When is it nap time?!

·         What does God expect from us?

·         Does He prefer us to be working hard all the time?

·         Does He like people who are time masters and organised till next year?

·         Does He reward those who seem busy for Him every day of the year?

·         Do you feel His acceptance of you is based on how well you perform in life?

·         When is the time to stop and take a rest?

The best way we can know what He expects is to look at Gods example to us. The first time we see God showing us when to rest is in Genesis 2.

Genesis 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So once He had finished HE RESTED.

And then in the 5th Commandment in Exodus 20: 8–11 He tells them how to rest:

 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

... and another reminder to the Iraelites in:

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

So here we see that God has instituted a REST available in Him. He showed us it is available because He experienced it...then He strongly encourages His people to enter into it too by making it a law.

_________________________

Not only does He institute rest as a law but He reminds the how MIGHTY He is and that we should remember that when we are not to lift a finger.

He is kind of saying, "I do not need you to work to get things done around here... I am capable of it myself, remember I parted the sea! Now rest!"

King David writes about this REST in the 95th Psalm and brings up a good point:

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing to the Lord!
    Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
    Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
³ For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.
⁴ He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
    and the mightiest mountains.
⁵ The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

⁶ Come, let us worship and bow down.
    Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
⁷     for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!
⁸ The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
    as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
⁹ For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
    even though they saw everything I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
    They refuse to do what I tell them.’
¹¹ So in my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”

1.      So God showed them to rest by doing it Himself.

2.      He instituted it as a law and

3.      He told them that He is capable of organising things while they are resting by reminding them how awesome and powerful He has already been in their lives...

But did they come into the rest that He wanted them to?

Well if they did come into the rest that He wanted them to, why did God take an oath that they would never enter His place of rest?

The heart of the Israelites was the problem. Their hearts were hard and stubborn and they didn't trust God even after all the miracles they saw Him do. They were disobedient.

_________________________________

Moving forward to the New Testament:

The 1st time God said He was finished was on the 7th day after working hard creating the world... and the next time is JOHN 19:30 when we hear God say, that "It is finished" is just before He gave his spirit up and died on the cross....

·         First covenant: God worked hard on Creation and then said, now it I am finished, it is time to rest.

·         Second covenant: God worked hard by being born as a human being and bringing the Gospel to the Earth and going through the agony of self sacrifice and then he stated it was finished.

So when God says I've FINISHED He then means it's time to rest! YES??

I want to point out in Hebrews Chapter 4.

It is a letter to the Hebrew Jews who had converted to Christianity to encourage them to persevere through adversity.

It warns about drifting away from the truth because of difficulties... then it encourages us to know that Jesus understands our suffering and frustration living here on earth.

Then it goes on to talk about the REST that is available to us.

Hebrews Chapter 4:1-16

4 God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. ² For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.^[a] 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

“In my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’”^[b]

even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. ⁴ We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”^[c] 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”^[d]

⁶ So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. ⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

“Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts.”^[e]

⁸ Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. ⁹ So there is a special rest^[f] still waiting for the people of God. ¹⁰ For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labours, just as God did after creating the world.

Now pay attention to this bit... see if you find it difficult to understand ...as I did:

¹¹ So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

¹² For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

So then since we have a High Priest who has entered Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

I'll leave that with you for a minute while I share something else:

I had a dream the other night:

I dreamt that I was in the "war days". The imagery was in sepia tone so it was beige and brown and appeared very solemn. I was standing in the middle of a city and passing me were these tram type open windowed buses. I could see that each one of these were packed with people while the rest of the people around me were walking around with their heads down with trench coats on.

I decided I wanted to get on one of these trams to see where these people were going. I jumped on the next one that passed by me. I looked carefully at the passengers and each one of them was wounded. They had all been wounded in the war. I was realising that all the people that I had seen on the trams were wounded and we were heading toward the "hospital camp".

I asked the man next to me what had happened to him, and he pulled his shirt up to show me many sticks stabbed into his lung area. I was shocked and wondered how they were going to fix that.

We arrived at the hospital camp and it was literally a sea of camp beds with patients laying wounded on them. I was overwhelmed.

