“Can you believe this? They’ve put a week’s lesson on the environment into our church’s lesson study guides.”¹

“They have?” Brenda reached the coffee table and found her copy of the guidebook her husband Matt was talking about. She rustled through the pages until she found the one labeled February 18-24. “It doesn’t say anything about the environment, Matt. It just says ‘creation care.’ ”

“Yes. They’ve found a phrase they hope won’t upset us. But you can be sure of one thing. They’re talking about the environment. Look, dear. They have the word ‘environment’  on every page. This is definitely a pro-environment Bible study guide.”

“Why does that upset you, Matt?” Don’t you think we Christians should do everything we can to take care of our environment? Shouldn’t we all be environmentalists?”

Matt sputtered. “Brenda, you wouldn’t recognize an environmentalist if one walked in the house.”

“Now you stop talking like that, Matt. Environmentalists are good people. They’re trying to do what they can to make the earth a better place to live in. What have you got against environmentalists?”

“They think they can save the planet, but they can’t. They think they know why we have climate problems and that every heat wave, blizzard, or earthquake is caused by human beings. They try to get everybody on a guilt trip. They’ll get a 60-unit development disapproved because the construction could endanger a spider with red legs. They’re irrational, that’s what they are. They go by their feelings and see trends in data where none exists. They’re alarmists.”

“You made that up about the red legged spider, didn’t you? You’re still sore because they wouldn’t let you put a spur road across our property out in the country.”

“They wouldn’t let me disturb the wetlands they said were too close to where I needed a road.”

“I think you’d better go to back to the Creation of this world and see what God has to say about the environment.”

“There’s nothing about the environment in the Bible.”

“Oh, I think there is.”

After a while Matt agreed to study God’s word to see what He said about the environment and mankind. It was easy for Brenda to see the importance of working to make the earth as clean and free from hazards as possible. Matt held out for less government involvement but agreed we’d be better off if we all tried to live as “green” as posssible. The discussion continued for years.

[Thought Questions for Creation Care February 22, 2012]

1.  Whose environment? Did God give the environment to Adam and Eve when He introduced them to their new home? What specific tasks did God outline for Adam and Eve to do? Do you think they regarded these activities as work? If not, why not? To what extent do human beings today have control over the environment?  What aspects of the world of nature are most affected by mankind? Should we try to alter the weather? the seasons? the crops?

2. A temporary world. Do you handle your fine china as carefully as you do your shade trees? Why? Do you ever look around you and consider that pretty much everything you see will be gone before long? What about the expression, “this old world”? In what sense is this world old? Older than what? Will God totally destroy the earth at the end of time? Or will there still be a formless, empty object as there was before Creation week until the re-creation of our world? Or do we know? As far as you and I are considered, is everything we see on earth temporary?

3. A steward or an environmentalist. Back in 1995 the church leadership (General Conference) issued a statement on our Christian responsibility to the world where we live.  Your lesson authors have quoted this in your lesson guide for Monday. How seriously should you and I take that statement today? What can you and I do about protecting the earth’s ecosystem? Are there small but significant ways we can stop or slow any of the following: 1) emission of of destructive gasses; 2) depletion of the earth’s protective mantle of ozone; 3) massive destruction of the American forests; 4) the ”greenhouse effect;” 5) overproduction of highly processed foods; 6) bad treatment of animals and fowls that we eat; and your ideas? Can an environmentalist also be a steward?

4. Making it beautiful. Do you like to garden? Keep flowering plants? Plant and nourish house plants in your home? Take care of a well-manicured lawn? Enjoy parks and forests? If so, will you have an enjoyable time of it in heaven? If not, do you think you’ll learn to love these activities? Why didn’t God just make everything perfect without any need for Adam and Eve to care for the plants and trees and other objects in the Garden of Eden? Couldn’t He have made a garden that needed no tilling? no watering? no careful care? What about the sanctuary where you worship every week? Is your church blessed with professional landscaping? How does the outer appearance of  your church affect people’s notions about who we are?

5. Sabbath and the environment. How hard is it for you to put thoughts of your work or business or secular hobbies aside on Sabbath? How can your environment help? How long after the first sin was it before our forefathers caught on to what it means to work for a living? How did the Sabbath change due to this development? Are you able to take some time every Sabbath exploring nature in some way? If you have children or teenagers in your circle of acquaintance, how can you turn Sabbath afternoon into a time of exploring the glories of nature for them? Can that include vigorous hikes? cave exploring? rock hunting? beach walking? bird photography? What else?

