Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), May-Ellen Colón
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000415
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00:01 How would you like to have seven-and-a-half weeks of
00:04 joyful vacation with God and your family every year? 00:07 You can, stay tuned. ¤ 00:35 Hi, I'm Shelley Quinn and we're so glad that you're joining us 00:38 no matter where you are around the world and if you're 00:40 listening by radio or by internet or if you're watching 00:44 us on television, thank you for joining Issues and Answers. 00:47 Today is going to be an exciting day because we're going to be 00:50 talking about how to have a seven-and-a-half week vacation 00:54 with God. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 30:15. I used 00:59 to consider this my life verse. Here's the Lord speaking and 01:02 he says: In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness 01:08 and confidence shall be your strength. And actually I look 01:13 at that verse now and I realize it's a call to come to God, rest 01:19 in him on his Sabbath day and that is how you can have 52 days 01:25 out of the year, that's seven- and-a-half weeks of vacation 01:29 with God. And if we look at it as a very special time, a 01:34 vacation time that will be joyful then this is something 01:38 that we should all be looking forward to week by week. 01:41 Help me to welcome, if you will, our very special guest. She is a 01:46 Ph. D. and an author. She's also the assistant director for the 01:51 Sabbath School and Personal Ministries of the Seventh-day 01:55 Adventist Church in the General Conference. 01:59 May-Ellen Colon. May-Ellen, that's just a mouthful for me 02:02 today but we're so glad that you've returned. 02:03 So glad to be back. 02:06 Now let me set this up quickly because we really want to get 02:10 into our topic today, but I just want to let people know a little 02:13 bit about who you are. You grew up and married a pastor. You 02:20 grew up in an Adventist environment, your father was 02:23 not but your mother was. You married a pastor you met in 02:27 college. You were missionaries in Africa and in Russia for nine 02:31 years. And now you're at the General Conference. But you, 02:34 because of your son and just because of the different 02:39 cultural experiences that you've had and seeing how people kept 02:44 the Sabbath, making the Sabbath a joyful celebration really 02:49 because a passion of yours; knowing how to find the biblical 02:55 principles, how to observe the Sabbath in such a way that you'd 03:01 find joy and the Lord would find joy and the family would find 03:04 joy. And you've written a book, From Sundown to Sundown: How 03:07 to Keep the Sabbath and Enjoy It This book is available at the 03:12 ABC or also at Amazon.com. But now what we want to do today 03:17 you have this statement that you said, The Sabbath is a 03:21 vacation with God and with his family, a joyful rest. 03:25 Let's unpack that. You have certain principles that you have 03:30 pulled from the Bible to talk about the vacation. Let's get 03:34 into those principles. 03:35 Okay. Well, first of all, I love vacations and when 03:42 I heard at the General Conference 03:44 that I finally had worked my way up to four weeks a year, I 03:49 thought wow! Then I discovered that I have actually 7-1/2 weeks 03:52 of vacation that I hadn't thought about with God that 03:56 was even more of a big deal. So every vacation though 04:00 involves certain things and one of them is preparation so that 04:06 actually is the first principle under the vacation part of that 04:11 statement that I'd like to just share. In the book, it's more 04:16 explained, but basically that means preparing for this special 04:20 day so we can enjoy its benefits You know we talked the last time 04:26 about we reflect different characteristics of God when we 04:29 live the Sabbath, and even God is a preparer. You know, he 04:34 prepared the earth for the people before he made the 04:39 people. He prepared the garden, he made it very special. 04:42 Then the Sabbath came. The culmination, of course, he is 04:44 preparing a place for us in the earth made new and so he is a 04:51 preparer. So when we can emulate him by following that principle 04:57 of his existence, his life... 04:58 Okay, so principle number one is preparation. There are some 05:03 scriptures for that. Hebrews 4:11, Exodus 16:28-30, 05:10 and Luke 23:54-56 to talk about the preparation. Now when you 05:20 are talking about preparation for the Sabbath, we are going to 05:23 be talking about preparation to make the Sabbath special. 05:27 As the Israelites did in Exodus 16, I'm just taking one of the 05:31 three. They had some definite preparation. They had to get 05:35 the manna prepared before Sabbath and there were some 05:37 definite intentionality there. 05:39 They had to get their fire built because that was a big, big 05:42 chore back then. And so forth. So the principle 05:45 of preparation you will see that thread running through scripture 05:49 in various stories. So what are some of the things 05:52 you do in your family to prepare for the Sabbath. 