*For all of you hoping to hear a good long update from me, I'm sorry.  I'll give it to you in a nutshell: I finished up my degree in social work and am still working at the restaurant and running around a lot.  I was in Arkansas and Texas the week before last, and I head to Colorado tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll be going to a few other states before the summer is out. Then, it might be time to get serious about working, unless God has other plans.  Just thought I would share with you some notes I took from a CD series I recently listened too.  The notes are not in the best order, because I just wrote them as the CD sermons were preached, not in a paper form.  However, feel free to read, or not read as you'd like:

The Sabbath: Enjoying the Gift of the Lord’s Day

--Alistair Begg

Lesson Text: Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

Remembering the Sabbath is the fourth of God’s Ten Commandments.  God gave us these commandments to point out our sin, because none of us have kept His law perfectly.  When we measure ourselves against a perfect law, we cannot grade ourselves on a curve.

Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

No one can become perfect in God’s sight just by keeping the law.  There is no way to keep all the commands; we can’t use our perfection as a ladder up to God. We are justified by belief and by God’s grace.  The law confronts us with our guilt and sends us to Christ for forgiveness and freedom.  Believers should keep the law as a grateful response to the declaration of God’s love. 

The Ten Commandments are not a way to gain acceptance from God.  They are the guidelines for free living, lived out by those who through faith have believed in the provision of Christ.   We are ALL lawbreakers. 

In the past, the fourth commandment was held in much higher regard than it often is today.  Stonewall Jackson was a staunch defender of the Sabbath Day.  He believed it was wrong to defile the day with idleness, foolish talk, or secular pleasures.  He even figured out how long it took a letter to arrive, making sure it wouldn’t travel on the Lord’s Day. 

The Principle of the Sabbath Day as stated (Exodus 20:8)

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  It’s pretty clear. But, we often adopt the idea that we have nine commandments and one commandment that is sort of in, sort of out.  We will defend this by saying we don’t have to keep the fourth commandment because of the ceremonial attachments.  However, we continue to keep other commandments which had ceremonial attachments under Moses’ law.  “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Under Moses’ law, if a child cursed his mother or father, he would be stoned.  We no longer stone children for this; does this mean we no longer think honoring your parents is a worthwhile commandment?  Why do we believe we can cancel the fourth commandment on the basis that it has ceremonial attachments?

Sometimes people defend their lack of commitment to keeping the Sabbath by saying, “Isn’t every day the Lord’s Day?”  The answer to that is both “yes” and “no.”  Yes, God created every day and we are supposed to honor Him with our lifestyles each day; however, He did not set apart every day as holy.  It is not piety to be “wiser than God”, to claim that we do not have to set  apart a day after God has declared that we need to set it apart. 

Keeping the Sabbath does not come naturally.  Children must be made to honor the Sabbath, because they will naturally buck the system.  But, obedience needs to come, and conviction may follow.  Keeping the Sabbath is a conviction about its (the Sabbath’s) distinction which creates relevance to its observance.  It is necessary to internalize God’s commands, or we will easily be persuaded to move away from those commands.  If we don’t have convictions about His commands, we will resent being told what to do with our time.  But, it’s not our time; hasn’t God given us all our time in order for us to use the time to serve Him?  So, it really is His time, not our own.  We should not resent spending some of “our” time in worship and honor to the One who gave us the time in the first place. 

Keeping the Sabbath is a difference in kind.

The Lord’s Day is NOT like all the other days of the week.  The key to the Lord’s Day is not found in activity.  The Lord’s Day consists of the privilege of God’s presence, the fellowship of God’s people, and the study of God’s Word uninterrupted by both employment and leisure that can easily distract our devotion to Christ on other days of the week.   The Lord’s Day is a great day for acts of mercy.  The rest the Lord has ordained on His day is a rest from labor and a rest to God.

Our culture today does not argue much about the importance of the Sabbath; we just ignore the day altogether. Or, we “give up” some time to church but then the rest of the day is “ours.”  We want religious activities to be over with so that we can “get on with the day.”  If being involved in church activities on the Lord’s Day does not appeal to us, it says a lot about our spiritual appetites. 

