Here are some questions I've been musing on:

Should we write on Sunday?

If we write on Sunday and make money from our writing, isn't that the same as working on Sunday?

If we write on Sunday and don't make money from our writing, is that acceptable?

Is writing on Sunday not a problem if our writing contains a Christian message and thus counts as evangelism?

What if the weekend is the only time we have to write?

If you have any similar questions, be sure to add them to the discussion.

I personally don't have a problem with writing on a Sunday

Rom 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.


There are times when we have struggled badly for money as a family and we used to have to run a craft stall on a Sunday. If it goes against your conscience don't do it, otherwise I'd say it was fine Anyway, if you want to write at weekend and have another day you could set aside for the Lord even if it isn't a Sunday do that! It isn't the name of the day that matters Its what's in your heart that counts.

The whole point of not working on Sunday is to have a day of rest and a day to recover and get refocused on God.
It's not a "Thou shalt not walk three steps or more or thou shall be smote, for thou didst burn calories."

That was a funny, Celearas.

Okay, my take on this:
1) Follow your conscience, and listen to your parent's and other people you trust's advice.

2) I think some of it depends on where your heart is. We worship on Sunday, and if we're writing for God, doesn't that mean we're worshiping Him, in a way?

3) The money problem. Again, I think this depends on your heart and your attitude. If you're writing to serve God, then wouldn't that mean you're following Mark 3:4?


4) The Sabbath was set apart by God as a day of rest. We should certainly keep that.

I can see both sides here, and I'm still figuring this out. I hadn't really considered this, so this is a good discussion.

Sunday is basically the day I try to make sure I hang out with God, so usually I only write the parts where the characters are thinking about God on a sunday, since their both on my mind it works out pretty well

That is an interesting idea, Riniel.

To tell the truth, I haven't ever even thought of writing on Sunday as being any different from other days. I don't find anything wrong with it as long as you keep your thoughts pure and your mind on things above...just like any other writing days.

Yeah, I like that idea.

I agree. Everyone has brought up some good points.

Here's another question: If you feel it's fine to write on Sunday, do you think we should still set aside one day of rest during the week?

If writing is relaxing to you, I don't see anything wrong. If it seems more of a chore, I also don't really see anything wrong with it. Jesus and his disciples did work on the Sabbath, but it's a matter of personal preference. It isn't wrong not to do work on Sunday either way.

I kind of ditto, Hilly I guess.

If during the week, I don't feel like writing, I force myself to. But on Sunday, I only write what I feel like doing. And since I'm striving to glorify God in my writing, I don't feel like it's breaking the Sabbath Day.

I definitely think we need a day of rest.

Okay, here is my personal view.
I feel like it is okay if you write on Sunday. I have never had a problem with it, because I use my writing as a way to witness to others. I always make sure I have my personal "hang out" time with God through devotions, prayer, praise, etc., on Sunday especially. I always write after we go to church.

Well. . . I do not have a set Sabbath day of the week. It largely depends on my work schedule. Right now, I work almost every Sunday, making Saturday my day of rest. Before, I was working every Saturday, so Sunday was my day of rest. Pretty soon though, as we head into the holidays, I will be working both Sundays and Saturdays; thus, I won't really have a complete day of rest. As such, I write whenever I can. If it is on Sunday, so be it. God gives me my gift and my words and I write for Him. If it is a good thing and one that honors Him, I am certainly not going to take a break from that because then my day of rest becomes a day of boredom, and I think that is counterproductive for a day of rest.

I try to write everyday, even on Sunday, writing is just fun for me. Sometimes when I am behind in schoolwork then I will do that on Sundays too. But this is after I am back from Church.

My Dad came up with a point that I'll share. It says not to work, it doesn't have anything about relaxing and enjoying oneself. Writing is fun, and a hobby. It's how I strenuously relax. I don't have anything against it, but then again, it's the only day I have that's generally open all day.

If anyone really wants to know, he used the above reason to explain why he farmed on Sundays.

Exactly Varon! And also, the interpretation of the Sabbath has become blown way out of proportion. There are several examples in the new Testament. To me, it's all ok as long as you aren't working, for a profit as your main goal.

Another question: Would you say that the Bible's mentioning of a day of rest is a commandment or a wise suggestion?

To old Testament people, it's a commandment. But nowadays, it is a wise suggestion.

I do not know what I would do if I had to work all the days of the week without rest.

I know what happens. I go crazy.

I personally consider it as a commandment, as I believe the Lord wants us to set aside a day/time to worship Him. I'm not exactly sure I understand the question though...

What I wanted to know is if people considered observing the Sabbath a requirement for today. You gave a good answer, Shawn.