05:54 Well when I was, well let's see, this must have been in Africa 05:59 when our little girl Sarah was in first grade, she made a clock 06:03 for Bible class one day and I still have this same clock. 06:06 It has survived many years, and it says, Sabbath begins at... 06:12 and it has hands, it's hard to see them, that move, and we 06:16 still have that on our refrigerator and have had it 06:18 for years now. So this is the idea that there is a definite 06:22 time that we're aiming towards. It's sort of like taking a 06:26 vacation. You know you need to be at the airport at a certain 06:30 time to take off; well, we're going to take off on Shalom 06:33 Airlines to Sabbath Land and we need to be there, we need to be 06:37 ready for the departure to get the full benefit of this 06:41 experience. So there's a time element there, there's 06:45 intentionality. I was just going to say, my 06:50 favorite thing that you had was the little schedule that you put 06:56 up on your... Yes I do. We started that when 07:02 we were in Africa. One of the other missionaries was doing it 07:05 with their family and I said, Ah that's for me. I'm going to 07:07 try it. So usually every Monday in family worship, I would take 07:13 Ivan and Sarah, my husband and I would sit with them and say okay 07:17 for worship today, let's plan Sabbath. It's coming in six days 07:24 or five days. What do you want to do? So there's a graphic that 07:33 has it. We asked them what do you want to do on Friday night? 07:36 And what food do you want to have? And they would say and 07:42 we'd write it in. Well it could have been chili and corn bread 07:46 or whatever. Then what activity do you want to do. Most of the 07:51 time they wanted to do charades for worship. 07:53 So on this it was Friday nights you had then Sabbath morning, 08:00 Sabbath afternoon and then Sabbath evening. So I love this 08:04 idea of having this up here you actually got the children 08:11 involved in making preparations and it seemed like a holiday, it 08:16 seemed like it would be something they would be looking 08:18 forward to because then you knew that when you were planning this 08:22 out when the Sabbath came it wasn't going to be somebody 08:24 sitting around saying, What are we going to do? 08:28 Or, Why do we have to do this? When's it going to end? 08:33 Well, if they invented it, they're more inclined to own it 08:37 and look forward to actually doing it. 08:40 You know, not just for children; I think that's a great idea for 08:43 all of us, because if we put some thought into what our 08:47 Sabbath activities are, especially if you're in ministry 08:51 In ministry, we can get so overworked on Sabbath, it's good 08:56 to carve out some time and say this is going to be our special 08:58 time that we're doing just for our own relaxation and special 09:03 time with the Lord. 09:04 That's right and then your preparation... There are 09:07 different seasons of life for Sabbath keeping. Right now I 09:11 spend a lot of time traveling and weekends are very, very busy 09:17 so I have to set my Sabbaths to be simpler now. You know, 09:21 simpler preparation. So you have to gauge whatever your season of 09:25 life is. But you know, simple can still be special. 09:28 Just having that intentionality might mean putting a special 09:36 bowl of fruit you just got from the market on Sabbath and a nice 09:40 pretty... It could mean lighting a candle, it could mean many 09:43 things, but just something to indicate we're about to have a 09:49 special time. We need to be intentional about welcoming it. 09:54 Something that I like is to put scripture promises if I'm 09:58 going to have people over for dinner, put scripture promises 10:00 under their plate and then after the meal when the dishes are 10:04 cleared away everybody can have that scripture promise for the 10:07 week, that's their promise from God. You know they can share and 10:11 say what that means to them or what they might be looking 10:13 forward to. Yes. It takes intentionality. 10:17 But we do it, we plan when we have a vacation or when we have 10:21 people over for a holiday or whatever, we put some thought 10:24 into it and then we can really enjoy it. 10:26 But I like what you said May- Ellen that simple can be special 10:30 because I know that there are probable people out there like 10:33 me and like you who work many hours who feel like their time 10:38 is in such a crunch anyway that sometimes we have almost a 10:43 stop-and-go Sabbath. It's kind of like you rush up to the 10:46 Sabbath hours and some people just stop and then they're 10:49 waiting for the time to click by to where they can go again. 10:52 If we put a little thought into it, it doesn't have to make our 10:56 days more hectic; it's actually to make our weekend more special 11:01 that vacation with God more special. 