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THE SABBATH
LIFE
Well, folks, it's been a long, long, time since I last wrote, and I've been quite busy in the interim. I hope that what I share here makes up for the time of drought. I think that rest is essential, and while Heart of the Matter is still resting, My Point of View carries on after a brief hiatus. I'd like to share with you what's been going on in my life, and some of the experiences I have had lately.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And imagine sending a mind off into the trenches without giving it any weapons or ammunition. It's kinda like that when you go to school without eating breakfast. So in an effort to help students get their days started the right way, a partnership of a local church and the School Council established the "Food for Learning" Breakfast Club.
I'm a volunteer there. We set up tables, put out the food, plates, cups, etc., and then sit down and eat and talk with the young people. It's fun. It's also a highlight to interact with Teddy, the puppy owned by the Breakfast Club coordinator, Vicki. A cute little dog, Teddy is always excited when someone comes in the door. And I'll bet a lot of people need to feel valued the way Teddy make people feel valued.
The Breakfast Club: an experience worth waking up early for.
I'd like to be a consultant one day - in the field of relationship management. Helping businesses to work more effectively by focussing on one factor: the quality of relationships in that business' networks. Relationships between employees, with the union, with suppliers, with government, with competitors, with any of its stakeholders make the difference between success and failure.
FocusFactor Consulting believes in "walking in the way of success". Success is a step by step process. It is not achieved; it is built. There is only one way to be truly successful, and that is in considering the needs of your partners before your own. And success is defined differently by different people. My definition of success involves creating situations where everyone is a winner.
FocusFactor: a business in development, and idea whose time has come.
Right now we have one client - a woman from my church who makes awesome handmade clothes. Rachelle Design & Threadworks. Watch for that company, coming to a web near you! =)
On Friday night, the young people of my church (and so far, one friend)
get together, sit in a circle, and pray together, and share what's happening
in our lives. We sometimes sing songs, sometimes plan dramas for
sharing, sometimes eat food, and always try to treat each other with love
and respect. We believe that the world has a misconception of who
God is. So we're trying to make ourselves available to Him so He
can create His image not just in us as individuals, but in us as a group.
We're hoping to grow.
And divide. And multiply. And so on.
I joined a multilevel marketing company. It fits well into the doctoral school preparation because it incorporates much of what I see as ideal into its success system. Check out: http://www.acncanada.ca
This is a thought the AY (Adventist Youth) team is working on for next year, to let the church dream what an ideal church would be like, inside and out. The plan is to divide the church into two groups. The first group would design a building whose purpose is to prepare people for discipleship. The second group would design a success system. It is hoped that in the process of dreaming, some people might become open to changing how the church is run at present.
To celebrate God's goodness through our past, some young people at our church are planning a concert featuring a reconstitution of One Step Forward (and friend), a dynamic group that believed in making "every place a better place" and in "witness[ing] to everyone we meet and in every song we sing". In addition, some of our church members and friends will participate in an evening or praise and thanksgiving. This, of course, is partially dependent on no disruptive Y2K issues.
To help keep the balance in my life, I've joined the local YMCA. For those who don't know, that stands for Young Men's Christian Association. "We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities." I've been working out on a semi-regular basis, keeping track of my progress on a sheet. And I've been playing volleyball on Mondays and Wednesday evenings. It's a good place to practise team-building skills.
With all of that happening, one might think I'm just doing nothing but
having fun and learning, but I am actually working 10 hours a week as "Alternate
Music Director" at this church. It's a neat church to work at because
the pastoral staff works as a team, rather than in a hierarchy. And
they bring other members of the church leadership into that team, almost
as equals. It is, again, the kind of environment where I am happy
to work. I feel trusted and valued, and I don't feel like I'm an
outsider. There are some interpersonal challenges among my worship
team, but we're looking to resolve them early in 2000. And I'm also
co-director of the children's
choir, which is an adventure in itself. Imagine taking 10 Nintendo-assisted-short-attention-spanned
little people, after sitting in
Sunday School for 40 minutes, tanking up on sugar-laden cookies and
milk, and coming to sing. My co-director Stephanie is quite patient,
and I credit her with the success of the children. We sang last Sunday
for Sunday School Pageant, and had a pizza party afterwards with the kids
and their families.
The common thread of community seems to be going through my life.
