Which side of the fence?

10/23/10 Saturday
Saturday is the day that was, and is, the original Sabbath day. It is still recognized as such in Judaism, and in some Christian circles. One of the ten commandments is to “remember the Sabbath, keep it holy”. This has long been a source of contention in the church, that is which day to keep holy or for that matter whether we need to keep any day holy. It can be a complex issue that creates lots of controversy, with different people strongly presenting and defending their beliefs regarding it. I know that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath mentioned, the “Day of rest” in the creation story. I also know that in Acts 20.7 and 1 Corinthians 16.2 there is a clear indication of the early church meeting together on the “First day of the week” though there is no clear declaration regarding this practice. It is also clear that Paul and others did observe the Sabbath and attended the synagogue on a regular basis. Ultimately this comes down to the Law versus Grace debate that I will write on later. With the rise of the Hebrew Roots movement comes many questions and a disturbance of the comfortable status quo many have maintained. It’s the “We’ve always done it this way” mentality that always comes with the traditions of men. Ultimately what’s important is the truth, what’s important is the question “What does God desire of us?”.

For me, today is Saturday. Every day should be seen as the day the Lord has made and every day we should all live to honor our creator with our thoughts and the words that come out of our mouths. I will spend much of today studying the bible and working on the letters and lessons I need to prepare. Plus I am proceeding on the books I am writing. There are things that need doing on the farm but I’ve neglected so much while working on the farm that I must make time to focus on them.

The widow has a hairline fracture in her hip. She just learned of it when she went to the doctor yesterday and that explains the pain she’d been having. We will go visit her later today. The doctor told her she could not work in the yard and needs to stay in bed as much as possible. I had been planning on doing some more work in her yard, putting out more of the lava rock but that may be put on hold now. Cherie is in town doing laundry so when she’d done I’ll meet her over at the widow’s house. I’ll take out garbage and perhaps we’ll fix some food for her, just see what I can find do help out with.

I can’t believe it’s already 11:00. Time sure is flying. Y’all have a good day. Pray. Pray for this country and pray for the many who are lukewarm in their Christianity, that they choose which side of the fence they will walk on instead of living a life of compromise.
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We just got back from the widow’s. It’s almost 5:00 now. It’s amazing how such a simple thing as visiting can tire you out. She’s in a lot of pain and finally found a way of half sitting and half laying down that doesn’t hurt too bad. She’d forgotten about an appointment to get her dogs bathed so had taken them in for that this morning. We pressed her to let us pick them up and buy some dog food they needed and she finally agreed to that. Mrs. G. likes to take care of herself and I certainly understand that attitude because it’s a problem I have. She signed a blank check we could use to pay for the bath and dog food. We picked up her two Pomeranians at pet smart along with a bag of dog food. They have a deal that finds homes for dogs every Saturday and we looked at the dogs from a distance, remembering the puppies that Ben and Gretchen had that we found homes for here as well as the many stray dogs that had been dropped off. Some of the dogs were older than usual and included a very friendly German Shepherd. We forced ourselves to keep moving past them all and went to the checkout counter.

Mrs. G. asked if I thought her car ran rough. “Not that I can tell” I told her but reminded her that after driving my truck everything seemed gentle. The check engine light was on and I thought that perhaps the brakes were a little noisy so Monday I’ll take her car in to get checked.

It’s hard to believe that we leave for Kairos in just five days. There is lots to do before then so I need to stay focused.