Life is about choices, some bolder choices than others. To skydive or not to skydive versus whether to have fries or onion rings.
Well, I made a bold decision. About 25 years ago, I became a Christian and was baptized. The problem was, however, that no sooner than I had done that, Satan had a field day with me. If it had been a football game, and Satan’s messengers the opposing team, I would have been sacked with huge loss of yardage on the play.
Add to that, my realization there were certain things about me that, honestly, invalidated that choice to be baptized. I was not living the life I should have been, and there were certain sins that, while I regretted and even despised them, I never truly repented of them; giving them over to Jesus at the foot of the cross.
So, within the past year, I’d been challenged regarding the fourth of the Ten Commandments; the Sabbath. Okay, well, not “challenged” really, but asked to study it and see, for myself, what I thought.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:8
I was astounded! I soon learned that the one commandment that starts with the word “remember” was being forgotten! Not only forgotten, but forsaken as no longer valid or meaningful!
How is this, you say? Easy! Mainline Protestantism changed the Sabbath day from the Seventh day of the week, Saturday, to the first day of the week, Sunday.
For more detail about this, read the Joe Crews message “how the Sabbath was changed.”:
http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath-history/how-the-sabbath-was-changed.aspx
God’s law, which never changes, however, states that the Seventh day is to be the Sabbath!
Exodus 20
9 You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
11 for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
So, I became convicted by the Holy Spirit that if all ten commandments are still valid, and since the Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week, and not the first, I ought to, in obedience to God and His will begin to properly observe the Sabbath!
I have learned other things, as well, I didn't even know, nor was I awareof the state of the dead, or what happens when a person dies?:
Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:3, 4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:1-10.
It was all of this, combined with other beliefs that convicted me, and convinced me to join the SDA hchurch.
More to come next time!
