a. When I burn a bull on the altar as sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord(Lev.1:9). The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

b. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you thinkwould be a fair price for her?

c. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness(Lev.15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

I have a friend who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35: 2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

I'd like to know a few things about you before offering my opinions.

# Are you a Jew, Christian, or Muslim?

# Why do you want to sell your daughter into slavery?

# Do you spend your days going about asking women about their menstrual circles?

Read more - and read them in their context, and if you do so with a sincere heart, the Lord will help your understanding.

I think the best person to ask is your friend, so go round his house and tell him of your dilemma. I'm sure he will give you a clear answer!

a) when sacrificing a bull, or a lamb (to me- the one true god) place some rosemary/thyme/mint on the animal. Hopefully this should eradicate any unpleasant odours.

b)Bring your daughter to me (if she is older than 12) I will give you a fair price. I'll pay in pounds sterling too.

c)Menstruation is tricky. Best to check which kind of underwear she is wearing- but be subtle. Very few women wear their best when 'bleeding'.

Lmao. How many pple asides him wud u kill. Tell me its a joke

as nairamaer said ask your friend, let him give you an answer then hit back at us what happened _{i hope no death}

@exu

can't stop laughing oh my god. my mouth is on lock down for now

Moukee, I won't question the bible if I were you. You better do what they told you.

funny topic!

A. When u dey burn your sacrifice add Ambir Purr,the scent would be pleasing to God and neighbours alike

B.Your daugter matter thats easy,no need to sell am outright just love-vendor her out you go get more money per ass

C.Mensural uncleaniness,that one i still dey think about dat one!anyway sha u fit scan them before them enter ur holyness aka bedroom

Is that the only thing you know in the bible? what about thou shall not kill.

edygirl, are you saying that the bible contradicts itself?

Afeni, i dnt expect u to say something bout d bible u know nothing bout.

I know everybody thinks I am kidding. Just wait until you don't hear about me anymore, and that is why I am getting really apprehensive. Because I know the law will take its course. But then there exist certain loopholes, enough, at least to wriggle out of the law. In this particular case, I could claim there is a mysterious voice that has always come to me ever since childhood warning me not to do things I am about to do. Ever since I have been contemplating to kill my friend, this inner voice has been silent. Does that therefore not mean that my proposed action has the sanction of God, although I am thinking an attack upon my friend would constitute a paradigm of impious conduct. Can I therefore justify my action solely on the ground that it obeyed the will of God? If yes, it means the burden of guilt would never lie on me because I would only be a tool in the hands of a Higher Power. Just in case you are thinking I am not quite compos mentis, figure this out for yourself: if a vehicle kills a man, is the blame put on the vehicle or the driver?

My friend went to work again yesterday. I think his days are now numbered.

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

Answer: That depends on her education. Renting is much more cost-effective nowadays. A fair price for an IT consultant is about $110/hr.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

Answer: You have not prepared the bull right. You must empty the bull of any internal organs and especially the digestion system. Cover the bull with a mixture of grease and the gut contents prior to the sacrifice. The smell should now be less disturbing. If the neighbours still complain about the odour, you can claim that it's bullshit.

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

Answer: Oh, no, not on the sabbath you won't. In the weeks, he's doing no harm, and on the sabbath you are not allowed to kill him, unless you enjoy it, then it doesn't classify as work. Thus, you have to hire a hitman who is willing to do the work. Just make sure this hitman is also eliminated for his sabbath-violation.

More 'questions':
- Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

- Lev. 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

@Seun: I knew that sooner or later someone would unearth the source of these questions, although my main reason for starting the thread was to provoke a philosophical or ethical discussion of the issues referred to. That notwithstanding, I am still bent on killing my friend who goes to work on sundays unless a dyed-in-the-wool religious rationalist is able to convince me on the futility of my proposed action. You've surely not heard the last of this matter.

The sabbath during the time of Exodus was Saturday, you must be a totally brainwashed follow follow to misuse the Holy Bible to justify your evil thoughts.

The Old Testament was basically revealed to Jews and not a Christian "thing". I suggest you join the army since you have lost your sense of reason. This is another expample of the dangers "Naija Cultism" being taken and understood as Christianity.

