Satisfying Rest

Do you suffer from the lack of a Sabbath?

Genesis 2:1-3 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished His work of creation, so He rested from all His work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when He rested from all His work of creation.

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Observing the Sabbath must have been so easy at first but as time went by the list of rules kept growing longer and longer. Each new rule was probably easy to justify and well accepted in the beginning but as the list kept growing it became too difficult to know what they were allowed to do.

Knowing how to please God is such an awesome goal but when you try to make a rule to apply to every single situation that you can think of then it gradually becomes less clear and too difficult to know what you are allowed to do.

It was obvious that you couldn't go to your field and harvest your crops but what should you do it your basket full of produce topples over onto the kitchen floor? Were you allowed to pick it up and clean up the mess or did you have to leave your food on the kitchen floor until the next day?

I can't be sure what the religious leaders in the Old Testament would say about the mess on the floor but I think that God is pleased when we remember and celebrate these two things:

My Stuff Didn't Come From Me

Leviticus 23:3 "You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD's Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.

The nation of Israel was instructed to work six days and then rest from their worldly worries and difficulties and focus on the source of everything that they have. Instead of continuing to push on to be more successful they were told that God's blessing would be more abundant if they trusted in him enough to quit pushing to get ahead.

This scripture in Leviticus is a reminder to the Israelites that when they setup household in the Promised Land they need to keep the Sabbath for their benefit as well as the benefit of their household servants and their livestock.

Time spent with God should be more valuable to us than another day of work trying to provide for our needs. Blessings are sure to come our direction when we honor God by acknowledging that he alone is the source of our prosperity and happiness. Whatever I am allowed to produce in six days is all that I need to have.

My Salvation Didn't Come From Me

Matthew 11:28-30 Then Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

Not only is God the source of my prosperity and happiness but he is also the source of my eternal salvation. The most important need that I have is the last thing that I could ever provide for by my own effort. Instead of being burdened down with a huge list of rules that nobody could keep, Jesus tells us about a better way that is truly the only way.

You might expect Jesus to tell the people to throw off their yoke and be free of any yokes but instead he tells them to put on a yoke that is far better than the old one. People that have never worn this yoke think that it must be a burden but those of us that are wearing it know that it is very liberating.

The old yoke of the law was all about your own effort at following the rules but the new yoke that Jesus offers is a shared burden. As we walk with him, at his speed and in the same direction, we won't hardly notice the new yoke that he offers.

Because of the huge list of rules God's children suffered from the Sabbath in the Old Testament but in our day we tend to suffer from lack of a Sabbath. Our society is seldom content with what they have and it keeps working to get more.

Physical rest is good but soul rest is our greatest need, without a peaceful relationship with my creator I will never have rest for my soul, I will never feel like I am good enough or that I will be okay when this life is over. I celebrate the Lord's day because his work on the cross is the only way to enter into his rest.

Have you found the satisfaction and contentment that you long for? You will only find peace with God by trusting in Jesus work instead of your own.

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A Yoke For Rest (faithgateway.com)

Missing Christmas: Preoccupied

The innkeeper was too busy for Christmas.

Luke 2:1-7 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2  (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

3  All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4  And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5  He took with him Mary, his fiance, who was now obviously pregnant.

6  And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7  She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

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"Obviously pregnant" is how Matthew describes Mary's condition. Mary came into the busy city with Joseph and requested a room at the inn but they were turned away.

How could the innkeeper not notice? Couldn't he see that she needed a room so she would have a clean place to give birth? Wouldn't he care enough to send his wife over to where they were staying? Maybe he could have called for a midwife. Certainly a midwife would make some room somewhere and give Mary the help that she needed.

The verses in Luke say that "she brought forth her first born son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger." It sounds like Mary had this child without any assistance. The prophets said He would be despised and rejected so it isn't any surprise that his mother gave birth to him without any help, without the sanitary conditions that we expect, she had to clean him up and wrap him and lay him in a feeding trough.

The first person who missed Christmas was the innkeeper. It was right in front of him but he missed it. He told them that he didn't have room but he also missed Christmas by being so indifferent that it looks like he didn't even call for help for Mary when she gave birth.

Matthew 11:28  Then Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

The innkeeper missed Christmas because he was too busy, he was  preoccupied, his business was booming. The city was overflowing with people from out of town because of the census. Imagine how many people were asking him for a room, there must have been people in tents and sleeping out in the open, every room of his inn was probably filled with more people than normal.

So many times we are just like the innkeeper that said that there is no room. We fill our Christmas with stuff that doesn't matter and we miss the birth of our Savior. The world around us tries to dictate what Christmas should be and it offers us plenty of distractions that take our focus off of the baby.

Just like the innkeeper the the world is ignorant, the real Christmas is right in front of them but it is getting squeezed out by a lot of false ideas of what Christmas is, many of them don't know who this baby is. All of the distractions of the season make it difficult for them to get what it is all about.

I need to be careful that I don't get distracted by the world's idea of Christmas and miss the real reason for the Christmas season. I need to share the real Christmas message with someone who doesn't know.