I am glad that Heart of the Matter helped me to develop and understand
the importance of community. A vital element of community is communication,
and the book "Dialogue" by William Isaacs helped me to understand how to
create an environment where that kind of communication can take place.
In addition,
"The Revolutionized Church of the 21st Century" helped place community
back into the church environment. In the new year, I hope to meet
with two men, one who is a consultant on dialogue, and the other a pastor
whose passion is cell groups. I can learn something from their experiences.
And we save the best for last:
THE SABBATH LIFE (contributed by Anita James)
As we contemplate the new year, 2000, the year that has been so much anticipated, we need to recognize our need to depend totally upon God and rest continually in HIM in order to have a succesful year. May you have a Spirit filled NEW YEAR!
The Sabbath Day
Our first approach to the sabbath life usually starts out with our understanding of the sabbath day. Exodus 20:8-11 calls us to rest from all our labours the seventh day of every week. But do we realise that every sabbath, we are celebrating rest in Jesus, the sabbath life? Do we recognise that God has not only called us to observe the Sabbath day but also experience the sabbath life?
Consider that when Adam and Eve were created, they found everything ready for them and were asked to rest by Jesus on the very next day, the sabbath day. There is a lesson here for us. God will always supply our needs. We need to continually rest and trust in HIM. We need to live the sabbath life.
Why do we need to rest in Jesus?
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus asks us to come and rest. We are engaged in labour to be good, the struggle to be righteous, from a spiritual standpoint. We want, like Michael Jackson, to "make [the world] a better place for you and for me and the entire human race". And then we realise that all our efforts are in vain on our own. We still have not been able to stop all the wars, violence, divorces, abortions, collisions, and disasters in spite of all the songs and efforts to the contrary.
It does not lie in man to help himself to direct his own steps, so we labour in vain. That is why Jesus calls us to come unto HIM and find rest.
Romans 7:19 further brings to us our plight. We find ourselves doing evil when we want to do good and therein lies our problem. In Romans 7:24 we see Paul under a weight, we see him heavy ladened. He is miserable, his body (the flesh), is deadly. In effect, he is admitting that he cannot help himself. He adds in Romans 7:18 that in us there is nothing good! Nothing that can help us! However Halleluiah! Praise the Lord! in Romans 7:25, we find the answer to our despair. Jesus is our only help!
How do we rest?
Matthew 11:29 tells us that rest (absence from futile labor, absence from worry) comes from learning of Jesus' ways. 1 Peter 5:7 also calls us to rest in Jesus. It admonishes us to drop all our burdens on Jesus. Hey, no need to worry about Y2K! No need to worry about what 2000 holds in store! Rest in Jesus!
Isaiah 30:15 says to us that we are saved by resting in Jesus and returning to HIM. Resting in Jesus means that we are quiet, we are not worried or disturbed, but confident in Jesus and at peace with HIM. In Matthew 19:14 Jesus told us to be like children if we are to be HIS children. We must be childlike in our trust of Jesus so that we can rest in HIM.
Benefits of rest
From Isaiah 30:21, we learn that resting in Jesus gives direction to our lives. Our hearts become strengthened as we rest in Jesus as we find in Psalm 27:14. Perfect peace attends us attested to by Isiah 26:3. And we get the desires of our heart as Psalm 37:1,4,7 confirms.
So next time you celebrate the sabbath day, please remember that God expects us to rest physically on the sabbath day to celebrate our spiritual rest in HIM, throughout our christian lives.
And now we turn to the great rest chapter, Hebrews 4 for further insights. Hebrews 4:3 tells us that all believers are resting in Jesus. Hebrews 4:9 adds that God's people need to rest. Hebrews 4:10 speaks of our need for physical rest. And in Hebrews 4:11, God calls us to rest again.
We will see that resting in Jesus helps us to be totally dependent on God. In other words, we do not think of our own desires, devices, plans or ideas to solve problems of our lives but we allow God to help us work them all out. HE gives us peace in the midst of the storm!
So friends let us live the sabbath life every day, so that every seventh day sabbath will be a celebration of rest in Jesus. In that way, our sabbath days will be more meaningful to our souls and our lives will better testify of an awesome God thus drawing more men and women to HIM.
(Anita James, St. Lucia, West Indies)
Take care, and take your time,
Dave.