We’d love to see you this week at America’s Keswick. Dr. Woodrow Kroll is speaking Sunday night through Thursday night, and Dr. David Epstein is speaking Monday – Thursday morning. You can also watch live at: www.americaskeswick.org. We’d love to see you. Check out our website or call 800-453-7942 for more information.

Saved To Rest…To Serve Part 4

“Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.” Mark 1:29-31 (NKJV)

Today I will wrap my little series on what it was like to spend a Sabbath day with Jesus.

So everything that has been going on either inside the Synagogue or outside of it has come to an end. Jesus has performed His miracles and finished His teachings…it is time for everyone to return to their homes and relax. Jesus, along with Andrew, John and James, head over to Simon Peter’s house for rest and refreshment. When they arrive we find Peter’s mother-in-law very ill and without hesitation or even being asked Jesus heals her. So in the same “without hesitation” way Jesus healed her is in the same way that she immediately rises and begins to serve everyone.

And there is an example we need to see here and that is we were saved to serve (how many of you would agree to that statement). There is much Scripture we can look at to support this…

“Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.” Malachi 3:18

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Peter 4:10

So what we have seen here is basically a Sabbath day with Jesus. And at the end of it all Jesus was doing was going to Peter’s to rest. After all, he removed a demon from a man held in its bondage, healed a servant for a Gentile from a distance, and honored Peters family by healing his mother-in-law right on the spot. But even with the burden of Pharisaical law lifted and a night full of casting out demons and healing a community of its sickness’s we find Him rising early in the morning to enter into His Father’s rest by coming to Him in prayer. He would sit in His Fathers rest before He began His walk.

How many of us would think that Christianity does begin with walking? Yeah I know, we are told to walk worthy, to walk circumspectly and to walk uprightly but as Watchman Nee observed it begins with sitting. “God…made Him to sit…and made us to sit with Him”. Sitting is about resting and accepting that sitting is an attitude of rest. You have to admit that when we walk or stand we spend our energy and eventually will become weary.

Jesus is quite clear when He says to all of us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Towards the end of his book ‘The Pursuit of God” A.W. Tozer discusses the meekness of Jesus and entering into that kind of rest. He also wanted his reader to examine the burden of pride (the labor of self-love), pretense (the labor of putting the best foot forward) and artificiality (the labor of protecting an empty soul). So in the Spiritual sense to sit down is basically taking time to rest our whole weight—casting the whole load, ourselves, our future, our everything’s—upon Jesus Christ. What a privilege to carry everything to God…in prayerful obedience!! AMEN? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and is a weekly Freedom Fighter blogger.

Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 106-107

Think About This:“To men and women everywhere Jesus says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself.”—A.W. Tozer

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: ^“ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30