@Nairamar: my friend actually went to work yesterday, a sunday. And even if you are trying to disambiguate the word "sabbath" , the fact still remains that we are no longer living in the epoch of exodus. This is a new millenium whose rational humanism is diametrically opposed to the theological convolutions of the antediluvian period. And I quite appreciate your sense of humour which one could infer from your suggestion that I should join the army since I have lost my sense of reasoning. The oxymoron "military intelligence" therefore makes no sense. Soldiers are bereft of native intelligence. Ha haa!

It is quite surprising that nobody has bothered to ask about my friend's occupation. When that information is made public, it will help in (to quote Nairamar) "justifying my evil thoughts" or condemning it.

@mlks_baby: I am a Jew, muslim and christian. At least, all three are from the same source, Abraham. I am Abe's incarnate, and I do really wish to register my disappointment over the way these universal religions have been carrying on with their trademark moralising criticism and critical morality. The physical environment in which we live is encapsulated by the ethical environment which is the surrounding climate of ideas about how to live. Reflection on the ethical climate leads us into a conceptualization of what is acceptable or unacceptable, admirable or contemptible and other ethical predicates. For many people, such as you, ethics is not only coterminous with religion, but is completely settled by it. Such people do not need to think too much about ethics, because there is an authoritative code of instructions, a handbook of how to live. It is the word of Heaven, or the will of a Being greater than ourselves. The standards of living become known to us by revelation of this Being. Either we take ourselves to perceive the fountainhead directly, or more often we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked and seduced by thieves masquerading as priests and prophets(the Oyakhilomes and Robertsons). We could also have recourse to a text, or a tradition sufficiently in touch with the divine will be able to communicate to us. Then we know what to do.

Mlks_baby, your problem is that you think I need the help of a professional in order to commune with God. Seeking the help of the Oyakhilomes and Okoties who have become so rich that they are now considering going into multi million commercial enterprises and politics will only expose my gullibility. All I need to know is that I am endowed with a share of the divine. Infact all human beings are the children of God, who has given them a spark of His divine fire. Once you have that spark, no one, not even God can take it from you. This spark gives you the faculty of reasoning and the will to act or not to act and the will to get and the will to avoid.

On the issue of selling my daughter into slavery, what transpires today is even worse than that. Are there not homeless, jobless, hungry and hopeless people living in our midst who are worse off than slaves. If selling my daughter into slavery will improve her socioeconomic conditions, then why refrain from it. Did the Mayor of Castlebridge not sell his wife and children and did somebody on this forum not abuse their great-great-great great grandfather for escaping from the slave raiders and thus denying them the opportunity of becoming American citizens? To all intents and purposes, there is an aura of ambiguity surrounding a parent-child relationship which could be evaluated by using the parameter of indispensability-expendabilty. When is a parent indispensable to their child and vice versa, and when is a parent expendable to their child and vice versa? Taking this to an ethical level,had Socrates been ordered by a dream or oracle to kill one of his young sons, as Abraham in the Old Testament was ordered by God to kill Isaac, it is inconceivable and unbefuckinglievable that he would have obeyed. Having faith in God's goodness,he would have refused to accept a religious standard that contravened his ethical one. He would have felt certain that the order, if it genuinely came from God, demanded some alternative interpretation.

As for the woman in her period, I still have to think about that one.

, i'm laughing my head out, in fact my stomach is paining me already,

but mind you, the sabbath still remains saturday, it hasn't change to Sunday,

, i'm curious, what job does this your friend do?

@ Moukee

Well,the way I see it, it all depends on whether u are a Christian or a Jew;whether u are under grace or under the law.

The new creation Christian is not under the law.That means he is not obliged to keeping to the letters of the commandments handed to Moses, in order to be righteous.Righteousness is his nature,just the way a dog takes naturally to barking and fish takes naturally to water, so he takes naturally to righteousness.

Go read your Bible well.Otherwise, quit shooting your mouth about things u hardly understand.

The most famous philosophical character of the classical world, the Socrates of Plato's dialogues, did not pride himself on how much he knew. On the contrary, he prided himself on being the only one who knew how little he knew. Taking my cue from this great philosophical immortal, I hereby proclaim that I am not a man of knowledge, I function from a state of not knowing, and I have found that that is the most beautiful space to function from. I fully admit making an error of judgement and a judgement of error by confusing the sabbath for sunday. That means from the way historical events have now unfolded, my friend would not be transgressing the law if he went to work on sunday, which to my understanding is not the same thing as the sabbath. And even if he went to work on the sabbath, the New Testament has exonerated him by describing his job as not entailing 'work' and consequently, not a real breach of the sabbath. Be that as it may, I still have an axe to grind with my friend because of his chosen profession: religous minister.

