Rest

NEWS FLASH. WINNIE AND I ARE HERE TO STAY.  NOT GOING ANYWHERE!   In fact Winnie and I will be in Miami Florida the 17th-24th of September 2024 TO SHARE IN CHURCHES and also IN Washington DC from the 28th of Oct – 2nd of Nov 2024.   We would love to see you.

EVERYTHING IS FINE!   No sweat in ministry! Ezekiel 44:18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

REST

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus said that everyone who is working hard, to come to Him and He will give them rest.  In Him. He is our rest.  There’s a condition though.   You need to work to receive rest.  Street people and mentally ill people who sleep all day need to work. They are idle.  They don`t need to rest physically, but we all need to rest spiritually. You have to be doing something to rest from. I think Jesus is talking to all of us, especially the religious here. People struggling to get to heaven don’t understand how easy Jesus has already made it for us to be saved. Stop struggling, rest!

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

We tend to complicate things.  We take things too literally sometimes.  God tells us to take a break one day a week.  1/7 of the time.  Not all of the time.  Just one day a week.   And that only day that you don’t work is to be spent in church, not on the couch playing with your phone and binge watching TV.   God doesn’t even tell us to rest.   He tells us:

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

Sabbath, the 7th day is to worship.   The big question is, which day is the Sabbath?  Saturday? The day the Romans worshipped the planet Saturn?  God did not create the world using a Roman calendar whereby the 7th day (end of the week) would be a Saturday.   It’s ok if you do keep Saturday as the Sabbath, but you have to keep the rest of the law, which no one can do. No walking far. No touching money. No turning on lights. Let alone the other commandments such as not coveting.

If God wanted a specific day He wanted us to worship Him on, He would have been more specific.   But like many things, God left it up for interpretation. In the first centuries, Sunday, was made a festival in honor of Christ’s resurrection.  It received attention as a day of religious services. Over time, Sunday thus came to be known as Lord’s Day as John called it. Some writings termed it as “the eighth day”.

1 Cor 16:2 Upon the first dayof the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him

Bottom line is that God ordered a day in the week in the Old Testament that we should only spend worshipping the Lord.   It wasn’t about working.   It was about not working a day to worship the Lord.   In Israel, the Jewish children throw rocks at people driving on Saturday (burning gasoline is work).  But picking up a rock and throwing it is work too. Plus if you are throwing a rock at someone I doubt you are worshipping God at the same time.  Keeping the sabbath is so complicated that over 20 books were written on how to do so by Jewish Rabbis.   But remembering the day for worshipping God was so serious that Mossaic law made it a capital offense if you violated it.

Num 15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.  33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. 34   And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.   35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.   36 And all the congregation brought him to the the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.

It’s important to remember that everything in the Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament.  The reasons for the laws and severity of the laws in the Old Testament is to show us our dire need for a Savior.  Only Jesus saves.  It`s good to take a day to worship God, but as a born again believer I worship God every day.   It’s great to just relax a day too, very healthy even.  The Bible calls me to pray without ceasing, so I feel like I remember the Sabbath everyday.  I go to church on Sunday.  But I also will go to a restaurant  (causing someone else to work).  I try to remember God always,  praying, witnessing, and, helping.  The old lady that sells us tomatoes in the street is working.  If she doesn’t work a day her children will go hungry.   Am I sinning by buying from her?   I don’t think so.  Jesus is my rest.  Jesus is my sabbath.  Religion is a lot of work.  Loving Jesus is rest.  It’s easy.!!!!  It’s delightful!!!!

John 14:Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

Dean

*OUR WEBSITE IS DOWN FOR RECONSTRUCTION*  🙁  please use:
MyFaceBook:

https://www.facebook.com/dean.peters.1217?mibextid=LQQJ4d

To donate by echeck, please use:

https://pureheart-c8djceehbkg3e0ax.eastus2-01.azurewebsites.net/echeck-donation/

To donate by credit card, please use:
https://donate.stripe.com/bIYaFd76g9fO1Og5kl

To donate by paypal, please use:

https://whatistheloveofgod.com/paypal

in the meantime. Only fb, email, and texts,  

My Email: [email protected]
My USA # 1 (386) 383-8903

Leave a Reply