Hear from Avery

Paul Scholz interviews Avery Sullivan to get a college student's perspective on rest.

To catch up on sermons from Hope Center go to www.hopecenter.cc or click here

Thanks for sharing Avery!

A Day of Rest

Last Sunday I shared an example of what not to do, a squandered opportunity to carve out Sabbath rest and to abide with God as we've been teaching this month.  Lying awake early on that Friday morning (my day off), I heard God's Spirit invite me in a soft but excited voice, "Come, spend some time with me!"  It sounded like a great idea, but I couldn't pull myself out of bed.

This past Monday, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I heard another small voice inviting me to spend time with him, but this time it was my 4-year-old son, Micah.  My wife had to go to work, and my 2-year-old's preschool was open.  So it was just Micah and me, for a whole day.  What I had initially thought would be an exhausting, even trying day with my beautiful but often-defiant boy, quickly turned into a Sabbath do-over.

After we dropped Ethan off at his preschool, Micah asked, "Can we go to the park and play with 'copter toys?"  (A 'copter toy, by the way, is a cheap but cool little toy you catapult high into the air and watch/chase as it spins to the ground.)  After I hesitated for just a moment--it was still chilly that morning--I accepted Micah's invitation.  We headed to the park, where we played for a couple of hours, and I found myself thanking God for my kids, my family, his creation. 

I was going to take Micah home for lunch, but I decided to make it a proper "celebration" of Sabbath and go--where else?--to In-N-Out.  After lunch and nap time, Micah asked if we could go Geocaching.  Again, I hesitated briefly, but then I eagerly accepted the invitation and off we went.  We found two of the three caches we were looking for, and Micah came away with some fun little trinkets.  I thank God for that rich time spent with Micah and, ultimately, with Him.

What made the difference between last Monday being just a day off, or a holiday, or a full day of parenting, was that I accepted the invitation this time.  On the surface the invitation was coming from my son, but by accepting and, more importantly, dedicating my time and my being to that invitation, I realized it was really from God.  I'm reminded of Simon Peter's reinstatement and reconciliation with Christ over breakfast by the lake in John 21.  When Jesus invited the disciples to breakfast, they didn't hesitate; they accepted.  Jesus asked Peter three times to affirm his love for him (likely inviting Peter to take back his three denials before the crucifixion).  Then Jesus re-offers his original lakeside invitation to discipleship, "Come, follow me!" 

Though I will reassure myself that my early-morning denial of the Spirit's invitation was not as serious as Peter's triple dis, I was reminded of his grace and that the invitation is always there to come and follow him.  When we accept the invitation to Sabbath rest, we will experience all of the goodness of his creation, his gifts of relationship and pleasure, and a time to just hang out with him, even if only for breakfast (or In-N-Out).  He's waiting; we only need to show up.

Invitation to Rest:

• Start a weekly Sabbath practice for yourself.  Invite friends and family to participate. 
• Identify one thing that burns you out and choose a day of the week in which you do not do that thing. 
• Identify a form of entertainment/electronics that you are addicted to and choose a day of the week in which you don’t use that thing.  (Think cell phones, Facebook or Television).
• Get together with some friends and family for a meal and something fun (movies, board games, etc).  Consider making this a weekly tradition.

Dinner Table Discussion:

1. What invitations did you have to rest, abide, or enjoy God's creation or re-creation today or on your Sabbath? Did you accept, and how did that go?

2. What invitations compete with invitations to rest in your day, week, life? Are there some you need to decline more often?

Jordan Reed / jreed@hopecenter.cc

The Second Reason

We do hope that you are enjoying experimenting with Rest.  If you've not yet been able to try some of these things, don’t worry because it’s not too late.  Start today, start tomorrow or start this weekend.  Just be intentional and carve out some time.  

Recently I came across something in the 10 commandments that was really interesting.  The 10 Commandments are given twice, first in Exodus 20 and then again Deuteronomy 5.   In both passages, only some of the commandments have reasons attached to them.  For example the second commandment reads, “You shall not make for yourself an Idol…For I, the Lord your God, am a Jealous God…”  (Exodus 4 & 5). 