I write between 2,000 and 3,000 words a day, seven days a week. I like to remember when Jesus said that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.

That leads me to another question: Since the Sabbath was made for man, should man, as much as possible, thus take advantage of the day of rest that was made for him?

Creation is not part of the Mosaic law. It is an institution of Creation. God took one day in seven to rest. And we are biologically engineered to function best with a day of rest once a week. Thus, whether you believe that the old laws in Israel apply to us or not, the question of a Sabbath Day is irrelevant to that.

It was a commandment. One of the Ten Commandments...not one of the Ten Wise Suggestions.



I agree.

A commandment that was part of the old covenant. But either way, when the new covenant was established, that didn't mean that now we can all go and disobey the ten commandments. It's a way of making it come more naturally to us, sort of. It's a way of making it easier. A way that has a correction if we mess up.

But doesn't the Lord tell us to meditate on his word day and night? That doesn't apply just to the Sabbath. If we need to watch what we write on Sunday then we need to question what we are writing.

So 'do not murder' just a suggestion *raises eyebrow*? I see what you mean, though

eruheran

Actually, the Ten Commandments are still Commandments. They are not "wise suggestions".

In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites three different kinds of law.

The Moral Law (the ten commandments)
The Ecclesiastical law (sacrifices, Levites, temple, etc...)
And Civil Law (land allotments, ways to dress, etc...)

The Ecclesiastical law was abolished when Christ fullfilled it, by dying on the cross and rising again.

The Civil Law does not apply to us because we are not part of the Jewish nation.

However the Moral Law was never abolished. Morality is rooted in God's very nature, and as Christians is still important for us to follow

I have been away too long! I love these types of discussions, and I missed most of it! I have lots I could say, but all my notes on this subject are at home! How dreadful! I will be sure to post this evening- wait; we are having a family night to try and relieve some of the general chaos that has been going on here recently in our lives... Okay, I'll post soon.

I look forward to it.

Same here.

I like that you have notes on the subject.

Should we write on Sunday? Depends. . . See my other answers.

If we write on Sunday and make money from our writing, isn't that the same as working on Sunday? In my opinion, if you like writing, it's okay. In the same way that playing checkers on Sunday is not morally wrong, if you are simply having fun, it's OK.

If we write on Sunday and don't make money from our writing, is that acceptable? Goes with my previous answer.

Is writing on Sunday not a problem if our writing contains a Christian message and thus counts as evangelism? Do you mean like an allegory, or a nonfiction book like a commentary?

What if the weekend is the only time we have to write? Try freelance magazine writing, less time and up to $12,000 per article.

On a bit of a side note, does something being "fun" necessarily make it okay for the Sabbath?

I have notes on lots of things Jonathan I even document PMs as a general rule (unless they are short PM relationships) so everyone who is an Airianna PM buddy better beware *wicked grin*.

By the way Jonathan, good questions. I am excited this post was brought up!

Okay, true to my normal self, I have crafted another longwinded post. All please bear with me and forgive me for always having too much to say on a subject.

#1) Should we write on Sunday?

Okay, I am going to take this first question to explain some of my positions. All of the other questions branch off of this one. So here goes.

First, why shouldn’t we write on Sunday? I think it is interesting that most everyone here has accepted Sunday as the Sabbath day. It isn’t. If we want to get technical, the Sabbath is Saturday. The scriptures speak of the Sabbath, not Sunday. Now, some people have said that the commandment can be read as “one day in seven,” basically leaving it open as whatever day you want the Sabbath to be, but this view is inconsistent with scripture. In Exodus 16, before the Israelites came to Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments were written, God sent manna from heaven six days a week. The seventh day (Saturday, not Sunday) was the Sabbath, and they were told to rest (verse 23). In other words, God picked the day when the manna did not fall. In verse 23 God said, “Tomorrow is to be a day of rest.” He thus confirmed the weekly cycle.

Also, under the Jewish law, you cannot choose just a part of the law —you must obey every precept of it (Gal. 3:10), including the “do not eat pork”. So if we are taking the Jewish law stance, we have to take that stance on everything.

So, I think we need to alter our point of thinking here. A lot of us are basing our arguments off of Sunday being the Sabbath.

Also, let us face it; this is a secondary issue, an important one, but a secondary one. Now, I use this phrase a lot it seems, so I figured I’d explain myself right now. I divide primary and secondary issues by their affect on Salvation (thank you to my pastor, for wording my feelings on secondary issues so well). The rapture is secondary in my opinion. Being pre-trib or post=-trib, doesn’t affect your salvation. What you believe on the virgin birth and the trinity, will. So while I think this is an important and edifying discussion, it isn’t something to become divided over. Not that anyone was. I was just preaching to the choir here (to which Philli is laughing).

