The 8th day- seeking the why

 

I have a lot of wonderful friends who are Seventh Day Adventists.  I love them dearly and fellowship with them often. I try to be respectful of their choices, because they are just as dedicated to worshipping Christ as I am.  There are some differences in HOW we choose to worship, but that's OK, because the thing God blesses is that we make choices to serve him. Christ allowed, as Paul often taught, that we be respectful of various customs among peoples of the world, even while we remain dedicated to our own choices. So as I consider the elements of God's view on rest, I wish to convey that I am merely putting to "print" the reason why I choose to worship, as many Christians do, on the 8th day. Not to rebuff anyone for choosing the 7th day. For God, it is about making the Choice to honor him, to find rest and fellowship, and to be consistant as much as possible.  We honor him by accepting his grace, that allows us to find his blessings in whatever way we are able. As I make a case for my choice to set aside the 8th day, (Sunday,) as my chosen "day of worship" I will initially seem to contradict myself.  Because for thousands of years, the people of God followed the direction of God, to rest on the 7th day.

The Old Testament is a storyline that covers hundreds of years of the history of God's people, the Israelites. But they were not even called that in the days of Abraham.  The style of their worship developed over those hundreds of years, just at the Christian mode of worship has changed in the hundreds of years since Christ died. The Ten Commandments were only given to God's people when, after coming out from the influence of the Egyptians, they seemed not to understand that God expected them to worship only him, and have a greater respect for one another.  They had picked up some really bad habits while on Egyptian soil. Again, not that Egyptians are "bad" people, but that in the 3 -400 years since Joseph was a prince in Egypt, a great conflict had developed as the children of Joseph's family became slaves to the world of the Egyptian Pharoahs.  The people of God were lost in more ways than being  physically away from their homeland. They were lost about how to worship God.

God's own people had lost a sense of his provision and blessing, and they were full of pent up frustrations, fear, and discoragement.  They lacked a sense of faith, and their situation had robbed them of making choices that honored God.  Escaping Egypt had taken a great deal of courage, but they had no idea that they would find themselves lacking in so many areas. Many which took the courage to make their own choices, on how to actually live with one another, without the hand of Pharoah guiding their every move.  Moses found himself needing to become an instructor of discipline, so he sought God for guidelines. And God obliged beginning with the 10 commandments. 

This need for self-discipline is recurrent through out history. The very word Disciple comes from the root word of Discipline. Or is it the other way around?  To be a disciple of Christ we must make choices of self-discipline. One of the first elements of self-discipline established in Scriptures came long before the 10 commandments era.  It began with God himself. It is making a choice to rest. When God had spent 7 days of making our world he chose to rest. He took a break to reflect and also to look forward to the plan he had that would give us an opportunity to know his full love for us, and become one with him. Because he had given us the gift of choice.  Something that exudes freedom, and is a major element in his own character.

As with many discussions, there are differences in the beliefs of how long those "seven days" took to occur.  Scripture tells us that a Day in the Lord is as a thousand years.  Within the description of *1000 years is a symbolism that it was in God's time frame, not ours. And man's understanding, early in the story of historical mankind, had little concept of a thousand years, much less the emmenseness of God's time frame. So I really don't care if God actually made the world in the seven day time frame as we know it. (Although I believe he could have.)  I even doubt that God intended us to see it as a literal 7 human days, because at one time early in creation, day and night as we know it, were not even created yet. So, if it was in God's framework of thousands of years, I am satisfied that God is less concerned that we know how long it took, as that, even in his timeframe, (not even a literal 7000 years,) there were set aside times to start and stop. Time itself began with God, and an operating funtional framework of time allowed God to begin to teach us a lot about himself.  As he named the time he created for us - evening and morning were invisible markers for beginning a clockwork for setting boundaries. Within it, God knew we could function and find the rest our bodies would need. So the earliest "law" that he demonstrated to us was taking an extra break, beyond our daily sleep, to rest from our labors, and the number 7 was his number of completion for that "week." Thus establishing a definite period of time, but also a number upon which to formulate many more cycles of life.  Numbers became one of the earliest formats upon which God began to help us understand his designs,and the structure upon which all the universe functions. 


