Daily Scriptures from Reverend Dan Johnson ~ Wednesday, 23 October 2013 ~ “Six days you may work…” Exodus 20:9-10

Daily Scriptures from Reverend Dan Johnson ~ Wednesday, 23 October 2013 ~ “Six days you may work…”

Exodus 20:9-10 read:

9 Six days you may work and do all your tasks, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it – not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you.

So, in the Ten Commandments we find 8 “Don’ts” and 2 “Do’s.” The first “Do” is the Fourth Commandment – Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy. The more we read into this commandment, however, specifically our verses for today, we find a “Don’t” within the “Do.” We are, indeed, to remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy by not doing any of the sort of work that we do on the previous six days. Make sense? Of course! We know from the Creation story, when God instituted the Sabbath, that God worked six days and rested on the seventh. So should we.

About the six days we work, Norman Wirzba writes in his book Living The Sabbath, “Many of us submit to daily schedules that keep us moving at a soul-blistering, exhaustion-inducing pace, and we agree to ever-lengthening to-do lists that invariably leave us stretched or stressed to the breaking point. To be sure, we have a lot to show for our efforts in the extensive resumes we compile and in the mountains of stuff we store in our basements, garages, and off-site self-storage containers. But despite our many career accomplishments and consumer acquisitions, we are not satisfied or at peace.”

And therein lies the purpose of Sabbath…peace. We’ll discuss Sabbath peace and the seventh day tomorrow. But for today, know this – Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but on the seventh day you should rest. The funny thing about that is while we rest the world continues without our help! So, rest…

Aaron

PS – I am hoping a small group of you will join me on a trip to the Holy Land with our Bishop from May 12-21, 2014. Registration deadlines are quickly approaching so if you are interested in going, I’d love to hear from you.

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Pursuing the Possibilities (Our Fall Stewardship Focus) - praying that every member makes a pledge

and that every pledge be/become a Tithe (10%).

Trinity's new "modern worship" service begins Dec. 1, 11:00;

Youth Building: PRAY for it; TELL others about it; VOLUNTEER for it.

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