Happy Is The One
A personal journey into the Ten Commandments
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Keeping the Sabbath

14/7/2013

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'Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.'  Hmmm. The whole issue of holiness seemed just so big and inscrutable that it was with quiet relief that I was able to put it to one side and turn instead to the task of determining exactly when I should be keeping the Sabbath.
     I had a vague understanding that in the Jewish faith the Sabbath was celebrated from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. (I was later to learn this understanding was very vague indeed!) I knew the Sabbath was not celebrated in the Anglican Church and instead the 'Lord's Day' was kept on a Sunday, but was often referred to as the Sabbath. Was there a choice in this? Was one day as good as another? Reading the Bible it seemed to me there was no choice. The Sabbath was created holy by God and it was our job to remember it and keep it holy.
     To resolve the issue of timing I decided to see if I could feel the Sabbath. I was prepared to keep it and so it was in the vessel of willingness that I launched forth into the week, alert for any subtle changes that might be interpreted as clues. I was certainly not prepared for what happened. From noon Friday I began to sense a pull, a kind of suction, drawing me into a vortex of . . . what? Whatever it was, I knew I was entering the Sabbath, and it was wonderful! When I fetched up on its shores at around dusk that Friday, I wept. Thank you, God! O thank you! To be so blessed, and to know it, to live it. What a gift!
     Much later I was to come across Rabbi Abraham Heschel's beautiful little book, The Sabbath, in which there is a story that confirmed my experience:

     Once a rabbi was immured by his persecutors in a cave, where not a ray of light could reach him, so that he knew not when it was day or when it was night. Nothing tormented him so much as the thought that he was now hindered from celebrating the Sabbath with song and prayer, as he had been wont to do from his youth. 
     Beside this an almost unconquerable desire to smoke caused him much pain. He worried and reproached himself that he could not conquer this passion. All at once, he perceived that it suddenly vanished; a voice said within him: "Now it is Friday evening! for this was always the hour when my longing for that which is forbidden on the Sabbath regularly left me." Joyfully he rose up and with loud voice thanked God and blessed the Sabbath day. So it went on from week to week; his tormenting desire for tobacco regularly vanished at the incoming of each Sabbath. (Pages 21-22)

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The Beginning of Happiness

10/7/2013

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It is now well over 20 years ago since I first became conscious of God's tug on the leading strings of his Law. it began with an awareness that commencing a new relationship after separation and divorce from my husband was untenable, that it would be committing adultery, and that no matter how much I might wish otherwise, the vow of marriage - taken in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - could not easily be set aside.
     This awareness was so strong that I did not question it. It was more than awareness, it was knowledge. I knew. I knew God did not like the separation from my husband; I knew staying with my husband was impossible; I knew there was a boundary and that to breach that boundary by entering into a new relationship would somehow be a trespass against my own best interests; I knew that whatever I decided was critical to my future. And I knew that the choice I had to make was so self-evident that it was hardly a choice. Without even a murmur of regret, I chose for God.
     At that time I was not attending church. Yet without any difficulty, and in the absence of any institutional or familial guidance, I held to the certainty that I was choosing for God.
     Far from feeling limited or confined by the consciousness of this new boundary, I felt somehow that I had been liberated into a new space, a vast and exciting terrain in which everything was unfamiliar but to which I had a right to belong. I was no alien here.
     It was probably about seven, perhaps nine years later that I knew I was being asked to keep the Commandments - specifically what are generally known as the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words or the Decalogue. By this time I was attending a home church and was regularly reading the Bible with considerable enjoyment if not deep understanding. Not that immersion in the books of what Christians call the Old Testament - or even the Gospels - was encouraged. The home church movement is as much influenced by Pauline theology as the Anglican diocese in which I now worship, with an emphasis on doctrines of grace, faith and belief. But a call is a call, and so I set about finding out what these Commandments were. At that time I could have listed perhaps five or six, but not in the order that they are given in Exodus 20.
     I took to the task quite lightly. I remember thinking that at least I didn't covet! How wrong, how very, very wrong I was. I was to discover and face (and heal) some entirely dark and unlikable aspects of myself - while experiencing the most intense joy. Happy is the one indeed . . .
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    IT IS WRITTEN
    May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
    Psalm 19:14



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    Hi! As you'll gather from my first blog entry, 'The beginning of happiness', God called me to keep the Ten Commandments some years ago. Thank you, God! Here you'll find some musings about the journey. I'd love to hear about your journey with the divine, too. - Lyndal Wilson

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