I was recently rebuffed by an non-beleiver concering the timeframe in which God was said to have created our earth.  He was mocking the ridiculousness of all of earth's history being under a human 6 day creation time. This person never considered that he actually didn't have any idea what I actually believe about creation.  He also was not even recognizing this underlying concept of time and numerics and boundaries based on math, and light and units of "time: as being far too much a part of the existance of the universe to not have a basis for their existance. Those very things that "scientific" thinking individuals use to discount God's existance are the very things that prove to me he exists. The vastness of the knowlege conveyed to men who barely understood the basics of it's workings, much less the true mathmatical truth upon which we now build the rockets that get us into space for instance. And yet we are so small in our knowlege of it, we can barely get past the moon, and assume that all that keeps the vastness of all we do not know is not based upon a power we do not fully understand? I call that amazing power, GOD.  He is so much greater than we can percieve, that I am humbled that He even cares about us at all. All the universe, no matter how big or small, cannot be an accident with all of the controls in place that make it disciplined within itself, so much so, that I can count on day and night, and year after year, just because it happens to be the unique sequence that was needed for me to exist.  I believe that we are not the only ones in the universe to be the recipients of that kind of love, but that there is enough distance between us that we will not know of others in God's design until we become a part of his world.  The Spiritual World.  One of my questions when I get there, if I could take questions with me, would be - Why does God even establish times of rest for himself?  I imagine the answer to that question will be nothing I even dream of.  But I rejoice that he began the Book of Genesis by guiding its writer to include early in the verses the concept of numbers, and that the number seven indicates a place where we stop, to find rest.

The number seven means complete, finished, a time for rest, done, pause, contemplate, seek God, and about anything that brings us to a place where we must take time to prepare for a new beginning. 
Til next time.  When we discuss the number 8.
Thank you, Jesus that the first number you helped me understand beyond the numbers one and 3 which obviously were symbolic of you - as one God, and as a triune being- was the number 7.  The number of working through to a point of completion. Helping me to know that there could be a pause in life, each and every week to stop. To regroup, to seek communtion with you, to rest from work.  I love all the implications both to life and to my interpretation of the scriptures this concept brings. Bless my study of the deeper things in the word, that knowing that you also began by establishing this as the first number with which to start this study.  YOU gave me the number 7 as a place to begin understanding the deeper things pertaining to Grace and Holy blessings. And to becoming one with your Spirit.   AMEN

*For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:40

*But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. II Peter 3:8

In Revelation, chapter 20, the reign of Christ on earth is discussed as a thousand year reign 3 verses in a row.  These verses define death and resurrection in those days as Satan being detained for 1000 years, bound by the power of Christ, unable to interfere in Christ's interaction with mankind.  Symbolic of the 3 days of Christ's rest time in the tomb, followed by Christ victory over death due to his resurrection; it is also a reminder that symbolically, Satan is allowed to rule the earth til the morning of the 3rd day since Christ died.  But then Christ once again returns to defeat Satan's work on earth which embattles Christians in their daily walk.  Makes a strong case for us nearing the end of this AGE. We are in the morning of the third day.

In all three of the above, a thousand years is only a day in the Lord's time...

In God's timing we are in the day of Atonement. Year number 10 in the 1000s of years of the "Story of Mankind."  7 plus 3 is the day of Atonement.  In human years and in God's time. Not only symbolic, but definitely in our world and his.

Rest:

Number 7 is the scriptural symbol for rest.  – Stopping point

Also significant is 7x7 plus 1 is 50  = grace,  grace follows patience and rest = the crucifixion

7^th day of 7^th month plus 3 days is day of atonement - equates to the resurrection

Sabbath to Sabbath is 8 days, significant of 7 days plus God’s intervention is the 8^th day, or a new beginning. 

Scheduling life from rest to rest forms a new mindset for new beginnings.

Rest, restore, restoration

God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Gen 1:5

Genesis 8:4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

Another word for anxiety is restlessness.

Genesis 40:13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place,

Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. Exodus 23:12

How does not resting affect others?

Exodus 33:14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

If you pull up the laws and read about all those rest scriptures and the days and numbers of days…you will discover that hidden among the numbers and words are a picture of Christ’s death and resurrection. “A solemn rest and a Holy Convocation, afflict your souls…

Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. Leviticus 23:39   Why we worship on the 8^th day.

