Reading time 5 minutes

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Yahweh has many good things for those who keep Sabbath!

'A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath Day.'
Psalm 92:1-5   It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh,
and to sing praises to your name, O most High."
2  To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
3. On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute,
And on the harp, With harmonious sound.
4. For You, Yahweh, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
5. Yahweh, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.

Sabbath is a blessing in many ways. Let’s explore a few of them.

PHYSICAL BLESSINGS:
Leviticus 26:2-4  You shall keep My Sabbaths
and reverence My sanctuary: I am Yahweh.
3. 'If you walk in My statutes
and keep My commandments, and perform them,
4. then I will give you rain in its season,
the land shall yield its produce,
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

REST:
Leviticus 23:3  'Six days shall work be done,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest,
a holy convocation.
You shall do no work on it;
it is the Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings.

Sabbath is a day for everyone to have a rest.
Sometimes it may seem to us that a rest is
just the thing we DO NOT need or want.
We may have things that seem urgent to do
or we may just want to have some fun.
In any event, Yahweh knows we need a rest from all those things.
Each of us needs that time to rest our body,
have time for thinking about our direction
and to draw closer to our Master Yahweh and our family.

Deuteronomy 5:14  but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim.
In it you shall do no work:
you, nor your son, nor your daughter,
nor your male servant, nor your female servant,
 nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle,
nor your stranger who is within your gates,
that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

We also need to give all others the day off too.
It is all right to do a favor for those we are with on Sabbath,
but we should be careful not to ask very much at all of people on that day.
Unless I am ill, I should do as much for others as I ask others to do for me.
Of course no service should be done for money on Sabbath.

SANCTIFICATION:
Sabbath is one of the ways to being set apart for Yahweh’s purposes.
Exodus 31:13  "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying:
'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep,
for it is A SIGN BETWEEN ME AND YOU throughout your generations,
that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.”
Ezekiel 20:12  "Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that
they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.”

A SURE BRIDGE TO YAHWEH:
Isaiah 56:6-7  "Also the sons of the foreigner
who join themselves to Yahweh, to serve Him,
and to LOVE THE NAME OF YAHWEH, to be His servants;
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant;
7. Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Ezekiel 20:20  'hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be
A SIGN BETWEEN ME AND YOU,
that you may know that I am Yahweh your Elohim.'

Yahweh is our mighty one.
That means we can call on him when we are in distress.
He has the power to act miraculously on our behalf.

********
Of course these benefits accrue mostly to the benefit of those
who keep Sabbath with a whole heart.
Those who are forced to keep Sabbath but
do as little as they think they can get away with,
or those who watch the clock to make sure
they don’t get stuck with a few minutes of extra Sabbath
are not going to reap all these blessings.

Praise Yahweh for blessing his children with the Sabbath!

One of the songs we sing says:
     I love the Sabbath day,
     I love the peace I feel.
     I love the Sabbath day,
     And all that it reveals.
     The caring of our Father,
     To give us a day of rest.
     His presence right here with us,
     Making sure we’re really blest.
 

Friends, may Yahweh truly bless you with His Sabbath Day.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy

Reading time 7 minutes

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Last Sabbath we talked about some of the blessings of keeping Sabbath.

Jeremiah 6:16  This is what Yahweh says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls. . . .”

That was part of the WHY.
Now let’s look at HOW TO KEEP SABBATH.

The first thing is to understand that Sabbath is a spiritual thing.
When Yahweh had created the earth he then created something holy,
set apart for purposes related to Him.

Genesis 2:1-3  Thus the heavens and the earth,
and all the host of them, were finished.
2. And on the seventh day Elohim ended His work which He had done,
and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3. Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which Elohim had created and made.

The first Sabbath!! (that we know of)

If we use the fact that keeping Sabbath is a spiritual activity
it may make it easier to do.
What do we mean, “a spiritual activity?”
Spiritual means something that has to do with
the part of a person that enables us to have characteristics such as
emotional feelings, believing, loving, and creating.
Spiritual also refers to things pertaining to Yahweh.
Yahweh has a spirit and you have a spirit. (Isaiah 42:5)

In John 6:63, Yahshua mentioned that,
“It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

Some people wanted to know how they could do Yahweh’s will.
John 6:28-29  Then they said to Him,
"What shall we do, that we may work the works of Yahweh?"
29. Yahshua answered and said to them,
"This is the work of Yahweh, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

He is saying here that these people needed to be concerned with
their relationship with the Creator and with His son Yahshua
more than they were about specific things men might tell them to do.

DO NOT THINK I’M SAYING YOU DON”T NEED TO OBEY THE TORAH!
Yahshua said: Matthew 5:17-18  "Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah
or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18. "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,
one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Torah till all is accomplished
(brought to completion).

Also, when another man asked him what he needed to do,
Matthew 19:17  So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good?
No one is good but One, that is, Yahweh.
But if you want to enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS."

Different strokes for different folks; Or at least a different emphasis.

Back to keeping Sabbath:
Mark 2:27  And He said to them,
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

Does this mean that if you are a man (person)
you can do anything you want on Sabbath?
NO.
It means that the spiritual activity of keeping Sabbath is more important
than the rules men have made to tell us how to keep Sabbath.

