Building on the Foundation

  When the clock strikes midnight, one day ends and another begins. So it is in the modern world, and so it’s been throughout most of western society since the invention of mechanical clocks. But we all know this isn’t the system God established in the Bible. So when does a day begin and end, according to Scripture? It’s generally accepted that a Biblical day begins and ends at sunset. The seventh-day Sabbath, then, begins at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday. But there are others who assert that a Biblical day begins at sunrise and ends at the next sunrise. They then assert that we ought to keep the Sabbath from sunrise on Saturday until sunrise on Sunday. Obviously, it’s important for us to know when a day begins and ends. Otherwise, we might only be keeping half of the Sabbath holy and profaning the other half! There are other variations as well, and you can probably find them all on the Internet. Afterall, if a thought has ever popped into anyone’s head at any tim...

  Quoting directly from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus Christ taught us that all of God’s laws rest upon these two: “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Mat. 22:37-40). Therefore, it’s through this lens that we need to view all of God’s commandments. As we read each of God’s laws, let’s seek to understand, “How does this teach me to love God and to love my fellow man?” But God’s law also teaches us about His character and about His love for each one of us. When God says that “He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18), and when He commands us to do likewise, this tells us something about who He is. God gave us His laws for our good (Deut. 10:13), because H...

  As we’ve proven in some recent posts , the Sabbath serves as a sign between God and His people. It’s also pretty important to God. A life and death matter, in fact. So how should we keep the Sabbath? Folks have debated and quarreled over the Sabbath more than probably any other law of God. Like the ancient Israelites, most self-proclaimed Christians today rebel against God’s Sabbath command. But even among the few who understand that God expects us to keep the Sabbath, there’s considerable disagreement. Some folks go far beyond God’s instructions and turn the Sabbath into a burden; others view the Sabbath as little more than a day to go to church, and suppose that they can do whatever else they please on that day. So let’s examine what God’s Word tells us about keeping the Sabbath, and see what God really expects of us. Too many folks think of the Sabbath as a restraint, as something that stops them from doing other things they’d rather be doing. So I’d like to present the Sabba...