6. Our dominion over nature. The voice of God explaining all about creation to His newest family members must have been almost overwhelming to Adam and Eve. Didn’t God more or less tell Adam and Eve to take charge of all the animals, fish, and birds on earth? Didn’t He command or at least strongly suggest for Adam and Eve to bear children and keep the process going until the world was populated? HDoes a childless couple disregard this command to their peril? Or does having children have anything to do with God’s acceptance of us? What about people who by health or by choice never marry or have children. Are we all still participants in the command of God to look after the world and do our best to make it clean and free from sin?

7. What we eat. Lately you may have heard a lot about veganism. If you’re a vegan (not consuming animal products of any kind), do you feel good about your choice? Why? How should we regard members of our church who choose to follow a vegan lifestyle? How should vegans consider fellow members who use regular milk and cheese and other animal-source foods? Is a vegan diet kind to the environment? Should everybody be a vegan? Is veganism a plank to make friends outside our fellowship?

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[Teaching plan for "Creation Care" February 22, 2012]

1. Have a volunteer read Genesis 1:25-28.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What does it mean to dress and keep the earth? Does that include weeding, pruning, planting, mowing, and gardening? Share your thoughts.
C. Personal Application: How well have we done in taking care of the earth and the creatures in it?
D. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Does having dominion over the earth mean that we can do what we want with it? Does dominion mean having complete control?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Matthew 22:37-40.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What does loving your neighbor as yourself have to do with taking care of the earth? Share.
C. Personal Application: In what ways do you take care of the earth that helps protect and make others safe?
D. Case Study: One of your friends states, ”The Lord is coming soon to destroy the earth and create a new one. It’s already messed up. There’s not much of anything I can do anyway.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read 2 Peter 3:10-14.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. Does godliness include being a faithful steward of God’s property- yourself, the earth, your finances? Share.
C. Personal Application: In what specific ways can we better take care of our environment? Do some of these ways include simplifying our lifestyle?.
D. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “God said He would come to destroy those who would destroy the earth. By being good stewards of God’s creation, are we hastening or delaying the Lord’s return?” How do you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Proverbs 27:20.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What part has greed and selfishness played in destroying the natural resources and ecological balance of the environment of this world?
C. Personal Application: In what ways has your selfishness helped to hurt
The environment? Share.
D. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Note: “Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.” MH p. 149)

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“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. . . . And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”

In the above two verses we have some of the Bible’s earliest references to how humanity is to relate to the created world. Read them over prayerfully and carefully, thinking about them in the context of creation care and environmental concerns, and then answer the following questions.

1. How complete was humanity’s control over the earth to be? 

2. What does it mean to subdue and to have dominion over the earth and all that was in it? What, if anything in the texts, gives humanity the license to abuse and defile that creation?  

3. Genesis 1:28 says that they are to “replenish the earth.” The literal Hebrew means to “fill the earth.” How might that be understood in regard to the question of how it should be treated?  

No question, humanity was to rule over the earth, at least under the power and direction of the Lord. The fact that these verses were given in the pre-Fall world, a world without sin and death and suffering, should teach that whatever dominion over the world means, it doesn’t mean a violent exploitation and plundering of the world, for those things certainly would not have happened in a world before sin. Whatever subduing and dominion entailed, it didn’t entail destroying that world.

Of course, a lot has changed since then: the Fall, the Flood, and the curse (Gen. 3:17–19), and the general degeneration caused by sin as a whole. Yet, one would be hard pressed to see in these texts anything that justifies the plunder and ruin of the planet itself. If anything, we can see in these texts humankind’s responsibility, as ruler of the world, to take care of it because God created it, and it was “very good.”

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“Hell 

As the creation statement said, part of the reason for the issue with our environment today has to do with “human selfishness and the egocentric pursuit of getting more and more through ever increasing production, unlimited consumption and depletion of nonrenewable resources.” In other words, people just want more and more, and the only place they can get it is, ultimately, from the earth. Using natural resources, though, isn’t the problem; instead, the problem is that no matter how much a person gets, it’s never enough. When was the last time you ever heard someone, no matter how wealthy, say that they had enough money?

