Posted on 03/31/2005 5:13:20 PM PST by fivetoes
For the past few decades the persecution of Christianity around the world and in most notably in the United States of America occurs on daily basis. Christians protest over abortion, euthanasia, parental rights, removing the Ten Commandments and other Christian symbols from public view. It is not difficult to see why this is happening if we open our eyes and seek the truth.
Christians have allowed themselves to be persecuted because our actions bear little resemblance to what we are supposed to believe. We scream and decry about the Ten Commandments being removed as we have allowed them, with all hypocrisy, to become insignificant by breaking them on a daily basis. Is it any wonder that the secularists are winning!
Christians have the power to restore this country to the principles of Christianity that this nation was founded on and made it great for two centuries. We can do this without legislation. We can do this by living within the dictates of the Ten Commandments. The trouble is that it will take some sacrifice and sacrifice is a hard sell in these times of convenience over discipline.
Christians can take back America and let the secularists know that God is back in charge. We have to live our lives as though all ten of the Commandments share equal weight. We cannot pick and choose which ones we, as Christians will adhere to.
The first thing we need to do is Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. This means much more than showing up at church for an hour. In fact, I do not read anything about attending church in any of the Commandments.
Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
It was not that long ago that the Sabbath was holy. In my lifetime I remember when grocery stores were closed on Sunday. One food chain opened on Sunday and the rest, driven by greed and to provide convenience, followed suit. The explosion of other retailers joining in was unstoppable. Now every Mart, Depot, Club and Warehouse in America is open on the Sabbath and Christians flock to them in droves after church services. By our quest convenience we have rendered the Sabbath to the status of insignificant.
Inspired by our lust for convenience, retailers have opened their doors on Sundays and their employees must work on the Sabbath. This is not a very Christian directive. Christians were lured by the ease of being able to shop on the Sabbath.
Over seventy five percent of Americans consider themselves Christian. Imagine if we sacrificed a little convenience and did a little planning ahead and stopped shopping on Sunday. Retailers would be forced to shut down on Sunday and their employees could honor the Sabbath.
As government intrudes into our lives and our pocketbooks to feed its insatiable desire to control every aspect of our lives some feel the need to work on the Sabbath to make ends meet. For the consumers whose lives are filled with cluttered calendars and not enough time to get everything they need and want to get accomplished, the idea of Sunday shopping is, shall I dare say, a Godsend.
If many of us were to be asked to work on Sunday we would object, maybe we might even use the excuse that it is against our religious beliefs. If we were told that our job was at risk if we did not show up, we probably would cast aside the religious belief for job security. Are we not putting others in a position that we would not like to be in ourselves?
Perhaps we need to slow our lives down and discard activities that are not really important in the whole scheme of things. Like I said previously, this will not be an easy sell.
So while we Christians get all bent out of shape and in an uproar over abortion or Terri Shiavo, or the removal of Christian symbols in America we really have to open our blind eye and see that perhaps the reason that the world has a changing view of Christians is that we do not live up to all of the principles outlined in the bible, just the ones that seem to get us emotionally charged. Do we not pick and choose which Commandments we will adhere to?
If we are willing to sacrifice a little bit we can change this country, without creating new laws. If all of the Marts, Depots and Warehouses shut their doors on Sundays because the return on the investment will no longer be there we would still be persecuted. This time we will hear cries from the secularists about how they can't shop on Sunday any longer because the Christians are no longer being hypocritical and are living up to their principles. We could sit back and rejoice that we did not need another of man's laws to make it happen.
Perhaps if we were to use some discipline and practice some self-restraint and lived by all of the Ten Commandments we would not need the multitude of pharmaceuticals to alter our collective consciousness.
It is not hard to see where we, as a society went astray. The secularists have simply been dividing and conquering the Christian belief system. Once the lure of convenience of being able to ignore the Commandment of keeping holy the Sabbath took hold is it any wonder that the other Commandments would be easier to render insignificant?
Honoring thy Mother and Father, not killing, not stealing, not bearing false witness, not coveting our neighbor's wife or goods have all been deemed irrelevant. A quick scan through the news channels will bear witness to this fact.
I imagine that if people stayed home and honored the Sabbath there may be some repercussions. Families might wonder who these other people are that share the same roof. We might actually slow down our lives a bit and think about where we are going. We might actually begin to change America back to the principles upon which it was founded.
And the ten Commandments are Jewish too!
There is one large retailer chain that I know of that believes in the sanctity of the Sabbath and it is one of the reasons I shop there. That chain is Hobby Lobby. I like to paint and do other crafts. One Sunday, not too long ago I was in the middle of a project and needed some additional supplies. I drove to the local Hobby Lobby only to find the parking lot empty and the store closed. At first I felt inconvenienced and thought about driving to their biggest competitor in the area, Michael's. I could get what I wanted there. Looking at the empty Hobby Lobby made me realize that the employees not there were probably at home enjoying time with their families and respecting the Sabbath. It made me change my mind about how urgent my need of some supplies was. I should have planned better and bought them the day before. Thank you Hobby Lobby.
Excellent!
It might help if y'all got the day of the week correct, maybe?
=)
Heck, let's close the hospitals on the Sabbath and tell cops and firemen not to show up for work, either.
Makes sense to me.
I had thought to make it JudeoChristian, but I forgot. Just too busy. 8-)
No body is talking about forcing anyone to do anything. Good Samaritans would most assurdedly be needed. I would aim at money changers.
Yes, they are.
From the Catholic catechism;
Q: What day is the Sabbath?
A: Saturday is the Sabbath
Q: Why do we worship on Sunday?
A: Because the Holy Catholic Church changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.
And the mainline protestant churches just followed along. See Daniel 7:25 for eschatological implications of this change, and before anyone tries to "justify" the change through Scripture (please hold the flames), see Revelation 12:17 & 14:12, which state clearly that "keeping the commandments of God" is the thing that the end times are about.
How many FReepers will shout for blood when keeping Sunday is instituted as per the author's suggestion, and some refuse to do it, despite our being a "nation of laws" hmmmm?
Then slavery will be OK again if we just put the Blue Laws back in place?
SO9
Strangely enough, the Banks are about the only thing that does close on Sunday.
SO9
Fine, then let's take the whole weekend off. 8-)
Sunday is the "L-rd's Day" (See e.g.:Catholic Home Study Service - Sunday Is The Lord's Day .)
ML/NJ
Appreciate your humor. Thanks. :)
Not only did they change the day....they also changed the way the days were reckoned. God said in Genesis 1:5, "And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.
The Sabbath begins on Friday at "Even"...sunset, and continues through Saturday at sunset. Modern tradition now stipulates that the new day begins at "Mid-night"???
Isn't it amazing....God's way has 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. So natural. Leave it to mankind to confuse such a simple concept!
Yes, I believe it is!
Christ kept the Sabbath and He is our example.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.