How do YOU keep the Sabbath Day holy?

Question

Curious as to if Christians keep the Sabbath Day holy how do they keep it holy?

What would you suggest? No tv, internet, just visiting and basking in the Lord or what?

I knew of a mormon that every Sunday he wouldn't watch any tv, no internet, no shopping, all he did was go to church and visit other people. He would go to an extreme to not talk about such deep topics like sex.

Answer 1

It is interesting because God did command a particular day and did not allow people to keep any day they wanted. While in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt, the Hebrews were sent manna from Heaven. This manna fell six days a week but did not fall on the Sabbath. God knew what day the Sabbath was, the Hebrews knew it, and the Jewish people of today still know it. They keep the same day today that their ancestors did when God sent the manna.

"On the sixth day the people gathered twice as much food -- four quarts for every person. When all the leaders of the community came and told this to Moses, he said to them, "This is what the Lord commanded, because tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Lord's holy day of rest. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil today. Save the rest of the food until tomorrow morning." So the people saved it until the next morning, as Moses had commanded, and none of it began to stink or have worms in it. Moses told the people, "Eat the food you gathered yesterday. Today is a Sabbath, the Lord's day of rest; you will not find any out in the field today. You should gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day. On that day there will not be any food on the ground." On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather food, but they couldn't find any. Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you people refuse to obey my commands and teachings? Look, the Lord has made the Sabbath a day of rest for you. So on the sixth day he will give you enough food for two days, but on the seventh day each of you must stay where you are. Do not go anywhere." So the people rested on the seventh day. The people of Israel called the food manna. It was like small white seeds and tasted like wafers made with honey." (Exodus 16:22 - 31 NCV)

You can search the New Testament, and even the entire Bible for that matter, and you will not find one place that the Sabbath law has been revoked. What you will find is that the apostles and early church did keep the Sabbath, and Jesus expected His followers to be keeping the Sabbath some 60 years after His death.

"At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away, because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning of the world until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again." (Matthew 24:19 - 21 NCV)

"They continued their trip from Perga and went to Antioch, a city in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down." (Acts 13:14 NCV)

"While Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people asked them to tell them more about these things on the next Sabbath." (Acts 13:42 NCV)

"On the next Sabbath day, almost everyone in the city came to hear the word of the Lord." (Acts 13:44 NCV)

"On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the river where we thought we would find a special place for prayer. Some women had gathered there, so we sat down and talked with them." (Acts 16:13 NCV) (This is most interesting because Paul kept the Sabbath even when there was not a group of Jews to keep it with or a church to keep it in. He was in Philippi, and there were very few Jews there)

"Paul went into the synagogue as he always did, and on each Sabbath day for three weeks, he talked with the Jews about the Scriptures." (Acts 17:2 NCV)

"Every Sabbath day he talked with the Jews and Greeks in the synagogue, trying to persuade them to believe in Jesus." (Acts 18:4 NCV)

Check the Ten Commandments; they tell us the reason we should keep the Sabbath.

"The reason is that in six days the Lord made everything -- the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. On the seventh day he rested. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:11)

That reason still stands today. The Sabbath has nothing to do with the nation of Israel but everything to do with creation. God did not command the Sabbath because he wanted the Israelites to be different; He commanded it because He created it in the first week. God tries to give us a gift, and we say that it is a burden and we do not want it.

As for the Lord's Day, It is interesting to see what the Bible says about the Lord's day.

"Eat the food you gathered yesterday. Today is a Sabbath, the Lord's day of rest;" (Exodus 16:23 NCV)

"This is what the Lord commanded, because tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Lord's holy day of rest." (Exodus 16:25 NCV)

"but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God." (Exodus 20:10 NCV)

"So the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day" (Matthew 12:8 NCV)

"So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." (Mark 2:28 NCV)

"Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day.'" (Luke 6:6 NCV)

To keep the Sabbath Day holy, the Bible gives us a pricipal to apply.

"You must obey God's law about the Sabbath and not do what pleases yourselves on that holy day. and honor it as the Lord's holy day. You should honor it by not doing whatever you please nor saying whatever you please on that day." (Isaiah 58:13 NCV)

We must put aside our plesure and focus on the mission and work of God.

