Every time we turn to Christ in faith it is like a moment of Sabbath, a little foretaste of eternal rest and glory. The gift of that moment lies not in what we do but what we receive. It is the holy time set aside to receive the greatest gift of God ever has to give, which is himself, in his own beloved Son.
From: Phillip Cary, Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don’t Have to Do
“We could call [a] problem with the current Sabbath vogue the fallacy of the direct object. Whom is the contemporary Sabbath designed to honor? Whom does it benefit?…In observing the Sabbath, one is both giving a gift to God and imitating Him.”
From: Lauren F. Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies.Refrain:
Christ, our Lord, to you we raise
this, our hymn of grateful praise.For the wonder of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower,
sun and moon and stars of light, [Refrain ]For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild, [Refrain]For yourself, best gift divine,
to the world so freely given,
agent of God’s grand design:
peace on earth and joy in heaven. [Refrain]
From: Psalter Hymnal, 1987; Author: Folliott Sandford Pierpoint