11:04 Okay, so let's look at principle number two. 11:06 Principle number two under the vacation idea is the principle 11:11 of resting; resting from work and life's burdens and secular 11:17 concerns and distractions. Sabbath keeping means that. 11:21 Again, we're resting, we're putting aside our regular 11:27 business. If we don't rest from our daily grind, it's like 11:34 exhaling all the time. You know, we can try that, we can try 11:38 exhaling for the rest of this program and see how well we do 11:42 and not ever taking a time to just inhale and just, Oh Lord, 11:48 fill me, I just need to be recharged. 11:50 You know, that is something that you're taking the words right 11:53 out of my mouth, is that when I first discovered the Sabbath 11:58 through personal Bible study and the Lord leading me, I 12:01 remember my first Sabbaths just for the first two years even. 12:05 When it would come time, and I was running a ministry out of 12:10 the home so I had a little more time, but when it would come 12:13 time for the Sabbath, I would just feel like I was inhaling 12:20 the fragrance of God and it would be such a joyful change 12:24 of pace. I think you're probably aware that in I think it was 12:30 France they tried to change the work week from a seven-day work 12:34 week to a 10-day work week and found that people could not 12:39 function on a 10-day work week. God's the one who set up the 12:44 seven-day weekly cycle because he knew our bodies' biorhythms. 12:49 We need that break, we need that day off. 12:53 Yes, and they did the same thing in Britain during World War II. 12:58 They upped the hours and they found out that the production 13:02 went down and when they allowed more time for them 13:05 to rest the production went up. 13:06 So it's a given, it's a given for humanity 13:13 Let me give some scriptures, if you're taking notes, that this 13:18 principle number two of resting from your work and your concerns 13:21 and the burdens of life, Exodus 16:28-29, Exodus 20:9-10, 13:30 Exodus 23:12; 34:21 and there are many more, they are all 13:36 listed in May-Ellen's book. So principle number three. 13:42 Well principle number three as listed in the book is renewing. 13:47 Many people may be doing Sabbath-like things but 13:52 sometimes they do them in a stressful manner. In fact, one 13:58 of the strongest findings of my dissertation, I compared church 14:02 leaders as one of the things I studied with the regular laity, 14:04 with the regular church members and I found out that the church 14:09 leaders had a noticeably higher stress level on Sabbath than the 14:13 church members. So somehow we've got to come up with a mind set 14:20 that allows us to do Sabbath- like things in an unstressful 14:25 way. Because if we are just are constantly going all Sabbath 14:30 long and end up more tired than when we started Sabbath, more 14:35 tired at the end, there's something not right with that 14:40 picture. I can relate to that because we 14:43 travel a lot on weekends and minister, but then when we are 14:47 in town often after church then there's hospital visitations and 14:52 there are some times we end up counseling with people and there 14:56 are times that we are going all day Sabbath and we come in at 15:00 the close of Sabbath when we finally make it home we're more 15:05 tired than any other day of the week. So it is something that 15:12 we're trying to... I was telling a young pastor and his wife, 15:17 we can't be God. We can't be the end-all and the answer for 15:24 everyone so we have to learn to pace ourselves and make sure 15:27 that we've got special time for our family and special time for 15:32 God. And there may be one Sabbath 15:35 when you have a day like that, but if every Sabbath of every 15:41 month is like that... I have a little schedule that I sometimes 15:46 try to factor in; my Sabbath monthly plan this time, but it's 15:52 in my mind as I think of my month. Maybe one Sabbath could 15:54 be for service activities after church. Maybe another Sabbath 16:00 could be for nature activity. May be one Sabbath could be just 16:05 fall apart Sabbath. You just stay home with your family and 16:10 maybe take a rest together and just have some neutral things 16:16 that aren't really demanding, but just find yourself again and 16:23 get reacquainted. Maybe another Sabbath could be for a church 16:27 program or something. But not have every Sabbath just one 16:32 constant grind, but breaking it up into different types of 16:37 Sabbaths. All these principles that we are going to discuss 16:41 in the course of these four programs, we can't do all of 16:44 them every Sabbath. I want to give you that little guideline 16:49 right from the start, although there are some that we must do 16:51 or it wouldn't be Sabbath. But some of them you can do it 16:58 maybe not this Sabbath but next Sabbath. Of course, every 17:00 Sabbath we need to rest, every Sabbath we need to keep it holy. 17:03 Those principles we keep intact. But I just wanted to point that 17:07 out so that you wouldn't end up so tired at the end that it's 17:11 not a rest and you're not renewed. 