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Requirements for Commitment

60. Holy Day or Holiday?

(Commandment IV)

Exodus 31:12, 13 Then the Lord said to Moses , "Say to the Israelites " You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy."

Society has gotten caught up in a seven-day, twenty-four-hour-a-day week. Some of you work in a business where you have no control over what you do on Sunday. Some of you are managers of businesses with policies set by someone else in a distant city, and you're caught. You can't get out of it, and you don't know what to do; but you know it's wrong and it violates everything you are.

Thoreau said if you want to destroy the Christian faith, first take away Sunday. He was right; it's a holy day. For those of you who know Jesus Christ as Savior, it cannot be a holiday. For those of you who have gathered around the cross and have been saved and washed clean by His blood, it's sacrilege to do anything else on that day except to celebrate what God has done.

If we abuse Sunday, we're going to destroy something beautiful that God has given. No Sunday means no church; no church means no worship; no worship means no religion; no religion means no morality; no morality means no society; no society means no government; no govenment means anarchy. That's the choice before us.

So, what do you do with the day? Do you sit around and read the Bible all day long? That might not be a bad idea for some of us. There are always those people who say, "I can worship God out on the golf course." Golf is a great sport, but it isn't worship! Those people who what to get out into God's