Picking Up Sticks

Sunday has just started. I'm up and waiting, friends are coming in. So I decided it is a good time to talk with you. Oh I wish, we'd be sitting together on a couch, or at a table with a cup of coffee. My mind has been rumbling on a lot of issues. I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of my "issues."

I am reading through the Old Testament, and the command for a day of rest was given to the Children of Israel in the desert. It wasn't a day to satisfy self, it was to be a day of rest. I think a holy rest. For you see, I just read Numbers 15 this morning, verse 32 says that a man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. God commanded the people to stone him.

Wait a minute, you may think. That is harsh, to kill a man for picking up sticks on a Sabbath. But God commanded the Sabbath to be holy. Although, we don't have a Sabbath as it were in the Old Testament, but I am wondering if there should be a day of rest for us? Would our accomplishments be greater if we took a moment to meditate on the Lord...for a day that is.

To be honest, I'm not sure we even honor God on Sunday. We go to church, but while we are there we are planning where to eat and what we will do after we leave church. Have you ever tried to sit for one hour and concentrate and meditate solely on God. The busy-ness of our life finds its way into our thoughts. Of course, we need to watch ball games on Sunday afternoon/evening. And do the laundry for we were just too busy during the week to get it done. After all, God wouldn't want our kids to go to school with mussed up clothes.

Maybe, just maybe, we are picking up too many sticks on Sunday, a day of rest. We do need a rest. We need that time with the Lord. Oh how precious those moments are, when we actually take the time and listen to Him. He takes pleasure in our abiding in Him. He is waiting to give us a rest, a refreshing. I do believe a day of Rest would refresh us more than we can imagine.

God gave us Sunday, use it for His Glory.

God bless you.