The Practice applied

The Sabbath literally means “Rest” or “Cessation from work.”  The Sabbath was not just given to the Israelites.  In the beginning, it was given to mankind in general, because it is for everyone’s good. 

Genesis 2:2-4, Exodus 20:8, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Isaiah 58:13-14.  The Sabbath was first a Creation ordinance, but following the sin of man, it was established as a moral law. 

Deuteronomy 15: 1-11  Because of what God did in Creation, we have a pattern to follow.  Historically, Jews celebrated the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week.  However, the New Testament church gathered on the first day of the week to memorialize Jesus’ resurrection. 

Luke 23:56 is the last record of Jewish followers keeping the Sabbath on the last day of the week.

Acts 20:7, I Cor. 16:2 Christians chose to worship on the first day of the week to separate themselves from Jewish worship and to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. 

In AD 321, Constantine instituted a law to make Sunday the official day of worship.  But, Christians had been using this day as a day of worship for a while before this, which was the reason Constantine was able to legislate this. 

In order to profit from the Lord’s Day:

1.        There must be a deep and unshakeable conviction of the divine warrant for the keeping of the Lord’s Day established in our minds.  Otherwise, we will either become lax or legalistic.

2.       There must be a deep impression of the tremendous importance of the day for ourselves. If perfect man, in the Garden of Eden, was required to keep the Sabbath for spiritual development, how much more must we as sinners have this day for the development of our spiritual maturity?

3.       The Sabbath must be observed as a complete day of rest, except for cases of piety, necessity, and mercy.

4.      The Sabbath must be a day of spiritual improvement: religious books, holy meditation, secret prayer.

Pharisees

Luke 6:1-11 The Pharisees often got upset with Jesus because He was not doing what they thought He should be doing.  Jesus’ most stinging rebukes were for the overtly religious people who only did lip service.  Luke 2:35 says that Jesus was able to reveal the thoughts of many hearts. It is silly for us today to pretend to be something we are not, because Jesus has a way of bringing to the outside what is on the inside. 

Luke 6:1-11 Jesus declares and demonstrates that He is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus was not dealing with the use of the Sabbath in this passage but with the abuse of the Sabbath by the Pharisees.  He wasn’t saying we should do away with the Sabbath.  He did not feel that adherence to the Sabbath was legalism.  If it is, do we believe that marital fidelity and honesty (two other commandments of God) are legalistic? And why would we call it legalistic to keep one of God’s commandments? The reason society regards keeping the Sabbath as legalism is because keeping the Sabbath has gotten so far removed from society.  We have stores open, ballgames, tournaments, and jobs on Sundays now.  We have replaced theology with expediency.  We have let ourselves be driven by what society dictates instead of what God’s Word says.

In the Pharisees’ day, the problem was just the opposite.  Instead of ignoring the Sabbath, the Pharisees created many rules for the Sabbath.  There has always been a tendency in churches to multiply taboos and rules.  However, God’s Word binds us as believers only to Him and His Word.  In  matters of faith and worship, we are free from every human directive which finds no sanction in the Bible.  The Pharisees had created a law that said that healing could only be done on the Sabbath day if the illness was life-threatening.  Luke 6:6-11 --Jesus felt that to leave this man crippled when He had the opportunity to heal him would be wrong.  No ceremonial provision must stand in the way of providing for the essential needs of life. 

How are we to think about our use of the Lord’s Day?

The Sabbath has been given as a gift from God, to be enjoyed and delighted in.  The Lord is more concerned that we are able to joyfully enter the blessings that come through obedience than He is concerned for us to impose upon ourselves arbitrary forms of self-deprivation. 

--Keeping the Sabbath is a doctrinal issue: Our system of belief will be apparent in the way we live out our belief.  Is our belief serving the Bible, or is the Bible serving our belief?

Dispensational theology divides the Bible into ages, or dispensations.  Depending on which age you are living in, you have different rules which you are to follow.  In this way, you do away with certain standards of the Bible by declaring they are no longer relevant for the era you are living in.

Nondispensational theology affirms the abiding place of the law.  It does not move the law to the past or present.  Instead, it recognizes that the Ten Commandments enshrine the law of God and that the principles they contain are of permanent validity.