Keeping the Sabbath, which is the fourth commandment, also has a reason attached to it.  Yet what has caught my attention is that the Exodus and Deuteronomy passages actually provide different reasons for Sabbath keeping.  As far as I can tell, this is the only significant difference between the two sections, which I think provides some unique insights into our understanding of Rest. 

In Exodus 20, the given reason for Sabbath practice is creation itself.  God set the example and established the rhythm of our lives in the earliest part of Genesis.  We do it because he did.  We do it because this is how he created us and our world to work.  So in light of Exodus 20, we are invited to live the life God intended for us.   

However Moses’ reasoning has changed in the Deuteronomy passage.  Chapter 5, verse 15 reads, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there…”  This second reason is that they were once slaves.  They’d had to work tirelessly.  Each day and every day they were forced into labor.  Without a weekend, or sick days, or vacation, or retirement, or REST: just the life of mindless, brutal obedience to an ungrateful, uncompassionate task-master. 

God rescued them from it and reminds them to simply keep the Sabbath because they now can.  They were once unable to rest and they have been set free.  God is simply inviting them to live in freedom. 

You’re not a slave.  That is to say that nobody owns you.  Rather you live in a world which values freedom and if you’re in Christ, then you too have been set free from the slavery of sin.  Yet with all these freedoms, we have somehow found ourselves living as voluntary slaves.  We voluntarily bow down to the “to-dos” and “shoulds” of our busy lives.  We may not have been slaves in Egypt, but we have been in a materialistic, accomplishment-driven western world. 

Yet God still offers us the same invitation: to practice Sabbath because He has overcome.  And so we are challenged to set down the chains of our bondage and rest: not because we have to or even because it is what’s best (though it is what’s best), but simply because we have been set free. 

Invitations to Rest:

• Choose one day this week and do nothing.  Invite your friends and family to do nothing with you.  
• Choose one thing on your to-do list this week that is not absolutely necessary and replace it with something life giving.
• Think of one type of entertainment that you use regularly (T.V., Radio, Music, etc..) and prune that out for a week.   

Dinner Table Discussions:

• What has been the hardest thing about resting and/or experimenting with rest for you in these last 3 weeks? 
• Has anything stopped you from rest? 
• What joys, triumphs or breakthroughs have you experienced either in or because of rest? 
• Read Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-16.  Why do you think Moses was led to change the reasoning for the Sabbath?  How do these two reasons add depth to your own Sabbath/rest practice? 

In Christ,

Ian Longtin / ilongtin@hopecenter.cc

Our Patterns

Naturally we seek to “go Go GO!” Accomplish this. Finish that. Multitask while multitasking. Do it better than her and him and him. Do it faster than them as well. Pass out on your pillow at the end of the day. Rinse and repeat. We cannot help it, it’s the pattern of this world.

And yet, we see a different pattern at the beginning of time.

At the end of the Creation account in Genesis, God ceases to work and rests. How strange. He does not get tired (Isaiah 40:28). He did not need a break. And yet, He rested.

Didn't He realize all the work He still had to do around His creation? Maybe if God hadn't rested on the seventh day there would not be pesky mosquitoes ruining camping and picnic foods. Maybe if God hadn't rested, a meteor would not have destroyed the Earth on 12/21/12. And yet God pronounced His creation “very good” and rested the next day.

For some reason, we see in the Creation account that God placed priority on a pattern of living. Rather than giving into the lure of accomplishing more, creating more, working more and finding more ways to be busy, He started with a lifestyle pattern that included rest.

But while that was God’s perspective on the Creation account, humankind had a different perspective. Here this Loving Wonderful Awesome Creator brought man and woman into being with instructions “to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion over the Earth” (Genesis 1:28), but then the next day rests. Their first day they rested?

Didn't they know that there was stuff to do? TV’s to buy? Errands to run? Cell phones to purchase, then customize their ring tone, then download a bunch of app’s? Come on Adam and Eve, you are out of style!

It seems that God had a different plan when He created humankind. In His grace, God granted them rest before living out His commands. A lifestyle pattern of going to work out of the feeling rest and refreshment. As opposed to working to exhaustion, and then having to take a break.

Working from rest is not easy to do at first. It will not happen naturally in our culture. And yet, there are habits and patterns worth forming. Let’s choose to trust the Creator to show us the pattern in which we should live.

