Saturday 7 Apr 2012

Saturday Reading: Luke 23:52-56

Key Verse: Luke 23:56
56  And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.

Devotion:
Death is something that we all have to face at some stage in our lives; and I’m not talking about our own death because that is inevitable but not something that we are going to take much notice of. I am talking about the death of someone close to you, someone that you love and respect. There are certain people in our lives that we wish we should never have to hear of their being hurt, never mind their death; and those are the people that we love the most in our lives.

Whether they are family, friends or loved ones, we would rather not have to ever hear of anything bad happening to them. Unfortunately for us, though, we live in a world where all manner of evil things happen to everyone. It is not just the bad people that get affected by crashes or acts of violence but anyone who happen to be close to the ones carrying out the violence or causing the accidents. And then there are the “acts of God” as our insurance people would like to put it – earthquakes and floods and the like of which no man has control over. These do happen and they are not just going to be limited to places where there are no Christians because Christians are the world over.

God has warned us of many things that will come upon this earth, especially during the times just before Christ returns! So should we not be prepared for His imminent return? I hope that you are!

When Jesus died, they buried Him in the tomb of a rich man and because it was then the Sabbath, they had already returned to their homes to rest just as God had commanded us in the beginning. God even made sure that this was written as one of our Ten Commandments so that we do realise just how important it is to rest. I am just as guilty as others when it comes to squeezing in a bit of word when the day is quiet – but that is not what God wants us doing. He has given us a day of rest so that we cannot just remember Him but also have that much needed rest that we DO need! None of the disciples had quite understood the significance of the death of our Lord and they went back to doing exactly what they were commanded to do and that was to have a day of rest. Why then do we turn to find some way in which we can spend even more energy and money and time over the weekend when Christ gave it to us as a way of resting? Because we are not giving back to God the things f God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you rush out to do things at the weekend?

Do you rush out to meet with God on Sunday or rush out to be with the world?