For example, Exodus 35:3, 5, 21:17 commands that no one should light a fire on the Sabbath and that a child should be killed for cursing his father or mother.  Does the absence of the penalty today for these sins remove the validity of the original command? No. It is only through God’s mercy that the punishment has been removed. 

--Keeping the Sabbath is a Biblical issue:

Galatians 4:9-11  The Galatians were going back to trying to earn their way to heaven instead of accepting God’s grace.  They were observing special days and months and times of year.  Is this referring to the Sabbath?  Would Paul actually refer to God’s moral command as “weak and beggarly elements”?  Not if you remember how he upheld God’s law in Romans!

Colossians 2:16-17  Colossian teachers were suggesting that faith in Christ was not enough.  They advised the people to make sure they observed feasts, New Moon festivals, and dietary laws.

Romans 14:5-6 This chapter has to do with the issue of disputable matters. (v 2) Verses 3-4 warn against judging another’s servant.  Verses 5-6 talk about regarding days. What “day” is Paul referring to?  It could be referring to the Jewish Sabbath.  We really do not know, because the Bible never tells us.  Some people use this to defend not keeping the Sabbath day.  However, look more closely at the context of these verses.   In this passage, the person who is weak is the person who says “you can’t do that.”  The person who is strong says “you can do it if you want.”  Would Paul say that the weak person is the one with a concern for the Lord’s Day?  Would he say that keeping the Sabbath, a day of resurrection, a day being followed by Christ’s disciples, is kept by the weak and that the fourth commandment is optional?

Sometimes jobs interfere with keeping the Sabbath day, so people keep their Sabbath on another day of the week.  If we say we can celebrate the Lord’s Day on any day of the week, we’re saying that the first day of the week has no prescribed religious significance. 

Applying the practice of the Lord’s Day

It is impossible to come up with an exhaustive list of what you can and cannot do on the Lord’s Day.  The law of God gives us a comprehensive ethic, but it doesn’t give us an exhaustive application.  God’s Word binds us as believers only to Him and His Word.  We are free from every human directive which finds no sanction in the Bible in matters of faith and worship.  In other words, church leaders do not have the right to multiply rules and thus interfere with the liberty of God’s own children in matters where there is no Biblical mandate.  Christ has purchased the right to be our only Master. 

That said, just because church leaders should not create rules that are not mandated by the Bible does not mean that we as Christians have the license to live how we want.  Yes, we are free in Christ. However, with freedom comes a huge risk.  There is the danger that we will lean toward formalism (creating more rules for ourselves in order to feel secure) or toward unbridled freedom, (where we give ourselves the license to do how we want).  With great freedom comes great responsibility.

The Sabbath as a Gift

Our culture tends to believe that in order to completely keep the Sabbath, we must not get any pleasure from it.

--Gift: God has provided the Sabbath as a benefit for our spirit, soul, and mind.  However, this gift has remained largely unopened. Part of the gift has to do with remembering how it was instituted, in light of Creation and the wonder of redemption.   The Lord’s Supper is the memorial to His death; the Lord’s Day is memorial to His resurrection. 

--Rest: the privilege of relaxation combined with consecration

--Worship: the goal of the Lord’s Day is God.

--Hoping: looking forward to the fullness of rest in heaven.  The Lord’s Day should whet our appetite for what’s ahead.

--Priority: we can’t just wait for the surge to drive us along into the right activity for the Lord’s Day.  If this is the case, we will always be steered in the wrong direction. We have to make keeping the Lord’s Day a priority and purposely choose our activities on that day in order to honor Him.   Work to protect the Lord’s Day from improper activities.

--Cadence: (a sequence of notes resolving discord) This is how the Lord’s Day is supposed to be.  We need to restructure the Lord’s Day so that He reigns supreme over it.  What would that do to our work schedules, our study habits?

The Lord’s Day was given to us as a gift to be treasured and used wisely.  We need to plant the conviction of the fourth commandment deep into our hearts, seek to honor the Lord on His day, and work to protect the Lord’s Day from activities that will dishonor it.  God will bless us for our obedience. 

