P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

PICK A DAY — ANY DAY

There's a chapter subheading in Dr. Laura Schlessinger's new bestseller, The Ten Commandments, published by HarperCollins, that says very simply: "Gimme More Time." And the good radio doctor, who, in her own words, "preaches, teaches, and nags" about morals, values, and ethics to an international audience, points out that even though our lives are so filled with these terrific, labor-saving devices, we're actually going crazy faster than ever.

"It is no longer possible," she writes, "to delay a headline by saying that the proposal is in the mail, because they can ask for a fax to be sent immediately. Prior to cellular phones, driving in a car could be a time for music, catching up on the news, intimate discussions, or hearing a book on tape." That's gone now too, isn't it? "Lunch in a restaurant could not be interrupted by the ringing of supersmall cellular phones. Working hours have now been extended by many people to include commuting time."

How'd we get to be this way anyway? Is it all Bill Gates' fault, or the people at L.A. Cellular? She adds a bit more:

"A culture that promotes instant gratification also helps to explain why life seems more hectic than it is. ‘We want everything fast — fast food, eyeglasses in an hour, drive-through banking. Internally, we feel rushed. And the more rushed someone feels, the more they feel pressed for time.'"

There she's actually borrowing from a report entitled "Americans' Use of Time Project," done by the University of Maryland, as quoted in the L.A. Times.
And then, as we've been sharing all this week, Dr. Schlessinger points us to the Bible answer. It's this fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath, this secret spice that so many people today sense is missing from the recipe called life.

And she writes so convincingly about what it can mean in the life of a person pulled in so many painful directions, when we're hurried beyond belief, drained of all remaining energy.

"Who would not be moved," she asks her readers, "by a day of liberation in which all people could acknowledge the freedom granted by God? This is our freedom from servitude under human masters, the ultimate freedom of the human soul from oppression, toward its true purpose: to serve God." She goes on: "Only God created time, the ultimate divine gift. The Sabbath is a clear reminder of God, of God's presence and importance. A day apart reminds us that the ultimate meaning in life is to be in God's service."

Well, friend, today I'd like to simply make two points. And there's so much we have to leave for another time, but I appreciate more than I can express the fact that you've been with us, that you're open to God's leading, that you've not been offended as we explore this wonderful old Book together.

But here's my first thought for Friday. You know, God knows this human race so well. He really does. It's absolutely incredible how the Bible is a blueprint for exactly how we are here in 2001. Listen, God knew that e-mail was going to be developed, and freeway jams, and beepers. There haven't been any surprise inventions for Him.

And it should be no surprise to us at all that when the Ten Commandments were given, God was very forceful in sharing this fourth law. "Remember the Sabbath day," He says. There's no fuzziness there. And then notice here in Exodus 20, verse 10: "On it [the seventh day, or Sabbath] you SHALL NOT DO any work." You will not work, God tells us. This is My command to you; you WILL NOT work. Many of us were amused a few years ago when Ted Koppel, I believe it was, remarked on some talk show that God didn't come down from Sinai with the "Ten Suggestions." No friend, God knew how we'd be going crazy, running frantically from one soccer game to the next, one errand to another. He knew how the faxes would pile up on our desks. And so in His divine wisdom, like any good father, He leaned down from Heaven and said to His children: "On every seventh day, YOU WILL NOT WORK. You WILL stop."

In one of the very thoughtfully written books we've been drawing from this week, the writers make this observation:

"By decree, precept, and exhortation the Sabbath was set before the people of Israel as one of the most important parts of the law." Now, let's not let this next line throw us off course. "The violation of this law carried the death penalty, and its neglect was one of the reasons for Israel's national catastrophe."

The point is very plain — and again, let's be mature and not overreact. The Sabbath was given clear back at Eden, of course. But when God brought it again to the forefront, to the attention of His chosen people, the children of Israel, this loving Father was very firm. "You WILL keep this special day," He told them. "I designed you to rest on the seventh day, and you will." And the fourth commandment was given equal weight with the commandment regarding murder, theft, adultery, and all the rest. There was indeed a penalty.