In the midst of all this, God has given humanity the gift of the Sabbath.

Look up these Sabbath texts. Though we tend to think about them in other contexts, try thinking about them in the context of how Sabbath keeping, by commanding us to rest from our work, to rest from seeking to make money and do business, could in a very real way impact the environment for good. 

Exod. 20:8–11

Neh. 13:16–19

Sure, the Sabbath is about remembering that God created the world (which itself should make us conscious about how we treat it), but it is also about resting from the pursuit of making money. By keeping the Sabbath, by purposely taking one seventh of our lives every week and without exception, and not pursuing wealth and money and goods, we not only have a powerful weekly reminder that life isn’t all about making money, but we are also often refraining from the kind of pursuits that, when overdone, do damage to the earth.

How has Sabbath keeping been a means of helping restrain your own greed and desire for more? How often has the lure of money tempted you to violate the Sabbath?

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That doesn’t mean that I’m in favor of strip-mining or mowing down the rain forest or anything like that, it’s just that I’ve never really thought about everything coming from God’s own hand.

Think about it for a minute. God made it and then asked Adam and Eve to take care of it. What was there to take care of? Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned yet, so what was there to tend?

Then there are verses like this one:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV

People read the words “have dominion over” and “subdue it” and decide that we have the right to do absolutely anything at all to the planet and not worry about what the consequences might be. I’m pretty sure though, that showing Creation who’s boss, is not what the Creator had in mind.

On a very small scale, it might be like when my aunt and uncle would go on their medical missionary trips every year. They would ask me to “take care of things” while they were gone. That meant water the indoor plants, feed the cat, and generally keep an eye on things.

What if, while they were gone, I decided that they didn’t need all those plants and pulled up half of them or that they needed a dog instead of a cat? My aunt and uncle would not be pleased with my stewardship of their home, would they?

Does being stewards of Creation mean that we should value it above other humans or even God, Himself?

It seems kind of odd that, in general, the environmentalist movement is primarily made up of individuals who believe that life is governed by belief in the phrase, “survival of the fittest.” While those of us who believe a loving Creator made the earth and everything in it for us, His children, really don’t get too worked up over saving the snail darter or whatever.

Shouldn’t we be the leading advocates for Creation and caring for the planet? Is there a way to honor God by taking good of everything He made without putting His creation ahead of Him?

“The message reverberates through culture beckons us to ‘go green’ because we will look better and feel better and fit in …. [But as followers of Christ] we have deeper reasons to go green. We serve the Creator of the planet …. He created the earth and took the time to tell us his plan for it. The God of the universe has given us the great task of caring for our planet …. We have an operating manual for our planet right in front of us in the Bible, and we must allow that manual to change our thinking and behavior.” ²

Do we consider ourselves part of God’s plan for taking care of His Creation? Or are we here to get all we can out of it?

Did you know that God gave instructions that would have helped avoid the dustbowl of the early twentieth century? It’s called (Are you ready for this?) the “Law of the Sabbaths.”

“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.” Exodus 23:10-11

Verse 12 goes on to remind folks to let their work animals rest on the weekly Sabbaths as well. Interesting, the Sabbath is made for man, and man is then supposed to make sure that little piece of creation stays healthy by sharing Sabbath rest with his animals and his land.

Imagine what might happen if one day out of seven, all unnecessary worked stopped. What effect would that have on energy consumption and air pollution? Do you think it would be significant?  I don’t know, maybe? I’m pretty sure it won’t happen, though. Why? The same reason it quit happening in the first place.  Humans are selfish.

“Selfishness consists in dethroning reason from the seat of government and enthroning blind desire in opposition to it. Selfishness is always and by necessity unreasonable. It is a denial of that divine attribute that allies human beings to God and makes us capable of virtue. Selfishness dethrones reason and sinks human beings to the level of a brute. …

“It is a contempt for the voice of God within in him, and a deliberate trampling down of the sovereignty of his own intelligence. Shame on selfishness! It dethrones human reason, would dethrone the Divine mind and would place blind lust upon the throne of the universe.”³

Selfishness causes us to abuse the gifts God has given us, even the planet we live on. Our selfishness has brought us to a place where we value ourselves, our wants and desires about anyone or anything else. We value our planet only for what we can get out of it. We don’t even value human life if it stands between us and something we want. Our greed even causes us to injure our own bodies as we consume too much of the wrong things just because we want them, not because we need them.

