finishing chapter 31 I was so encouraged… it was the part about the Sabbath… it said something like “but most of all” [or some sort of superlative] “keep the Sabbaths…” and God said it was so Israel could remember that HE sanctifies them. I don’t know what the Hebrew really means there… it might say it’s so Israel could remember that God “set them apart.” I think “sanctification” might have a slightly different meaning to Christians now. It makes me think of the progressive sanctification that my pastor always talks about… that as we actively try to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, God will make us more like Christ over time. And these two ideas are related. But I think EITHER meaning fits with this idea of Sabbath. And I thought “if I really believed that GOD sanctifies me – that He both sets me apart and makes me more like Christ as I humble myself to the Holy Spirit – then I wouldn’t feel like I had to DO STUFF all the time. It would be easier to take a Sabbath.” I wonder if to the degree that we understand that God sanctifies us, we will willingly and easily take a Sabbath. That and God said he would kill people if they didn’t. Anyway, that’s what I am thinking about today…

Posted by Tricia Dealy