We will never be more satisfied in God than when He is most glorified in us. 

 It has been many moons since I last wrote.  Too much has happened to accurately cover the events that have transpired these past.....six months or so.  I might just give you a little picture tour to bring you up to date on my life. I hope I'm not repeating myself. It's been so long since I posted that I kind of forget what was last posted  

Bradley graduated in May from high school.  Here I am helping him with his corsage.

Our youth group helped out at a mission.  Here are Phil, Andy, and Bradley working in the kitchen.  Look like pros, huh?

Then we hung out at a park.  We got to see our buddy, Jonah who we never get to see!  yeah for Jonah being home! 

Then, we planned a "camping" trip for Dad and Mom for their anniversary.  We actually bought a night at a bed and breakfast, but led them to believe they were going camping (we didn't tell them where they were going till they were on the road) by putting a tent, air mattress, and mosquito spray on the back seat.  Notice my new car, a blue bug this time

Then, my family went on a mini vacation to Cincinnatti, OH, making a side trip to the Creation Museum. 

Here is Tricia showing us a dinosaur at the Creation Museum.  The picture below is at Central Station in Cincinnati. The pictures on the wall are made of little ceramic pieces; mosaics! 

From there, we went to a family reunion near Columbus, OH. 

Here is Grandpa and Grandma Eberly with all the grandkids.   Above, is the family.

Saying goodbye to my dear sister, Tricia who left for service in Mexico in August.  (Here she is holding our cousin's little boy.) The lack of pictures since she left attests to the fact that she was the photographer of the family. 

Here we are with a magazine article we found on our vacation.  Bradley is quite amused in the background

Since then, my life has been busy with getting back into school.  I'm a senior in college now, scary thought!  I'm doing my internship while going to classes, so that keeps me busy.  That's kind of why I have not been updating. It's kind of boring to continually report that I went to school, did homework, went to my internship, and went to my job.  Oh, one more fun moment: my lemon tree has lemons on it; they're almost ripe! I actually made a lemon pie from some of them, even though they weren't quite ripe. Here's a picture of it!

Well, blessings to all of you, till I update again in six months!

 I love spring!  This has been an especially hard winter, almost six months of not so nice, cold, windy (okay, so it's still windy), biting, car barely turning over when you try to start it, shivering, warm coats and sweatshirts walking into school, numb hands, cold weather.  Having it turn warm has been a true blessing.

 I have been truly neglecting my xanga responsibilities.  BTW, I got my voice back, thankfully never to lose it again this winter.  I can now at least pretend empathy for anyone else who is struggling with being unable to speak. 

My life has taken a decided turn for the better in the last week.  For one, spring came into full effect.  For two, I think I am finally at the point where I feel caught up in my homework.  For three, I believe the end of the semester is almost here.  For four, I have had enough time to do fun things and hang out with friends recently, and that really rocks.  Some fun stuff I've done recently....... volunteered at a mission and ate at Avanti's with friends (YUM!), sang praise and worship with my youth group, had a jam session with my siblings, played tennis several times with good friends, went rollerblading at college, went to two bonfires, got to see The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe with more friends (Amazing movie; awesome allegory; almost made me cry with how much Aslan parallels Christ's sacrifice for us), drank pina coladas (no rum involved), played 500, went "running" (more like jogging), played volleyball, babysat an adorable six week old boy, drank smoothies with a dear friend who is leaving the state AGAIN, and spent quality time with my family.  It's great. 

To show my true appreciation for the season, I am giving you some reasons why spring is just a wonderful time.  Here's my proof:

Green leaves                                       Daffodils

White fences....green grass                                                new birth (sorry it's so blurry)

Warmer weather...warm days...cool evenings                                 Hyacinth

               Buds on trees

 And a new car...did I forget to mention that?  Silly me! This isn't the best picture, but I didn't feel like backing it out of the garage, since it was raining outside.  Suffice it to say, it's a lot of fun to drive, and I'm enjoying it while I can.  If any of you know me well, you'll know that I try not to get too attached to cars, because I do not keep them long. 

And..the currently listening would not be the truth.  It's just a CD that my sister gave me as a joke that I'm contemplating how to give back to her