Sabbath

Sabbath

“I know you’re busy, but . . . . “

Nowadays, a sign of being an important person is that you are a busy person.

People who are effective and productive are busy people.  Their talents, gifts and passions are so powerful that they attract opportunities like a magnet.  There is never enough time to do all the wonderful things of which we are capable.

We’ve got to change the world.

If you go to Europe, Italy, for instance, you wonder how all these people sitting around in coffee shops during the day enjoying each other get their work done. Then you say to yourself, “Oh, yeah, their economies are horrible because they don’t work hard enough.  Not like us.”

But, the First Worker of All described in the first chapters of the Bible not only did incredible work – what we call creation – but he took a whole day to rest.

Beginnings Matter, is the message series that continues at the Gathering Church this week, a study of the first chapters of Genesis.  Genesis 2:1-3 closes the first account of creation with a description of what God did on the seventh day.  He stopped working and rested.

Was he tired?  Was he finished?

Most Christians today have discarded the strict and legalistic practices of Sabbath-keeping from eras past.  Devout people of Jewish and Islamic faith still maintain Sabbath practices.

Regardless of the practices, what were the principles behind the seventh day?  Why did God ‘bless’ it?  Why did the writer think it was important for this day to be remembered for all time?

What is lost if you have no intentional Sabbath?  What is gained?

And didn’t Jesus forever change it?