OS,
Do you have any thoughts on
this post ?
I agree that such times are valuable. However, I suspect that you and I would disagree as to whether God has mandated how/when I must set such time aside (i.e. must that time take place on the same day/same time each week and who decides which activities are restful?). I find it valuable to enter into private and corporate worship experiences throughout the week, and could not begin to imagine waiting until the seventh day to spend time with God in corporate and private settings.
Must intimate times with a spouse be so scheduled and regimented? Although this approach might work in some marriages, I wonder if the majority of marriages thrive in such an environment.
This assumes that God set aside the sabbath prior to sin. Although I find Biblical evidence that God rested on the seventh day, I find no Biblical evidence that He called it a sabbath or asked men to do as He did prior to sin. I recognize that this is a position held by some, but it requires extra-Biblical assumptions that I find no reason to make.
BFA
I would appreciate you or someone showing me how to split and respond to a post like you did and I see others do. Point me to a place that describes it or in a private message to get the noise off the thread.
I appreciate the spirit of the discussion. It is my studied effort to not try to convince anyone of my point of view. In this context, to try to convince or convict is the role of the Holy Spirit. For me to try I would therefore consider blasphemous - stepping on the role and work of the HS. However, to share and try to convey my discoveries - you can get me rolling easily.
I would like to take step aside for just a bit and bring in some philosophical observations. I was reading the 10 commandments and mulling them over when I noticed something about the 10th commandment - it is a state of mind. Covetousness is the root of what underlies trouble with the 5 preceeding commandments. It embodies the inward desires and lust that precede and finds expression in theft, adultery, deception, etc. It might even be a factor with the first four as well. Having noticed that covetousness was a state of mind I looked back at the 4th. For quite some time I had taken the position that, while there is some pretty explicit guidance about the sabbath, it is largely a personal matter - a frame of mind. It comes to be how you and God work together in shaping how it works for you.
My personal early days were in the 50s and 60s - a rather legalistic period in SDA church history. There were a number "traditions" and rules regarding sabbath that were presented rather arbitrarily. Even in this thread I can perceive backlash from that era. We weren't and often still aren't good at allowing doctrine to shape our relationships rather than coldly coding and defining our behaviors - though there is a place for some - some - of that. OK, enough of that.
The above paragraph is a kind of preface in response to the first paragraph quote brought foward from your post. Please take the next bit as a perception - not a judgement: I sense you to be a black and white woodcut type of thinker, one who sees a lot of lines in an idea. I am one who has less concern with the lines. I guess I see more shades, forms, and placement of ideas in a more general realm. When two minds like ours converse we can get a bit frustrated. But nonetheless we still help stretch eachothers perspecives.
Just a bit more explicit on your first and into the paragraph: No, there is nothing would cast any limits on explicit time with God. "Pray without ceasing." But there still remains the distinctives and distractions of the six "creative" days and the seventh "blessed" and "sanctified" day. Which segways nicely to your third paragraph.
I use the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. I looked up "blessed" and "sanctified" as these are words used in Genesis 2:3. Also the etymology of "sabbath" is of interest. If you follow this out I am curious what observations you make. Please keep in mind which side of Genesis 3 we are looking.
I find it a bit difficult to wrap my mind around but look at the topic of "rest" as handled in Hebrews 3 and 4. The writer has formed a thought braid. One strand is the rest of the promised land. One strand is the rest of the sabbath day. One strand is the rest from slavery/sin and wandering. These are key aspects of the Gospel - "Come unto Me and ye shall find rest..." Remove a strand and the braid is reduced to a twisted pair. This writing is to Hebrews - a people for whom the word "rest" is "shabbath."
OS
