Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Sabbath: A Day of Freedom”. A good lesson on the Sabbath day. I’m so glad the principal contributor and the editorial committee chose this topic regarding the way this day “can change us every day of the week, and—as Jesus demonstrated—it can be a means of blessing others, as well” (quarterly for Sabbath, July 13). There are new people attending our churches who may not have heard a treatise on this theme. This lesson provides a foundation for this study. Yet many of us have looked at this topic repeatedly over the years and decades. We probably believe we have gotten all the “juice” out of this subject. That we fully understand every nuance of meaning, every element of truth regrading this pivotal doctrine so important to us Seventh-day Adventists (and to mankind). EGW counsels us to beware of this subtle assumption. “There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation” (Review and Herald 12/20/1892). It’s sad to say that some of what we Adventists hold as doctrine has been influenced by the traditions of many generations. Tradition is not necessarily a reliable indicator of truth. But we must not hastily discard a tradition, simply because it is a tradition. So let’s look again.
Our quarterly makes many cases for the Sabbath-day. Cases that explain why the day was created in the first place and what the day could be if honored in the way God made it to be. These explanations appeal to our reason. Great. Our God is a God of rationality. He is not arbitrary (existing or coming about seemingly at random or by chance or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will). And our God is a God who wants us to understand (see John 15:15). But there is still one requisite for Sabbath keeping that we often overlook. Actually, it is a requisite for the true keeping of any law.
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight” (Isaiah 58:13). The only way you can call it a delight is from your heart, your motivation. Merely keeping the day because you are told-to is so inferior a motivation. It may be a start. But no one should remain stuck there. Like the Children of Israel hovering around the base of Mt. Sinai, God eventually told them they had to move-on. So staying when told to move is as much disobedient as moving when told to stay. Remember those same ex-slaves at the threshold of the Promised Land? “Enter the land”, they were told by God. “No”, they replied, “the people of the land are too much for us”. “Then you will wander in the wilderness for 40 years”, God said. So the people then decided to go into the land and were soundly defeated. Both instances of disobedience. So in the case of the Sabbath, God enjoins us to “delight” in the day. But how to “delight” in it?
The Bible often uses the word “heart” with the word “thought” as in the phrase “thoughts of the heart”. The idea that our “heart” is merely our feelings and impressions, or as a relative of mine says “God’s voice is your ‘gut’ feeling”, is a distortion straight from Satan. God does not communicate through our feelings, impressions or our “gut”. He operates through our mind, leading to conviction and motivation. Your entire being brought to conviction and action, involving your feelings for sure. But not your feelings as motivator. Your feelings about the matter follow in the train of your conviction and resolution, even if your “gut” tells you differently. But true motivation cannot proceed from an unregenerate heart. For your unregenerate “heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked, who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9)? The good news is that God knows our heart… even better than we know it yourselves. He alone is the One “who know(s) it”. Therefore, in order to straighten-out our motivation, we need to fight. Not fight the wrong motivation. Not fight the sin that is in our heart. Not fight to ignore, mollify, subdue or deny our bad thoughts and our bad motivations. But fight to enter-in and keep-in relationship to the only One who can take our sinful, self-centered motivation and convert it into sanctified motivation… turn obedience into a “delight”.
In this way, by staying close to our God, His influence on our “heart” is like leaven in a loaf. “The leaven hidden in the flour works invisibly to bring the whole mass under its leavening process; so the leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up -- the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are roused to action in new lines. Man is not endowed with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience is awakened. We are endowed with traits of character that enable us to do service for God” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 98-99).
We all know our motives are so much less than optimal. And if truth be known, many of our motivations are downright pagan and hedonistic… even perverse… or bestial… or worse (proud and self-serving). We have sought to master them… our motivations. But our best efforts have been more denial or suppression than anything resembling the victory God has promised us. The reason is that we have not been totally genuine and transparent with our God. For only as we open our secret “closets” to the eyes of our God, is there any victory. “The cobwebbed closet of conscience is to be entered. The windows of the soul are to be closed earthward and thrown wide heavenward that the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may have free access… the mind is to be kept clear and pure that it may distinguish between good and evil” (Mind, Character and Personality vol.1 pg. 327-8).
As we study this week, let us look intently and dig deeply to uncover the precious truths God has for us and for all mankind. Let us not allow others to think and decide for us. Let us become convicted and convinced ourselves in our own hearts and minds. So that we, too, will follow wherever God leads, wherever Truth leads. Let us not just think deep thoughts about God, but come alongside God to be yoked to Him in loving service to our brothers and sisters. This is the “one-ness” He calls us to, the only “rest” He has to offer. Do we want to be “one” with Christ, “one” with the Father? Do we want Christ’s rest, Sabbath rest, Godly rest? Then take-up the loving field of service you find yourself in. Looking to self we lose our identity. Looking to others to bless them, we find ourselves. Seeking to save our lives, we lose our life. Giving our lives to bless others, we find our life. A paradox to sinful man. A sublime truth to all of Heaven.
With brotherly love,
Jim