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PREPARATIONS FOR THE SABBATH
By Sheryl Collins
April 25, 2005
Due to the overwhelming requests I have received from various Saints
across the nation, I have been compelled to put this down in tract form,
thereby making it easy to read and hopefully just as easy to digest.
There is, in my mind, no set way of actually doing things as long as
things get done in a pleasing manner to our Father. It is hard to just
put a certain set of guidelines on a subject as important as this one,
but I am going to try to shed as much light on the subject as I have as
far as getting prepared for the Sabbath and spending our time with God
on the Sabbath.
“Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8.
In order for us to keep the Sabbath holy and be pleasing to God, we must
go into a great deal of preparations on Friday, Preparation Day, to be
ready for the Sabbath. We must remember that the Sabbath begins at
sundown on Friday, which means that we must have everything prepared by
sundown. We must not be preparing after sundown on Friday. This is
when the Day of Rest or God’s Holy Day, the Sabbath Day begins.
First of all, we begin on Friday. All day long we prepare for
the Sabbath. We try to keep in mind that we are preparing for God’s
Holy Day and we want to be sure to do all that we can to please the Lord
on His Day. “For the Son of man is Lord even
of the Sabbath day.” Matthew 12:8. We clean house, do laundry,
wash dishes and basically make sure everything is done so that we do not
have to wash clothes or dishes, etc, on the Sabbath. It will all be
ready. I make sure on Friday that everyone has clothes to wear for
casual and for church on Saturday. If everything does not get done, at
least we still have clothes to wear.
Preparing food is important. Whatever we are going to eat on
Saturday, we fix on Friday. Then there will be no cooking on the
Sabbath. For those who want breakfast, I always have plenty of milk and
cereals and fresh fruit. Sometimes I will prepare muffins on Friday to
have for breakfast on Saturday. Also having Pop Tarts and snacks on
hand are good. For Sabbath Lunch, we usually have sandwiches, chips,
different types of dips if desired, or cold salads such as, potato
salad, macaroni salad, fruit salad, green salad, coleslaw etc, that have
been prepared on Friday. Also cold Baked Beans opened right out of the
can are good with sandwiches. We use the vegetarian baked beans, put
them in the fridge on Friday and they are ready for the Sabbath. If
your family enjoys cold chicken (which a lot of people do), the chicken
can be prepared on Friday and put in the fridge for Sabbath lunch or
even for the evening meal. If we want to have dessert such as cakes or
pies, these will be prepared on Friday. Some things can even be
prepared on Thursday. The idea is by doing all preparations before
sundown on Friday, no one will be doing labor on the Sabbath. A lot of
times I will try to have paper products such as paper plates, bowls,
cups etc, so these can just be thrown away. If I do not have these
products on hand, we will just empty our dishes and stack in the sink to
be washed later.
We usually wait until after sundown for our evening meal. If
we desire to eat earlier, we usually either eat leftovers or whatever
was especially prepared for the meal. A person can always be creative
in fixing whatever their family enjoys.
“And he said unto them, The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the
Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28.
This is a special time that was
set-aside for man so that man could get his rest. It is exactly what we
need to get ready for the week of hard work that is usually in front of
us. It is a good day to refurbish our Spirit, relaxing and meditating
on the word of God, listening to tapes, being with family and
remembering the things that God has done for us. It is not a day for
our own pleasure, doing things that we consider play or for catching up
on things that we normally don’t find time to do. Neither is it a day
to do yard work or housework, or anything that is considered work or
labor. Our family is always so happy for the Sabbath to get here. It
is a day of delight! It is so nice to be able to just sit down and
meditate on the Lord, to share with family and friends what He means to
us. To clear our minds of all the cares that life puts upon us.
“If thou turn away thy foot
from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and
call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight
thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for
the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14
God has a special blessing for those who delight themselves in
Him. Remember, the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends at
sundown on Saturday. This time will vary throughout the year because of
time changes and the going down of the sun. May God bless you as you
endeavor to follow Christ in obeying this important commandment that He
said in his Word to keep forever.
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