To understand what it means to keep a day holy, one must understand what holy is. Dictionary.com defines holy as spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God. According to this definition to keep a day holy would be to make the day acceptable to God.
Making a day acceptable to God will unquestionably vary with religious beliefs.
For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration, illumined by the glory of the Risen Christ. It is the festival of the "new creation". Yet, when understood in depth, this aspect is inseparable from what the first pages of Scripture tell us of God’s plan in the creation of the world. If the first page of the Book of Genesis presents God's "work" as an example for man, which it does, then the same must be true of God's "rest." “On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done" (Genesis 2:2)
It would be clichéd to interpret God's "rest" as a kind of "inactivity". By its nature, the creative act, which founds the world, is unending and God is always at work, as Jesus himself declares in speaking of the Sabbath principle: "My Father is working still, and I am working" (John 5:17). The divine rest of the seventh day does not allude to an inactive God, but emphasizes the fullness of what has been accomplished. It speaks, as it were, of God's lingering before the "very good" work.
The book of Exodus tells us that we need not cease all work to keep the lords day holy but only remember: "Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). Before commanding that something be done, the passage urges that something be remembered. It is a call to awaken remembrance of the grand and fundamental work of God, which is creation, a remembrance that must inspire the entire religious life of man and then fill the day on which man is called to rest. Rest therefore gains a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him.
Robert A. Krieg uses modern English to explain the Bible that make easier for people to understand the contents of the Bible. The first chapter, Creation and salvation is really good for beginners who does not understand or does not have any background or concept of Christianity, and it is interesting to read the stories, although some descriptions are not logic or have several inconsistencies. Krieg uses creation for beginning that opens up the mystery of the world, which make more sense for human’s daily life and people who wonder how everything happened. God is the creator of this world, and he/she used six days to create, and the seventh day is resting day, which is our Sunday now. The seven days a week is God’s creation, and also the human, men and woman.
Berry also states how “Work connects us both to Creation and to eternity” (Berry 305). He finds that a Christian’s work not only reflects their feelings of the Creator, but also brings them closer to the creation.
... defines the scriptural meaning of the word “day” and explores its usage throughout the Scriptures to provide evidence for a literal six day creation. MacArthur dispels the notion that each day was a long period of time, an idea held by old-earth creationist, through scriptural insight that “whenever the word [day] is modified by a number the clear reference is to a normal solar day” (40). To MacArthur the word day marks “clearly defined boundaries” instead of indeterminate span of time (39). MacArthur beautifully challenges his readers to see that the purpose of Scriptural account of creation is to reveal an infinitely powerful God, who created everything perfectly in a short period of time (41).
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
He says, “in our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of resistance.” He says that this is resistance because it is a “visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.” The Sabbath is also an alternative “to the demanding, chattering, pervasive presence of advertising and its great liturgical claim of professional sports that devour all our “rest time.” Our world is a world of production, we continuously produce and never stop. The need for over-production will someday destroy us. Everyone needs a day of rest to have a moment to realize their content with themselves and with others. The Sabbath is a way that can defend the production of this world. Many many Americans are being abused by this type of production system because when they have the time to take a break and rest, they fear that they will need more and more. Brueggemann states that “Thus I have come to think that the fourth commandment on Sabbath is the most difficult and most urgent of the commandments in our society, because it summons us to intent and conduct that defies the most elemental requirements of a commodity-propelled society that specializes in control and entertainment, bread and circuses … along with anxiety and
“And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And when Moses father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening? Thou will surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, thou are not able to perform it thyself alone” (Exodus chapter 18, 13 – 18, p. 88).
The Sabbath is designed as a day of rest after working for six days, no work including sport is to be performed on this day. When God created the earth, he set aside the seventh day as a day of rest after all the hard work he had done.
The creation of the orderly world reveals God is present in a loving, loyal, all-knowingly, and powerful way. He provided a world for mankind to reign on, as they worship and praise the Lord. Although Christians are required to embrace the natural world we live in, they must not misconstrue that everything around us is Godly. God is distinct and Christians must submit to only him.
In Genesis I, God creates an orderly natural universe. He separates and categorizes everything he creates. For instance, he separates the seventh day from all the others. This suggests that everything in the universe has its proper place and will follow its regular path. In addition, the cosmos is purposeful and unified. What is created each day depends upon what was previously created. Those things created on the fourth through sixth days are dependant on those things created on the first through third days. For instance, air, water, birds, and fish are dependant on light, sun, moon, and stars, and land, vegetation, animals, and mankind are dependant among air, water, birds, and fish as well as light, sun, moon and stars. This suggests God created things in the world to fit together in an orderly and hierarchical fashion. Things are creat...
The Rosary is an ancient prayer narrating the entire story of Salvation. The whole Rosary is composed of twenty decades that can be split over four days of five decades. Each decade is divided by sets of Mysteries: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious (please see appendix for a complete and detailed example). After the beautiful experience of the Liturgy of the hours, which is now become part of my daily life for the three major hours, I want to discover the deeper meaning of my habit to pray the Rosary. I am part of an international group of Catholics committed to pray five decades of the Holy Rosary every day for World’s Peace. We pray Joyful Mysteries on Mondays and Saturdays, Luminous Mysteries
Shabbat is the celebration of the Sabbath. Jews recognize sunset on Friday into Saturday evening as their Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of rest that is set apart from other days, a day in which Jews focus themselves on spiritual gratitude and reflection. Shabbat is considered one of the most important rituals to Jews. Shabbat is the observance of two interrelated commandments; to remember Shabbat (Zakhor), and to observe Shabbat (Shamor) (jewfaq.org). On Shabbat Jews rest themselves from daily tasks and take the time to enrich their minds spiritually.
Every day God created something new and blesses it. God created nothing irrelevant or unworthy. Entirely everything he created served a purpose. Also all he had created came from nothing. The fish were undeniably produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing. God created what is known as the world today and everything that exists on the earth. Reading Genesis 1 gives all mankind an idea of how life started and how the earth was formed to be this magnificent place. The earth is very complicated yet God could solve all of the problems and create blessings. He gave us light and darkness, day and night, water and land. He created all living creature including mankind.
And so, if we put our current time in a biblical perspective, days such as the seventh day, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, that day, the day of Judgement, the Sabbath, the day of Atonement, the day of Jubilee, and the Feast of Tabernacles” are coming true in reality. Because they are the days appointed by God, the spirits of his chosen Christians are, at this time, able to become holy
Holiness means to be unique; to be set apart. In my opinion, holiness is keeping oneself apart from the influences of world culture. 1st Peter 1:17 tells us to “live out our time as foreigners here”. We must devote ourselves to be pure and unaffected by the world - we must be holy to be
Holiness is something that one can obtain in this life. It removes all evil from his heart, allowing him to truly and completely serve God. This does not mean he will not make mistakes, because he still will since he is still human.