Before I get any further, I want to address another point. I don’t think it is a secret that I feel very strongly that the Lord convicts each person and their families differently. As a young lady (we aren’t going to discuss my age at this moment) living under my father’s roof and protection, I do what he says. Now, my Daddy is the most amazing man alive. Human with a sin nature, but amazing (and that is not just Daddy’s little girl talking). Daddy isn’t arbitrary, although he does not always explain his reasoning to me. He loves me and wants what is best for me. Were he to ask me not to write on Sundays, I would do so, despite personal conviction (he wouldn’t, but you get the point). I think everyone needs to know what their parents (if you are still under their authority) think and believe on the subject. That should dictate, in my opinion, what you do on this subject.

Now that we have that all of these things sorted out, let us continue this stimulating conversation (well, I hope it is stimulating for you, and not putting you to sleep. I am being stimulated ).


#2) If we write on Sunday and make money from our writing, isn't that the same as working on Sunday? If we write on Sunday and don't make money from our writing, is that acceptable?

I guess I always feel the need to ask why, as Christians, we shouldn’t write on Sunday, due to the work factor? Let me explain myself. Isn’t work worship? Paul counsels us that whatever we do or say, do it as a unto the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (Col 3:17) So doesn’t that mean that work is worship? Wherever a Christian may find themselves, that, is holy ground, because the Lord is with them.

I’m a farm girl-or was before we were blessed with Samuel. There is always work to be done on a farm. Now, we always tried to limit what we did on Sundays, because the bodies of farmers and their children need some serious rest, but that didn’t always happen. Sometimes we had to take care of animals, or help someone else in our farming community. There would be many times during hay season where a farmer could lose his entire crop due to a rain storm if my family did not help him, directly after church, bale and stack his field. Or when an outside goat infected our herd we had to fight day in, day out, to save them. Now, some people told us we should give up the farm. If we couldn’t find a day in our week to rest and completely devote our minds to Christ then obviously our farm was sucking too much out of us and we were not worshiping the Lord properly. But that’s just it. I think people need to seriously look at what worshiping Christ is. It isn’t just worshiping him in a building with a steeple on it (let’s hope not, because my church doesn’t have a steeple!). When we went to help a fellow farmer with his hay field, we were serving him in Christ’s name, worshiping Christ through our actions of self sacrifice. Believe me, the last thing I really wanted to do was help bale a field. It is horrible, back breaking work you can’t understand unless you’ve done it (or had it vividly described to you, as in Evening’s case). The working conditions are terrible! Even if you aren’t allergic to grasses and nature, you’ll have the symptoms of allergies when you do this job. The heat is unbearable. But we set those feeling aside, rolled up our sleeves alongside another, and went to work. Tell me how that is not worshiping and serving Christ on a Sunday? We aren’t preaching or technically evangelizing (ties into next question), and we are helping someone make a profit, but aren’t we still worshiping?

Also, there are some jobs that require the service of people for the care and provision of another. Example: Many of you know about my baby brother Samuel, at least in passing. Samuel has a complicate story I won’t go into here, but he required day in, day out, care. We also had nurses that “lived” with us for a big chunk of time. They had to help work and care for Samuel’s needs at night when our family went to sleep, because Samuel could not be left alone. If we say no one can work or make money on Sunday, we are now saying that Samuel should either be deprived of care, or my family will have to pull a twenty-four hour wake period in order to stay up with him in the night if he had a medical emergency (which wasn’t unusual). And I think us doing that would have been completely counterproductive because we are supposed to be fit vessels for the Lord’s service. If I had to do that every week, I guarantee I would not be a fit servant, and would in fact become an unbearable crab! For the welfare of other people, working Sundays is sometimes a must. I also know that if those people were not making themselves available, many in our society would be put in jeopardy. Samuel isn’t the only baby out there with these needs, and there are lots of elderly who require care on Sundays as well. And let me remind you, they are making money. But aren’t they working in service to the Lord? (I am not going to go into the need to fellowship with the body of Christ and the importance of Sunday worship. This is not the place to do so, and I assume you all know that is important.) Also, let us look at Dr.s and nurses in the hospitals. Should all the hospitals close down on Sundays? What if Samuel had been born on a Sunday? Should the medical staff not have done everything possible to save his life simply because it was Sunday?

#3) Is writing on Sunday not a problem if our writing contains a Christian message and thus counts as evangelism?

