Gifts and Talents

         When God created everything , He did it in six days, then He rested on the seventh day. I am sure that He did not need a day of rest. He was God and He spoke everything into existence. He did not need a day of rest. He was telling us that we need a day of rest. We are not like God, we need time to refresh ourselves, and to get back our energy and strength. The Japanese, Chinese, and Korea have a very hard work ethnic society. There are many of them who are dying at a young age because they are working everyday and very long hours. They were working insane hours under intense pressure with little-to-no rest, and they are dying at a young age. There are many Americans who do the same thing.

      There was a Pastor, in a Hospital, who was slowly dying. The Doctors said “we don’t know why you are dying. Your organs are shutting down, and we don’t know why.” One night in the Hospital room, the Pastor could not sleep, and he said to God, “I served You, I’am a Pastor, why are you doing this to me.” God said “son, I’m not doing this to you, you did this to yourself. You have not kept the fourth commandant. You do not rest one day a week. You are killing yourself.” The Pastor said “Lord is there anyway I can ask for forgiveness? The Lord said “of course.” The Pastor felt strength come into his body. He got up, he unplugged himself, he dressed himself, and walked out of the Hospital. He now puts aside every Thursday, and does not have anything on his schedule for that day. The Pastor lived to an old age and fulfilled all that God had for him.

      The fourth Commandant is: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. God is very serious about the Sabbath day. Sabbath means Cease or Cease from labor, or stop what you are doing. There are many Christians who do not obey this commandant. It is to be a day of rest for everyone, and God also included the servants and the animals that we have. There was a man in the desert who was caught gathering some sticks on the Sabbath day. God said to stone him. Unobserved Sabbaths accumulate. God made the Sabbath for our benefit. We need a rest from our busy week. We need to refill our energy and our strength. There is nothing to be gained by working ourselves to death.

      There are many people who work on Sunday. We still need to have a day of rest. We can do what that Pastor did and choose another day during the week to be our rest day. We can do many things on that day of rest. We can go fishing, go to the beach or play golf, as long as golf is not our profession.There are many things we can do on our day of rest, as long as it is not our work. Our God can make those six days more profitable than what we can do in seven days. God is the One that gives us our provisions. God will not bless us on that day of rest if we ignore His commandant, to rest. We also need to worship our God, and Church is the best place to do that. We can go to another service during the week. The most important thing is to put God first in everything we do. If He is not first in our lives then we do not have a relationship with Him. Then we are in danger of not making it into heaven. He must be first in everything we do. God will not take second place. He is always first, in everything. By faith, He will be first in everything we do, and we will give to God, and ourselves, a day of rest.

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      New King James Version
Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

      New King James Version
Exodus 16:23 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD has said: `Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'"
24 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.
25 Then Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
26 "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none."
27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.
28 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?
29 "See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

      New King James Version
Exodus 31:12 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
13 "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: `Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
14 `You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
15 `Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16 `Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
17 `It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"

      New King James Version
Numbers 15:32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.