Sabbath Day or No Sabbath Day

Today, we have disregarded one of God’s top-ten commands, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. When we read that, we can imagine that we keep His day holy in various ways. However, we should read a little further in the text. The primary way, God’s way, to keep it holy is not to work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, not even your cattle should do any work. Of course, there are other ways to keep it holy. We do that by attending church or studying His word; perhaps even doing good deeds for others. However the primary way to keep it holy has been ignored. If we think about it, the primary reason for breaking this command is to do more activities for ourselves. Blue laws, laws that States and communities passed to restrict businesses from doing business on Sundays, have been taken off the books or ignored as well because we want to shop and spend more. Consequently, we force others to work and break the Holy day for our pleasure. What does the command say? God rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Its hard to keep these days, but let’s try.

"Let nothing ever tempt you to become a Sabbath-breaker. I press this on your attention. Make conscience of giving all your Sabbath to God. A spirit of disregard for this holy day is growing up among us with fearful rapidity, and not least among young men. Sunday traveling, Sunday visiting, Sunday outings, are becoming every year more common than they were, and are doing infinite harm to souls…Once you give up caring for the Sabbath, in the end you will give up caring for your soul. The steps which lead to this conclusion are easy and regular. Begin with not honoring God's Day, and you will soon not honor God's House; -cease to honor God's House, and you will soon cease to honor God's Book; cease to honor God's Book, and ultimately you will give God no honor at all. Let a man lay the foundation of having no Sabbath, and I am never surprised if he finishes with the top-stone of no God". (Thoughts for Young Men, J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), p74, 75)