Tidbits

​

A series of odds and ends to consider.

​

Love is the reason Sabbath is the last day of the week. Sabbath was when God finished His acts of love, creating a paradise existence for humanity. Made in His likeness we are to do likewise. Christ explained this when healing on the Sabbath: the Father is working, so I am too. The ministry of Christ was the Father's acts of love, releasing individuals from the brokenness of the Fall's impact.

​

We see the original creation week is the pattern for the new creation life: we labor together with God until His love is manifested, bringing His restful Presence into peoples' lives. 2 Peter 1 (NKJV) confirms this.

​

1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,

7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Grace and peace multiply as we know God and Christ's Lordship. His power makes all things possible, so the glorious Promises of God come true as we escape corruption by participation in the Divine Nature.

​

FOR THIS REASON (the goal that calls us into this process) we diligently build on the gift of God, our faith; until love is appropriately manifested for the need. This is the Divine Nature functioning. We know from about 10 other NT Scriptures that faith, hope and love are a functional unit at the core of all things spiritual. The journey from God's gift of faith, to the manifest Presence of His love abounding, where our experience of Christ's Lordship is fruitfully reproducing, is through hope.

​

Hope properly applied is very powerful, and yet extremely fragile. Peter explains the 5 dimensions of hope we need to systematically develop, maintain and sustain; until the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Spirit. This is the resource we need to manifest the gifts of the Spirit, the good works of God, following Christ's example (Romans 5:1-5).

 

Love is the reason Sabbath is the end of the creation process, on the 7th day of the week, not the beginning of the process, on the 1st day of the week. To make Sabbath on the 1st day is to redefine faith as everything is okay, just rest. Ignore the mess. This is what Buddhism teaches. But faith defined in the context of the 7th day Sabbath means God can make all things good, so let's give ourselves over to hope in the desire for things to be better and labor with all that is in us (Christ in you, the HOPE of glory – Colossians 1:27-29), until the works of God are manifesting His love. The ability to hope effectively until we love Divinely reveals true faith.

​

Note - There is an article about how faith, hope, and love work together on one of our other websites, TheGraciousTenCommandments.com

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

​

 A Sabbath/Passover Connection Insight

 

"Creation seven sunrise, we stand before the burning bush of time." – Michael Card’s Sabbath song, Creation Seven Sunrise

​

Time is a burning bush: always passing, but always coming; none of it disappearing. Never consumed - it manifests eternity.

​

While this always happens, it is occurring more so on the Sabbath: the events the Sabbath represent (Creation, Exodus, Resurrection, and Millennial Restoration) are also burning bushes. They are historical Salvation events which are personally appropriated, recurring eternally.

​

So, the Sabbath is a double-portion burning bush of everyday time, just like a Sabbath sacrifice is a double-portion of the daily sacrifice.

And double portions are a Hebraic idiom about the blessings, rights and responsibilities of the firstborn. God identifies Israel as His firstborn. And that includes you, in His new Israel!

​

The firstborn is in a covenant relationship position, taking on the father's clan leadership position when he dies. This is the prototype for the suzerain covenant structure of the 'superior' leader/king providing protection and assistance for the 'inferior' leader/king. (see our other site, TheGraciousTenCommandments.com for an article about the suzerain covenant) This is the covenant God created with each individual Israeli at Mount Sinai. He treated each as a king, like He does us - the Kingdom nation of kings and priests! There is room for a lot of fruitful meditation and application of the above in relationship to us being living, walking, talking Sabbath people of God. Being the Sabbath in the flesh enables the firstborn nature. That lays the foundation for the following.

​

The burning bush was the launch of the Exodus: God called and commissioned Moses to perform the Exodus with Him. This could be 4-5 months before the Exodus: Moses’ journey back to Egypt took about 3 months and the plagues may have run up to 2 months long. So, this element of the burning bush is revelation, foresight, planning, and vision.

​

Other elements of the burning bush experience (Exodus 3) include: holy ground and removing one’s shoes, God’s desire for our full freedom and restoration, co-laboring with God; objections dissolved: questions answered, assistance provided, signs provided, instructions given.