Okay, so I answered part of this in the above statements, but I want to bring this point up as well. We should do everything as unto the Lord. Paul Washer (founder of Heart Cry Missionary Society ministries, and a personal friend) always says we should eat ice cream as unto the Lord (this means do not be gluttonous. Ouch! But that is not the topic at hand). The Bible says everything. Your heart is what the Lord cares about. This is part of why I find it hard (since we are no longer under the Mosaic Law) to justify why we can’t write/work on Sunday. Is our heart worshiping? Then how is it a sin?


#4) What if the weekend is the only time we have to write?

Again, it all boils down to your heart. If you love writing so much that you can’t bear to stop on Sunday, you’d rather do that than spend part of the day in your quiet time and prayer life, then you have a problem. Your heart is not right, and you should not write on Sunday. If you don’t struggle with this, and writing is just another outpouring of your worship, then I can’t see there is a problem.

#5) If you feel it's fine to write on Sunday, do you think we should still set aside one day of rest during the week?

Yes, I do. We are made to need rest. Willow brought up some good points on this subject. We get burnt out if we never stop. How can we be good servants of the Lord if we are exhausted and weary? I think the Lord is very wise, He knew what we needed. We should listen.

#6) Would you say that the Bible's mentioning of a day of rest is a commandment or a wise suggestion? Since the Sabbath was made for man, should man, as much as possible, thus take advantage of the day of rest that was made for him?

Brendan already gave the scripture that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. God gave us the Sabbath as a gift. Christ said “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Lord set the example by resting on the Sabbath day.

The Sabbath law was binding on everyone till the day Jesus died on the cross, setting the Levitical priesthood aside because its laws could not save from sin. While ministering on earth, Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath several times. Jewish leaders felt scandalized by such actions. Their zeal without knowledge defeated the reasons for having the law, and in their hard-heartedness, they also broke these same laws they wanted to keep at all costs.

The foremost purpose of the law of the Sabbath was to make the children of Israel know that the Lord is God, that He created and sanctified them. God told Ezekiel that; "I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy." (Eze 20:12) Through Christ’s grace, there is freedom from the dead works of trying to please God by keeping religious rules.

So that is the long and the short of my answer. You all can take it, or leave it, as you so desire. And I am open to discussion, as always.

I think that's a good insight.

Thanks Airianna! I agree with much of what you said, however I have a few questions...



The Sabbath law is part of the ten commandments. (the specific things that the Pharisees had made up like how many miles you could walk were not part of the Sabbath Law and were never binding.) So are you saying that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding?

Or are you saying that before Jesus died, the Ten Commandments were necessary for salvation, and that they aren't now?

Oh no! The Ten Commandments are still binding. I meant, as you said, that they are no longer necessary for salvation. The Israelites followed the Mosaic Law because that demonstrated their faith that one was coming to save them from their sins. They "worked out their salvation" by following the rules and ordinances laid before them. Now that Christ has come, we no longer have to "work out our salvation".

The Ten Commandments are still valid guys, sorry.

Wait, so the ten commandments were necessary for salvation before Jesus came? They worked their way into salvation by following the Ten Commandments? What about Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other Old Testament Christians who didn't have the Ten Commandments? And I'm sure that none of the Jews ever kept the Ten Commandments perfectly.

I think I understand what Airianna is saying, but I'm not exactly sure how to say it.

I think the reason that the Christians decided to pick Sunday as the Sabbath was because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath. Just saying.

I've always thought that too. Plus, most of the early Christians were Jews. My thinking is that they would probably go to a synagogue on Saturday, and meet with other believers on Sunday.

No, no, no, Willow, you are reading this wrong, or I am explaining it wrong. Let me try another way. By "working out their salvation", I meant that they demonstrated their faith and belief that God would send the Messiah to wipe away their sins. They followed rules and observances to demonstrate their faith and be counted as faithful. Just like they offered sacrifices. The Ten Commandments are not necessary for salvation. Christ alone is necessary. Those who believed that Christ would come, thus demonstrating their faith by following the laws laid before them by God, showed outwardly their "fruits". I do not believe in works based religion. Does that help clear this detail up, or are we still botching it?

Whoo! Ok. Thanks so much for the clarification, Aiva. I was a little worried there. I agree.

Good. No worries, I'm sane- well... I suppose that is a matter of opinion... Some people think I'm not so sane. Can't imagine why?

And I think Mama Raven made a good point about the law being there to show us our need of salvation.

Airianna, I think your post was beautiful, edifying, and well thought-out. Thank you so much for posting it. I generally agree with you and I think you said it best, so I shan't add anything - except to stress the importance of following your family's guidelines on this issue.

I write on Sundays, same as other days of the week. What I won't do on Sundays is stress over a project (unless I am facing a necessary deadline).

And I wasn't laughing, Airianna... just grinning widely.

*smiles*

That's what I thought you meant. This is such a good discussion!