He has now joined the ever-expanding army of pastors, evangelists and preachers who use religion in teaching of a god of punishment and terrible retribution. This is but a subtle strategy to create mental slavery and to use fear in explaining to ignorance the nature of the unknowable. There is a saying that for every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill. And gullibility is the fallibility of the oppressed creature. Religion has therefore become the opium of the people, using fear to benumb their consciousness. It is through fear that churches gain and control their membership. And there exists an exact mathematical correlation between church attendance and collections. Now do I really understand why my friend has been persistently urging me to follow him to the church. Personal aggrandizement. But I am fundamentally uninterested in allowing myself to become a captive of the illusion of "the terrible vengeance of the Lord." From my understanding, I know that religion should all be forgotten about. People should return to spirituality or religiousness. Religon and religiouness are not the same thing.Religousness happens only when a Buddha or a Krishna or a Christ is alive. When Christ dies, there is religion. Religion is the corpse of religiousness and in order for organized religion to succeed, it has to make people believe they need it. In order for people to put faith in something else, they must first lose faith in themselves. So the first task of organized religion is to make you lose faith in yourself. The second task is to make you see that it has the answers you do not. And the third and most important task is to make you accept its answers without question; a zombie.

In the light of the foregoing, am I still obligated to kill my friend?

Moukee:

The most famous philosophical character of the classical world, the Socrates of Plato's dialogues, did not pride himself on how much he knew. On the contrary, he prided himself on being the only one who knew how little he knew. Taking my cue from this great philosophical immortal, I hereby proclaim that I am not a man of knowledge, I function from a state of not knowing, and I have found that that is the most beautiful space to function from. I fully admit making an error of judgement and a judgement of error by confusing the sabbath for sunday. That means from the way historical events have now unfolded, my friend would not be transgressing the law if he went to work on sunday, which to my understanding is not the same thing as the sabbath. And even if he went to work on the sabbath, the New Testament has exonerated him by describing his job as not entailing 'work' and consequently, not a real breach of the sabbath. Be that as it may, I still have an axe to grind with my friend because of his chosen profession: religous minister.

He has now joined the ever-expanding army of pastors, evangelists and preachers who use religion in teaching of a god of punishment and terrible retribution. This is but a subtle strategy to create mental slavery and to use fear in explaining to ignorance the nature of the unknowable. There is a saying that for every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill. And gullibility is the fallibility of the oppressed creature. Religion has therefore become the opium of the people, using fear to benumb their consciousness. It is through fear that churches gain and control their membership. And there exists an exact mathematical correlation between church attendance and collections. Now do I really understand why my friend has been persistently urging me to follow him to the church. Personal aggrandizement. But I am fundamentally uninterested in allowing myself to become a captive of the illusion of "the terrible vengeance of the Lord." From my understanding, I know that religion should all be forgotten about. People should return to spirituality or religiousness. Religon and religiouness are not the same thing.Religousness happens only when a Buddha or a Krishna or a Christ is alive. When Christ dies, there is religion. Religion is the corpse of religiousness and in order for organized religion to succeed, it has to make people believe they need it. In order for people to put faith in something else, they must first lose faith in themselves. So the first task of organized religion is to make you lose faith in yourself. The second task is to make you see that it has the answers you do not. And the third and most important task is to make you accept its answers without question; a zombie.

In the light of the foregoing, am I still obligated to kill my friend?

. . .yeah, and your point is?

gbade. x:

. . .yeah, and your point is?

The blind stares of a million pairs of eyes, looking hard but won't realize that they will never see the truth.

This is hardly surprising, given that they are drip-fed on his teachings. One important teaching of Oyakhilome, and of other Pentecostal preachers is “sowing the seed.” This requires followers to give part of their earnings to the church in offerings and tithes. The expected dividends on these are divine blessings. With a church full of young company executives and businessmen, every programme guarantees enormous revenue. Those without money, said a source, are enjoined to turn in their jewelry, wristwatches and other personal items as offering or tithes. As the source told this medium, followers fall over one another to do that, expecting God to turn on his tap of blessings.

