A few years ago, I remember asking God to enlarge my territory. I had just finished reading “The Prayer of Jabez” and was so inspired by his simple prayer that I prayed it myself. I remember praying and asking God to use me wherever he felt that I would be most useful to him. I even recall saying, Lord, you have tons of churches all over the borough, use me anywhere. What I failed to realize is if I said anywhere, God would literally use me anywhere. At the time, I was an avid Seventh-Day Adventist, but I was beginning to realize that God wasn’t as concerned with the day we worship or what we eat. He was concerned with how we lived our daily lives. Little did I know that God was about to take me completely out of my comfort zone.

All my life I’ve been raised to believe that anyone who worshiped on any other day than Saturday just couldn’t be a real Christian and that God was not pleased with them. Some church leaders even told me that they were under the enemy’s seal. Though we all were reading the same books and the Bible, I just could not accept that my God would send his Son to die to redeem the world from sin, just to end up throwing his children into a pit of fire because they worshiped him on Sunday instead of Saturday. That I knew deep in my heart was the wrong Gospel.

One morning, I took to the computer and the Bible and decided that I wanted to know the truth about Sunday. While reading the book of Acts, I realized that the early Christians worshiped on the Sabbath day at the Synagogue and held communion service on the next day.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

-Acts 20:7

I later found out that they began to only keep Sundays when they were kicked out of the Synagogue by unbelieving Jews. So in order to continue the spread of the Gospel that was not welcome in the Synagogue, they started to hold meetings on Sunday moving from house to house. Now am I to believe that their sacrifice is unacceptable to God because it was not done on a Saturday? No! I will not accept such a belief.

God created us to worship him. Our lives should reflect this worship every single day.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts

-Acts 2:46

The Sabbath was set in place so that we can spend time with our heavenly Father. Every Christian should set apart a time for God, a time to meditate on his word, a 24-hour period just for God and it is a biblical fact that the Sabbath is indeed a Saturday. However, the Sabbath Day wasn’t created to become THE deciding factor on whether or not you or I will make it to heaven. The Bible commands us to:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of The Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11 KJV)

So on this day set apart for the Lord, there shouldn’t be any activity on our part that could be done throughout the week. One of the things that will forever remain with me from my upbringing is the respect for the Sabbath Day. It is a day for the family to come together and worship the Lord God almighty. I don’t do my groceries on this day nor do I use it to catch up on the weeks soap operas. The entire day is devoted to my Lord God. In this 24-hour period I spend time meditating, reading the Word, communing with my God, taking a nature walk, etc. Whether you keep the Saturday Sabbath or Worship on Sunday, why not commit to giving this time totally to God. A time where you don’t look at the clock 100 times during the church service praying the pastor will end his sermon before the mall closes down or before tonight’s kick-off.

Yes, I do believe that the day itself cannot save you. No matter how faithful a sabbath keeping church-goer you are, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God, you still wont make it in. We are living in the last days and the world needs to know that God is God. I often wonder how did we go from a people who were constantly within the temple courts studying the Word of God EVERY DAY to a people who are debating over which 24-hour period we should give to God. Seriously? The enemy has successfully distracted the children of God with frivolous debates over Sabbath Days, doctrines, etc. It is clearly time for a reformation.

My prayer is that we , the church, will see the urgency in saving souls and start sharing the true Gospel message with our colleagues, neighbors and friends. I want everyone I know whether they are a friend or consider themselves a foe that Jesus loves them and wants to save them. We were created to worship God and we ought to be living to proclaim his message. Our God is the one and only good, merciful and gracious God. He requires our honor and respect, but he also wants to know that we love him with all our hearts, minds and souls.

Today, God has placed me on a new journey that is a far cry from what I am accustomed to, but I am pressing on knowing that God is in control and has a purpose for my life. I want to develop a deeper relationship with Him and because of this I am seeking His truths every single day. He is clearly doing a NEW thing in my life and though he may not be doing it where I expected that he would, he is doing it. I feel blessed to know he sees a use for my broken vessel. What a God!

Your journey with God may not always take you where you expect to go, but if you trust him he will take you to higher heights. Are you willing to let God do with you as he pleases? Are you ready to tell God, Father I completely surrender to you? God is looking for some real bold people who will let him do what he needs to do regardless of what others may think. Are you ready to be his empty vessel or are you still filled with the will of man?

My theme for the upcoming year is:

2011 eyes on Heaven!

As the New Year approaches, don’t just make a resolution to lose weight, get married, etc. Why not make a commitment to follow God wherever he may lead? If this is your sincere desire, please pray this prayer with me.

Lord, use me for your service. Send me wherever you see fit and equip me to do whatever you purpose that I do. Help me to be in tune with your voice and grant me the courage to step out in faith. 2011 is yours Lord, do as you will. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Memory Text:

In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

-Romans 14:5-6

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