Answer 2

I'm at a cross-roads within myself about this. Part of me says that Gentile Christians are not bound to that, but another part says that He wrote it in stone, so He meant it.
That said, at one point I did try to keep Saturday holy to the best of my human ability. I got all the housework done before the sun went down on Friday evenings. Of course dishes would still be rinsed, but I made sure that the dishwasher was cleaned out so that all that was required was rinsing and stacking them in there to be washed after the Sabbath was over. I prepared a meal Friday afternoon so that we could just microwave until sundown Saturday. I didn't find it a burden at all. It was actually a blessing to me to be able to take a day off work every week. Housewives don't get that you know, lol. I saw it as God's gift to me. I did however clean up spills, and that sort of thing.
Then my situation changed and I started thinking that maybe the Sabbath was prescribed only for the Israelites and that maybe I could actually be sinning by taking a day off. I'm still not quite sure, but am in deep prayer about it everyday.
As for other activities on the Sabbath, I think they should be done carefully. Spending time with family, spending time in the peaceful outdoors, visiting like-minded believers, doing good as long as it doesn't involve work (examples would be visiting the elderly at home or in nursing homes, delivering fruit baskets to sick people, things like that), avoiding shopping unless it's a real emergency because then you're paying people to work on the Sabbath. I also avoid TV unless it's religious programming, and don't "just play" on the computer. I will do Bible studies online, visit Christian chatrooms for fellowship, things like that. I think the Holy Spirit should be our guide, and It will tell us if we're doing something on the Sabbath that we shouldn't be doing.

Answer 3

No need to be Holy in the first instance, as it really is a fantasy imaginary state of the mind. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that religion is in fact a mental illness.

The universe has been around for billions of years. Many religious people are wakening up to the fact that all religions are just man-made bunkum developed by simplistic human intelligence.

On a universal scale, human intellect does not have the ability to understand much of what is happening, why it happened, and what will happen in the future, so to fill the gaps in their minds they substitute artificial reasoning commonly referred to as religion.

Religion is an escape from the inability to reason intellectually, and because it’s easy to play make believe, further subsets are created like the Bible, Jesus, Adam, Eve etc, in order to justify the mental illusion.

Stephen Hawking suggested that if the universe was created then it is reasonable to assume it had a creator. Since human intellect is unable to determine whether the universe was created, religion takes over and assumes it was and calls the creator God. That’s nothing more than speculative conjecture and more bunkum.

Even the Pope was scared that Stephen Hawking will prove that God doesn’t exist.

Hawking has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe. He proposes that space and time have no beginning and no end. On Thursday 15 June 2006, Stephen Hawking said that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

Hawking, who didn't say when the meeting was held, quoted the pope as saying, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not enquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God." Hawking asked the Pope "Does it require a creator to decree how the universe began or is the initial state of the universe determined by a law of science?"

If the Pope genuinely believed that God created the universe, why was the Pope scared of science investigating the subject and proving that God existed. The truth is more likely that the Pope doesn’t believe in God and doesn’t want science to prove in fact that God doesn't exist.

Why be Holy, why not do something positive and constructive for the world instead of all of this religious nonsense.

Answer 4

It is a day where no work that is not required is left until the next day. Watching videos from church and having a nap, visiting people and going for a walk are all things that we can do.

Answer 5

I go to church. I talk to God(pray).

Because so many people have to work on Sunday anymore keeping the Sabbath holy can be achieved through prayer, devotions, and praise music. Going to church is very important and should be done as often as possible but even taking a few breathes(a God moment) and remembering to thank God that He created you is an act of worship.

Answer 6

Keep it holy being extremely ordinary that day and loving people and not feel a need to make anything special -- like trying to avoid tv, internet, talking about sex, etc. Just make it incredibly ordinary, stop the striving, and that's the best way to make it holy.

Answer 7

You don't unless you want to be an orthodox Jew and not a Christian.. Christians are of the new covenant..
What you described above is not keeping the sabbath, keeping the sabbath starts fri at sundown til sat at sundown and no work or driving of cars or making of food.. Lots of rules that come from the law. Look it up, it is too much to post.

Answer 8

Jesus's diciples went in the field and ate kernels of grain. Jesus went to the temple and discussed the OT. So just do good on the Sabbath, and spend time with God i guess

Answer 9

I go to Sunday School and then our church worship service. After worship I go with the kids to Childrens Church and help out in there. Then I go home and spend the rest of the day with my husband.

Answer 10

I am an sda I am not allowed to watch TV ,work,study,drink alcohol,shop,etc...for 24 hours.I keep it holy by sleeping all day after church on saturday.