Others give cars, generators, musical equipment and chairs to the church. In March 2002, Lawrence Agada, an assistant pastor who was a cashier with the Lagos Sheraton Hotels and Towers, donated cash and gifts totaling N39 million to the church. Agada’s donations were in instalments. He bought a 250KVA generator valued at N4.4 million, and another 27KVA generator for N1.5 million, which he donated to a satellite branch of the church. Before then, he had given N6 million for the refurbishment of the branch, as well as N1 million for the purchase of plastic seats for the headquarters.

Agada also contributed N1million to the success of a mega-crusade tagged Night of Bliss. His parish pastor, who had no money for a trip to Australia, was given N400,000. In appreciation, Oyakhilome wrote Agada: “May God, who gives seed to the sower and bread for eating, multiply your seeds in Jesus name.” Rather than receive God’s blessings, Agada became a guest of the police when his employers discovered that he had stolen from them to give to the church. Agada’s employers also insisted that Oyakhilome should refund the money. But the church issued a statement admitting that Agada made donations, but refused to make a refund.

A year later, Gbenga Kehinde, another member, donated to the church in similar circumstances. Then an assistant manager with Eko International Bank, Kehinde stole about N40 million from his employers and donated N10 million to the church. That also became a messy affair. But Oyakhilome has income streams other than offerings, tithes and donations. Though trained as an architect, he appears to have a sharp business sense which has enabled him to exploit his marketability. Like David Beckham, England’s soccer star, Oyakhilome’s name and face sell huge quantities of merchandise, which make him such a rich preacher of the gospel.

http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1213

Kris Okotie
A trained lawyer and pop idol of the 1980s. Okotie’s Household of God Church in Lagos is located in a former warehouse he bought for N40million and converted into a sumptuous building mirroring his taste. With its marble-clad front walls, reflecting glass windows and well-tended decorative plants, it is regarded as one of Nigeria’s most beautiful church buildings. Though not of spectacular size, it offers a swishy ambience for worshippers.

The auditorium is fully air-conditioned and well decorated. Okotie’s office on the upper deck of the building has glass- covered walls, a guitar and giant portrait of Muhammad Ali. His congregation largely consists of young company executives and well educated businessmen.
Okotie’s teachings are delivered in high-sounding grammar, earning him accusations of promoting style over substance. But he has always been a man of style. He is a chic dresser, a lover of fancy automobiles and when driving on Lagos roads, he is provided security cover by armed policemen.

He also owns a gun, which he acquired after a robbery attack on his home in the upscale Opebi area. The former pop star has an impressive dog kennel, featuring various breeds. At the end of every year, he holds an awards ceremony–Karis Awards. The award, which carries a cash prize of N500,000, is given to aged persons who have distinguished themselves in public life. Mrs. Magaret Ekpo and Hajiya Gambo Sawaba have been beneficiaries. The ceremony also attracts top politicians. The last edition was chaired by Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu. Then, Okotie is also a politician. He contested the last presidential election and has already declared his interest in the next one.

Okotie’s major companion may be the Bible, but he is also within a touching distance of controversy. Separated from his wife, Tina, for many years, he is often romantically linked with every available beauty queen and beautiful celebrity women, many of who are members of his church. Okotie also has a reputation for taking on other pastors. In 2001, he accused Chris Oyakhilome of fetish practices because Oyakhilome visited Prophet T.B. Joshua of The Synagogue of All Nations. The same year, he released a book, The Last Outcast, which many branded heretical. Yet, it was feverishly bought and sold by his followers.

His property portfolio is impressive. A few years ago, Okotie bought the huge stretch of land opposite his church, making him the owner of virtually everything on the street, named after his church. His roots in music have not withered. He released an album in 2001. His ministry, however, has just one parish. Okotie’s reason for opposing spread is that it is through church branches that doctrines are corrupted.

Matthew Ashimolowo
An accomplished motivational speaker with tremendous following and a glamorous lifestyle. Ashimolowo is a prolific writer, who teaches that faith brings wealth. He is also popular for recorded sermons which are bought even by members of other denominations. Formerly based in the United Kingdom, Ashimolowo’s church, Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), is one of the biggest in England. Established 20 years ago in London, with a congregation of 17, the church has grown to 12,000 members. It also has branches in Accra and Lagos, where he currently resides.

