Resting is Hard Work!

I was thinking about how us humans have a predisposition to earn our worth by doing—do to be– to work hard for status, love, acceptance, and value.

I once heard it said that we always want to work FOR love instead of work FROM love. I want to remind you that in the beginning of the Story, God created humans in his own image on the sixth day, to be like him. And then on the next day—the very first full twenty-four hours of life for Adam and Eve—was a day off. A day of rest.

In the book of Exodus found in the Old Testament of the Bible, these ancient Hebrew writings show us that when God gives the fourth of what we commonly call the Ten Commandments, he says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  He’s not talking about Ozzie Osbourne and his band… but he gives us a whole paragraph of instructions on this command while the other of the 10 Commandments are just mentioned briefly, such as, “You shall not steal or lie.”[clickToTweet tweet=”Why do we treat God’s command to keep sabbath as a suggestion? We wouldn’t do that with the other 9!” quote=”Why do we treat God’s command to keep sabbath as a suggestion? We wouldn’t do that with the other 9!”]

It seems that God knew that we were going to want to work hard at earning and providing for ourselves, and that we would need a rhythm of reminders to help us restore balance and trust in him each week.​God created everything, including us, pronounced it awesome, and then took a break to enjoy it all. That is his desire for us too—to live in a rhythm of resting in his finished work. So why do we so often treat this command of God’s as a suggestion? “Oh, um, yeah…I really need to do that more.” Or… “In the New Year, I am going to rest and take some time off. At least I hope to.”

But we would never say that about any of the other commands: “Next month I am going to cut my stealing and telling lies in half. I really need to.” Or, “I should definitely stop murdering people. I really gotta cut back.”

What?!

Why is it when it comes to the command to rest and then work, we so easily blow this one off? Maybe we get so busy we forget. We lose track of God’s ongoing goodness and provision, and begin thinking that we’re our own source of talent, energy, skills, and…well, everything.[clickToTweet tweet=”God desires our lives to be a perpetual state of Sabbath, a non-stop resting in his completed work.” quote=”God desires our lives to be a perpetual state of Sabbath, a non-stop resting in his completed work on the cross.”]

God desires our lives to be a perpetual state of Sabbath, a non-stop resting in his completed work. On the cross, Jesus secured for us what we never could earn for ourselves, the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of our relationship with his Father. We can do nothing to add to this any more than we can cause plants to grow, control the weather, or cause God to love us any more than he already does.

Because of Jesus we can rest. Today. Every day. At a soul level.

So if you’ve been working hard and then resting… the next best time to start working from rest is now.

Let me know what keeps you from truly resting in a regular rhythm in the comments below.

Be The Church

If you’re a Christian who has grown up “going to church” most Sundays, do you find yourself asking, “Is this all there is?” Maybe instead of just going to church it’s time to BE the Church!

Please read on.

I spent my first few years as a pastor at a really large church near Chicago. I will be forever grateful to the staff I worked with during those years.

My life, character, and theology were shaped in profound ways during that time, and yet I still wondered, was this all there was? Is this what Jesus meant by his Kingdom had now come onto this earth?

Get a free copy of my super-popular eBook, Be The Church, now.

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How Do Introverted People Stay Engaged in a Missional Life?

Welcome to this 4th installment of Ask Caesar. Here’s this week’s question:

“Caesar, this missional lifestyle you write and speak about sounds so awesome, but I’m not an extrovert like you and your wife both seem to be. How do introverts like me fit into this whole missional thing?”

I’m glad you asked that Meg because I hear this a lot and I think it’s an important issue.

First, a little history about these personality types and how they differ.

Extraversion and Introversion are the preferences originally used in a personality inventory created by psychologist Carl Jung in the 1920s. Most people today may be more familiar with these terms in connection with the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. These terms are unfortunately a bit outmoded, misunderstood and misused in that extraversion is not about being loud or the life of the party and introversion is not about being shy or anti-social. (more…)

How To Lead Your Small Group or Church Toward True Missional Living

In this episode of Ask Caesar #7, Chris asks the question: “How do I begin to lead my Small Group or church toward true missional living? I want our folks to really live an authentic ‘everyday faith’ in community with others. How do we begin?”

Thanks for asking Chris, I have been EXACTLY where you’re at, and it can seem daunting to say the least!

My wife and I stumbled around this stuff for years too, but now, after living this way, and training others around the world, we’ve found that there are some foundational steps that absolutely cannot be missed.  (more…)

5 Steps To An Awesome Date Night With Your Spouse

I started dating Tina when we were both 16 years old and in high school. That was like, uh, 15 years ago? No actually, we have been together for well over half of our lifetime. And this month we celebrate 32 years of marriage. I can barely remember a “me” without Tina in my life. I love you honey!

We started out dating and became best friends. Throughout our marriage we’ve discovered that it is super-important to actively, intentionally work on staying friends. Having a regular, scheduled “date night” has been crucial to keeping the fires burning. We’ve found that if we don’t, we can end up only being in problem solving mode all the time and move from task to task and mini crisis to crisis and start to feel more like business partners than two people in love and marriage.

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Is the Medium Really the Message?

I’ve been doing a little thinking about how most of the church in America, and often around the world, most commonly meets together. You know–at our Sunday services? Is the way we’re often “doing church” really communicating what we think it is, especially to visitors or folks just checking things out?

Is the form in which we receive a message as important as the message itself? (more…)

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