The_Deep_Thinker

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Day of Rest

it's sunday again =) and i've only got 1 more final to go on friday... trying to finish strong =) this past week, i've been cast into the "mother" role since my housemate is sick and he doesn't really know how to take care of himself... spent +2 hrs at the medical walk in clinic in kitchener today after lunch... it worries me how sick he is... keep his health in your prayers =)

hehe... i'm currently taking advantage of my ability to read quickly.. rite now, i'm skimming this book by mark buchanan about sabbaths... hehe, it's actually a present for a friend, but i'm just getting little snippits of information before i give it away... call me cheap =)

some interesting quotes from the book:

1. "busyness makes us stop caring about the things we care about. Busyness also robs us of knowing God the way we might (through being still)"

2. "indeed, the worst hallucination busyness conjures is the conviction that I am God. All depends on me. How will the right things happen at the right time if I'm not pushing and pulling and watching and worrying? Either God is good and in control, or it all depends on you."

3. "I waver between these two things -- my experience of God's Sovereignty and my need to take hold of it afresh. One minute I'm declaring that I do rest in him, the next exhorting myself that I can. And the exhortation moves the inside to the outside, from myself to the congregation, from testimony to liturgy -- trust in him at all times, O people."

4. "That's the first orentation for good Sabbath-keeping, the Godward one. It is to practice, mostly through thankfulness, the presence of God until you are utterly convinced of his goodness and sovereignty, until he's bigger, and you find you rest in him alone."

5. Buchanan was analyzing the Exodus and Deuteronomy passage regarding the 10 commandments, and specifically the one about keeping the Sabbath holy. He makes this very interesting comment: "The Exodus, command, with its call to imitation, plays on a hidden irony: we mimic God in order to remember that we're not God. In fact, that is a good definition of Sabbath: imitating God so that we stop trying to be God." We mirror divine behaviour only to freshly discover our human limitations. Sabbath-keeping involves a recognition of our own weakness and smallness, that we are made from dust, that we hold our treasure in clay jars, and that without proper care we break."

6. Isaiah 58: 13-14:

13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

posted by ~*~VaNeSsA~*~ -- 4:55 p.m.

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