Morning Devotional

June 14, 2005
"Master of the Sabbath"  
    by Don Emmitte

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One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of wheat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "They shouldn't be doing that! It's against the law to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath." But Jesus replied, "Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest), ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone, and then gave some to his companions. That was breaking the law, too." Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!" (Mark 2:23-28 NLT).

Yesterday we looked at our need to think and act toward a transformation in our lives. We can become what we think. The more I began to reflect on that principle, the more it began to sound like I was advocating more “doing.” The truth is that there is too much of that kind of advice today as it is. Let’s look a little deeper this morning. Perhaps you are aware that in many tribal cultures, there are dances and rituals that members perform to please the gods they worship. Ceremonies for rain, cleansing rituals, sacrifices, and even fire dances keep their schedules full making sure their gods are happy and not mad. It is as easy to make our walk with God complicated. We can as easily make the bible so complicated that it is hard to tell when the writing is right side up. The "fire dances" of the bible keep us so caught up we can barely face God daily, not sure if we are in good standing or not. While there are a few basic principles set forth for us to follow in the bible, they are there to ensure that we live a life that restores us to God's loving arms. They are not there to keep us performing a "fire dance" afraid at any moment that God's judgment will find us lacking in a performance or fear of failure.

God has already judged the world including us, other than death; we are worthy of nothing else. Nevertheless, God has restored us to Him through His son Jesus. Christ's death on the cross for us is the only performance we will ever need for God's love. God does not want our performance, neither does God want ceremonies designed to get His approval of us. God wants us to just believe that He has our lives under His control and to live out the basics. God calls us to live out the basics and then believe that He will carry out the details of our lives.

Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." (Mark 12:29-31 Message). The simple basics are to believe in God with all of our hearts, soul, and strength and to show everyone we meet His love. Part of maturing as a Christian is to enjoy the freedom that God has everything in His control. What may have looked like mistakes in the past are springboards to put you where He wants you to be today. It is impossible for anything to go wrong and nothing can be out of control when they are God's plans.

We need to stop fretting about the past and areas where we have failed. There are no complicated "fire dances" that we need to perform and no intricate God's plan for us is simple and the path that we are to follow is basic. We need to believe that God is everything to us with finality. Second, we need to love Him with all we have and love others as much as we love ourselves. Everyone that made an impact for God in the bible did so by getting back to the basics that God designed for us. It is not hard or complicated, we just need to decide today to be mature and simply do what He has told us.