I Am An Ambassador For The Sabbath Day

Here are the two basic definitions of the word “ambassador,” 1) An accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country, and 2) A person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity.

Ambassadors can be appointed by governments, businesses or non-profit groups to represent and promote ideas. Ambassadors can also be self-appointed, and we see lots of self-appointed ambassadors for countless ideas all over the web. When people have a mission, a purpose or a calling that drives them, their passionate enthusiasm naturally turns them into ambassadors, whether they know it or not.

I became an ambassador for the Sabbath Day, the seventh-day Sabbath as outlined in the Fourth Commandment early in 2007. At that time I began collecting stories from people all over the world who keep the seventh-day Sabbath in their own ways, developing their own family traditions and growing in the various forms of observance. I have continued to collect stories since that time as my own level of observance grew. Observance means what a person does and what he or she refrains from doing to respect the Sabbath Day, making it unique and set-apart from all the other days of the week. Saturday is universally understood as the seventh-day Sabbath because the calendar week begins on Sunday which makes Saturday the seventh and last day of the week.

This article is not about how to keep the Sabbath Day in a certain way, inferring that all other ways are incorrect. No, this article is about how I share my own enthusiasm as an Ambassador for the Sabbath Day as well as enthusiastic stories given to me by others. Really, every person who sets aside time on Friday night and/or Saturday to make it different and special from all other days is beginning to follow the words of the Fourth Commandment of the Bible. The Ten Commandments are given twice in Torah, the words given to Moses on Mt Sinai. The first five books of the Bible are a translation of the Hebrew letters written in Torah, so that is what most English-speaking people know about the Ten Commandments, including what they know about the Fourth Commandment. Most of us know it’s on the list, that it’s fourth on the list, but we don’t necessarily give too much thought to what it means in our lives today. Most of the other commandments are easier to understand and to put into practice than the Fourth Commandment. It is something of a mystery to many people all over the world.

The Hebrew word that we pronounce SHA-BAHT’ or SHA’-BISS means “end, cease, rest” which is a fitting word for the seventh or final day of the week. However, when you study the Fourth Commandment in any Bible of your choosing you will discover that the point God is making to Moses and that Moses is conveying to the rest of us is that we are to understand that as the week is ending we are required to “end, cease, rest” in some ways ourselves. A list of the Ten Commandments appears in two different places in Torah, and you can find them in your Bible in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:4-21. The two lists are slightly different as written, but the point made regarding the Fourth Commandment is clear from both readings. Human beings are being told to stop certain activities and to start others for one special day.

My goal as an Ambassador of the Sabbath Day is to share my excitement about how I observe it and how others observe it. If you talked to me five years ago I would have said something completely different than I would tell you today. My observance of the Sabbath Day is expanding because I am experiencing benefits. If I go back and speak to the people I interviewed a year ago I guarantee that their stories will be different now, too, because finding our own ways to understand and follow the instructions in the Fourth Commandment is a unique journey for each person, each family and each congregation. Nobody has a journey that looks exactly like mine, nor mine like theirs. That’s what makes the adventure so interesting and exciting.

Are you an Ambassador for the Sabbath Day as well? Do you have a story you’d like to share with others? Contact me at www.my18reasons.com to share your own adventures with the Sabbath Day. The world is waiting to hear your stories, too!