIS beloved Creatures! He allowed them to begin the process of understanding what it would take to ultimately heal the breech between Creator and Creature.  In a lesser form, in example  form they were being taught that a GREATER sacrifice would be required for them to once more become  AT ONE with GOD. They were being taught that they, in and of themselves, were UNABLE to save themselves- an INTERCESSOR, a MEDIATOR was going to be needed. Every single sacrifice offered by them to God recognized this ULTIMATE SACRIFICE. 

God continued to meet with His creatures every seventh day! That day had been BLESSED. That day had been SANCTIFIED. That day was HOLY from the moment it was created during Creation Week. It didn't lose the blessing, the sanctification, the holiness when mankind sinned.  The day still existed as assuredly as our seven day week has been perpetually carried on down through all time even when mankind has tried to alter it time and time again. 

Reaffirmed by God through the Moral Law of Ten Commandments- God's people were told that they were to not work but to rest as GOD rested, and in that rest of God and Man, of Creator and Creature they could commune with one another renewing their bond. And the sacrifice WE bring since our Savior came and fulfilled the place as our Ultimate Sacrifice is…

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise

Mar 12:32  And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
Mar 12:33  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Mar 12:34  And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Heb 13:16  But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Sacrifices.

All by the GRACE of GOD - more tomorrow!

 In HIS LOVE!


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