Then I saw they were taking one at a time into the "theatre" for their operation. I watched several go in wounded and come out healed. So I decided to go in and see how the doctors were healing these severely injured soldiers.

I walked in and watched a man that was wheeled in, be propped up and the doctor took an instrument and split him in two perfect halves. One side here the other side there.

The man was awake and the doctor asked him where it was hurting him. The man replied, "in my lungs... I can't breathe properly." So the doctor started doing something to his lung... and He went out healed.

The next man was wheeled in, and the doctor went to split him in two, but the man vomited at the sight of the splitting instrument. He was afraid of the pain. The doctor said, "This will not hurt as much as you think and you will be healed after."

I went and held the man's hand and comforted him as he was being split open.

________________________________

I wondered why in the last verse in Hebrews says, "So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall."

And then went on to talk about Gods word as being sharper than any double edged sword - dividing us so precisely that it exposes our innermost thoughts and desires."

Going on to encourage us not to feel isolated and alone because, "Jesus understands our weaknesses so we should come to His throne to find mercy and grace."

·         What does NOT entering His rest have to do with US being DISOBEDIENT?

·         If we are the ones who are beat up and wounded in this war, why are we the ones who God wants to divide with His sword?

·         Why are we the ones who need to approach the High Priest to receive Grace for "our weaknesses"?

_____________________________________

I think I have some insight from my dream:

We are in a war. I have been in a war.

The Drug War and I can tell you from experience that it closely resembles the life of a TRUE Christian...

1.      It is tiring.

2.      It is relentless.

3.      It wears you down.

4.      It is violent.

5.      You get wounded - severely - sometimes.

_______________________________

The Bible tells us we are to FIGHT in this spiritual war - but it also tells us to enter into His rest or we are being DISOBEDIENT.

·         How hard does He want to make this for us?

·         In the midst of a relentless, tiring and violent spiritual war we are being disobedient if we are not resting?

It is so ironic I have a hard time getting my head around it!

How can I do them both at the same time? FIGHT & REST?

Ok so maybe I have missed something. Maybe He is saying I need to fight for 6 days and rest on the 7th - like take every Sunday off...

But if we compare the 2 scriptures instructing rest it clearly shows:

1.      When was the rest available to the Old Testament Christians?

a.      Gen 2 The Seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.

2.      When is the rest available to the New Testament Christians?

a.      Heb 4:⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today.

NOT only on the 7th day of the week but TODAY. That means EVERYDAY.

The author of Hebrews makes a statement that we cannot misconstrue. He said, the day for entering that rest is today. TODAY.

Not "pick a day" and make that your rest day (although that is good too...) but in context of entering into Gods rest... it is ENTER INTO HIS REST EVERYDAY.

He was not talking about that particular day he was sitting at the table scribing on the papyrus! He wrote TODAY because he meant TODAY as in EVERYDAY IS THE DAY FROM THAT DAY FORWARD!

So YES. We do have to learn how to work and rest at the same time. Great.

Just when I thought it was nap time!

If God said we can have it then it must be possible because He does not lie.

Now the thing is figuring out if we are resting while we are fighting...

 What does entering that rest look like to us in this day and age?

Personally I learned that the world does not slow down just because I am exhausted.

I believe God has hidden things that provide us rest inside His creation and we need to seek them out. God in His amazing creation has provided relief for us and all we have to do is find it. I think all of our senses are meant  to experience the rest of God and there are things we do that can seek out the source of REST God wants for us.

This is why I have bought this prop in. The Bed. God has designed our body to require a minimum of 8 hours sleep... personally I need more like 10 or 11 hours... though that's tough cookies for me! But we all find rest in a comfortable bed.

Flowers...What about the saying, "Take time to smell the roses"... God gave us beautiful flowers to enjoy. The sight of a beautiful flower and the scent of a flower can be very soothing. You can find rest in flowers.

Music ...I know music was very important to me before I was a Christian... but who sees that the worlds music is very draining. It stimulates all the wrong senses... our flesh. But music that glorifies God and speaks LIFE into your soul is very refreshing. You can find rest in music.

