"Sabbath Rest"

  Do you ever consider sitting quietly in the presence of God, giving Him a day that is just for Him? We don't think like this often, do we? Under the Law, God gave His people a Sabbath rest. One of the Ten Commandments dealt with that day and it's holiness. It came from God's creation that for six days, God created harmony and life before He rested in complete satisfaction that all He had created was "very good."

  Israel was told that on the seventh day, there would be no work, no gathering of things but a day that all proclaimed Him as sole Creator and Provider for themselves and the whole world!

  This nation of Israel that was treading through a barren wilderness because of rebellion and sin found themselves grumbling, complaining against their Creator and Sustainer to which He provided them manna they didn't know how it got to them. However, for six days they gathered and ate this manna and on that sixth day, they gathered twice as much because on the Sabbath (Saturday) it was to be observed as holy and belongs to the Lord (Ex. 16:22-30). The Lord controlled the supply of food as on the Sabbath, there would be no bread. What was His point? It is God who controls, who provides and allows the direction and needs of man. It is not up to man!

  Fast forward to today. We are finding ourselves moving more and more into self-dependence! The day for the Lord, the first day of the week, that day when our Savior and Lord was given life from the Father and He arose. It was God's doings! It was God giving life! It was God providing salvation. It's a worship and remembrance of Him! What do we do with it? Sometimes little! We use our skills and mastery's to orchestrate a beautiful worship that makes us (from our singing to preaching) the center. We have little sense of our need and even less sense of the magnitude of the task before us because we have shrunk the things of the Lord God into manageable proportions so we are successful!! We approach worship and our lives as if we have every thing under our control! So we come to God for our hour of worship, all nicely laid out, every thing controlled and leave with that same sense of control. It's finished! See you next week. It makes me wonder about myself, do I really see that I need God's creating power, His redeeming blood and my life is very inadequate? Six days of provisions from the Lord and we can't give Him one day to express our helpless? Are we too self-sufficient? Just look at how we approach life and God and therein we will find our answer.