Heading to Oregon for a 15 mile hike near Mt. Jefferson. Here’s the area, if you want to view it:
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One of these days is NOT like the other…
In the fourth sermon of our Etched series, we come across the 4th commandment: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…
{Listen if you want}
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Of the 7 days we get each week, clearly, one of these days is not like the others.
We discovered that this commandment is rooted in God’s call on our lives for rich relationships – with Him and with others. So, to fully love God and to fully love others, we MUST set aside some dedicated time for these relationships. A sabbath day is meant to Provide Refreshment, Protect our Priorities and Point to our Redemption. All of this helps us build relationships with God and others.
But a lingering question exists which didn’t get answered in the sermon. I thought I would take a minute to address it. Why do Christians not practice a sabbath on Saturday any more? Did Jesus rewrite this commandment to be for Sunday? Well…kinda, but not really.
By the time Jesus got on the scene, the Jewish people were scattered throughout the world, and weren’t following the 4th commandment properly anyway. So, when Jesus rose from the grave on a Sunday…the followers of Jesus found this to be a great time to reinstate the principles of Sabbath on the first day of the week.
Throughout the book of Acts, we see the church gathered for worship on Sunday. The Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1) was on a Sunday, which is also the day that Christ ‘launched’ his church. (See also Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2)
But the point is not THE day. Jesus said in Mark 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man…NOT man for the Sabbath”. In other words, follow the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. Find the underlying reasons that God wrote this commandment, then chase after that with all your heart.
That’s why Paul urged the church at Colossae to be flexible: “No one is to act as your judge in regard to…a Sabbath day” (Colossians 2:16). Some religious systems have turned this commandment into legalism, and have forgotten the point. I like the way scholar John Eadie says it:
“The new religion [Christianity] is too free and exuberant to be trained down to ‘times and seasons’ like its tame and rudimental predecessor [Judaism]. Its feast is daily, for every day is holy; its moon never wanes, and its serene tranquility is an unbroken Sabbath.”
The point of Sabbath is to celebrate and recalibrate. We celebrate God for who He is and what He does. And we recalibrate ourselves relationally, physically and spiritually.
Enjoy and practice the Sabbath – and do it with the people you love. Rest. Rejoice. Play. Worship. Read. Converse. Feast. Recreate.
Remember: One of these days is not like the other.
Etched: Whats’ Written on Your Heart?
What's Written on Your Heart
This week we began our series “Etched”, which is a fresh look at the most well known social law system in history: The Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20:1-17) {Listen if you want}
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The 10 Commandments aren’t meant to break our backs with rules, but to break our hearts for relationships. If we were to identify one ‘big idea’ for these set of commandments it would look like this: “Together…let’s enjoy our REAL, RELATIONAL, REDEEMER.”
The 10 Commandments are designed to help us enjoy God…together, with other people. So, the first 4 are vertical – they teach us how to fully enjoy (love) God. The last 6 are horizontal – they teach us how to enjoy (love) others.
Remember…the Ten Commandments were written by a REAL God, who has loyally pursued a RELATIONSHIP with us, and has even gone to great extents to REDEEM us from our sins. With that as a back drop, God has every right to demand from us these ten basic pinciples for life in community.
But, here’s the brutal truth: if we don’t like God…we definitely won’t like His commandments. We will never receive the message of the Ten Commandments until we first fall in love with the God who spoke them!
This week, I challenge you to put the Ten Commandments to memory. ETCH THEM ON YOUR HEART and learn to ENJOY your REAL, RELATIONAL REDEEMER!
For further study of the Ten Commandments, here are some great books I encourage you to buy:
Jar Stories
Hard Times are defining moments. They will either make us trust God more, or they will make us trust God less.
That’s really all we have to know about Hard Times. This is a moment that will change me. No matter the outcome of this moment – I will either trust God more in the process, or I will trust Him less.
The question is: How do I learn to trust Him more in Hard Times?
This week, we discovered that God takes great pleasure in watching us learn to trust Him more. We learned from a mom in 2 Kings 4 who was facing a very hard time. Using empty jars, God met her need in a UNIQUE way. He COLLABORATED with a lot of people, and His miraculous provision was PROPORTIONATE to her faith.
Listen to this week’s message and then answer these questions for yourself:
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- What’s Your Jar Story?
- Who will God collaborate with in your Jar Story ( OR How will God use YOU in someone else’s Jar Story?)
- How big will your jar story be?
Feel free to share your “Jar Story” below
Throwing in the Towel…
Most of us have a few ‘towels’ in our hands that we are just about ready to throw in. Marriage. Kids. Jobs. Self. There are all kinds of things that we get discouraged about and want to quit. But…should we? Don’t throw in the towel. Not here. Not now. It’s too soon to quit.
Before you quit…listen to this sermon on Perseverance.
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A Life Well Lived…Examining Noah’s Legacy
What will you do when God invites you to be what nobody else is willing to be?
Noah was a nobody. Not famous. Not well known. Just an ordinary guy with an extraordinary story.
Listen to my sermon about Noah and discover what God can do when we listen to the heart of God…
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Servant Leadership
Have you ever noticed how much we criticize power unless it’s ours? Usually we criticize what we really want. And what we really want is power. I want it, but I don’t want you to have it.
Power is intoxicating, isn’t it? We want it. We crave it. But we don’t know how to really get it. So, as with many of our other unmet desires, we resort to being chronically frustrated, angry, depressed or a myriad of other unhealthy emotions.
So, how do we break free – and still get what we want? Continue reading
Rhythm & Rest
Light. Dark. Day. Night. Ebb. Flow. Work. Rest. 6 days on. 1 day off.
It’s hard to miss God’s intention for His creation, isn’t it? From the very first day a cosmic rhythm was strummed by God. The reverberations were meant to infiltrate our lives. Continue reading
Silence & Solitude
Listen to my message about this subject:
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Off. Turn it off.
Noise. Noise. Noise. I wish I had more of it, don’t you? More technological noise to distract my hands. More entertainment noise to distract my mind. More digital noise to distract my ears. More visual noise to distract my eyes. That’s what we need…more noise. Continue reading
Bitterness
Bitterness is a cycle. It starts as a root, then it becomes FRUIT. It starts underground where no one can see it, but it eventually grows outside the ground and starts producing fruit – and it CAUSES TROUBLE for others.
Imagine bitterness as a house.
We’ve all stayed in the house of bitterness. Some of us are long term residents. When we stay at the House of Bitterness…we take on all the characteristics of the other house guests: we begin to bear the fruit of other bitter people and suddenly we find ourselves hurting people in ways that are worse than the offenses that made us bitter.
The only way out of the house of bitterness is through the doorway of forgiveness.
To learn more about getting rid of the toxin of bitterness…listen to my message on this topic…
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Common Sense and Creation: Can They Co-Exist?
Where did we come from? A cosmic explosion? An evolutionary process? Or, are we the result of intelligent design?
The Bible says that God created us. But, is that really plausible scientifically? Listen to this talk with an open mind as I examine whether the Genesis account is really possible.
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Generosity
What does it mean to be generous and why should I care?
- Generosity is SACRIFICE that changes our STATUS QUO
- Generosity reminds us of the truth:
WE ARE RICH, compared to 90% of the world’s population - We will not take our wealth with us when we die…so we should invest it in helping people have eternal life
Listen to my sermon about this:
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