Food ... I love food. It can be very nice to sit around with friends and enjoy good food. I like watching the foodie programs on to see the cool creations they come up with. Food is a source of nourishment but also pleasure and rest.

Church... we can find rest in coming together and supporting each other as a group. We have good intentions for each person and we can help and support each other when we are tired. We find rest in church relationships.

The Word... The Word of God is very powerful. It is likened to water and bread and we know we need food and water to sustain our physical body. But we also need the Word of God to sustain our spiritual person. We are not just flesh and blood but we are a SPIRIT and if you starve the SPIRIT you are abusing yourself.  I would say the eating the Word is probably the most important place we will find REST.

Our minds can become weary. The world has a way of yelling at us. It yells at us about our social status, intellect, appearance, worthiness, abilities.

We can become overwhelmed with what needs to be done and how fashionable we look and if we meet the "standard" and are intelligent enough ... do we fit the mould and be everything we are required by the world to be to measure up and be acceptable.

I believe this - above all - is what God is talking about for us to now REST from.

Striving to be acceptable and ok without Him. That we start to find our lives IN Him only.

If we just accepted we are completely forgiven, loved and accepted NOW ... would that provide some relief from all our worry and strife?

What happens if we do not enter His rest EVERYDAY in this Spiritual War we live in?

We become so wounded that we need intensive care:

1.      We get depressed.

2.      We start to feel tired all the time.

3.      We get offended.

4.      We get irritated.

5.      We make bad decisions.

6.      Our faith becomes weak.

7.      Our defences go down

8.      We start believing the lies the enemy tells us.

9.      We can quite quickly become severely wounded Christians.

Just like all the trams that were taking soldiers to the hospital, we can become Christians that require SPIRITUAL INTENSIVE CARE.

And this is where I believe I can marry the last few verses in Hebrews together...

 "Be careful to enter into His rest or we will fall - and then - because Gods word is so sharp it can split us into two revealing our innermost parts - and then - but don't be afraid to come to His throne for Grace and mercy."

_______________________________

There is only 2 ways wounded Christians go...

1. To God.

2. Away from God.

Just like the guy in my dream, who went willingly to the DR and took the "splitting" and then told DR where he was hurting and then let DR do a work in him...

·         Some of us may find it easy to go to God in repentance and ask for healing

·         Some of us may find it easy to communicate with God

·         We might enjoy letting God do a work in us because we have a high level of trust in Him no matter what it ends up revealing about our true nature.

·         Some of us have a very clear understanding of who God is and who we are IN God

But for others, like the guy in my dream who vomited at the sight of the dividing instrument and who needed me to hold his hand while he endured it...

·         It is too painful to come to Him

·         For some wounded Christians they convince themselves that God must have had something to do with inflicting all the pain on them

·         They may believe a lie about Gods love being conditional or judgmental upon them

·         That whatever weakness that is revealed by God doing a work, is just too hard to acknowledge and come to terms with.

·         They see it as another blow to their ability to do things right.

·         I mean who wants to know the real truth about themselves... sometimes it hurts.

_______________________

I hope you don't mind, but if anyone comes to me needing intensive care now I will be praying that His word will penetrate you dividing you up into little pieces and healing you from the inside out.

But know that if you are afraid of the sword, I will sit with you and hold your hand while God does the surgery!

_______________________

Unfortunately all of this has a sad conclusion...

Only the people who know God and have accepted Jesus have the opportunity to enter His rest even though it is very hard to figure out how to do because it has everything to do with our PRIDE and EGO ...

but also

The rest (of the world or people without faith in Jesus) are forbidden.

And that is A LOT of people walking around in torment with no hope of real REST unless they are introduced to Jesus and accept Him.

Let's pray: Father, we thank you that you want us to rest. We want to rest too. Sometimes it is hard for us to find that rest in the midst of this war we are in. I pray that you teach each one of us where to find that rest in you. Divide us and lay us bare in front of you and heal us. We love you and want to be obedient to you.

In Jesus name, Amen