Ashimolowo left Britain in 2002, following allegations of tax evasion and mismanagement levelled against him by the British Charity Commission. He was accused of living in a rent-free house owned by a charity organisation established by him, and of using the charity’s credit card to buy a timeshare property in Florida, United States. A timeshare is an arrangement under which joint owners have rights to a property to be used as a holiday home. Ashimolowo was said to have received £120,000 as a birthday gift and spent £80,000 on a Mercedes. The Charity Commission’s investigations also concluded that the church had mismanaged its £8.5million income and that its leaders’ personal interests conflict with their duties. Investigations added that the assets of Ashimolowo’s charity were not used for the purposes stated in its registration.

In addition, the pastor and his wife were alleged to have received tithes totaling £384,000 between October 1992 and September 2000. Of this, £338, 334 was paid into the account of one of his companies for “pastoral services.” The church was eventually taken over by receivers, who found boxes containing cash, cheques and invoices being loaded into a car. Last year, the charity was handed the control of the church, making it a charitable company rather than a trust. The new arrangement stipulates that Ashimolowo pay back £200,000.
Prior to the crisis, the church was controlled by a pastoral board which included Ashimolowo and his wife, Yemisi.

In an address to his congregation, Ashimolowo admitted that the church made a couple of mistakes in its transactions, but insisted no fraud was found. He said if fraud had been found, the church would have been closed down rather than re-opened under a new administrative structure. The pastor is now planning to build a 10,000-capacity auditorium on a land allocated to the 2012 Olympic Games.

http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1211

Nigeria has become one of the foremost countries in regard to the depth of abyss which lies between the handful of hypocritical multimillionaire evangelists and pastors who wallow in filth and luxury and the millions of their congregations who constantly live on the verge op pauperism. It is my considered opinion that when coups and revolutions are being staged, they shouldn't just be against the politicians. The evangelists should be included in the list of those to be swept away for they are also politicians. Politicians in cassocks.

Moukee:

The blind stares of a million pairs of eyes, looking hard but won't realize that they will never see the truth.

Uhm. . . that includes yours, yes?

Moukee:

It is my considered opinion that when coups and revolutions are being staged, they shouldn't just be against the politicians. The evangelists should be included in the list of those to be swept away for they are also politicians. Politicians in cassocks.

And after all your sleepless nights, your solution to your perceived problem is to kill your friend. I see how rational your own version of philosophy is.

Let me put to rest the issue of the woman in her period with this joke.

"That parapsychology course at the Christ Embassy is fabulous!" says Moukee. "My ESP talents are developing so fast!"
"That's hard to believe," states his friend, Afeni, "you'd better prove it."
"For instance,my telepathy," says Moukee. "You just point at any door, and I shall give you remarkable particulars about the person who answers."
"Okay, that door," points his friend. "Tell me what will happen."
"Well," meditates Moukee. "I feel that a man whose girlfriend is having her period will open the door, "
"Hello, friends," greets BlueIyke, entering the room through the same door.
"Does your girlfriend have her period?" asks Afeni.
"Sh*t!" answers BlueIyke, wiping his mouth and chin. "Can you see it?"

Moukee - something dey worry you! You too much!

By Henry G. Brinton Mon Jul 3, 7:11 AM ET

For all the attention paid this past year to public displays of the Ten Commandments, you'd think people would spend as much energy trying to follow them.
ADVERTISEMENT
<a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12f65ge60/M=403758.8135589.9423850.1442997/D=news/S=57018364:LREC/_ylt=Avk.8kJ7wOI0SWsShJdkm8r8B2YD/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1152004091/A=3776417/R=0/id=flashclicks/SIG=10ou80bod/*http://www.yahoo.co.uk"><img src="http://eur.a1.yimg.com/java.europe.yahoo.com/eu/any/testad1.gif" width=300 height=250 border=0></a>

When it comes to the Fourth Commandment - "Remember the Sabbath Day" - that's not the case. And pastors like me, far from being role models, are among the worst offenders. After all, we work every Sunday.

INDEX: Read other stories in the series

The problem with ignoring the Sabbath is that it hurts us as individuals, families and communities. Wayne Muller, a therapist, minister and best-selling author, is convinced that modern life has become a violent enterprise.

We make war on our bodies by pushing them beyond their limits, war on our children by failing to give them our time, and war on our communities by failing to be kind and generous and connected to our neighbors. To bring an end to this destruction, we have to establish a healthier balance between work and rest.

