Skip to main content

Rest? What rest?

Rest? What rest


Bible verse (Ezekiel 20:12)
I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.

Thought for the day
How have you found being in lockdown, if you’re in lockdown? What has been the biggest challenge you have faced. For me, the challenge has been to make sure I have a day off.
You see like many people, I have to work from home. No big difference there but when I look back over the last 6 weeks of lockdown in the UK, I can count on two fingers the number of actual days off I have had. When I haven’t had to answer the phone, or reply to an email, or prepare a service.
I have to ask myself, how is that honoring God. Today’s verse in Ezekiel talks about the Sabbath day of rest as a sign. A sign that we have been made holy, put aside for God. In a way observing the Sabbath, whenever that may be, indicates our trust in God. The Sabbath requires us to trust God that the world won’t fall apart while we rest. My not taking a day to rest and recuperate shows me that I don’t really trust God. That’s a hard thing to admit but I feel for myself at least it’s true.

So how about you? How is your day of rest going? Do you keep it or like me has it become a concept rather than a reality because my challenge to us all today is to take the time to simply rest. Rest in God’s goodness and do not worry about anything.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven   Thought for the day The blogger Jill Printzenhoff writes about a time how she went fishing and caught nothing and yet the fisherman next to her managed to pull out seven. They were using different bait and she describes it as not her day. She finishes her blog post with these words: ‘You keep striving, you keep working, and you keep on keeping on. Because some day when you cast your line . . . you will be at the right spot at the right time . . . and that day will be your day . . . the day you catch that all elusive fish!’ I believe that there is a time for everything under heaven and earth and sometimes, well actually, all the time we need to be patient and wait because the reality of the situation is we are working to God’s time. The writer of Ecclesiastes also says this about God’s timing: ‘He has made everything appropriate[b] in its time. He has also put eternity in...
 Holiness What does holiness look like to you? Or when you hear the word holy what comes to mind. The reason I’m asking is because for a while now I have been thinking about holiness. What does it mean to be holy and whether or not we can truly be holy? We are commanded to be holy both in the Old Testament and by Jesus who said be holy as your Father in heaven is holy (Matthew 5:48).  John Wesley taught that genuine faith produces inward and outward holiness. He consistently argued that salvation must produce holiness of heart and life, but he never viewed the process as something that would be completed. He taught that despite the inner assurance and regeneration of character that results from knowing that you have been saved, it is never too long before we discover that there is still a root of sin within. However, there is never an occasion or state of true Christian discipleship that does not lead to a deepening of our love for God and for our neighbour and we become mo...

What does it mean to put Jesus first?

What does it mean to put Jesus first? John 12:1-8   Philippians 3:4b-13 What does it mean to put Jesus first? I ask this because as always I try to find a link between the two lectionary readings and as I was thinking about the readings the thing that I recognized across both these passages was the thought that both Mary and Paul are putting Jesus first. In John, we have this wonderful account of Mary anointing Jesus. It’s a passage we think we know reasonably well. It’s not the only account of Jesus being anointed, and most Biblical scholars agree that this account is the same as the accounts found in Luke and Matthew. Details vary but essentially it is the same account. In the account we see Jesus reclining at a table and then Mary prostrates herself at Jesus’ feet and empty’s a whole jar of nard on Jesus. And then wipes Jesus feet with her hair. Two things strike me here. Firstly Nard was not cheap. John notes that is was the equivalent of a year’s worth of wag...