​

As you look at God’s encounters with people, they often are done in a way that reveals long-term instructions on how to carry out the mission. If the burning bush is a ‘picture worth 1,000 words’, what would it mean for Moses to live as a burning bush prophet in this Exodus mission?

​

Which of the above elements speak to you now? Which ones do you feel an itch to study out more?

​

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

​

Most religions practice sacred space. For Israel it's primarily sacred time. Time is timeless: always the same, never ending, never decaying, each second exactly like the rest. Time, like eternity, never changes. Just the space that moves through it changes. All the Sabbath times have this in common: God is timeless, never ending, never decaying in His love for us, each moment with Him is exactly like the rest: blessed. God's heart and desire and availability to you never changes. Just the things of space, our lives, moving through His Presence, changes. Time expresses the eternity of God's way with us. This is why we need to fully observe Sabbath and not in token ways, like Pharaoh told Israel is okay for today. We need this time in His Presence to imprint us with truths and the truth He is always present, transforming the space we pass through in oneness with Him, at rest in Him, present to Him.

​

So, Sabbath takes on special meaning – it's the culmination of our overcoming life's challenges-to-our-loyalty this week, our saying no to the flesh/world/enemy's siren song for first place in our inner life. The Sabbath is a 'well done My good & faithful servant. Enter the joy of your Lord.' event. Yet another way the Millennial Sabbath is present in the weekly Sabbath.

​

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Timeout From the Game of Life

 

It's the Sabbath.

What do you need a time out from today?

Time outs are when the coach steps in to give us special instructions.

What play do you need Him to instruct you in for this coming week?

How can we pray for your time out and instruction needs today?

​

Today is the day of salvation,

Today is the day of rest,

Today we appreciate our identity in Christ,

Until we become one with our heart song and sing together His wonders with His Spirit.

This is our Fellowship.

​

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Christ was not indicating flexibility for Sabbath day observance by saying "God made Sabbath for man instead of man for Sabbath." I would suggest this is bout God's love in pointing out that the coming Kingdom was meant as a blessing for humanity. If we see "Sabbath" here as referring to his coming Kingdom, we see a proclamation about how God is "pleased to give this Kingdom" to mere humans. It is very much seen as a type of eternal life, a piece of the rest enjoyed in the coming Kingdom of God.

​

In that case, Jesus could be saying "Look, don't you know that the coming Kingdom, when even God rests, was meant as a blessing for humanity? Why then are you taking joy in burdening people's rest, which is supposed to be a foretaste of that Kingdom?"

​

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

the resurrection of Christ at the end of the weekly Sabbath has many great implications on the nature of how we rest in Christ. If we tie the routine crucifixion process that typifies God's love working out; into the death, burial & resurrection cycle of our flesh that accompanies that, we end up with the weekly Sabbath nature as being the final stage of our resurrecting into new life. That's why I see the need to keep this Sabbath - it has so much to teach me still about living the core of the life of Christ. It brings my resurrection needs into a potent weekly focus.

​

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

​

How significant is it that of all the created order, the first mention of holy, is applied to God’s use of specific time? As Abraham Joshua Heschel notes,

​

"When history began, there was only one holiness in the world, holiness in time."

​

There is much to be learned from beginnings and Biblical "first mentions." They frequently establish principles, templates, or precedents for what follows. The creation account is pregnant with such pattern establishment.

​

If we can learn anything about God, it must come through His self-revelation. If He doesn’t disclose it, we don’t know it. The Bible contains Yahweh’s sovereign self-disclosure and provides our sole insight into knowing Him. Pondering His works and actions gives us knowledge of what He is like, His purposes, His judgment, His character. Seeking God’s will and obeying His instructions bring us into yet deeper, profoundly personal knowledge of Him. That He populated time with multiple layers of Sabbaths tells us a great deal about Him. And, it shows us we need to take in and participate in this part of creation to experience His heart. We need to incorporate multiple layers of Sabbath Rest into our nature. Maybe this is part of the 'divine nature' coming to fruition in us that Peter refers to in his letters to the Church.

​