Deciding to Keep Sabbath

When my wife and I first started to realize that there are wonderful benefits of obeying our Creator’s commandments, we were not yet fully exited from the New Apostolic Church.  We read in the book of Isaiah:

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Isa 58:2  Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their Elohim: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to Elohim.

Isa 58:3  Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yah?

Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Isa 58:7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Isa 58:8  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Yah shall be thy rereward.

Isa 58:9  Then shalt thou call, and Yah shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

Isa 58:10  And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

Isa 58:11  And Yah shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Isa 58:12  And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of Yah, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in Yah; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Yah hath spoken it.

We decided to start observing the Sabbath in the fashion commanded in Scriptures.  We decided to forego buy or selling.  We decided to truly rest on the Sabbath.  Of course, at the time, we had no idea that the Sabbath was in fact not Sunday, so we observed a day of rest on Sunday. 

After several months of this practice, we started to notice something very interesting.  We felt better rested.  We felt healthier.  We had more energy during the week to accomplish our work.  Our lives were starting to improve simply because we decided to, for no better reason than to simply obey our Creator, obey His command to observe the Sabbath day, set it apart, and do no work thereon. 

But Yah was not yet finished showing us His truths regarding the Sabbath.

We then realized that observing Sabbath on Sunday was an invention of a man who ruled Rome named Constantine.  This ruler, upon making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, chose not to fully implement Yah’s commandments as law but rather chose to compromise with the many pagan factions in his empire.  Apparently, upon his conversion to Christianity, he was not fully persuaded in his heart to humbly submit to Yah’s code of ethics.  Fueled by an intense hatred for Jewish people, he chose to institute a Sabbath day that was consistent with the “Sabbath” observed by his pagan, sun-worshiping ancestors and differentiated himself from the Jews by instituting the Sabbath day on Sunday instead of the seventh day of the week.  In so doing, he fulfilled prophesy as spoken by Daniel (7:25) by presuming to change the times and law.  In other words, the beast presumptuously and wrongly changes the appointed times or Sabbaths of Yah. 

Shortly thereafter, we decided to observe Sabbath day on the seventh day, Saturday.  As a result, we found ourselves further at odds with NAC doctrine and were compelled even further to depart from the NAC. 

But we had thankfully found the Sabbath that Yah had apparently established on the seventh day, and although we were loosing our NAC family as Yahshua said would happen, we were experiencing great joy in knowing that the true Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth was leading us into all truth by showing us how man had corrupted and changed the Sabbath day. 

We now observe the Sabbath on the seventh day and truly delight in taking a day of much-needed total rest, as Yah had intended.  Truly, Yah’s Sabbath is a delight and a blessing. 

Hallelu-YAH!