Let's face it: our times of rest need work. And God calls us to rest, and even shows us through his own example. With collected insights from sabbath keepers of all ages and backgrounds, Lynne M. Baab offers a practical and hopeful guidebook that encourages all of us to slow down and enjoy our relationship with the God of the universe.
“But I don’t wanna go to church!” Marva Dawn has often heard that cry—and not only from children. “What a sad commentary it is on North American spirituality,” she writes, “that the delight of ‘keeping the Sabbath day’ has degenerated into the routine and drudgery—even the downright oppressiveness—of ‘going to church.’” According to Dawn, the phrase “going to church” both reveals and promotes bad theology: it suggests that the church is a static place when in fact the church is the people of God. The regular gathering together of God’s people for worship is important—it enables them to be church in the world—but the act of worship is only a small part of observing the Sabbath. This refreshing book invites the reader to experience the wholeness and joy that come from observing God’s order for life—a rhythm of working six days and setting apart one day for rest, worship, festivity, and relationships. Dawn develops a four-part pattern for keeping the Sabbath: (1)ceasing—not only from work but also from productivity, anxiety, worry, possessiveness, and so on; (2) resting— of the body as well as the mind, emotions, and spirit—a wholistic rest; (3) embracing—deliberately taking hold of Christian values, of our calling in life, of the wholeness God offers us; (4) feasting—celebrating God and his goodness in individual and corporate worship as well as feasting with beauty, music, food, affection, and social interaction. Combining sound biblical theology and research into Jewish traditions with many practical suggestions, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly offers a healthy balance between head and heart: the book shows how theological insights can undergird daily life and practice, and it gives the reader both motivation and methods for enjoying a special holy day. Dawn’s work— unpretentiously eloquent, refreshingly personal in tone, and rich with inspiring example—promotes the discipline of Sabbath-keeping not as a legalistic duty but as the way to freedom, delight, and joy. Christians and Jews, pastors and laypeople, individuals and small groups—all will benefit greatly from reading and discussing the book and putting its ideas into practice.
The third in Cowley's Cloister Book series, Sabbath Keeping is a collection of ten meditations, each exploring a different aspect of keeping the sabbath and ending with a prayer. Since it is a difficult art in a society that does not value rest, Schaper encourages small acts of sabbath keeping that initially focus on physical and mental renewal but soon broaden to questions of justice and power. She begins with a chapter called "What is Sabbath?" and goes to the Bible for definitions, from the ordinances surrounding sabbath in the Hebrew Bible to the gospel stories about the Sabbath. Other meditations concern sabbath and music, sabbath and the body, prayer, focusing and decluttering, sabbath and memory, sabbath as the relinquishing of power, and sabbath as an act of resistance.
This book invites the reader to experience the wholeness and joy that come from observing God's order for life--a rhythm of working six days and setting apart one day for rest, worship, festivity, and relationships. Dawn's work offers both motivation and methods for enjoying a special holy day.
Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament history that every time the true worship of YAHUAH was restored in Israel or Judah, the keeping of ELOHIM's weekly Sabbath and His annual holy days was also resumed and emphasized? In 2nd Chronicles 30, we see an example of this; every time true worship was restored in ancient Israel or Judah, you saw the Sabbath command and the Holy Days observance. Recall, Josiah, this righteous King; what do you suppose happened in Judah after he died? Once again, Judah's people lost sight of ELOHIM; they lost sight of ELOHIM's commandments; they lost sight of the Sabbath command of YAHUAH's annual holy day and His seventh weekly day Sabbath. As a result, they ended up going into captivity. If we keep going forward in history during the days of their return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra 6) when they again restored true worship, what did they do? They started keeping the annual holy days; they started following the Sabbath of YAHUAH (weekly and yearly Sabbaths); again, it is the same story. Similarly, we find this in the New Testament times. When we fail to observe ELOHIM's annual Sabbaths; we as a nation are without knowledge; we need to look at that Sabbath command and uphold it; emphasize it, and get back to the true worship of the Great Creator YAHUAH. Many people have different views about how the Sabbath day should be remembered and honored. It is critical that one of the first steps is to know the meaning of the word that ELOHIM chose to use. "Sabbath" is from the Hebrew word “Shabbat,” which means to cease to desist from something or to rest, to become inactive. Sabbath-keeping was not a new instruction for Israel; at Mount Sinai, ELOHIM had already set it up back in Eden. In the fourth commandment, YAHUAH told Israel to remember what had been their duty from the beginning: take a look at the book of Exodus 20:8-11, which says, “8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of YAHUAH thy ELOHIM: 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: 11 For in six days ELOHIM made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore ELOHIM blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” ELOHIM never set aside our duty to keep the creation Sabbath; after the resurrection, the Apostles continued to honor it, as did YAHUSHUA during his time here on earth. It is perpetual, forever to be kept; until the end. Please consider scrolling up and clicking the “buy now” button to learn more. This book is a must-read.
Many years later, Bishop Murphy J. Pace would find that God did not in fact remove the fourth commandment; he took the seven ceremonial Sabbaths out of the picture instead. Though the traditions of men led to the keeping of the Sunday Sabbath, in his instructional and educational book, God Is in the Sabbath, Bishop Pace will teach you to turn away from the practices and laws of men and celebrate Saturday (the holy day) as the Sabbath-keeping day. Return to God's intended day of rest and know that God Is in the Sabbath.