| Author | Message | ||
| Lisa_boyldavis Registered user Username: Lisa_boyldavis Post Number: 85 Registered: 3-2005 |
Do any of you find it difficult to take time to rest after being mandated to rest once per week? I'm married to a Garman farm boy gone engineer... who was grumpy all day long when we were Adventists because he had to slow down and didn't know how, and now that we don't have that forced rest we can't seem to slow down. Jesus does give us so much more mental rest than we've ever had, but the actual stopping of projects that never end (like the beautiful house he built me that we started 4 years ago and still is not finished, starting a business, etc...). Any thoughts. Lisa | ||
| Weimarred Registered user Username: Weimarred Post Number: 89 Registered: 1-2005  |
Lisa, I must confess that I've always been slightly lazy, so resting hasn't been a problem for me :-) My wife, however, can sure be the opposite! And honestly, once I zoom in on something mentally, I'm oblivous to all else, including time, quite often. I once read that both stress AND boredom can be killers, so you've got find a happy balance, a cut off point. What works for me is switching gears, going to something different once in a while. That makes it easier for me to realize when I've had enough of everything, period. By breaking my focus, I can get a better feel for my stress level. And it's not an arbitrary 6/1 ratio, but a natural thing. Don't know if that makes total sense, but there it is. Tom | ||
| Pauls Registered user Username: Pauls Post Number: 16 Registered: 9-2005 |
the most important rest is the "rest" in knowing that your life is in the hands of an omniscient and caring God who is leading you through a process into maturity upon which He will make you a priest and prince/princess in His universal kingdom. I often get myself into tight spots--especially financially, and learning to let go and trust God has been hard but incredibly rewarding to keep my stress down. when i trust God i sleep like a baby. when i don't i am agitated and irritable. I remember an old Adventist elder friend from India. He was previously a poor hindu from a lower caste with a lot of kids...and he had to work 7 days a week and all he could earn was enough to pay the rent and food bill. When he became Adventist all his friends and relatives told him he could not afford to keep sabbath--his family would starve--but he felt God calling him to do it--and he stopped working on sabbath...and so he told me, with teaers in his eyes, that God stepped in and took care of him and he has not lacked a meal or a place to sleep since that day he was baptized into adventism.... God used the sabbath, in this case, to demonstrate His love and concern for this man and carried him when he stepped out by faith. I think it was the same kind of test abraham faced when God said to kill Isaac. i too have found that when i allow myself to helplessly wait on Him ("rest"), He steps in and handles the situation, but when i feel i have to take care of myself, He steps back and lets me try--but i could not possibly do as good a job. | ||
| Jerry Registered user Username: Jerry Post Number: 474 Registered: 6-2002 |
Do you believe that God would have "stepped in" had this elder rested on Tuesdays? or Thursdays? or Mondays and Fridays? How about every day? Can we rest in God's promises no matter what we are doing or not doing? Or is it only through our purposeful cessation of work on a particular day that God's promises are invoked?
Is this the rest we should seek? Or is it the day given to those who never entered God's rest because of unbelief? | ||
| Lisa_boyldavis Registered user Username: Lisa_boyldavis Post Number: 88 Registered: 3-2005 |
Thank you for your input... I have found no end to spiritual and emotional rest, and I know from experience that the Sabbath does not provide physical rest most of the time. It's learning to be quiet and still in His Presence ... learning some control over the urge to keep going that's the challenge.... The certain day of today is enough for me... it's learning to experience that that's the trick. | ||
| Pauls Registered user Username: Pauls Post Number: 18 Registered: 9-2005 |
Jerry, this is just my opionon from experience, but i think the rest the old elder received was because he trusted God--not because he kept a particular day. anyone who hears the call of God and responds, trusting God will enter that rest regardless of the issue at hand--God finds our weak spots--where we don't trust Him and hits us there...God may call some to remain single, others to remain married, others to give away their wealth (matt 19:21-22) or go to a mission field....we cannot enter God's rest until we are trusting God in that area of our lives...and we demonstrate our trust by obeying His call.....I am sure that lots of people of all different denomonations have rested in God. that's my take for what it is worth.... | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 2773 Registered: 12-2003  |
I agree, Pauls, that the man you mentioned experienced God's provision as a confirmation of his faith. Without doubt. I also believe that God doesn't leave us where he finds us. If we believe keeping a day is the way we must serve God, then if we do not observe we are acting outside of faith. God, however, desires to continue to reveal truth, and it is my conviction that He leads us inexorably to Himself. He ultimately wants us to realize we must give up everythingóeven the things we think we must do in order to please Himóin favor of embracing Him only. Lisa, I understand your question so well. I am realizeing two thingsóslowly(!)óone is that I must just let go of everything I think I have to do sometimes. I have to trust that Jesus will help me accomplsih what I must and allow the rest to go. The second thing is that my life--including my time--is not my own. It all belongs to Jesus, and I can't assume that I've "earned" or am "entitled" to "free time". I believe that God expects us to restóJesus went away from the crowds to worship and be refreshed. But I can't assume that my time is my own.That means both that I must let go of my control over everthing I feel I must do, and that I must let go of my desire to be self-indulgent. My time belongs to God, and I must trust Him for rest and refreshment. He will provide me times of just plain rest, and He will also bring His work to me. It's all back to that word "surrender". He is faithful. Colleen | ||
