First off, all of you are officially losers since nobody claimed those stamps.
But that really has nothing to do with my ”topic” for today.
Since most of the time, I spend the post talking about bunnies and random life stories, I thought today that I would
talk about a more deeper topic.
That is:
Is man made for the Sabbath or is the Sabbath made for man?
It seems rather paradoxical (well, only if you don’t know the definition of paradoxical and you just think it’s a cool word.)
Reformed Presbytarians are ”reformed” about this.
Flanagans are especially reformed about this.
This is the definition of what you should do on the Sabbath -
1) Go to church - worship and learn
2) ”Keep the sabbath - by honoring it and keeping it holy, on it you shall do no work . . . ”
So there are my points. 1) Worship, 2) Honoring it, 3) Keeping it holy and 4) doing no work.
How can you do that on the Sabbath and what is the correct approach?
1) Worshiping God - I believe you should worship God every moment of your lives, but there is something in
perticular that comes up during a worship service. That is - there is a call to worship.
Although, ”wherever two or three are gathered there I am also” is true, the call to worship sets up some boundries.
We are told to do some things in worship in the Bible.
Those are:
1) Bible reading/ Preaching
2) Prayer
3) Singing
In church, I feel that having a service that includes prayer, bible reading and preaching, and psalm singing is the
most biblical and least distracting form of worship. Creeds that replace bible reading are unnecessary (especially
since they are suppose to ”summarize the Bible”. Why do we need summarization?)
Preaching should be Biblical and founded in Scripture.
Singing should be from the psalms as that is what we are called to do - we do sing derict portions of scripture also.
With those of my pet peeves out of the way, let’s look at what we should do after a service. (Which should happen at least
once on Sunday, maybe twice.)
Besides going to church on Sunday what else is implied?
2) Honoring it/Keeping it Holy
Since I think most of us would agree that keeping it holy follows honoring it there’s no point in addressing both
of these points seperately.
What does keeping the Sabbath holy mean you have to do?
I think it definetly implies that you need to go to Church. You also need to respect that Sunday is
different than other days.
You should keep it holy by not doing any work. (It’s clinically proven that if you take a break every Sunday you’ll
be healthier.)
Since we all want to keep the sabbath, what does:
Doing No Work imply?
Obviously we think of our job. For adults, this is office work or graphic design. For kids it’s a part time job and school.
There’s a point. I think we all agree that school is definetly work. But so many of us do/are tempted to do school on Sunday. (this happens to me a lot - especially when I’m behind on work.)
I personally believes that we shouldn’t do things (like shopping or eating out) that will make other people work. and although they would already be there working - if every christian didn’t shop/eat out sales would plumit and it wouldn’t be worth having the store open - plus it’s a honor deal)
What other things might count as work?
Cooking? Washing clothes? Chores?
Yes, those are all work. Does this mean we have to be Amish. Nope. Cuse some of these are works of necessaty.
Yes, we could cook all our meals on Saturday, but would that be more distracting or less?
I don’t believe that cooking is forbidden.
Could theology/Bible reading be work?
Yup. It’s hard work to understand stuff like that.
Does that mean it’s forbidden?
It all depends on your personal definition of work.
For some people - since Bible reading makes you think of God, it’s acceptable work. But how about if it doesn’t
make you think of God?
I’m not trying to give everyone an excuse to why we should watch T.V. on Sundays but it’s a definent possibilty
that watching a Christian movie can help you more than pouring over the shorter Cathecism.
I’m finally getting around to my title - first timer.
Who is what made for?
Is man made for the Sabbath or is Sabbath made for man?
It seems that familes, congregations, an denominations go to either extreme now adays. Either it’s fine to work on Sunday, go to the pool, go to the movies, have a party and get drunk (maybe i’m exagrating a tad) or they feel that you should spend Sunday doing things soley to do with Scripture.
Is there middle ground?
I think so. While I feel that it’s great if you can spend your Sunday completely focused on God. For most teenagers,
it’s a high goal that needs to be taken by baby steps. Going to church, doing my devotionals, playing a game of cards,
chatting with friends and watching a non-Christian movie I don’t feel is sinful.
Working at a job, forcing others to work, refusing to go to church/worship are.
Right, that was kinda weird. but just my long two cents. I’m all done. :-)
*Note: I have bunny news but that will be posted on my other blog later*
and if you disagree with me, voice your opinion!
