Sabbath #1: In the Beginning....

To be honest, this Sabbath did not feel like all that special of a day. At least it was not special when compared to all the other Sabbaths that I've experienced in my life.

One of the main reasons was this Sabbath's proximity to my last fast, the 3-week long internet/tv/movie fast. Instead it felt more like a normal day, and the three days this week that I was off the fast were the weird ones. I have a feeling that this will pass as I get more accustomed to doing things normally throughout the rest of the week. The one thing that was unique about today was the lack of food.

Despite some heated debating amongst my friends, I have decided to keep the fasting part of my journey. However, after consulting with a dietitian (namely my mother), I have decided to allow the drinking of water. Probably a good thing.

Now for the happenings on this, my first Sabbath. Friday night was taken up entirely by the "Hope for Haiti", a benefit concert that my church group and I put on, together with Sally Loo's Wholesome Cafe. It was AMAZING by the way. I found myself bending a few of the regulations, but since it was all for the people in Haiti, no rules were broken. On Saturday, I got up, went to church and then promptly went home and slept for 3 hours. When I woke up, I spent a little time thinking and then set about reading Philippians and Jude for the remainder of the Sabbath.

To give myself a little bit of something to do/strive for, I will attempt to read all of the New Testament during Project Sabbath; if I finish the New, I'll move back to the Old in a roughly reverse order. While I've read a good portion of the Bible, I have not read it in its entirety. The most noticeable holes are the New Testament, and the end of the Old, basically from Job onward. The reading I do will not be simply reading it, but rather studying it and marking down my impressions/thoughts. I expect my Bible to be pretty marked up by the end.

Overall, the first week was a success, but still lacking in a way. I didn't feel like I was fasting for a whole day. I think in future weeks this will pass, as my Friday nights won't be taken up by long concerts. However, if this feeling of a lack of commitment continues, I will consider extending the hours of my Sabbaths to include Saturday nights, but I won't make that decision now.

Origins: Pastor Bobby & Project Fast

Most of you are probably wondering why I would choose to put myself through this; a simple question, with a decently long explanation.

First of all, I am a Seventh-Day Adventist, and have been my entire life. Like the name suggests, we SDA's hold the Sabbath with high regard. However, what is done on the Sabbath, besides going to church, has typically been left up to the individual. I grew up in a rather liberal household, and so we children were not really held to any rules governing our Sabbath behavior, except for no working. This only got worse as I went to college.

It was recently pointed out to me, by Pastor Bobby (while not officially a pastor, Bobby is a pastor to me), that these actions were hypocritical to my SDA faith, and that new potential-Christians might be turned away from Christianity if they saw me doing this. I couldn't let that happen, and so sought to do something about it.

I recently was on (actually, I just got off of it) a Internet/TV/Movie fast that lasted for 2 weeks, which I am now calling Project Fast. I decided to do Project Fast at the urging of another pastor of mine, Josh. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that traditionally involves people forgoing eating and drinking for a set period of time. In the past this was a big deal, because the majority of people's days were devoted to the preparation of food; not so much today, because of the invention of grocery stores. If I wanted to truly fast, Josh said, then i should seek to cut out the portion of my life that was the largest, and devote that time to God; for the ancients it was food, for me it was Internet/TV/Movies. I successfully completed 2 weeks of Project Fast. While it was a good experience, I am glad it is over. What I took from Project Fast is that I can actually, with a little bit of accountability, keep a fast.

I am therefore, honoring the suggestion of both my pastors, Bobby and Josh, by keeping the Sabbath with fasting from pretty much everything in my life, and devoting the time to God.

It probably won't be easy, but the good things in life rarely are.

Overview: Rules, Restrictions & Guidelines

The concept is simple, honor the 4th Commandment. The application is the hard part.

It was recently pointed to me that I wasn't keeping the 4th Commandment, and so might turn away new Christians who were looking to me as an example. I therefore decided to embark on Project Sabbath. It entails stripping pretty much everything in my life, between Friday night and Saturday night sundowns, and devoting myself to pursuing God. Basically, I'm following Leviticus 16:31a when it says, "It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves"(NIV)

Since goals and time limits are important in a project like this, at least for me, I am proposing to keep Project Sabbath going until the Sabbath before my birthday (Sat, April 17, 2010). At that time I will decide whether or not to amend the Rules/Restrictions/Guidelines or abandon the project all together.

Here are the Rules/Restrictions/Guidelines that I will be adhering to on Sabbaths:

No Working (schoolwork, yardwork, etc.)

No Buying/Selling

No Internet

No Television

No Movies

No Games (board games, phone Tetris, etc.)

No Radio

No Secular Books

No Eating

No Drinking (except for water)

No Extended Traveling

No Strenuous Activity

No Miscellaneous Activities that take my attention away from God/the Bible/helping people

When in doubt about a particular activity, I'll avoid doing it.

what I can do is:

Read my Bible

Pray

Go to Church

Talk with People

Help people

Think about/contemplate God

Journal (on paper)

Rest

I am counting on you, my friends and blog-followers to hold me accountable while I embark on Project Sabbath.

Note:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 10 Commandments, specifically #4, you can find them here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&version=NIV

or

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%205&version=NIV