As Christians we are in the unique position of protecting God’s Creation. We know its true importance. We aren’t caring for one random rock floating in random galaxy formed when a random star exploded. We are stewards of an extravagant gift made especially for us by our God who loves us. Every atom, every molecule was formed by His own hand and still bear His finger prints.

“… it was sin which marred God’s perfect work; …thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death, are all the result of disobedience to God. … see how the earth, though marred with the curse of sin, still reveals God’s goodness. The green fields, the lofty trees, the glad sunshine, the clouds, the dew, the solemn stillness of the night, the glory of the starry heavens, and the moon in its beauty all bear witness of the Creator. Not a drop of rain falls, not a ray of light is shed on our unthankful world, but it testifies to the forbearance and love of God.”⁴

Many of us would like to think that we don’t have to worry about the world around us because Jesus is coming soon. But even before sin, Adam and Eve were to tend the Garden. What makes us think that we are any less responsible now?

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Think about Matthew 22:37–40. In what ways could the principles taught here impact our attitude toward environmental concerns, especially when misuse of the environment can have some very detrimental effects on others?  

Early on in the Bible, we are given some indication of humanity’s call to be a steward of what God had given Adam on the earth. Though the context is very specific, it’s hard to see why the principle shouldn’t continue.

Genesis 2:15 reads, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” In what way does this reveal how humankind was originally to relate to the earth? 

Notice the reciprocal relationship here. God created this beautiful environment for the man; it was given to him as a gift. And yet, see how Adam was to relate to it. He was to work it and to keep it. The word translated “keep” comes from the Hebrew root, smr, which means “to watch” or “to preserve” or “to protect.” Thus, right from the start, even in the pre-Fall world, Adam was called to be a steward of the environment in which he was placed. God didn’t tell him to exploit it, to use it for his own selfish means, and to get out of it all that he could. Instead, he is told to work it and protect it.

What reason could we have for believing that this principle has changed? In fact, if this is what Adam was called to do in a world before sin entered, how much more important would good stewardship of the world be after it has been damaged by sin?

How conscious are you of environmental concerns? How much do you really even care about them? How important or unimportant is it to you? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath.?

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“Seventh day Adventists believe that humankind was created in the image of God, thus representing God as His stewards, to rule the natural environment in a faithful and fruitful way.

“Unfortunately, corruption and exploitation have been brought into the management of the human domain of responsibility. Increasingly men and women have been involved in a megalomaniacal destruction of the earth’s resources, resulting in widespread suffering, environmental disarray, and the threat of climate change. While scientific research needs to continue, it is clear from the accumulated evidence that the increasing emission of destructive gasses, the depletion of the protective mantle of ozone, the massive destruction of the American forests, and the so called greenhouse effect, are all threatening the earth’s ecosystem.

“These problems are largely due to human selfishness and the egocentric pursuit of getting more and more through ever increasing production, unlimited consumption and depletion of nonrenewable resources. The ecological crisis is rooted in humankind’s greed and refusal to practice good and faithful stewardship within the divine boundaries of creation.

“Seventh day Adventists advocate a simple, wholesome lifestyle, where people do not step on the treadmill of unbridled consumerism, goods getting, and production of waste. We call for respect of creation, restraint in the use of the world’s resources, reevaluation of one’s needs, and reaffirmation of the dignity of created life.”—Adventist Administrative Committee (ADCOM), released at General Conference session in Utrecht, the Netherlands, June 29–July 8, 1995.

Look up the following texts. How do they help us understand the reasoning behind this church statement? Gen. 1:1, 26; 9:7; Psalm 24:1; 100; James 5:1, 2, 4, 5;Heb. 1:3.

If anything, as Christians who believe that this world and the life and resources on it are gifts from God, we should be at the forefront of seeking to take care of it. If you believed that the earth is just a chance creation, the product of cold, uncaring forces, one could almost be excused in seeking to exploit it to their own ends. When, though, we understand this world as something that God created, and sustains, it’s hard to see how we could do anything other than be responsible stewards of it.

How might your own selfishness impact how you treat the environment? And what’s wrong with the attitude that says, “Well, I’m only one person, so what does it matter?”

