Observing the Sabbath in Your Home
If your Sabbath gathering has been cancelled due to COVID-19, take heart – you can still keep the Sabbath! Once you’ve kept the Sabbath for any length of time, it is truly painful when you can’t. Somehow your physical and spiritual clock knows when the Sabbath is and longs for it when you cannot observe it in your normal custom. Don’t let the disruption of a cancelled gathering take away your Sabbath peace and joy. Continue to guard that time and begin your own traditions and routines in your home that bring that same spirit and refreshment to your island of sacred time with the Lord. (more…)
Shabbat Shalom – A Photo Gift Book of Sabbath Peace
A visual delight for the eyes and a respite for the soul, this book leads the reader deeper into Sabbath rest with the turn of every page. With 30 pages of inspiring nature photographs blended with Hebrew scriptures from the Old Testament, this book is appropriate for Jews, Christians or Messianics.
The Peace of the Sabbath
How often have you sought peace in nature? Stood awestruck by God’s earthly beauty? Or been inspired by a stunning scene? “The Peace of the Sabbath | Shabbat Shalom” reveals one stirring scene after another, all set to Bible scriptures recounting God’s peace.
A visual delight for the eyes and a respite for the soul, this book will lead you deeper into Sabbath rest with the turn of every page.
Appropriate for Jews, Christians, Messianics and others seeking and sharing peace, this is the gift book you’ll want to keep for yourself.
How Can I Observe the Sabbath Without a Congregation?
I hear this question a lot. In fact, I used to ask this question a lot. You may feel the pull of the Holy Spirit to observe the Sabbath. You may find that your heart and perspective toward the scriptures, the Israelites of old and the land of Israel today is different than those you currently worship with at church on Sunday.
But now what? You don’t know anyone else who is pursuing these things; there’s no gathering on the Sabbath that you can be part of. How can you keep the Sabbath on your own? What should you be doing? What about the command of assembling with others on the Sabbath? (more…)
What Did Jesus Say About the Sabbath?
Often we hear that Jesus taught against the Sabbath as a day of rest. After all, he healed on the Sabbath, he defended his disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath. Every time the Pharisees challenged him about the rules of the Sabbath, he set them straight that “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)
I heard those teachings; I read the Pharisees’ criticism of his actions on the Sabbath and Jesus’ responses defending himself and his disciples. I was convinced that the Sabbath and all its rules had been done away with when Jesus came and taught us the New Covenant.
Then I read the original instructions for the Sabbath in the “Old Testament.” (more…)
Alignment with God’s Promises Brings God’s Blessings
God has promised us so many blessings in His word. Many of these are conditional – that is, they require something of us in order for God’s full blessing to be released. Some of the most familiar are the “be-attitudes”: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:7-9)
There are three promises I’ve decided to make a pursuit of mine in recent years — promises of blessings that require my action. These are probably some of the most explicit promises of blessing in the Bible, yet possibly some of the most overlooked. I began pursuing these three within a few months of each other. Not too long afterward I felt showered in unexpected blessings. (more…)
The Blessing of the Sabbath
The Sabbath – we think of the Jewish day of rest, or maybe any day when we’re not working, or the day we attend church. Yeshua says of the Sabbath, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is one of the blessings God made for mankind to enjoy. He practiced it Himself on the seventh day of creation. Was God tired? Had all the work He’d done on the first six days worn Him out? I can imagine it could, but no — God created it along with the world and its inhabitants as a gift to man, animals and the land.
A day, 24 hours, of no work — to most people that is a luxury. When I first got a hold of the concept that the Sabbath was to be a blessing for man, and decided to try it, it was difficult. (more…)
Messianic Sabbath 