Whether religious or not, people know that they need to take a day off in order to maintain their sanity and remain efficient and productive at work. But I'm convinced that downtime is not enough.

We need a formal day of rest. A true Sabbath gives us time to refresh and renew ourselves, regain proper perspective and redirect our lives to what is good and true and worthwhile.

There is something positive and even creative about allowing ourselves to take a break, as is noted in the Bible when it says God finishes the work of creation on the seventh day , by resting (Genesis 2:2). Resting is an act of creativity.

Unfortunately, our society rewards hard-driving people who are focused on their work seven days a week, and our technology allows us to be constantly connected to the workplace through computers, cellphones and BlackBerrys.

"Modern culture's time values often seem enslaving and oppressive," says Dennis Olson, professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. "Work time seems increasingly to expand and rob us of time with family and friends. Computers and the Internet bombard us with a constant flow of data, messages and information."

And as many Americans are pulling more time at the office, they're spending less time in bed. Average amount of sleep has dropped from nine hours a night in 1910 to seven hours today. The result is that we feel harried and hurried, out of balance, out of sync.

For much of this country's history, blue laws kept businesses closed on Sundays, forcing Americans to focus on church-going, rest and relaxation. Although many people resented these limitations, these laws did have the beneficial effect of creating a day of rest. But in the past century, and particularly since the 1960s, states have relaxed these rules regulating business on Sunday as our consumer-driven culture has gone into overdrive.

What began as a trickle soon became a raging river: Today, almost every mall, theater and restaurant is operating seven days a week. Even in Europe, where church-going has been in decline for years, Sunday has been - until recently - a day in which most businesses were closed, allowing people to spend time with family members and friends.

Given this history, Sabbath-keeping is going to be a countercultural activity, one requiring commitment and creativity. A day of rest does not have to be a Saturday or a Sunday - impossible for pastors and many others - but it should be at least one day out of seven, and qualitatively different from the other six.

The key is to break away from work patterns, whether that means hobbies, sports or artistic activities. (Sabbath is related to the Hebrew verb meaning "to cease, stop, interrupt."

"Spend more time with people in a friendly way, with meals (and) extended conversations, but no talk related to work," advises theologian Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting.

New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez rests by engaging in gardening; for a professional gardener, though, Sabbath-keeping might involve playing baseball.

My own practice on Wednesday, my substitute for Sunday, always includes a long run. My thinking becomes unstructured as I jog along a beautiful wooded trail, the stress melting away and solutions to knotty problems popping into my mind. In this activity, I feel close to God. This is my way of remembering the Sabbath day, and keeping it holy.

There is a communal dimension to rest as well, one that is important for maintaining healthy relationships in our families and communities.

My son, who is trying out for his high school cross-country team, often joins me on my runs. This gives us a chance to talk without time pressures or interruptions, far from the demands of work and school.

At the end of life, we'll remember and cherish these times - these mini-sabbaticals, if you will - far more than those hours toiling away in the office. As the saying goes, no one ever says from his deathbed, "I wish I had spent more time at the office."

Ironically, we can actually be more productive if we take a break from time to time. Dawn is convinced that what we gain is "a greater eagerness to do our work and a better sense of what that work actually is."

We can learn from men and women in the
European Union, who work hard but still enjoy an average of five weeks of paid vacation per year. They often remark that they don't "live to work," as we do - instead, they "work to live."

So take a vacation this summer and a Sabbath day throughout the year - whether to honor God, your family or yourself.

Henry G. Brinton is pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and author of Balancing Acts

Moukee,

If I gave you an instruction booklet for repairing your electrical outlet.

Would you reach in the book and read the one statement that says: "Insert your screw driver in the socket?"

You would miss the vital instruction to turn off all the electricity for your house before doing so?

Neither can you read the bible with instructions for your life in this fashion.

Drusilla:

Moukee,
If I gave you an instruction booklet for repairing your electrical outlet.
Would you reach in the book and read the one statement that says: "Insert your screw driver in the socket?"
You would miss the vital instruction to turn off all the electricity for your house before doing so?

Drusilla,

Any booklet about repairing an electric outlet starts with Turn Off The Electricity From The Mains,always written in[b] Bold Typeface[/b]
Besides how did you know that you didn't miss the vital instruction when reading the Bible!

ouch!! that hurts,

strike 1, !!!


druss, u r mean, and fine too