| Jerry Registered user Username: Jerry Post Number: 477 Registered: 6-2002 |
Thanks Colleen. I agree. Pauls, please forgive me if I misinterpreted your narrative. It is just that I have heard this type of story (almost to the last detail) used to "prove" that keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath is what pleases God. Praise God that He met this man's needs through faith and surrender. May he have the same faith and surrender no matter the day, the night, the action, or restraint from action is at hand. God be with you and him, always. | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1137 Registered: 7-2003  |
I want to know who "rests" on "Sabbath" besides men? Now before I get run out on the rails, I've watched B's sister-in-law and mother and other female family members run around like crazy getting food together, cleaning up after, chasing the kids to make sure they don't do something un-"sabbath appropriate", changing the diapers...and the men, all of them, sitting around "resting" as they socialize. Now maybe that's a very sexist remark, and maybe it's just the dynamics in that one family, but really...when you have little kids...what woman ever really gets to rest no matter what day of the week? Can I see hands??  Let's be very clear ... changing diapers is work...and frequently unpleasant work. Is it not?? In the physical world, I only rest when I get to work! (That's half tongue in cheek, half dead-serious! Please carry on with your day...no offense intended!) | ||
| Freeatlast Registered user Username: Freeatlast Post Number: 434 Registered: 5-2002 |
<SARCASM ALERT> Yes, it's perfectly fine for a member of the sealed remnant to work on the Sabbath cooking a meal, but heaven forbid that a heathen from among the great unwashed masses do it! Stay at home, rest, let your wife cook. Don't encourage the pagans to work! | ||
| Lynne Registered user Username: Lynne Post Number: 40 Registered: 10-2005 |
Thank you for saying it like it is. Since having children I knew there was no real sabbath for a mother. After having children I realized how the sabbath didn't make sense for women. I stopped going to church but continued always to still trying. Such as making sure my children were watching christian shows on the sabbath and I would try to at least listen to a sermon online on the sabbath from an adventist church. I always felt that I at least had to try to keep the sabbath and that would hopefully be enough for God. I was always discouraged though, knowing that somehow my best would never be good enough. I will post my story, but now I am still changing diapers, chasing kids around and working, so it may take a couple of weeks to a month. I will pray the holy spirit will guide me on this. Bless you! | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 330 Registered: 1-2003  |
Melissa, is it "sexist"? Yes very !! Is it accurate? Yes VERY ! ! It is a sad "sexist" comment about men, I'm sorry to say.  Richard rtruitt@mac.com PS: for those who are "sarcastic impaired" that was me being sarcastic about men and agreeing with Melissa. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 2778 Registered: 12-2003 |
So true, Melissa. I've often pondered the irony of Sabbath rest for a wife/mother. I've also pondered the irony of Sabbath rest for all SDA ministers and music directors and their families. When I was teaching in an SDA boarding school, Sabbath was often the most demanding day of the week. Music tours happened on weekends; "performances" (and I do mean "performances" as opposed to "worship") happened in church; reheasrsals had to be staged on Friday nights and/or early Sabbath mornings; etc. During the week, musicians "just" practiced. On Sabbath, they performed and were judged by the critical masses. (There's the hint of a pun there, I think...) Adrenalin flowed; Sabbath afternoons were always the times I got migrain headaches. Sabbath-keeping is relative... Colleen | ||
| Jerry Registered user Username: Jerry Post Number: 478 Registered: 6-2002 |
My father, a non-SDA minister, always said, "Monday is my day of rest." Not "Holy," any more than all other days, just when he rested. My SDA wife was always VERY busy on Saturday and Sunday (when she worked as a musician for a "Sunday keeping church") but not cooking and cleaning for me. Saturday could NEVER be busy enough. It was never about resting, always about showing how "church-y" you could act. | ||
| Blacksheep Registered user Username: Blacksheep Post Number: 22 Registered: 3-2005 |
Oh yea, and take all those SDA dairy farmers out there. Those cows had to be milked morning and night,and fed, the barn cleaned, etc. Now that's hectic trying to get the milking done before you go to church, not to mention trying to get the cow manure smell off of you too. | ||
| Lisa_boyldavis Registered user Username: Lisa_boyldavis Post Number: 90 Registered: 3-2005 |
Blacksheep My husband grew up on a dairy farm. The only thing different about Sabbath for him was that he had to cram church into a day already full of work, and that if there WAS a spare second, he couldn't do anything he enjoyed (airplanes, technology, etc..) but his brother could do the things he enjoyed (he was into animals and climbing hills). When I go to the little country church where he grew up EVERY MAN IN THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE IS SOUND ASLEEPÖ MANY TIMES EVEN SNORING, AND I AM NOT KIDDING. Because of there upbringing, everything we get together we eat and then everyone but the mom finds a place to sack out for a few hoursÖ NO LIE. My Sabbath, on the other hand, was my favorite day of the week because we could do things with friends and have good food and time together, candles on Fri night, etc... However when I exchanged the Shadow Sabbath for Jesus Himself, I got to experience rest like I'd never known. I still don't have a good handle on pacing myself with work, but that's part of growing I'm sure. LBD |
