Designed To Be Producers In A Land Of Consumers

On this day of rest let me talk to you about work. Yahweh designed us to do stuff. We were not designed to put our brains in neutral and consume everything in sight. We have been wired to be producers, contributors, givers and we see it from the very beginning of time.

Yahweh didn't just create Adam and set him loose on the earth. He took Adam and gave him something to do, something to contribute:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

It's only one verse but it is an important one. We can look at the entire Old Testament and see many things that Yahweh could have done for himself but instead he brought people into it. Many things he could have done on his own but instead he had us partner with him. Is this because he lacked something that only we could bring to the table? Hardly. Yahweh is self-sufficient in all things. He wanted us to have something to do, to contribute something to what he was doing. He wanted us to have something for our hands to do.

In the world that followed, shaped by the Fall, shaped by our sin and selfishness, it is a hard truth for us to perceive. We are bent on consuming everything in sight without contributing anything. Being a producer takes effort, energy and often imagination. In many cases, producers produce for the benefit of others with little benefit for themselves, except for that incredible sense of joy and pleasure that comes from producing. Just ask a writer, painter, dancer, singer, musician, doctor, fireman, pastor.

There are so many things we can do to contribute to Yahweh's plan, a plan he has called us to partner in with him. He told us to be his witnesses, to testify of his goodness, love, of his plan of salvation. He has called us to reflect his glory in the many wonderful facets that it manifests itself through us. But it requires a perspective of giving, producing, contributing to the lives of others. We sometimes call this service and it is at the heart of of life in Christ.

We may not have a garden to tend and keep but Jesus has placed us in another type of garden, one filled with people. As frightening as it is sometimes to realize, we are here to work, to contribute, to have things produced through us. It requires sacrifice and sometimes suffering. The garden has no idea what we are doing and often is hostile to us but we have been told to love regardless, even if they hate us and consider us their enemy. Turn the other cheek and continue to contribute to their lives with love, kindness, patience, determination and sacrifice. Give until there is nothing left to give and soon you will discover that Yahweh never allows the "oil" to run out. Contribute to others as Jesus has contributed to us and you will please the only one who should matter to you. Serve Strong.

The Purpose Of The Sabbath

The principle of the Sabbath Rest goes beyond a law to be obeyed. Everything Yahweh put in place has a greater purpose that we should seek to understand so that we can live it with purpose. It is more than a chosen day for worship. It is more than a day when we consider spiritual matters. These things cannot be contained within the restrictions of a calendar day. Worship and and meditation are infused into every day of the week. So what is the purpose of a Sabbath? Consider the Scriptures:

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3)

Yahweh had finished everything he had set himself to do. It was finished. On this seventh day Yahweh created one last thing as he declared it was finished; rest. Rest is the intended purpose of the Sabbath. Do we really think that the Creator was tired and needed a break? Not at all, but having completed everything, he set into place the rest from labour. It was intended to be a time of recuperating strength. It was put into place as a thing of restoration.

When we examine the laws that were put into place under Moses we find this principle of rest. There was the seventh year, the Sabbath year, the year of restoration. In the seventh year the fields would be given rest; nothing would be planted. In the seventh year all lands that had been sold would be restored to their proper owner. In the seventh year, anyone who had sold themselves as a slave would be released. It was a year of rest and restoration. Now bring it back to the seventh day.

From the very beginning Yahweh had not created us to be machines, working without rest. Our body, mind and spirit need rest from work, to rest and be restored. We need a time to come away and relax, to take a deep breath, to reflect on our week and call it good. It is only natural that we would also use this day for corporate worship, for reflecting on the goodness of Yahweh, to consider our blessings and be refreshed and restored spiritually as well as physically. We need this daily as well but there are special blessings found in the corporate activity of worship.

We just need to be careful that we do not turn the Sabbath into a law that destroys its intended purpose. The one thing Jesus kept coming up against was the restrictive attitude of the spiritual leaders toward the Sabbath. Jesus said that Sabbath was created for man, not man for the Sabbath. Our rest should never keep us from doing what is right and good. It is intended as a day of blessed rest, not tortured restrictions. Yahweh intended it as a blessing for us, so practice the Sabbath, on whatever day you can, because you need rest and restoration. Be blessed in it and give Father the glory for the love and wisdom he pours out on us.