Invitation to Rest  

Every week we're going to provide some suggestions for resting that we like to call "Invitations to Rest".  Here are this week's:  

• Reflect on what makes you feel rested and rejuvenated. Possibly write down a list and make time to do them.
• Start small and make a plan.
• Give yourself grace in this process.

Dinner Table Discussion

We're also going to provide some discussion starters to be used with your family, small group or friends.  Here is a couple to start with: 

• Why are people drawn to “rest from work” rather than to “work from rest”?
• When was a time that you worked from rest? How would you describe that experience?
• The blog talked a lot about patterns of living, read Romans 12:1-2. How does the blog relate to what the Apostle Paul is writing?

God Bless,
Paul Scholz / paul@hopecenter.cc

Hear from Ian and Jordan

Hear Ian and Jordan talk about next Sunday's message, and Jordan talk about his own journey in learning to rest.

It's God's Plan

Most of us don't really rest.  For some the constant toil has become some sort of an addiction.  For others it seems to be the misapplication of principle, like work-ethics gone wild or something.  Still many of us are like victims who have become swept up in the hustle and bustle of our surroundings, never knowing that rest was supposed to be part of the package.  

Chances are that if you're reading this you are a part of Hope Center's sermon series called Rest-The Pause that Refreshes.  If you're not, or if you missed it, check it out here. 

School.  Laundry.  Facebook.  Mowing the Lawn.  Reading.  Ministry.  Errands.  Soccer Practice.  Bills.  Work.  Kids.  Dr.s Visits.  Friends.  Homework.  Video Games.  Church.  Cooking.  Email.  Television.  Family.  Housework.  Exercise.  Small Group.  Shopping.  Commuting.  

This is how I feel sometimes.  

The list is endless.  Which is ultimately the problem.  The list will always be there.  Finishing today's list in really only an exercise in futility, because tomorrow's list is already waiting.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm a list maker.  I'm not against lists. I'm against the tyranny of lists.  I've gone through seasons where the list was my slave-master and I its slave.  

I've also experimented with Sabbath during different seasons of my life.  However God has recently brought me to a deeper conviction on this.  Recently he's shown me that rest is both a command and an invitation to a better life.  As a matter of fact, like all of God's laws it's a command because it's an invitation to a better life.  

You see we can keep going, ignoring God's invitation to rest.  But burn-out can happen to any of us because each of us has a limit.  The Devil wants you to push this limit, but God invites you to build rest into the rhythm of your life.   

Maybe you realized some time ago that you need rest.  Maybe you've been trying and failing.  Maybe you haven't been able to figure out why your family life is crazy.  Or maybe you've made an idol of your own productivity.  No matter where you find yourself in this, we pray that you will join us as we take this four week journey of exploration through the world of divine non-productivity.  Join us as we talk about, wrestle with and experiment with the one thing we all need and the one thing we all avoid.  Join us as we Rest.  

Invitation to Rest  

Every week we're going to provide some suggestions for resting that we like to call "Invitations to Rest".  Here are this week's:  

• Don't check Facebook for a day or more.  If you make it the whole week your life will change.   
• As many days as you can this week, find 5-10 minutes to just be with God.  
• Unplug your television and use that time to eat with a friend or family member, read a book or go for a walk.  

Dinner Table Discussion

We're also going to provide some discussion starters to be used with your family, small group or friends.  Here are a couple to start with: 

Read Genesis 2:2-3  Why do you think God rested?  

What about Rest seems attractive and what seems unattractive?  

Do we really believe that God made rest for us?  How should that change the way we live? 

In Christ,
Ian Longtin / ilongtin@hopecenter.cc

Welcome!

Welcome to the Hope Center Rest Blog. It is clear to me that one of the main obstacles to spiritual growth among Christians in our culture is our incessant busyness. We (myself included) struggle to slow down enough to hear God and enjoy his majestic presence. My prayer is that this blog will help us journey together to a place where we can find a balance of rest and work that allows room for God to bring this shalom he intends for us.

Look for weekly posts to help you experience godly rest:

The "Invitation to Rest" section will include suggestions of how to get out of normal routines in order to connect with God.

The "Dinner Table Discussion" questions are meant to create conversation with friends and family on how to incorporate more godly rest in all our lives.

In Christ,
Dean Honnette / dean@hopecenter.cc