At the time of the Messiah there were a lot of rules
about all sorts of religious things, including Sabbath.
Religious leaders took these rules very seriously.

John 5:16-18  For this reason the Jews persecuted Yahshua,
and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
17. But Yahshua answered them, "My Father has been working until now,
and I have been working."
18. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him,
because He not only broke the Sabbath,
but also said that Yahweh was His Father, making Himself equal with Elohim.

Did Yahshua really break the Sabbath?
CERTAINLY NOT !!

What he broke was some man-made rules about keeping Sabbath.

These rules were very physical.
You couldn’t carry anything, or walk very far, or do any creative activity.

Yahshua pointed out the error of such rules.

Luke 14:5  Then He answered them, saying,
“Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit,
will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”

Or if a sheep is lost you would go to find him.
Matthew 12:12 “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

If you see someone who needs help on Sabbath you ought to help them.

Now, don’t say, “I’m really busy right now so I’ll just
leave that donkey in the pit until Sabbath and pull him out then.
Messiah said I could do that.”

You need to plan any such activity to be done before or after Sabbath.
Working on Sabbath is for emergencies.
It is to avoid pain, discomfort or loss that would occur
if the problem was left until after Sabbath.

Yahweh’s followers are to be really serious about keeping Sabbath.
Yahshua said:
"And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. (Matthew 24:20)
It should be an emotional struggle for us if we needed to
do the work of fleeing for our lives on Sabbath.

His followers would not take care of his dead body on Sabbath:
Luke 23:56  Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils.
And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Matthew 28:1  Now AFTER the Sabbath,
as the first day of the week began to dawn,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

Sabbath is important to Yahweh.
He included it in the “Top Ten”

Exodus 20:8  "Remember the Sabbath day, to sanctify it.

Sabbath is one of those blessings we need to DO SOMETHING to receive.
What we need to do is more in our heart than with our hands.
We need to love the Sabbath day and our dear Father who gave it to us.

We need to help our heart to remember the Sabbath day
with affection and joy because we can draw closer
to the one who is our best friend; our Father Yahweh.

Remember the Sabbath blessings of
rest, sanctification, and closeness to Yahweh.
Keep the Sabbath with a heart of love for Yahweh and for your brother.

Friends, may Yahweh bless you
and fill your home with love and joy on this Sabbath Day.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy

You can also read the article KEEPING SABBATH

Reading time 4 minutes

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Last week’s Greeting about keeping Sabbath could have
included a suggestion to parents to make the Sabbath special
for their children. A few ways we can do this are:

1. Mom can light two Sabbath candles just before the beginning of Sabbath.
On rare occasions she can ask an older daughter to light them
and say the blessing ‘because Mom is too busy’.

2. Dad should ask Yahweh to bless each of the children
near the beginning of Sabbath.

3. The Sabbath is a good time to tell some stories from the scriptures,
or other stories that teach a small lesson.

4. We offer Sabbath lessons for children.
Let us have your address and tell us how old the children are
and we will send Lessons for them.

It isn’t easy for many people to make up a good new story every Sabbath.
We need people to write Sabbath stories for Dads to read to their children.
They could be stories from the scriptures,
or from history, or fiction stories that teach a lesson.
Anyone could write them.
We’d be pleased to advertise them in Sabbath Greetings
and we’d post them on the Internet.
(Assuming they are scripturally right and of fair quality)
It would be nice to have stories from a lot of people – adults and children.
If you want to just tell a story, you can send us a cassette tape and we’ll type it up.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were weekly Sabbath Greetings for children?!

It’s important to make the Sabbath a delight for our children.
It should be a time they will remember fondly all their lives,
with traditions that bring out the character and meaning of the day.

We need to remember that children can keep Sabbath as children,
Children don’t need to keep Sabbath entirely like adults.
The scriptures seem to indicate that some adults could learn about
following Yahweh from little children.

Luke 18:16-17  But Yahshua called them to Him and said,
"Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them;
for of such is the kingdom of Yahweh. 17. "Assuredly, I say to you,
WHOEVER DOES NOT RECEIVE THE KINGDOM OF YAHWEH
AS A LITTLE CHILD WILL BY NO MEANS ENTER it."

Matthew 18:3-6  and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted
and BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN,
you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
6. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin,
it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck,
and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Yahshua, Paul and Jacob (James) called the adult believers ‘little children.’
(John 13:33, Galatians 4:19, 1 John 2:1)

John used the term NINE TIMES in his first letter.
He must have seen a real similarity between a true believer and a little child.
For instance:

1 John 3:18 JNT  My little children, let us not love with words or in talk,
but with actions and in reality.
1 John 3:7  Little children, let no one deceive you.
He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

Mark 9:36-37  Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.
And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,
37. "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me;
and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."

1 Corinthians 14:20  Brethren, do not be children in understanding;
however, in malice be babes,
but in understanding be mature.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of Yahweh;
and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,
but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is.

In Yahweh’s kingdom:
Isaiah 11:6  "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.