Numbers 10:33 So they departed from the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them for the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. Leviticus 23:27

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. Leviticus 23: 27

We all know that God rested on the seventh day, not because he needs rest in the physical sense, but because setting boundaries for our world was important to him, and because he took time ot reflect before he moved on.  Rest is a very large part of the human existance because our whole being needs it. Think about the words that are derived from the word rest: rest, restore, restoration, restraint. Stopping within a boundary to be revived.  And this one - restlessness, another word for anxiety.  It goes without saying that rest is about more than just sleep, but do we really think, when we are unrested, about what the lack of it is doing to our lives and those around us? Rest is about boundaries, having the mental strength to reflect on where we have been, deciding when to stop, bringing things back to normal,  and taking a stand for our own well being.

Scriptures define the boundaries for our rest with the number 7. It is the number for completion, being finish, and for rest. On the cross, Jesus said:
“It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30
Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away...John 19:31

It was because it was the time for the Sabbath, the same 7th day that God established after his work week was finished, that Jesus called for his suffering to end. He made the decision for himself before the Jews went to Pilate. The same 7th day about which so many old testament laws revolve. The same one that is repeated over and over throughout centuries when referencing times frames for the feasts. He decided that an end had come to his work, and it was time to honor God's seventh day, to rest. (excerpt was also used on My Wings Are Made of Faith blog.)

The feasts were often on a 7 day time frame as well and intended to set aside a time for the people to rest, and find joy.  Many of the feasts were meant to be celebrations. So rest is also meant to be a time to restore your joy.

It used to bother me that the time frame and the numbers didn't fit with our 24 hour daily routine, which included 8 hours of rest. That is until I discovered the correlation between the number 7 being the Stop time and 8 being the Beginning time.  This establishes the number 8 as the Bible symbol for new beginnings. Now lest there be someone who thinks the numerics are hocus pocus, they were very important to God.  When reading the Old Testament, you often run into time frames that are laid out around groups of 7 plus 1. 8 hours of rest, according to Old Testament thinking, began a new day. Where we see it as an end, God wanted us to see it as a beginning. But when the number 7 is used, the rest follows work and is also the predecessor for a new week beginning. In this concept 7 plus 1 is the begining of a new week.  

5 which is the number of Grace, and 10 which is the number of Atonement when multiplied make 50. 50 is also a set of *7 sevens plus 1. The symbolism is that there should be a definite time frame when, although life's difficulties overwhelm week after week, we decide to say, "Enough! I am finished for the moment. I am finding rest for myself!" Then that time is followed by a new beginning, and in doing so I am honoring God's command to do so. In other words, you have the God given right, in fact the God given command to give yourself the break. You see, the number for God the creator, most high, and author of our destiny is 1. In times of hardship, he expects us to seek him to intervene for rest from our circumstances. Or when we have finished a segment of time in life when something has come full circle. As you get older, you begin to see these life patterns. Allow me to build a scriptural case: 

Here's the law: (as in the law of night and day, the law of gravity, and of forward motion...all the things God put in place to make life possible and functioning.) 

Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. Exodus 23:12

Within this law is a reference to how rest will affect every one around you, including employees, your animals and people you don't even know. Even your employees' children. Your rest or lack of it will effect everything around you. When you don't rest, your family, friends, employees, neighbors, and the customer who walks into your business, whom you never met, will notice and be affected by it.

 Now consider this:

Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.Genesis 8:4 

The ark is the place of safety when everything else was destroyed. The symbolism in the story of the ark is about the earth being cleansed of sinfulness and God making atonement, and when that process was complete - finished, he allowed that there would be a new beginning. In Noah's story are strong references to Christ as our savoir. And throughout the story are numerical references. (The number7 being how many pairs of animals were brought into the ark, and 2 for pairs, meaning blessing, reproduction, and  restoration.) You can almost go crazy with the number connotations but to be short -  

1.  The ark rested in the 7th month - the flood was finished.
2.  It was the seventeenth day - 10 the number of atonement + 7 the number of completion,  the atonement was finished.
3. 17 is a 1 and a 7 - which when added is 8, meaning it was time for a new beginning.
4. The final meaning - God's (1) completed work of atonement, when finished is a point of new beginning, blessing, restoration, and a fresh clean start.

