“Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.” (Exodus 20:8)
My wife was ill this past Sunday and I decided to stick around the house in case she needed me. When I became stir crazy, I decided to run a few errands before lunch.
When entering Lowe’s Home Improvement, I was surprised by the number of people shopping. As strange as it may seem, except for vacations, I had rarely missed going to church on Sunday morning. But, there I stood in Lowe’s with the rest of the unchurched, who see Sunday as just another day to run errands, gas the car up for the week ahead, get in an early round of golf in, spend the day at the lake, etc. In fact, if you had lost track of which day of the week it was, from the looks of things, you would have thought it was Saturday morning.
But I wasn’t just moved by what I experienced, I was convicted. It made my mind up that Sunday will continue to be a special day in life. No more will I allow it to look like any other day.
For most of us who call ourselves Christians, Sunday is our Sabbath. But let’s not get caught up in the argument over whether the Sabbath should be observed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I don’t think it matters to God which day we choose to honor as the Sabbath. Sabbath doesn’t mean Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or any other day. It comes from the Hebrew word, Shabbath, which means to rest or cease. In other words, the Sabbath is a day that should look different from the other six days of our week. It should be a day that brings an interruption from the normal routines in which we find ourselves on every other day.
Jesus once said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) His point was that we shouldn’t get caught up over the particular day, but focus on the purpose of the Sabbath. For me, the Sabbath is Sunday because that’s the day that I break from my normal routine. I go to church and worship with other believers. I also take God seriously and rest on the Sabbath. After all, if God can cease from His work of creation and rest, then so can I.
Sunday is the common day of worship in most our communities. It is a day that should have an outward appearance of being unlike any other day. By the way, God also told us to keep it holy, which in Hebrew means “set apart for God’s special service”.
Personally, I don’t think it really doesn’t matter to God when you celebrate the Sabbath. The more important question is do you celebrate a Sabbath day each week of your life?
Take a day off from your normal routine and devote some time to how you can serve God more effectively the other six days of the week. If possible, worship with other believers and celebrate the special feeling that comes when we obey what God has commanded. Give the day to God, relax, and enjoy that special feeling that comes from obedience.
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