Preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.

Neh. 13:22  Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the gates in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.

We are all guilty.  We do not do a very good job of preserving the holiness of the Lord’s Day.  We go to church, but it is only one of the many things we crowd into the day.  We go out to eat and no longer feel guilty about it.  We go to work and justify it claiming it is necessary for our jobs.  We go to sporting events to either watch or play.  We go shopping.  We mow our lawns and do our laundry.  We plant and harvest our crops.  We do all the things we would do any other day and convince ourselves that it is okay since we were in church.  I wonder what the Lord thinks of us.

Now, I understand that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  We cannot legislate our activities.  What some of us feel the freedom to do may not be what others feel the freedom to do.  What I wonder about is whether or not what we do what we do has even been prayed over.  Have we given the Lord a chance to determine whether or not we should be doing what we do?  How can we know whether or not the Lord is okay with us if we don’t first take our activities to Him?

Nehemiah’s concern was to protect the holiness of the Sabbath.  He did not want to allow the people to do anything that would desecrate the Lord’s Day.  I believe that we should be equally as concerned about how we live on the Lord’s Day.  Do we honor the Lord’s Day by what we do?  Perhaps the world would take note and listen more carefully to what we are trying to tell them if we showed by our actions that we truly do love the Lord and strive to respect the day He has set aside for us to worship Him.