Remember the Sabbath Day

We just finished a kitchen remodel. In the course of events we also purchased new ovens. Beautiful, stainless steel, convection, double ovens from Kitchen Aid. As I sat down to browse through the instruction manual (hey, I'm an engineer! what do you expect?) I learned that our ovens keep the Sabbath. And boy do they ever!

When the Sabbath Mode is set, only the number and start keys will function, no tones will sound, and the displays will not show messages or temperature changes. The heat sources icons will appear lit on the oven display throughout the Sabbath Mode. When the oven door is opened or closed, the oven light will not turn on or off and the heating elements will not turn on or off immediately.

If a power failure occurs when the Sabbath Mode is set, the oven(s) will remain in Sabbath Mode but will no longer be actively cooking. The “ON” indicator will no longer be lit. Touch OFF to return to normal operating mode (non-Sabbath Mode, not cooking)

It continues like this, spanning two pages. There are countless steps for enabling, disabling, setting, changing settings, and on and on.

Is this really what God intended when He gave us the gift of the Sabbath? How on earth does this complicated mess of intricate steps, lights not turning on, and indicators remaining lit fulfill the Fourth Commandment?

Jesus repeatedly condemned the Jewish leaders of His day for adding to His Law. They piled additional burdens upon the people while refraining from keeping the essence of the Law. I find it amusing (actually, quite sad) to see that even ovens are a means for perpetuating this ungodly legalism today. May God have mercy and bring the light of the Gospel to the Jews.

Practical Preaching?

I was catching up on listening to episodes of the White Horse Inn on my iPod on the way into work this morning. Toward the end of the 2/16/2008 episode ("What would Moses Do?"), Dr. Horton offers a couple of nuggets of wisdom on preaching and the Bible, which I had to transcribe:

When people say, "I need more practical preaching," what they're saying is "I need more Law." Now, they may be right. But a lot of times the sheep don't know what they really need. And if, by nature, we crave more instructions and less about Christ--if, by nature, we take Christ and the Gospel for granted, but really want to hear about how we can have a better marriage--don't you think it's better for us, especially as ministers, to say, "No, Christ told Peter, 'Feed My sheep.' And I'm going to feed you as well as direct you. You need this [Christ-centered, Gospel-oriented preaching] more than you realize. What you're asking for in 'more practical preaching' is more about what you should do and less about what Jesus has done." ...

Now[days], the Bible is God's instruction book. And that's how a lot of people talk about it. Or it's the "Owner's Manual." Well, what is an owner's manual? An owner's manual is a guide you go to that tells you how to fix your car. Folks, that's the wrong category. The Bible is not, primarily, God's instruction book. It has instructions, and they need to be preached. But it is not primarily that. In fact, the Bible's silent on half the things that preachers want to talk about on Sunday morning--when it comes to the "practical."...I don't need a Christian diet; I need a Christian Gospel, if you've got that. Tell me something I can't get from Oprah or Dr. Phil...