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Moving stealthily, the environmentalist, holding a bag, reached into the tank, grabbed the first lobster he could get his hands on, threw it into the bag, and ran. He then put the lobster in a tank in his car and drove to the shore. There, a helicopter took him over the ocean, and he then returned the lobster to the water. A lobster liberator strikes again!

The man was not alone in his concern. You can visit a Web site titled “Lobster Liberation” that talks about saving lobsters from getting eaten by humans. It even has a section called “Tips for Releasing Lobsters,” telling you what to do once you rescue lobsters from the restaurant.

Another time, an American actress dedicated an entire episode of her sitcom to smuggling lobsters out of restaurants and releasing them in the ocean.

Caring about the environment is one thing, but stealing a lobster out of a restaurant and taking it, by helicopter, back to the ocean does seem a bit extreme, does it not?

All of which leads to the question: what about Christians, indeed, Seventh-day Adventist Christians, and the environment? Putting aside the strangeness of the lobster liberators, how should we relate to environmental concerns? After all, isn’t Jesus coming soon? Isn’t our whole message predicated on the notion that this world is coming to an end, that this earth is corrupted and not going to last? Given our understanding of the Second Coming, how concerned need we really be about the earth itself?

Read 2 Peter 3:10–14, Isaiah 51:6, 65:17, and Revelation 21:1. What does the Bible clearly teach about the ultimate fate of the earth? How should this teaching impact the way we look at the environment? Or should it at all?  

The Bible is more than unequivocal: this world, this earth, will not last. It is destined to be destroyed, and by God, who promises to make it over, to re-create it, to make a “new heaven and a new earth.” Though that’s hardly an excuse (as we’ll see this week) to abuse or exploit the environment, it should at the same time help protect us from making a god, as many have done, out of the earth and of the environment. While we can laugh at the extremists, we need to be careful not to get caught up in those extremes ourselves.

Read Romans 1:25. What important message should we take in regard to how we show our concern and care for the creation?

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Read for This Week’s Study:

Memory Text:

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15).

Key Thought: How should Christians relate to the environment?

What should we, as Seventh-day Adventists, think about the environment, especially because we know that this earth is corrupted, will continue to be corrupted, and will one day be destroyed, burned up in a great lake of fire: “and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10)?Add to this the biblical injunction about humans having “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26), and it’s no wonder that, at times, we have sometimes struggled with how to relate to environmental concerns.At the same time, as stewards of all God’s gifts, don’t we have an obligation to take care of the earth? After all, didn’t God create it and pronounce it “very good”? As a people with a distinct message about God as Creator (Rev. 14:6, 7), shouldn’t we have something to say about the question of how we treat God’s creation?

This week we’ll explore what the Bible says about some of these concerns.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 25.

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“In such a case, men would miss the fruits of the earth, and the blessings that make life desirable. Nature must continue her unvarying course. God could not for a moment stay His hand, or man would faint and die. And man also has a work to perform on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. God’s holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour’s pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 206, 207.

Discussion Questions:

   It’s easy today, with hindsight, to mock the hardness and coldness of those religious leaders who attacked Jesus for His Sabbath healing. And they certainly will be judged for their actions. At the same time, try to put yourself in their sandals. These man-made rules had been around for so long that these leaders all but thought the rules were the very essence of Sabbath-keeping itself; hence, they truly believed that Jesus was violating the Sabbath. How would we feel were someone to come along today and, claiming great light and truth, maybe even doing miracles, yet was in our view trampling on the fourth commandment? How might we react? What important lesson can we learn from this exercise about knowing how to separate truth from mere tradition and why it is not always easy to do? 

  Examine more in class this idea that God rested after His work of Creation and His work of Redemption. How are we to understand the significance of this amazing fact? 

 Place yourself in the shoes of someone who believes that Jesus’ miracles on the Sabbath showed that He was abolishing it. Compare what the Bible teaches He said and did with what you would imagine Him doing were He really making this change. What do you imagine He would have done differently?  

Summary:

The Bible reveals the Lord as the Lord of the seventh-day Sabbath, the most basic sign of Him as Creator and Redeemer.

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She heard people singing in the Adventist church near her home. She hurried back inside and asked her mother to let her go to the Adventist worship service since her cousin hadn’t come for her. Her mother agreed, and Raquel hurried down the street to the church.