Friends, may Yahweh bless you with
spending at least part of this Sabbath with a little child.
And may Our Father also give you
the heart of a child on this Sabbath Day.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy
 

Reading time 4 minutes

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Matthew 18:3-6 [Yahshua] said, "Assuredly, I say to you,
unless you turn back again and BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN,
you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. Therefore whoever humbles himself
as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

What is it like to be a child?

When I [Tom] was a little child of four,
which is about the youngest I can remember,
I didn’t think much about the pleasures of the flesh
or the cares of the world.
My toys and food were given to me. I had no cares.
Everyone else in my world was greater than I was.

I don’t remember praying quite that young.
I think I may have been six or seven.

Last Sabbath, I took a 3-year-old child in my arms.
Her mother told her to sing a song for me,
and very clearly she sang:
 The B - I - B - L - E,
 Yes, that’s the book for me,
 I stand alone on Yahweh’s word,
 The B - I - B - L - E.
She was very sweet!
It was a pleasure to be with her.
I learned from her

Proverbs 23:24-25  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
25. Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who bore you rejoice.

Of course, not all little children are sweet and innocent.

Sometimes we see a toddler misbehaving and we say to ourselves,
“I know Yahshua didn’t mean we should be like that!”

Isaiah 3:11-12  Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
For the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12. As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them. O My people!
Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths."

A little child should be quiet, humble, and obedient.

With a TV in the home, it seems that these characteristics don’t last very long.

In any event, we grow up and our interests expand.
We take on responsibilities TO SERVE OUR INTERESTS.
Perhaps we even get to the point where
there is almost no one in our world who is greater than we are.

Then it’s time to turn around and recapture some of those traits of a little child.
As important as we may be,
we need to measure our stature against Yahweh,
not against those around us.

When Yahshua said, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of Yahweh," (John 3:3)
perhaps He was talking about a psychological rebirth
as well as the spiritual rebirth that was his primary meaning.

We need to go back and start the maturing process again with more insight,
with more appreciation for the right direction.
We need to build on a foundation of humility and simplicity.

Can we give up our stature, our position, our concepts,
and replace them with the humility of a child,
with the recognition that only Yahweh’s concepts are worth holding?
As in everything, we need to have Yahweh’s kingdom as our goal.

Dear children, may Yahweh bless you with wisdom and insight on this Sabbath Day.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy

Reading time 5 minutes

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Yom Teruah Sameach !
(Happy Day of Shouting!)

Today (sixth day) we are celebrating the Feast of Trumpets,
known in Hebrew as Yom Teruah, the Day of Shouting.

We blew the shofar, sang about Yahshua Coming Soon,
and talked about the meaning of the Feast Day.

Speak to B'nai Yisrael (the children of Israel), saying,
‘In the sheviy'iy (seventh) chodesh (month),
on the echad (first) of the chodesh,
you have a Shabbaton (rest)
a zecheron (remembrance of) TERU'AH (blowing of shofar)
a miqera' qodesh (a Holy calling-together) Wayiqra (Leveticus) 23:24

In this message we’re going to have
a remembrance of some great TERU'AHIM -
some great blowings of the shofar.

The first Day of Shouting/Feast of Trumpets
could have been the day Adam was created,
a sixth day of the week, like today.
Then Adam had the Sabbath to enjoy the Garden of Eden.

The later fulfilment of this type
is the new birth of the entire earth when the Messiah returns.:
Isaiah 40:4  Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth;
5  The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

Another Day of Shouting is when a king ascends the throne:
Psalms 47:1-8  Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to Elohim with the voice of triumph!
2. For Yahweh Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
5. Elohim has gone up with a shout,
Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
6. Sing praises to Elohim, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7. For Elohim is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.
8. Elohim reigns over the nations;
Elohim sits on His holy throne.

In the latter days this will come to pass:
Revelation 19:6-7  And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings,
[How’s that for a day of shouting?]
saying, "HalleluYAH! For Yahweh El Shadai reigns!

Another Day of Shouting which was NOT a Feast of Trumpets
was when the Law was given at Mt Sinai.
When the people were ready,
when they had sanctified themselves:
Exodus 19:16  Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning,
that there were thunderings and lightnings,
and a thick cloud on the mountain;
and THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET WAS VERY LOUD,
so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

This was the occasion when Yahweh made the covenant with Israel
to be her husband.
The later fulfilment of this type
is the marriage of the lamb
when Yahshua the Messiah takes the congregation to be his bride.
Revelation 19:7 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory,
for THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB has come,
and His wife has made herself ready."

The last we will consider is the gathering of Yahweh’s people:
Isaiah 11:11  It shall come to pass in that day
That Yahweh shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.
And
Hosea 6:1-2  Come, and let us return to Yahweh;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2. After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.

The two days are the two thousand years
since the rejection of Yahweh’s Messiah
Then Israel will seek Yahweh and
Matthew 24:30-31  "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
31. "And He will send His angels with A GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET,
and they will GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.

Brethren, may we all be part of that gathered elect,
part of the bride of the Messiah,
part of that great new re-creation,
when Yahushua descends with the shout to be heard around the world.

Yahweh bless you, and keep you:
Yahweh make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you:
Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you, and give you shalom.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy
 

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