I've been blessed with a huge variety of different types of relationships and as I'm sure you know, I take pride in them. They are a gift from God and I cherish each one. My youth are so important to me and something I've heard a lot of in the past few weeks is that the Church can be confusing because it is hypocritical in some ways. When I ask for specifics I'm not usually given too many details, but I try to do my best to explain things. That's something that the Church as a whole has always been accused of and unfortunately, it has been proven true too many times due to our human nature and the sinfulness of this world. We will never please everyone and we will often mess up. Thank God for His redemptive grace, amen??
This week I was saddened to experience some of what they were talking about. I've not been able to look past it. The issue of the Sabbath has always been a bit of a hot topic in churches. There's disagreement about what day the Sabbath falls on and what we should or should not be doing on said day. It's become so legalistic that people are turned off to the idea of regularly attending church. How sad, really.
I don't claim to be a "Sabbath genius" or anything awesome like that, but here are some of my observations/thoughts. I work on both Saturday and Sunday. That's the nature of my job. Should I quit so that I don't work on the Sabbath? The answer is a big NO! I choose to take my sabbath on Mondays. Do I sometimes have to get stuff done on Mondays? Yes. My sabbath time is spread out throughout the week because of my ministry schedule.
There are some who are of the firm belief that Sunday is the Lord's day and NOTHING should be done on that day. It must be a day of rest. I can respect that. Here's my question, though: If Sunday is indeed the Lord's day, yet you choose to go out to eat after church, are you causing others to sin? The people who cook and serve you your food, those who clean your table... those people all have to work on the Lord's day. Don't we want a restful Sabbath for those in the restaurant business? What about retail workers? Where does it end? Our culture has drastically changed and it's socially acceptable for these places to conduct business 7 days a week. Are we okay with "others" working or shouldn't we encourage them to rest as well?
I've seen people very quick to shoot something down because of the Sabbath and then seen those same people go out and expect others to work for them. So where is the line? What is acceptable? Why are we so nonchalant about the lives of others when we're so concerned about what happens to those within the 4 walls of the church building? Jesus came for all, not some.
Legalism and double standards run rampant. My hope is for my youth to know Christ in spite these things. Jesus, give us your eyes.
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