Niagara is an incredibly hardworking congregation. After putting in long hours yesterday at the church bazaar (not to mention all of the long hours of preparation that went into it and the regularly-scheduled hard work of the various other committees and organizations of the church), today you were able to rest in Jesus -- worship.

One of the things the Puritans were quick to note about the Sabbath is that it is a day for resting in God but not a day for idleness and laziness. Our surrounding culture tends to identify rest with being idle. To be sure, the Sabbath is a day where we stop (Sabbath means to stop or cease). But it is not a day to do nothing just as God did not then do nothing on the seventh day (which still continues today as you will note that the Genesis passage does not indicate that it has ended, that is until Christ returns).

And having said all of that, be sure to continue to stop, not to be idle (the old proverb went something like "idle hands are the Devil's workshop") but to rest in God. You might listen to the sermon again, read and study today's passages in their context, you might read ahead in the book of Ephesians to see where we are going, or you might pray for God to give you rest in the midst of the chaos of your life. Take your whole Sabbath (wholly and holy to God) and take time each day to rest.

There is plenty of work in the weeks and months ahead, thanks be to God that He has made you so hard-working and thanks be to God for the Sabbath and those times of rest He gives us with each night. May we continue to live out of His rest!

Labels: idleness, rest, sabbath, work