Vineyard Church | Weekly Update December 4th, 2024
Dec 04, 2024
I wonder if this one will be about the 6+1 rhythm… Exodus 20:8-11:8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.
Yup, I guess so… Not an oppressive restriction or proscription on our lives, but a description of how we were designed to function by the Intelligent Designer, this rhythm has been the focus of our blogs for about 10 weeks. This could be seen as a lack of creativity by the author of these blogs, or some sort of intentional highlighting of something important. Maybe both.
Hopefully, as we enter the Advent season, we will see in us and around us the need to take this rhythm seriously as the holiday grind has well and truly kicked off. The lack of margins in our culture will be on full display as Americans attempt to shove ten pounds of the night soil of a well-fed bison into a five-pound sack.
The month of December becomes a marathon of events, shopping, and normal activity that will lead some to crawl over the finish line of the current year and begin the new year in a state of mental and physical exhaustion that causes us to wonder why life feels so difficult.
With work out of balance, it is no wonder that rest is out of balance. We are stuck in a cycle of life that works against the manufacturer’s specifications. If we were to do this with any other piece of gear, we would do so knowing full well that the gear will wear out long before its time.
Alongside the practical “don’t die early” reason to focus on this, we have the obedience angle to remember. To create any other rhythm than 6+1 is to place another’s prerogative at the center of our order that isn’t God’s. What this means is, is that we must revise our title of Jesus Follower to Selective Jesus Follower… This brings us back to the question that emanates from the First Commandment of Exodus 20, do we have another god in front of God?
So, with this refresher to kick off the Advent season, we will continue to examine the 6+1 rhythm in our church family. This will be the focus of much of the coming year as we discipline ourselves to work together as God designed. My prayer for the Vineyard is that we will see fruit from our submission to the rhythm of life we were designed to enjoy.
Adam Greenwell
Pastor
Billings Vineyard Church | www.billingsvineyard.org
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