Rest

12“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” – Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (ESV)

I find it interesting that the ESV Study Bible notes on this section say, “All but the Sabbath commandment (5:12–15) and the commandment against carved images (vv. 8–10) are explicitly reinforced in the NT.” Think for a moment how many things Jesus intentionally did on the Sabbath to correct the Pharisees’ misinterpretation of the above passage. On one of those occasions, Jesus says this, “27And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.’ Mark 2:27-28 (ESV)” Sure, Jesus may have not directly reinforced the idea of keeping the Sabbath, but his actions sure seem to reinforce it.

In my observance, Christians in America today seem to favor keeping most of the 10 Commandments, but the Sabbath one seems to be functionally left out. How often do we hear of Christians taking an entire day to rest? It seems more often than not that Christians I see may take a day for leisure and attend church on Sunday, but I’m not convinced they see the day as a day of rest. I too was once in that very boat before talking with a mentor who helped Jenny and I see the need for Sabbath rest in our lives.

It was a few years ago in the spring. I was exhausted from a busy ministry schedule. I realized I needed rest, but I didn’t know I needed Sabbath rest. I had tried "resting" on my day off, mostly playing computer or video games and spending time with family. Though I wasn't "working" that type of "rest" didn't really provide the deep rest I was craving. Sabbath rest, it was pointed out to me, is different than rest as the world practices it. It’s more than leisure, more than a temporary distraction from work or a busy life. It’s resting in God’s presence, sitting on His lap as God’s child. It’s taking time to slow down and enjoy God and find satisfaction in Him. It’s releasing my concerns to God, trusting Him to do His part and recognizing my part in them. It’s taking a moment to ponder and process the past six days of life with the help of the Holy Spirit, making sure to take care of any sin that might have crept into my life. It’s taking time to remember God and how He has rescued me from my slavery to sin, just as God commanded Israel to remember how He has rescued them from slavery to Egypt (verse 15).

Of course our first question to this mentor was, “How do we do it with two small children at home (Sammy 2 ½ & Caleb 9 months)?” His idea was that I watch the kids for a couple of hours so that Jenny could have at least two focused hours alone with God and then we switch for another two hours. The rest of the day would be focused on spending time as a family and resting – making sure to cook easy meals (like frozen pizza) and not doing any house work. That seemed reasonable to us. Exhausted as we were, we decided to give it a try.

And it made a big difference in our lives. About three months later, some friends of ours were at a crisis point, and Jenny and I felt the need to give up our Sabbath time for that week so we could serve them. It was a good weekend with our friends, but we were once again exhausted. Needless to say, it was obvious to us how important Sabbath rest had become to us and how important that time is for us.

Jenny and I have been taking Sabbath rest for well over a year now. Sure we’ve missed a few Sabbath days here and there, but we try to make sure to do it once per week. It’s not always easy, and there is temptation some weeks to let it slide, but the reward is always so good when we faithfully obey God’s commandment.

If you’ve never taken the time to try a Sabbath rest, I would encourage you to try it. If you have questions or want more information, my wife and I would be happy to share with you from our 1+ year of experience. Better yet, I highly recommend you read Jim Anderson’s book For God’s Sake Rest or attend one of his Sabbath Rest retreats. You won’t regret it.

Peace-faking

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts. – Psalm 28:3 (NIV)

This verse speaks of those who pretend to be nice to their neighbors but harbor hatred (and probably bitterness) in their hearts toward their neighbors. There’s an element of being two-faced. Besides being guilty of murder in God’s eyes (see Matthew 5:21-22 and 1 John 3:15), this action is completely devoid of any integrity. Peacemaker Ministries would refer to this type of person as a peace-faker, not a peace-maker.

This verse describes me (and believe me, I don’t like to be referred to as wicked). I do this more frequently than I would like to admit. And I think this is something that is, unfortunately, rampant in the Church in America today. For some reason, we’ve succumbed to the idea that we must be nice (even though the word nice doesn’t appear in Scripture). While the Bible does tell us to be kind to one another, the overarching command is to love one another. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is confront someone of their sin (Matthew 18:15). Instead, we so often bury it in our minds, thinking it won’t matter. We think we can just forgive and forget. Yet we harbor the hurt and dwell on the other person’s sin and, all the while, a root of bitterness grows in us (Hebrews 12:15).

The solution is reconciliation. If someone’s sin is serious enough that I cannot overlook it or easily forget about it, I need to lovingly and gently confront in hopes of reconciling with him/her. Confession and subsequently forgiveness needs to take place. By God’s grace, that’s what would allow me to “speak cordially with my neighbors” without “harboring malice in my heart.”

In His grace, may God make us peace-makers, not peace-fakers.