Sunday’s always (usually) brilliant. One of the pleasures of being a Christian is found in a commandment to have a day off! Opinions on the sabbath vary from Christian to Christian, the main biblical idea seems to be that God decided we’d have seven days of the week and that one of those days was to be spent not working and dedicated to him. It’s good for a range of reasons, firstly on a purely secular level, I believe society would function better if all the people who didn’t actually need to be working (shops, offices, banks, building sites) weren’t. Walk into your average newsagent, you’ll see a tired old man sick of sitting there all day, desperate for an excuse to see his family/sleep/relax/do anything other than sit there working. If he had a day of rest he’d be revitalised and would function better the rest of the week. I’m sure there are figures supporting this, but maybe there aren’t, because when I Googled it all that came up was “Studies show that animals exposed to grapefruit scent for 15 minutes…”
Anyway, that’s not why I take a day off. I do it because that’s what it says in the Bible. (Basically) the Jews took Saturday off until their Messiah came, fulfilling that through the cross and raising from the dead on the first day of the week (Sunday). Then looking through the New Testament, Jesus appeared to the disciples on the first day of the week, and so was the pattern of the early church. Some argue that the Sabbath should be abolished because Jesus doesn’t expressly command it. However Jesus speaks of being the Lord of the Sabbath (how can he be Lord of something that doesn’t exist?)
Either way, my family have been firm believers and have encouraged us to treat Sunday as a different day. The plus sides of this were commands not to do homework, to spend more time with the family, maybe even receiving a few special treats for the this day. On the downside I think I struggled as a child to get used to not being allowed to watch television and not playing competitive sport. None of these ground rules are explicitly biblical, just family rules that my parents thought would help us. I’ll have to come to my own decision on the subject when we have children. I wanted them to relish Sundays, not dread them.
Oh FreeFoto, you are so helpful.
Anyway, the reason I’m writing all this is because yesterday the England game was on and we didn’t watch it! Turns out it wasn’t the most wonderful game to watch anyway, but still. We had a lovely afternoon in the park, we went to the hill garden and the amount of fun that can be had in throwing a ball over a pond and then fishing it out is quite remarkable.
I was especially helped by the sermon in the evening, about putting sin to death. I was quite convicted yet encouraged by the fact we have the Holy Spirit, through him it’s possible to overcome any sort of sin.
We went over to Sibyl’s Mother’s in the evening and ended up playing a raucous game of cards (so much for Sunday). I also started reading Robinson Crusoe on the way there, which I’m very much enjoying.
The Blewog Blog 