Ensign: What To Write, What To Write ...

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3






AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 28 August 2015





Missed you! My family and I were on vacation last week, the last week before our kids (Sarah and Jeffrey now stand to my shoulder, by the way; they stretched out a bit during the trip!) started school this past Tuesday, Sarah in fourth grade and Jeffrey in third. Went out after church Sunday to Medora for its annual musical tribute to Theodore Roosevelt, then turned south to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, walk among the presidents (the presidents' statues, anyway) and climb dinosaurs and pose with the denizens and doings of Bedrock -- you can hear the Flintstones theme music now, can't you?





There is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with taking a break from all your worries (great, now I'm channeling Cheers) or stepping back from your responsibilities to get some time away. Even Jesus did this; when people were clamoring for Him to heal them sometimes as one man -- even as One Man -- He just didn't have in Himself the strength and had to back away, get out on the boat, fall asleep in the boat as His disciples are screaming "Jesus, save us!" And if Jesus while walking the earth, the son of God while walking the earth, needed alone time with God ...






... how much more do you think we do? Not for nothing does the sabbath day make it into the Ten Commandments Moses brought down, inscribed by the hand of the LORD, from mount Sinai. Not for nothing do we see in the account of creation ... of everything that, starting in the second chapter of Genesis, on the seventh day of creation, God rested. Not because He was tired, but because He needed (and we need) that seventh day -- I will not get into what literal day of the week it is -- and so do we.




And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:2




EVERY DAY is blessed, but only the seventh day (in fact, the word Sabbath doesn't appear in the Bible until the Ten Commandments, specifically in Exodus 20:8) is sanctified, specifically set apart for God Himself. BY God Himself. Physics teaches us that nobody -- and Nobody -- and nothing can run on all eight cylinders all the time, so there has to be some rest to refocus and energize ourselves, for we do have to go back home and,

until we go to heaven, our true home if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to bridge the gap between us who are sinners and God Who is sinless, we have things to do. The kids started school again, Martha and I started work again, and in addition we have so many people we interact with and learn from that we still have the opportunity to, I would hope, interact with and learn from us! Just please do not begrudge us some time away.    






David

P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!






Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.






Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.