How do we keep the Lord's Day?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 2:23-3:6

TO CHEW ON: "And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.'" Mark 2:27-28.

We don't make much of Sabbath-keeping (or Sunday-keeping) in our church culture, let alone in society at large. How much that has changed even in the last several hundred years was brought home to me when I recently read the Puritan Jonathan Edwards' 73 Resolutions and came across #38:

"Resolved never to speak anything that is ridiculous, sportive or matter of laughter on the Lords Day" - from "The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards in Categories."

In our reading today the Pharisees twice confront Jesus about his non-keeping of their Sabbath rules. First they butt heads over whether it is okay to do the work of harvesting heads of grain to feed themselves (Mark 2:23-28). Then later, in the synagogue when Jesus heals the man with a withered hand, that act steels the Pharisees' determination to destroy Him (Mark 3:1-6).

So what is appropriate Lord's Day-keeping behaviour? Should we as 21st century Christians be concerned at all with Sabbath/Sunday/Lord's Day-keeping? Here are some principles we find as we look at Scripture:

• God set aside one day in seven as a day of rest as early as creation (Genesis 2:2).

• God told the Israelites the Sabbath was to be a day they kept holy or separate from work (Exodus 31:15) and to Him (Deuteronomy 5:12).'

• A heart-felt keeping of the Sabbath came with the promise of a rich reward (Isaiah 58:13,14).

• Jesus and Paul observed the Sabbath by attending places of worship (Luke 4:16; Acts 17:2).

• Some of the activities that happened at "church" on the Sabbath were:

- Prayer (Acts 16:13).
- Getting acquainted with fellow believers (Acts 16:13).
- Reading Scripture (Luke 4:16).
- Teaching (Matthew 6:2).
- Apologetic reasoning from the Scripture with the goal of persuading people to put their faith in Christ (Acts 17:2; 18:4).

•  Doing good on the Sabbath is allowed. Jesus lived His statement, "Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:12) when He:

- healed a man with a withered hand.
- healed a man with a 38-year sickness (John 5:1-9).
- healed a man of blindness (John 9:6,16).

Jesus' statement here: "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath" makes me think. Perhaps it is saying, don't look at Sabbath/Sunday/Lord's Day-keeping as a burdensome, rule-generated obligation but as a privilege and benefit.

- It is permission to relax from work.
- It is a day to nourish relationships with God and people.
- It gives us an entire day to focus on God—the highest and best.
- It is an opportunity to demonstrate, by our lifestyle, our devotion and loyalty to God.

PRAYER: Dear God, I have not been strict with myself about observing one day in seven as holy to You. Help me to view doing this as a privilege and benefit. Amen.

MORE: A book about Sabbath-keeping

Canadian author Mark Buchanan has written a book about keeping the Sabbath: The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. I have not read the book but it seems like a worthwhile read, judging from this excerpt from Tim Challies' (4-star Amazon.com) review of it:

"Sabbath-keeping is grounded in a stark refusal we make to ourselves. We stand ourselves down. We resist that which six days of coming and going, pushing and pulling, dodging and weaving, fighting and defending have bred into us. What we deny ourselves is our well-trained impulses to get and to spend and to make and to master. This day, we go in a direction we're unaccustomed to, unfamiliar with, that the other six days have made seem unnatural to us." If the grass needs to be cut because you did not have a chance to do it on Saturday and you have a busy week approaching, leave the grass. But if the grass needs to be cut and this is one of your favorite, most relaxing chores, than by all means, cut the grass on the Sabbath."

The "but" of constant prayer

"Peter Returns"

by Johann Christoph Weigel,

(Woodcut, 1695)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 12:1-19

TO CHEW ON: "Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church." Acts 12:5

I love how the little word "but" in the middle of the sentence of our focus verse suggests a change of direction in what follows. It's as if Luke were saying, This thing that was happening to Peter was really bad, insurmountable even, but (nudge) look at what followed because of constant prayer.

The word my Thompson Chain-Reference Bible uses to describe this kind of praying is "Importunity." I know, I had to look it up too. It means persistence in making demands or requests; repeated demands or requests.

Here are some Bible characters who were importunate:

- Abraham, when he asked God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah because of Lot (Genesis 18:32).
- Jacob, when wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32:26).
- Moses, when praying for the people (Deuteronomy 9:18).
- Hannah, when praying for a child (1 Samuel 1:1-20).
- Jesus, teaching it in a parable (Luke 18:1-5).
- Jesus, praying in the garden (Luke 22:44).
- And of course the church in our focus verse today.