The members greeted Raquel warmly; she was happy that she had come. She enjoyed the worship service and decided to return. One of the members invited her to come for Sabbath School; so on Saturday morning when Raquel heard people singing in the little church, she hurried down the street to join them.

Raquel loved Sabbath School, where the children helped her learn new songs and the teachers made Bible stories so interesting. Raquel continued worshipping at the Adventist church. When her cousin invited her to go to church again, Raquel told her that she had found a new church.

Raquel has joined Pathfinders, and she sings in a children’s choir. She enjoys helping with the children’s programs at church. She has invited her family to come to church with her, and her mother and brother have visited several times. Although they don’t always attend, they are glad that Raquel wants to worship God. “I feel that I’m a light shining in my home,” she says.

Raquel learned that nearly everyone in the church is involved in one or more small groups that meet during the week to study the Bible and talk about God. Members invite their friends to come, and many people have joined the church through these small groups. Raquel wanted to learn how to lead a small group, so she took a class. Now she leads a small group just for children. Raquel invites her friends from school to attend the small group and encourages the other children to invite their friends as well.

Raquel has learned that there’s power in group prayer. When her father was seriously ill, she asked the small groups at church to join her in praying for him. Her father recovered, and she told him that she’s sure his recovery was in answer to the prayers of her church friends. Her father has promised to visit her church one day. Raquel can’t wait for him to keep that promise.

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“On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. Let the boots be blacked and the baths be taken. It is possible to do this. If you make it a rule you can do it. The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.

We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time. Whenever it is possible, employers should give their  workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath. Give them time for preparation, that they may welcome the Lord’s day with quietness of mind. By such a course you will suffer no loss even in temporal things.

There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, “confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” James 5:16.

Before the Sabbath begins, the mind as well as the body should be withdrawn from worldly business. God has set His Sabbath at the end of the six working days, that men may stop and consider what they have gained during the week in preparation for the pure kingdom which admits no transgressor. We should each Sabbath reckon with our souls to see whether the week that has ended has brought spiritual gain or loss.”  (Ellen White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 6, p. 356.)

Later in life I decided that not all of this counsel was practical. Back in the day this was written baths were a lot of work, hauling in water and all. Today you can take a shower just at the turn of the knob, which to me could easily be done on the Sabbath, without causing too much work. Cooking on the Sabbath does not require so much work either I thought.

While that may be a justifiable argument, the fact is, that if we do not make a big deal out of preparing for the Sabbath, then the Sabbath will not be a big deal either. While it may not take as much effort to prepare for the Sabbath nowadays, I think we lose some of the specialness of the day by not preparing more. We rob ourselves of a special blessing when we forget the other forgotten day besides the Sabbath, which is the preparation day.

“We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time. Whenever it is possible, employers should give their  workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath. Give them time for preparation, that they may welcome the Lord’s day with quietness of mind. By such a course you will suffer no loss even in temporal things.”  {6 Vol. Testimonies to the Church, P. 356.}

I remember Sabbath evenings before the sun went down Saturday night, my family would have worship as we closed the Sabbath. My mind would wander from the Bible reading to the Tulsa Roughnecks soccer game that we would be going to as soon as the sun went down. Since all secular things had been put away for the day, I was excited to get to the game. Looking back, I think it made both the Sabbath and the game more special. Each had their proper place in my routine. Sure my mind should have been all absorbed in the family worship I was in, while it was still Sabbath, and not the game I would be going to after sundown, but hey, I was just a kid.

Even so, today I log on my computer on Sabbaths to read emails or check my Facebook, and I can’t help but see the game scores on my home page. While I tell myself I can’t help but see, and it is not a sin to just glance at the scores, still, my mind goes back to my childhood when things were more black and white, and I miss those days when Sabbath was a big deal. I am not saying it is not a big deal now, it is. I mean when it was more special because we put more thought and effort into those holy hours. The point of me sharing this is this: While we live in a time where it may be easier to prepare for the Sabbath, and we may argue that maybe some of the old rules do not apply any more – i.e. taking baths before sundown – I think the Sabbath would be more special to us if we would make a big deal out of preparing for it.

The greater the preperation, the greater the blessing. I believe the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy are still relevant today. Let’s not just remember the Sabbath day. Let’s also remember the preparation day. If we do, there are some special memories still to come!

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