How To Keep The Sabbath
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy
work:
But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Exodus 20:8-11
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We humans are so full of self that we do not stop to think what really are the ten commandments for and why God Wrote them with His own finger. Only slow down a moment from the busy life strongly pushed upon the human race and consider that the God who made us is speaking directly to you and me as individuals so that we can prepare for a most glorious ending of this most miserable world of sin.
The reality of it all is God’s love in trying to save us, but do we truly want to be saved or do we carelessly continue on our own path. Our loving Lord means what he says when He says to keep holy the Sabbath Day. This means to come to the Sabbath with all the week put aside for one whole day out of seven every week. That complete 24 hours are sacred and they do not belong to us. They are God’s possession. We are not to do any of our own thing on that day. We ask Jesus to give us His thoughts and words and actions for the day because we love him more than we love ourselves or anything else in the entire world. If we do not love Jesus the most than we will never really keep the Sabbath holy. We may go to church and read good things and refrain from work and not do our own pleasure and play on the seventh day but if we do not do it from a heart full of love and devotion then it really means nothing. Are we keeping the Sabbath when we jump in our swim suit and go for a cruse in the canoe or watch the horse races or watch the T.V.?
All week long our minds are on the fact that we are preparing for the holy Sabbath day that is soon to come. The plan is to do the things during the week that need to be accomplished before Friday and if need be write a schedule on paper and put in a place where you see it often every day of what has to be done on which day so as not to pile every thing onto one or two days. And most of all don’t leave everything for Friday. For example--Bake the bread on Thursday so you have time to clean up from dinner on Friday without a rush or headache. Make sure the clothes are all clean and ironed before Wednesday, so there are no last minute buttons to be sewed on, as well as the shoes being polished. Cook only what has to be cooked on Friday morning so that the rush is completed well before sunset and be ready and waiting for the Special moments with the Lord. In the winter when the days are shorter more of the cooking can be done on Thursday.
The thoughts on the weekly doings are set aside and we dwell on Bible themes and God’s love and care for the world and His people. This takes effort and perseverance and continual awareness of where our mind is and communion with the Holy Spirit. To walk in nature way from the cities attractions is one way of contemplating the works of our Creator.
But sorry to say some have not even decided to keep the Sabbath because they want to do what they want to do any time they decide to do their pleasure or make their appointment.
They think they can change God’s time or mind or law, to suit their wishes and figure they have years to decide for the better way or have the Lord show them the right way. If something comes along that they would rather do than worship God on His holy day than that come first and the Sabbath is left in the dust as well as the precious Jesus who died for them.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”
Isaiah 58:14
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Make Friday the Preparation Day.—
“On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness, and that all the cooking is done. Let the boots be blacked, and the baths be taken. It is possible to do this. If you make it a rule, you can do it. The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun, let all secular work be laid aside, and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.
In many families [on Sabbath] boots and shoes are blacked and brushed, and stitches are taken, all because these little odds and ends were not done on Friday. They did not "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." . . .
On Friday the clothing of the children is to be looked after. During the week they should be all laid out by their own hands under the direction of the mother, so that they can dress quietly, without any confusion or rushing about and hasty speeches.
There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away.
The Sabbath Opens With the Family at Worship.-- Before the setting of the sun, let the members of the family assemble to read God's Word, to sing and pray. There is need of reform here, for many have been remiss. We need to confess to God and to one another. We should begin anew to make special arrangements that every member of the family may be prepared to honor the day which God has blessed and sanctified.
Sabbath Hours Not Ours but God's.--God has given us the whole of six days in which to do our work, and has reserved only one to Himself. This should be a day of blessing to us--a day when we should lay aside all our secular matters and center our thoughts upon God and heaven.
When the Sabbath commences, we should place a guard upon ourselves, upon our acts and our words, lest we rob God by appropriating to our own use that time which is strictly the Lord's. We should not do ourselves, nor suffer our children to do, any manner of our own work for a livelihood or anything which could have been done on the six working days. Friday is the day of preparation. Time can then be devoted to making the necessary preparation for the Sabbath and to thinking and conversing about it. Nothing which will in the sight of Heaven be regarded as a violation of the holy Sabbath should be left unsaid or undone, to be said or done upon the Sabbath. God requires not only that we refrain from physical labor upon the Sabbath, but that the mind be disciplined to dwell upon sacred themes. The Fourth Commandment is virtually transgressed by conversing upon worldly things or by engaging in light and trifling conversation. Talking upon anything or everything which may come into the mind is speaking our own words. Every deviation from right brings us into bondage and condemnation.”
CG 528-529
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“He who instituted the Sabbath has never changed it to a common day. He rested on a definite day, and blessed and sanctified a definite day, and he requires the human family to observe that definite day. Every part of God's plan will be perfectly executed. Satan has interfered, and attempted to thwart it; but there is no change in the law of God. The position that God blessed and sanctified a seventh part of time, and no day in particular, is one of Satan's devices. By this means he has so confused the minds of many that they regard God's holy rest-day as possessing no special sacredness; and because the world do so, they feel at liberty to set it aside, and select a Sabbath that suits their own convenience. And professed ministers of the gospel assure their congregations that this course is right. Those who are conscientiously observing the original Sabbath are styled heretics, deluded fanatics. But who are thus regarded in God's sight? Whom will he rebuke and punish--those who have kept the day that he blessed and sanctified; or those who, trampling upon the holy commandment, have accepted the institution of the papacy?
There is need of a Sabbath reform among us, who profess to observe God's holy rest-day. Some discuss their business matters and lay plans on the Sabbath, and God looks upon this in the same light as though they engaged in the actual transaction of business. Others who are well acquainted with the Bible evidences that the seventh day is the Sabbath, enter into partnership with men who have no respect for God's holy day. A Sabbath-keeper cannot allow men in his employ, paid by his money, to work on the Sabbath. If, for the sake of gain, he allows the business in which he has an interest to be carried on on the Sabbath by his unbelieving partner, he is equally guilty with the unbeliever; and it is his duty to dissolve the relation, however much he may lose by so doing. Men may think they cannot afford to obey God, but they cannot afford to disobey him. Those who are careless in their observance of the Sabbath will suffer great loss.
The Lord has a controversy with his professed people in these last days. In this controversy men in responsible positions will take a course directly opposite to that pursued by Nehemiah. They will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but they will try to keep it from others by burying it beneath the rubbish of custom and tradition. In churches and in large gatherings in the open air, ministers will urge upon the people the necessity of keeping the first day of the week. There are calamities on sea and land: and these calamities will increase, one disaster following close upon another; and the little band of conscientious Sabbath-keepers will be pointed out as the ones who are bringing the wrath of God upon the world by their disregard of Sunday.
Satan urges this falsehood that he may take the world captive. It is his plan to compel men to accept errors. He takes an active part in the promulgation of all false religions, and will stop at nothing in his efforts to enforce erroneous doctrines. Under a cloak of religious zeal, men, influenced by his spirit, have invented the most cruel tortures for their fellow-men, and have inflicted the most awful sufferings upon them. Satan and his agents have the same spirit still; and the history of the past will be repeated in our day.
RH, March 18, 1884