R e v i t a l i s e t h e c h u r c h
The importance of the Sabbath day of rest on Saturday...
By Andrew Mackinnon
Sunday is the day after Saturday, which is the last day of the week. Saturday is also the Sabbath day of rest, according to Exodus 20:8-11, spoken by God Himself, as indicated by Exodus 20:1. Therefore, the day before the Bible study groups take place at church on Sunday, under this proposed format for conducting church, is the Sabbath day of rest. If church members choose to observe this Sabbath day of rest, they can expect to awaken on Sunday morning fully refreshed and enthused about the prospect of meeting their fellow Bible study group members at church to enjoy fellowship with them and heartening discussion about their faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, there’s also the thrilling prospect of meeting with the entire church in the first hour of the church service on Sunday morning or afternoon and enjoying worship with them, as well as being informed by the latest announcements, hearing the Old Testament and New Testament Bible readings, hearing the prayer and listening to one of the pastoral staff preach.
Church members who deliberately choose to abstain from participating in sport on Saturday, the Sabbath day of rest, will find themselves fully recharged, enthused and excited on Sunday morning as they awaken to the prospect of attending church that day. The competitive nature of sport runs completely contrary to the spirit of co-operation promoted throughout the pages of the Bible. Followers of Jesus Christ should abstain from participating in sport. Parents who actively discourage their children and teenagers from participating in sport on Saturday will free this Sabbath day of rest up for themselves to recuperate at the end of the busy working week as God intended, instead of ferrying their children and teenagers around to participate in sport so that there is not a single day of the week that is free from frenetic activity.
I strongly believe that the reason many schools make it compulsory for students to participate in sport on Saturdays is to make it impossible for them to keep the Sabbath day of rest on Saturday. Children and teenagers who participate in sport on Saturday and then attend church on Sunday, so that every day of the week presents them with demands they must meet, are going to burn out sooner or later. Children and teenagers are very resilient so this burn-out may happen later rather than sooner, but when it arrives, it will be take its debilitating toll on them. Given that children and teenagers work hard from Monday to Friday at school, they should be allowed to observe the Sabbath day of rest on Saturday and recuperate as God intended from their busy week.
It’s advisable not to go shopping for groceries on Saturday, the Sabbath day of rest, so as to free up the entire day for recuperation and recreation. It’s really advisable not to do grocery shopping on Sunday if you can help it, because, after all, it’s the first day of the week. It’s the day for church and for the celebration of life – not for going to the supermarket, if you can help it! It’s better to rather shop during the week after work has finished around 17:00.
Of course, it’s obviously possible to purchase miscellaneous groceries from the supermarket online and have them delivered to your door on a weekday afternoon. In the case of quality, fresh vegetables and fruits, it’s possible to have a week’s supply delivered to your door by the highly reliable sydneyfresh.com.au, if you live in Sydney, Australia. (They’ll even bag each type of vegetable and fruit individually in plastic bags if you pay them $6 extra like I’ve done, so that you can transfer this produce straight from the box in which it’s delivered to your fridge, knowing that it will be stored airtight and that it will therefore easily last for the next seven days.)
Ministers, pastoral staff and other church staff need to discipline themselves to consistently take two consecutive days off every single week, being Friday and Saturday, so that they don’t burn out. The two consecutive days of Friday and Saturday closely resemble the two consecutive days of Saturday and Sunday that most attendees at church take off from work, university, college and school each week, Saturday being the Sabbath day of rest. Taking Friday and Saturday off completely from church work requires that ministers and pastoral staff finish all sermon preparation for the Sunday services by the end of the prior Thursday and that they recognise that the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them is an outstanding preacher. Taking the two consecutive days of Friday and Saturday off enables ministers, pastoral staff and other church staff to start their working week on Sunday, which is, in fact, the first day of the week.