So we must ask ourselves this, as we consider this missing spice called the Sabbath. Would a God, who in Old Testament times, loved His people so well, and knew His children so well, that He graciously but firmly gave them this blueprint for spiritual wellness . . . suddenly abandon the Sabbath on this side of the cross?

I think the majority of Christians today seem to say one of two things. The first suggestion would be that the Sabbath is gone, no longer needed. That the law of love taught by Jesus supercedes the Ten Commandments, especially the fourth one. But do you know something? Knowing myself as well as I do, and knowing some of my work associates as well as I do, I would like to propose that the divine forcefulness of my Father in heaven is needed more here in 2001 than ever before. Believe me, if Peter, James, and John needed a COMMAND of Sabbath rest, I certainly do.

The second suggestion Christians often consider is this. The Sabbath commandment, they propose, IS what we call a "Creation ordinance," an eternal part of God's plan for our lives . . . but only in the sense of one-day-in-seven. Every believer, they suggest, owes God that time, that worship, but the human race is free to select any day of the week, any 24-hour period in that weekly cycle in which to worship and celebrate their Creator.

Well, friend, I respect my Christian brothers and sisters who embrace that teaching. But it's very clear in the Bible that in Eden, and then again at Sinai, and then again in the New Testament in the life of Jesus, that this was never the case. God blessed a particular day, and that day was the seventh day. He made just one day holy, and that was the seventh day too. Jesus, our Savior and Example, worshiped on just one day, and that was the seventh day, the Sabbath of which He was Lord. Family celebration and corporate worship made it necessary for God to command not just any-day-in-seven, but WHICH day in seven. The Jewish people couldn't even gather for prayer or to read the Torah without a minyan, or quorum of at least ten people. If everyone picked their favorite convenient day, that could never work.

Sometimes preachers, who spend all day Sunday preaching two or three times, visiting the sick, hosting a luncheon, and working up a Sabbath sweat sweeping up the church parking lot, decide that they haven't had much of a day of rest. And they say, "From now on I'll keep Monday or Tuesday as my own personal kind of Sabbath." Does every believer, then, have the option of selecting a seventh day, or the first, or the third or the fifth as it suits them?

Even the writers of the book, From Sabbath to Lord's Day, immediately spot the flaw in that.

"If the Mosaic law," they write, "were designed to teach the principle of one day's rest in seven instead of SEVENTH-DAY rest, it might be expected that its legislation would have provided for a different day of rest for the priests [Numbers 28 describes how busy THEY are], but it does not."

Well, friend, there's so much more we could consider together, but you know, I'd love to hear your ideas just as you've listened to mine. However you're seeking God, I praise our heavenly Father for that. I hope you are indeed finding rest in Him in whatever way His Holy Spirit leads you to. I mean that with all my heart.

Let me close with this final thought. Over in Mark chapter one is a little story where Jesus was over at the house of His disciple Peter. And the Bible tells us that when the sun went down, when the Sabbath was over, people brought their sick relatives over to the house for Jesus to heal. They wanted Jesus; they wanted His healing touch, but they waited and looked at their watches, and counted the minutes and seconds until the Sabbath was over, until they could see those three stars in the Saturday night sky.

And friend, that is one of the biggest missing-the-boat stories I've ever heard. Don't ever let anything keep you away from Jesus! The Sabbath is where we should FIND Him; it's never to be a barrier keeping us apart. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath! He's the great Healer who boldly made people well on the Sabbath day while the sun was blazing right through the synagogue roof.

In fact, I'll be so bold as to say this. Even Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who's written this wonderful book, The Ten Commandments, and who does so much good challenging people on the radio to live lives of wholeness . . . as she keeps the Sabbath herself each seventh day, I hope somehow she finds Jesus there too.