A Sabbath Devotional…

ourCOG August 26, 2011 11:40 am #ourCOG 0

I know that yesterday I started on a devotional series called “Ponderings from Panama” / but today is Sonja and my Sabbath day and I try to prepare a devotional for us. It is my prayer – at least for all the PEPpers – that you also will be observing a weekly Sabbath. Perhaps our devotional will help you on your day.

Devotional:

110818 AFFIRMATION: My Sabbath will be a day in which all other days have no claim.

110826 AFFIRMATION: My Sabbath will be a day in which I fight the slavery of work by ceasing from that which is necessary.

The “I shall-not-be-a-slave” principle

Deuteronomy 5:13-15 (New King James Version)

¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no
work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

“To free Sabbath-keeping from the demands of the other days of the week, one thing is indispensable: cease from
that which is necessary. This is the Sabbath’s golden rule, the one rule to which all other rules distill. Stop doing what you ought to do.” _Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by restoring Sabbath

Every Sabbath will have “must to” issues, i.e. changing dirty diapers, putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and
brushing dirty teeth. But all the “ought to do” issues can wait! To do so frees us from slavery to these things.