17:12 And the whole idea when we think of this as a vacation time with 17:18 the Lord, I mean there is preparation before we go on a 17:23 vacation. There is principle number two which is the resting. 17:28 And there is resting on a vacation and there is renewal 17:33 on a vacation. Well, I've been on vacations that weren't too 17:37 restful when I'm thinking about it and I told myself I would 17:40 never do that again. When you come home you need a vacation 17:44 from your vacation, you're in trouble, right? Okay so let's 17:47 look at principle number four. 17:48 Okay, did I share principle number three? 17:51 Maybe I'm the one that jumped. That's okay. Principle number 17:55 three. Yes. Principle number three is the one we've been 17:58 giving suggestions on how to live is observing the Sabbath 18:01 in a manner that renews us physically, emotionally, 18:04 mentally, spiritually and socially because the Sabbath 18:07 is made for us. Okay be more specific; 18:09 give us an example. Well physically, that might mean 18:13 resting, it may mean taking a nap if you've had a hard week. 18:16 But you know like I say, it's a vacation with God and he's our 18:20 guest so if we kind of sleep the whole day and ignore him 18:22 maybe that's not... you know we don't do that with our guests. 18:25 Or it may be a nature walk if you don't get a chance to get 18:28 out in the open air. Right, it could mean that, yes. 18:31 And it could mean of course mentally not... If I'm a pastor 18:35 or something maybe I don't do heavy even if its Sabbath-like 18:40 work that I do. Maybe I don't do heavy sermon preparation or 18:45 heavy materials preparation even if it's on a Sabbath-like theme. 18:50 Just because of the mental maybe it won't be a break mentally. 18:53 Spiritually, of course, is the going to church and hopefully 19:00 getting renewed that way. Socially we have maybe a more 19:06 laid back time with our family just in the relaxation mode 19:11 trying to avoid talking business and things like that that we are 19:16 taking a break from. You know, I think I mentioned 19:20 previously in another... I won't mention his name, but I 19:23 do know that there is one very popular pastor-evangelist 19:28 speaker that is on 3ABN and I know that as they welcome in the 19:36 Sabbath, the first thing he does is turn off his phone. He said 19:40 he figures that if the world can't get hold of him for 24 19:44 hours it's not going to fall apart and he dedicates the time 19:48 to his family and their time together with the Lord. 19:52 And this takes, again, intentionality. It depends on 19:58 what your profession is, too. If you're a musician, you know, 20:02 a conductor, or something, maybe music isn't the way that renews 20:07 you or directing choirs on Sabbath maybe that's not a 20:11 renewal thing for you because you're doing it all the time, 20:14 but for me being involved in music is a renewal thing because 20:17 I can't do it during the week. So you have to gauge your 20:22 situation and try to have balance in your life on this day 20:26 Well we could elaborate on that. Also observing the Sabbath in a 20:32 manner of renewal means it produces a sense of well-being 20:35 and lowering stress. So again if we're more tired and stressful 20:40 at the end, we need to rethink. 20:44 Well we need to go on so let's get to principle number four. 20:49 Principle number four is healing observing the day to foster 20:52 healing, relief, release, liberation and refreshment. 20:56 And any action that hurts ones self or others is Sabbath 21:00 breaking. That's an interesting thought. 21:03 So explain what you mean when you say observe the day by 21:08 fostering healing. Give us some examples. 21:11 Well, Jesus healed on the Sabbath and in the book it lists 21:19 the references for the seven healing miracles that Jesus did, 21:24 I think deliberately, most of them, to make the point that 21:27 Sabbath is a day for healing. You know, the man with the 21:31 withered hand, the lady that was stooped over, Simon's mother 21:34 and the pool of Bethesda and all of these healing stories 21:39 took place on Sabbath and I took that as a principle. Wow! Every 21:44 thing I do on Sabbath has to be healing. If I'm going to be 21:50 judgmental and tearing people down, that's not healing. It 21:55 translates into that to be an example. 21:58 Of course, we shouldn't be judgmental or tearing people 22:00 down on any day. Yes, on any day and the Sabbath 22:02 is a day above all days and so we certainly should not turn 22:07 the Sabbath into an occasion for doing that. 22:09 But maybe you know specifically you might apply that with 22:13 parents that if you have problem children maybe the time 22:18 to deal with the problems is not on the Sabbath day. Maybe that's 22:22 the time for just affirmation and building them up and trying 22:24 to heal and have that relationship. 