How To And Why Celebrate The Sabbath

How to and why celebrate the Sabbath day is the topic of our Bible study today. This world is sullied by sin—spinning out of control. And yes, our spiritual vision becomes blurred from time to time. The Sabbath is heavenly Father Yahweh’s sacred solution to woo us away from the world and refocus our fragmented attention. For one full day (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) we set aside individual worldly interests and we seek our pleasure in Him. Our Father in heaven reserved one day a week for our rest and for the joy of communing with Him. It’s more than a day for church services–it’s a day to develop a deepening personal relationship with our Creator Elohim. As always, we’ll let the Bible interpret itself as we humbly ask for Yahweh’s Holy Spirit for the wisdom to carry on this faithful heavenly message. May you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear for this true biblical preaching.

To start off, the Sabbath is not a day for commercial commotion. Yes, our heavenly Father Yahweh clearly instructs us not to be distracted with any buying and selling during the Sabbath day (Nehemiah 10:31, 13:15-22). It’s also very helpful to a believer to complete grocery shopping, laundry, and major housekeeping early in the week. Our Father in heaven designed this one day to be a memorial of His love, His sovereign power, and our true rest, found in His Begotten Son Yahshua the Messiah alone. As we celebrate His goodness, it results in a weekly commitment to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). The Sabbath is a weekly reminder to us that Yahshua paid the price to purchase our freedom from the bondage of sin. We owe our life to Him! He wants to have an intimate relationship with us all. He sanctified the Sabbath hours for us to celebrate His love, worship Him, and enjoy Christian fellowship with family and friends. Still, the spirit of the Sabbath-keeping is more than a time of worship, fellowship, and physical rest. So how do we then celebrate the Sabbath in such a way that it becomes a day of happiness and holy joy? Below are a few holy suggestions.

• Celebrate Yahweh’s Rest—Read the Bible or a good Christian book.
• Celebrate Yahweh’s Creation—Take a nature walk, a country drive, go bird watching, or rowing on the lake, seeing Elohim’s handiwork in every detail of nature. Keep the conversation focused on Elohim. Take a camera along, collect flowers, insects, or other objects of nature and start a Creation scrapbook.
• Celebrate Yahweh’s Word—Share a Bible story or Scripture promises. If you have children let them reenact a Bible story or have a Bible treasure hunt. Allow them to lead in a family devotional. Play Bible games. Give a friend a Bible study.
• Celebrate Prayer—Write out your prayer to the Sovereign in a prayer journal. Or start a family journal of dated prayer requests and dated answers.
• Celebrate Yahweh’s Mercy—Do something to relieve the suffering of others. Visit jails or orphanages, write cards of encouragement to those who are ill or grieving, feed the homeless. Create craftwork to take to shut-ins.
• Celebrate The Family—Focus on deepening your relationship with each other and with Elohim. Discuss Elohim’s plan for each family member, how you can draw nearer to Him, and how to recognize His leading. Talk about Elohim’s loving character, and how He is recreating each of you to be transformed into His divine nature and into His Family.
• Celebrate Yahweh’s Gift Of Music—Gather around the piano or get out the guitar and have a songfest, learn a new Christian song, or write a song about the Most High.
• Celebrate The Sabbath—With testimonies of thanksgiving and another short but sincere prayer. Recommit to live for Elohim’s glory and ask Him to make His power perfect in your weakness–to exchange His strength for yours–through the upcoming week.
• Celebrate The Hope Of Eternal Life—Talk about eternal life in the coming new earth. Encourage children to imagine building a country home out of living materials, riding on the tiger’s back, or playing with some other animal that will no longer be threatening.
• Celebrate The Sabbath With Yahshua, our Master, Savior and King—After all, the Son of Man (Yahshua) is the Master even of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5).

The suggestions above are addressed to families, couples and singles. If you’re single, apply them to a gathering of friends. If you’re a couple, share these suggestions to other couples. If you’re the only member of the family who has accepted the Sabbath truth, do all you can to implement these practices and allow Elohim to show your family His holy day is full of joy. If your actions demonstrate that the Sabbath is a time of delight, then family members will be more likely to join you in this day of perfect harmony with Almighty Yahweh and His Begotten Son Yahshua. The object of the Sabbath is “oneness” with Elohim—a day when we wholeheartedly concentrate on our relationship with Him. Yahweh wants us to call His holy day a delight, not a day of drudgery (Isaiah 58:13). In this sinful and time-starved world, we can become disjointed from the right and good relationships that should be our top priority. Yes, the Sabbath is a gift of time—a time for that 100% perfect reunion with Elohim and our family—a “timeout” that restores and sustains our outer and inner peace and joy. The Sabbath was made for the “sake of mankind.” (Mark 2:27). This is our Elohim-given holy day from the hassles of everyday life. On this very special day, we can ignore worldly demands and enter a time of refreshing from Yahweh. It rejuvenates us spiritually and physically. We must honor the Sabbath on the correct day! Read and learn more about the real truth on biblical Shabbat here and here.

In closing, Yahweh our Elohim crowned His creation with a day set aside to commemorate His glorious act of love. He purposely ordained the seventh day (Saturday) for the benefit of man—for our spiritual and physical health—so we could respond to His love. Yes, Yahweh sanctified this sacred day for eternity as a perpetual covenant (Exodus 31:16. He called it “My holy day” (Isaiah 58:13). Sabbaths are to celebrate our relationship with Elohim—a sign of His covenant to sanctify us. Just as in Isaiah 30:15, the voice of the heavenly Father is still calling, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” That beautiful promise reflects the spirit of the Sabbath. But sadly, the Scripture does not end there. The heartbreak of Elohim’s disappointment can be sensed as He adds, “But you would not.” Can a true child of Yahweh, led by the Holy Spirit, ignore the only commandment that Elohim emphasized we should remember—the seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath? The only right answer to that question is a big resounding NO! Listen to the voice of our loving Savior (Yahshua) calling out to us now, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Our true love for Yahweh Elohim creates the motive to keep His holy commandments. Yahshua the Messiah’s power living in us creates the momentum. You’ve just learned how to and why celebrate the Sabbath day. May this true and faithful Bible teaching inspire you now to do the right things in regards to the holy Sabbath. Let us continue to spread global love, hope, faith and truth . May Yahweh bless the doers of His word, our brothers and sisters of the same faith. We humbly pray these things to Yahweh in the name of Yahshua our Master, Savior and King, Amen. Halleluyah, Shalom!