SABBATH: Goodbook 04-04-14

I hope you are taking new steps to incorporate Sabbath into your life.  Here are a few interesting quotes about Sabbath.  Let me know which you find the most thought-provoking, inspiring, or helpful...

“The command is "Do no work." Just make space. Attend to what is around you. Learn that you don't have to DO to BE. accept the grace of doing nothing. Stay with it until you stop jerking and squirming.” Dallas Willard

“Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.” Walter Brueggemann

“If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much, you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.” Eugene Peterson

“Every time we turn to Christ in faith it is like a moment of Sabbath, a little foretaste of eternal rest and glory. The gift of that moment lies not in what we do but what we receive. It is the holy time set aside to receive the greatest gift of God ever has to give, which is himself, in his own beloved Son.” Phillip Cary

“Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.” Mark Buchanan

“Life lived amidst tension and busyness needs leisure. Leisure that recreates and renews. Leisure should be a time to think new thoughts, not ponder old ills.” C. Neil Strait

“A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the most joyous day of the week.” Henry Ward Beecher

“On the Sabbath day, we are remembering that my relationship with God did not begin with what I've done, it is not sustained by what I do, and it is not guaranteed to the end by my effort or work. I'm saved from beginning to end by Jesus' work.” Mark Driscoll

 “God presents the Sabbath rest as a shelter we can enter. (Hebrews 4:1-11)” Charles R. Swindoll

 “Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.” Maya Angelou

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.” Etty Hillesum

“Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”  Alice Walker

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