Can you see Jesus's death and ressurection in the timing of the ark's numerics? Jesus underwent more than a human could  bare on the cross, and even in his misery, he called a time for rest, completion, a stopping point. And he did it in accordance to God his father's command to rest on the Sabbath, the seventh day. But once the atonement was complete in his 3 days of rest, he brought forth new life in his resurrection.  

 In God's language of creating the universe, it said... 

 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:5   

The old bilbical day began in the early evening. Jesus knew that the day of rest was at hand.  He said it is finished, just as his father had, because he was God, and it was very much a part of God to conclude his work and follow it with a day of rest. Now if you haven't already noticed, Atonement is 7 days plus 3 or 10.  The number is 1 plus a zero - God plus nothing else. Or with out God there is no atonement. Once Jesus came to his resting place in order to fulfill the numerical order for atonement, there must be 3 days before his new beginning.  So Jesus waited until the 3rd day in his place of rest, before he came forth from the grave, to establish a new beginning for all of mankind.  

The Lord Knows Best

I love when you can see the Lord working on your situation. I have learned to look for the times when He changes the agenda to be able to look backwards and see how by changing things He did it for your benefit.  A recent change of destinations for a birding trip/mini vacation, was just such an instance.  We were limited to how far we could go by a smaller budget, but discovered upon return that we weren't ready for a longer trip.  Thank you Jesus for your gifts of protection and love.AMEN

Do you need a Savoir

 

When we take on a ministry of helping others by sharing God's word, and giving uplifting or hopeful information, we sometimes risk reaching the lost and producing fruit for the Kingdom of God.  Sometimes, it seems like you are "preaching to the choir" as they say.  Like everyone you are speaking to already knows all this, and you are just rattling your tongue.  But, I try to remember, that everyone does have times that they need encouragement, and a gentle reminder that Christ cares.  And yet, is it all fluff when we aren't winning souls?

Both ministries are valuable, but reaching the lost far exceeds the helping ministry.  So I sometimes feel pulled between the two.  Until I remember that the Lord can use you where ever you are.  There was a time that I was daily among so many Christian friends that I could not name a single person whom I knew that was lost.  And almost all of those persons were practicing Christians.  Most of my ministry was to share prayer and encouragement as is my ususal practice now. But I hired a high school teen, and found myself flustered when he asked me one day, "Who is this Jesus, anyway?"

I had begun to pray that God would use me to lead souls to Christ, and He answered by sending me one person who in his whole life had not understood or even heard much about a loving savoir.

Over time, this young man began to seek Christ's salvation by asking multitudes of questions. He found himself at odds with his parents over it. And Satan stepped in and did some pretty scarey things to destroy my testimony and crush this young man's desire to know an answer to "Is God real?"

Eventually, he walked into my living room one day, and said, "Can you guess what happened to me this morning?" I had told him of how you could actually see in the eyes of chlldren the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when they accept Christ as Savoir.  I was practicing piano and I didn't look up when he asked me to guess, so he wouldn't tell me until I stopped playing and looked up.  Never once had it crossed my mind that he had asked Christ to be his savoir, but the instant I looked at his face I could see it in his eyes. I gasped and smiled and laughed and declared, "You asked Christ to save you! "

He could hardly wait to tell me. His hair was still wet. "I just wondered if you would see it in my eyes too, " he said. "And you did, so it must be real."

I laughed, "you mustn't go by my acknowlegement. You tell me what happened to you this morning." He then told me of how as he took his shower, and was washing himself clean, he thought of how simple it would be to just have Jesus wash his soul clean as well. So he just prayed, right there while the water ran down across his face, that God would do for his soul the kind of cleansing his Bible spoke of.  And he said, "Immediately I knew you would be able to see it in my eyes that Jesus had cleaned my sins away too."

I don't know who out there needs to know that there is a definite time that Jesus spoke to their heart, and asked for the opportunity to walk in through the heart's door and do house cleaning.  Maybe, someone is just not sure of their salvation. I pray for you. I long to be productive in winning souls to Christ while continuing to share the blessings of being a Christian.  What I do isn't about good feelings, it is about knowing God, and letting him live in your soul. 

A relationship with God is the most valuable gift you will ever get.



