RISE
Day Twenty-eight – Today is day twenty eight of our transformation and again another Lord’s Day or day dedicated to the Lord. But what does that really mean? In the past it meant that all the stores clothes, no one sold alcohol and most people attend some church service or at least had to wait until others were done before they could go about their business. It was considered a day of rest, as God rested from his labors and most employers did not schedule folks for Sunday shifts or hours if it were at all possible.
Much of mindset is missing today. We don’t live in the culture anymore. While we may long for it, the meaning of the Lord’s Day is not bound in some cultural norm, whether we like it or not. The Lord’s Day has several ideas associated with it. First, it is a day in which we are to focus more intently on the Lord, recognize his greatness and stand in His presence with reverence. Most of us do that in a corporate worship setting, with the church, which was established on the Lord’s Day.
Second, the Lord’s Day is a reminder that Christ rose again. It was on the first day of the week that He rose from the grave. It was on the first day of the week that he paved the way to glory by overcoming death for us. It was on the first day of the week that you were saved or can be saved by His gracious gift!
Finally, the Lord’s Day should remind us that there is more to us than this body and this life. In the beginning of the Bible we are told God rested on the seventh day. That imagery is then used to depict the settling of the promised land by the Israelites, which then called “rest” and mentioned by Paul in Hebrews to refer to the finishing of our faith and life here to enter into glory. “A rest still remains,” he says. The work and toil and pain and suffering of this life will end and we will find eternal rest in Him if we have lived for Him (Revelation 2:10; 21:1-4).
Today is day twenty-eight. Today is a day of reflections on the true meaning of the Lord’s Day. Remember it. Keep it.