This is probably one of the easiest kinds of praying because it arises out of a felt need. As you can see by the list above, Bible people did this kind of praying in a variety of situations. Some prayed for others this way (Abraham and Moses), while others prayed for themselves (Jacob and Jesus). Some prayed about situations they wanted changed (the church), while others prayed out of a deep desire for something personal (Hannah, the woman in Jesus' story). Whatever the situation, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much," James assures us (James 5:16).

The story of Peter's release from prison is almost comical in the characters' delighted surprise when their prayers are answered. See Peter shake the sleep from his eyes, the fog from his brain as he walks behind his mysterious liberator through the Jerusalem streets. See flustered Rhoda leave Peter knocking at the door while she interrupts the prayer meeting to tell everyone the good news. See poor Peter, knocking and knocking and knocking... I hear those guys; why aren't they letting me in?

I would probably be no less scattered if some of my importunate prayers were answered. Though that isn't a great commentary on the robustness of my faith, I'm going to put this lesson into practice right now and importune God about a few of the things that have been on my prayer list for a long time. Will you do the same?


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this story of a direct answer to persistent prayer. Help me to remember it when I struggle with discouragement and the temptation to give up in my prayers. Amen.

MORE: Quotes about persistent prayer

"Continual prayer will be appropriate — yes required — in many cases. Large issues have long-range consequences that may require a lot of time to work out." - Jack Hayford, quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, compiled by Randall D. Roth, p. 167-8 (origin: Prayer is Invading the Impossible, Logos, 1997, p. 141).

"To think there's always going to be a quick solution or even a satisfactory-to-us answer is a faulty expectation. Sometimes answers to prayer lie dormant, being fertilized by unceasing prayer. When the seed finally germinates, rapid growth can take place." - Edith Schaeffer, quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, p. 168 (origin: "Restoring Vitality In Your Prayer Life: An Interview With Edith Schaeffer," Intercessor for America Newsletter Vol. 20 No.1 January 1993).

"George Mueller prayed fifty-two years for an unsaved loved one, but it wasn't until some time after he died that his loved one came to know Jesus Christ as Savior. I believe our prayers go right on living and working even after we die." - Hope MacDonald, quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, p. 166 (origin: Hope MacDonald, Discovering How To Pray, Zondervan, 1976, p. 86).

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

It's not a competition

TODAY’S SPECIAL: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

TO CHEW ON: “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” 1 Corinthians 12:18

It’s a rare person who doesn’t sometimes look at him- or herself and wish to be different. I’ve had such thoughts: If only I were funnier, more flexible, less serious, had a talent for drawing, found it easier to make small talk… Even being part of a church, where we know we should have a realistic view of ourselves, doesn’t do away with the tendency to compare ourselves with others – and feel we come up short.

But those are not God’s thoughts about us. Rick Warren says it so well:

“You are not an accident.

Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did…..

God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair and every other feature. He custom-made your body just the way he wanted it. He also determined the natural talents you would possess and the uniqueness of your personality. The Bible says, ‘You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.’” The Purpose-Driven Life – pp. 22-23

What is true of you in general is also true of you in the church. Whether you are most comfortable hidden away working with the babies in the nursery or heading up some high profile ministry, you don't have to justify yourself or compete with others. Rather do your job, whether hidden or public, without apology. In this way you will fulfill your own destiny and God’s destiny for earth and its people as He accomplishes it through His body, the church.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me find my place in Your body. Help me to be content with who I am, knowing that someday I will need to account for what I’ve done with the strengths and talents you actually gave me – not the ones I wished I had. Amen.

MORE: So often our self worth is determined by the reaction toward us of the audience we are playing to. As Os Guinness says in his book The Call:

“Only madmen, geniuses, and supreme egotists do things purely for themselves. It is easy to buck a crowd, not too hard to march to a different drummer. But it is truly difficult – perhaps impossible - to march only to your own drumbeat. Most of us, whether we are aware of it or not, do things with an eye to the approval of some audience or other. The question is not whether we have an audience but which audience we have.

This observation underscores another vital feature of the truth of calling: A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others – the Audience of One. – p. 70