Hello Harvest Friends,

I can’t believe we are heading into our last week of our Shabbat series.

I pray this series has given you a vision of what it means to rest with Jesus. A call to stop from everything that the world brings and spend time with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We have looked at
Stopping
Resting
Delighting

And this past week we jumped into worship as a part of our Sabbath practice.

There is a difference in giving a framework and being overproduced. These four things — stopping, resting, delighting, worshipping — are the framework into which we build our 24 hours of Shabbat.

I want to pose a few questions for you today.

1. How are you leaning into Shabbat?
2. Where do you feel the tension in these 24 hours of intentionally stepping away from the world?
3. Is there a place God is speaking to you in this practice?
4. Do you feel a call into the deeper waters with Him?

This week as you practice Shabbat, find ways to bring worship into the equation.
Remember, this is a framework, not a hardline how-to guide.

Shabbat could be a day where worship music is all that you listen to when having music on, whether in the car or in the kitchen while cooking.

John Mark Comer gives this to help you identify what you could do for the practice of worship:

Does this activity connect me more deeply to God and his goodness and beauty? Do I find myself coming alive to the wonder of his nature and spontaneously bursting into praise?

Continue to put God at the center of the day and rest with Him, delight in Him, and worship Him.

Blessings

Hey Harvest Family,

This past week as we continued our series, Shabbat, we looked at “Delight.” We were reminded that first and foremost, from His love towards us and for us, God delights in us.

“The Lord your God …takes great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” — Zephaniah 3:17 (EHV)

Our God not only delights in us, but He also uniquely created us. Therefore, when it comes to Shabbat and looking at how we get to delight in Him, this will look different for each of us.

This is where you get to be the artist with your Shabbat. As you stop, as you rest, how will you delight with God, with how He created you, and with your community?

Remember that the things you try should produce in you the fruit of the Spirit of God. I love the way Eugene Peterson translated this passage in Galatians.

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard — things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. — from Galatians 5:22-24

When we delight in God, this should be the outcome and fruit of that time with Him.

Two final things:

First, this will be a trial and error kind of thing. Try different things and ways to delight with God. There’s not one special, exact, specific way to delight with God, and this can change depending on the season of life you are in right now. Have fun with it.

Secondly, we recommend you follow a basic Sabbath ritual:

1. Light two candles.
2. Read a psalm.
3. Bless the kids if they are there; bless one another.
4. Pray.
5. Feast.
6. Share highlights of the week.
7. Share what you are grateful for — “It would have been enough, but …”
8. And then just celebrate life together.

For ways to delight, here are some options:

1. Make pancakes.
2. Play a game.
3. Have a dance party.
4. Play music.
5. Get coffee with your best friend.
6. Call a friend or family member who lives far away.
7. Take a walk.
8. Nap.
9. Eat delicious food.
10. Do your nails or favorite self-care activity.
11. Go fishing or surfing or swimming.
12. Be in nature.
13. Watch the sun rise or set.
14. Make a fire.
15. Read fiction or poetry.
16. Sing.
17. Go to an art museum.
18. Go on a picnic in a beautiful park.

We look forward to you embracing your Shabbat and continuing to learn to delight in and with God.

Blessings

I said this in a meeting the other day, but this Shabbat series truly is becoming my favorite series we have done since I have arrived 18 months ago. It’s not one thing either, but the combination of multiple things. I love having the table weekly as a rhythm for us. The worship has been beautiful, and the content in the sermons has been so good.

It’s been a reminder to me of the deep cry of my soul for not simply rest, but rest in and with Jesus.

Brenna was reminding me of a saying on how we should rest:

If you work with your hands, rest with your mind.
If you work with your mind, rest with your hands.

When we started this journey of Shabbat together, we worked on picking our 24 hours of rest. Then last week the practice looked at how we need to prep and plan for Sabbath itself. We needed a plan.

This week we look at planning our rest first and foremost with Jesus.

I loved the story of the statue that Rev. Sorensen talked about on Sunday. The line that gripped my heart was that you could only see the eyes of Jesus in the statue if you were kneeling at His feet. This is the goal of Shabbat or Sabbath: to rest with Jesus at His feet.

This week we look at practicing resting with Jesus in Scripture. I find this is best done in the morning after you have gotten up and had your coffee, tea or soda (lol).

This week on Sabbath, I want us to look at Psalm 23.

Read it a few times. I am strategic in picking this psalm because it is familiar to most of us. We are resting with God and being reminded of His truth and goodness. Ask the following questions:

• What do you love about this chapter?
• Is there anything that jumped out to you in reading it?
• What could God be speaking to you in this chapter today?

Keep resting with Jesus for the Sabbath is holy.

As we jumped into week two of our Shabbat series, I could not stop thinking about one quote from Pastor Mark’s message:

If you don’t learn to come apart, you’ll come apart. -Vance Havner

That was one of those lines that, if I’m honest, shocked me in a good way. It was a deep reminder that I need to come apart from the rush of this world and abide with God. We are looking at how Sabbath is a 24-hour period where you STOP with the busy and, instead, focus on the following: REST, DELIGHT and WORSHIP.

Last week in our practice, we looked at simply finding our time, when our 24-hour period of rest would be. This week we add to it with the word “prepping.”

I have found through the years, the seasons in which I practice Sabbath well is when I prep for Sabbath well. When I’m not practicing Sabbath well, I fill the day with chores around the house or running errands that I hadn’t gotten to during the week or 10 other things needed.

The prep practice that has helped me the most in my entering into Sabbath well is grocery shopping before Sabbath. Pastor Mark talked about starting Sabbath, or Shabbat, with a meal. This week, as you get ready for your 24-hours of stopping, take time to go shopping and run the errands you need to. That way, when you enter into Sabbath, you can simply enter in.

Practice Week Two: Pick a meal to start your Sabbath, create the shopping list and pick up everything you need. Then, with family and/or friends, cook a meal together to start your Shabbat.

This week we begin our new series, "Shabbat: Learning To Rest With Jesus." Rev. Sorensen kicked off with the foundation of the series, reminding us that Adam and Eve’s first experience with God was resting together. We serve a God who created the weekend, but not the weekend so many of us think about so often. The weekend for so many of us is a time to catch up on all the life stuff we didn’t get to finish that week because of the work stuff we were working on. The great thing about our weekend is that it’s not just one day but two; therefore, choose one to rest and to do what is needed.

This week, as we begin practicing shabbat and learn to rest with Jesus, we start by simply establishing our 24 hours of rest. When will it be? It’s a Holy Day, so may we do our best to set aside this time as holy time with God.

"The seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." - Genesis 2:2-3

One thing we have learned over the years of practicing shabbat on and off is that it’s not hard work, but it does take intentionality. You need a soft plan. We don’t get legalistic in it like in the Old Testament, but we do come with an idea of what we will do.

In conclusion, this week you are choosing a 24-hour period. Maybe dinner from one day to dinner the next. Then choose how you can rest with God, family and friends.

This may feel strange as we enter into this Shabbat, but it’s not because we aren’t supposed to enter in but because we have failed to enter this Holy Day.

We are praying that you will find time to rest with God and community this week.

Blessings