22:26 Yes, one family actually decided to do that unless it was 22:31 something that couldn't wait, they waited so that Sabbath 22:35 could be associated in a positive light in their 22:39 children's lives. And healing... Of course, healing could mean 22:43 going to take care of somebody, or visit the sick 22:48 and you know when we have a situation, if it's an emergency 22:52 that comes up, we can ask our self, will greater harm come 22:56 if I leave this undone that if I do it? You know, that's 23:03 another issue entirely but I suppose we better move on to 23:07 number five. Okay number five. Yes, principle number five. 23:13 Celebrating. Now this is celebrating the creation of the 23:17 creation of the world and our redemption and the atmosphere 23:22 should be one of celebration, joy and delight. 23:26 I love it, May-Ellen, because when I first began celebrating 23:32 the Sabbath and I would go out to people and I would tell them 23:34 I was celebrating the Sabbath. Now, I have to tell you, some 23:37 Sabbath keepers, and I call them that, and I don't mean to sound 23:43 hmm... but that's what they were doing was KEEPING the Sabbath 23:46 but they weren't making it anything joyful. Sometimes 23:49 people would get upset with me and say, You shouldn't be 23:53 celebrating the Sabbath. And I said, It's all about creation, 23:56 re-creation, sanctification. Why shouldn't I be celebrating the 24:00 Sabbath?. I think it is a joyous occasion. 24:03 Yes, the fourth commandment does not say, Remember the Sabbath 24:07 day to keep it gloomy. Abraham Joshua Heschel has written a 24:13 wonderful book on the Sabbath. He says that actually in Jewish 24:17 tradition it's considered a sin to be sad on the Sabbath day. 24:22 Oh. I love that. It's considered a sin to be sad on the Sabbath. 24:25 And then Isaiah 58, of course, that wonderful word delight 24:28 comes up; to keep the Sabbath as a delight; the Hebrew 24:32 word for that means exquisite delight. Richard Davidson often 24:38 talks about it, it's royal delight. It's not just an 24:43 ordinary delight. So we're having a vacation with the king, 24:48 I mean, it's a royal delight and so somehow he wants us to 24:57 experience that. You know, I'm sitting here 24:59 this is a whole paradigm shift. People who have looked at the 25:04 Sabbath as something that they had to do. One program earlier 25:08 you said that some people look at the Sabbath as a day that a 25:13 demanding God has taken from us rather than looking at it as a 25:19 day that is a gift from a loving God who wants to spend this 25:23 time with us. I love the idea that this is 7-1/2 weeks a year, 25:29 52 days out of the year that God says come vacation with me. 25:33 Come rest. You'll find your strength, you'll find your 25:38 confidence when you're resting in me. Let's review those five 25:42 principles again, just recapping those. There's first the idea of 25:50 vacation. There's preparing and that's a guiding principle, that 25:54 we prepare to spend time that time with God. The second on is 25:56 that we should observe the Sabbath in a way that we are 26:02 renewing, excuse me, resting was the second. Then the third one 26:07 was that we're observing in a way that we are renewing 26:09 ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. 26:12 Then healing: That principle is that this is a time not only for 26:18 personal healing, emotional healing, but to reach out to 26:21 others as Jesus did and heal on the Sabbath; maybe to visit the 26:26 sick or somebody that's shut in. Then principle number five is 26:32 celebrating. Let's talk about that a little bit more. What 26:36 are we celebrating exactly? Celebrating the creation of the 26:40 world and Proverbs 8 talks about... That's the other 26:44 creation story and it talks about God rejoicing in the 26:48 mankind that he had made. And we're celebrating redemption. 26:52 In the other portrayal of the 10 commandments, Deuteronomy 26:56 Deuteronomy 5 talks about that's why we're keeping the Sabbath. 27:01 You know, May-Ellen, my favorite scripture regarding the Sabbath 27:05 is Exodus 31:13. God says this day is a memorial to let you 27:10 know that I am the one who sanctifies you. For someone who 27:16 grew up so performance oriented feeling like I had to be perfect 27:19 to be loved not only by my family but by my Lord, it was 27:24 such an Ah-ha moment for me to know that I could inhale and 27:29 know that God is the one who's going to do this. I can't 27:32 believe our time's already all gone. May-Ellen, thank you so 27:37 much for being here. The book is From Sundown to Sundown: 27:41 How to Keep the Sabbath and Enjoy It. The author is 27:46 May-Ellen Colon and we are so delighted that you've been with 27:50 us. Nice to be here. We're going to have her come back, right? 27:54 You're going to come back and finish off some of these 27:56 principles. Well we've run through these very quickly, but 27:59 I think you really would enjoy this book. It's available at the 28:02 ABC or at Amazon.com. Learn how to come away and 28:09 rest in the Lord to really enjoy a vacation with God. |
Revised 2014-12-17