 



Lord I pray for a soul needing Christ today to find the path to getting the answers they need, so they might also come to a saving Knowlege, and open their own heart to the Spirit of God that indwells and keeps us.  May they find the love that You offer, and not be afraid to submit their sins to your cleansing power.  In Jesus Name, AMEN

 



Peace Of Mind

A number of years ago I sat a while and tried to define peace for myself.  What did peace of mind mean for me. I knew immediately that it was connected to security.  Feeling safe in Jesus. And I thought of how as a child, for years after my salvation, no matter the turmoil in life, I felt so safe with Jesus. I also felt cared for. Like he was providing my every need. I fully expected it. I was content with what I had.  But I often was delighted to have the most secret desires of my heart fulfilled, knowing only God knew what they were, and he provided them too. I knew that inner peace wasn't dependant upon outer peace. Oh my, no! I could have peace in spite of the the outer tumoil. And there was a lot of it, frankly. My childhood was rocky. But blessed.  I certainly didn't have the same faddish clothing as the wealthier students at my school. But I sincerely didn't even notice much. Somethimes, they were all wearing the same thing, and I was different. I rather liked not getting on that wagon.
Once I had that mental image of child-like dependance upon God and being happy where I was, 'cause back then I smiled a lot, I remembered that, even then, I knew it was God's peace. I felt as if I were feeling the oneness with God's Spirit.  It only took a few minutes to realize that it wasn't a list of things that gave me peace, but that connection with the Holy Spirit within me that gave me peace. It was more than that though. It is a spirit of submission to his working through me that gives me peace. Not a mindless submission to an overpowering controling manipulating dominance. It is easy to recognize now that I am older and have a few years of doing battle with that spirit to recognize ole Satan's kind of control. Instead, just the opposite happens if I relinquish to the Spirit of God.  He opens my mind to think freely. He opens the doors, pulls down the walls, restores my joy, heals my brokenness, restores my energy, clears my head...and just plain gives me peace. Life expands, I can see the impossible as possible.
So once I had thought about it, I prayed that I could have that peace once more, as from a child-like point of view.  No worries about this world and all the emotional turbulance that often comes with focusing there. I wanted the peace where you were not worrying over the what to's, what if's, whys, and how do I's of this world. The result is that God has renewed a sweet spirit within me.  I have more tolerance, more sense of justice, and recognition of blessings.  I find my joy in the laughter of my grandchild instead of attaining the next thing.  It's funny how once we have jobs, we get stuck in finding joy in what to buy next. Not that we shouldn't buy things, or find joy there...it's just that I had lost that peace that frees me for the driven to achieve, aquire, and become kind of seeking that always put peace at arms length.  Rather than my peace being out there somewhere, it is here within me.
Peace of mind, is not just a quietness in my mind, but a quietness in my soul.  Not a quietness like silence, just a calmness that drinks in sustenance from the daily provision of an almighty, all knowing, all encompassing God. It allows me to let him deal with the tough stuff. 
This week we have seen God do his mighty work on someone we love. His healing hand has made a miracle...hurray! And all we had to do was let him walk before us, and see what his grace would provide. 
I have praise for him today... because I have recognized that once again he has given me the desire of my heart. Only he knew that I was asking for peace like when I was first saved...and only he could provide it.  So I know the source of my peace, and I know the process he used to give it.  Recognizing the presence of God and seeing that peace manifested in my life once more grieves me that I have not asked for it before now.  I just allowed the heaviness of life draw my attention away from watching God live in my life as Jesus lived when he walked the earth in flesh.
Even Christ, when he prayed that agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where his anxiety seemed to overwhelm him...was taking upon himself the anxiety of the world so that it might be dealt with.  Even then he was doing battle with Satan and experiencing what we deal with when we go there. Jesus knew the outcome, and that he would win the battle. Even he stood firmly on the promises of his Father, and allowed the Father to go before him to prepare the way.
Even the cross was what Satan presumed he would use to persuade men, that he has power in this world. That is why I really love the ressurection cross, because I don't look just to the cross for my peace, but I look to the ressurection to where Satan was defeated, for my peace. I am empowered by knowing Jesus gave to us the power of the Spirit that carried him through those dark hours in his life. When all the people around Christ thought that their savoir was lost to the power of an evil world, the ressurection was proof that nothing stands in the way of God's ability to provided life and that more abundantly.. It renewed their hope immediately.
Praising the God of my peace! Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world! AMEN