Rest to do what?

I was reading in Leviticus today and came across an interesting verse. Yes I did say Leviticus. Chapter 16:29 it says, “On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work.” I found it interesting that God uses the words “deny yourselves” when it comes to work. The normal association I make when I hear the word deny is that it is concerns giving up something I really like and is not something that I would want to do, for example, I must deny myself chips and queso if I am to lose weight, or deny myself the 52 inch flat panel TV if I am to replace the siding on the house, but to put it in the context of work, is it hard to deny myself work? Shoot my kids would be the holiest kids in the world if holiness was based on how much we deny ourselves work, especially when I tell them to clean their room or sweep the floor. So why did God put that part in there? If I didn’t take in the whole scripture I think I could start a pretty fast growing ministry with “No Work” as its theme. Yet He explains a bit more in the next verse, “because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you…It is a Sabbath rest ” You see, my fleshly nature which is in constant battle with the Holy Spirit is to deny that I’ve sinned and need atonement. Because His knowledge of me penetrates to the inner recesses of my heart, He understands that it is enough work for me to focus on my atonement and I don’t need the distractions of earthly responsibility even if I keep my sin list short. As a result, today, the Sabbath has become a bit clearer.

Give unto...

As I have been reading the interaction between Christ and those that were around Him I have been paying attention to their responses. When some leaders tried to trap Christ concerning the Roman occupation and paying taxes Christ responds in saying, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” The result was amazement. Why? Why would someone be amazed? Was it because He called them out in their trap? Was it because He acknowledged that Caesar was a leader? We have a tendency to focus on the Caesar part of His answer and not on Christ’s main thrust, the God part, “give to God what is God’s”. But what is God’s? It’s answered right after that in Mark, “Love the Lord with all your heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself”. Yet we begrudgingly pay our taxes while we ignore the devotion to God.