The Lord's Day Should be Holy

     The elderly lady was on the phone with the newspaper office and trying to be nice and polite as a Christian should be.  She asked in a very calm, pleasing voice, "Sir, could you give me an explanation as to why my Sunday paper has not been delivered?"  The gentleman on the other end responded, "I suppose the reason is, today is Saturday."  He heard her say, more to her self than to him, "I guess that is why no one was at church this morning?"
     The lady may have been confused on which day of the week it was, but she knew one thing for certain; Sunday is the Lord's day.
     There was not so long ago when most people treated Sunday as being a special, if not a Holy day.  When Sunday came it was time to cease from your labors.  In many a small town, only the pharmacy would be open, and if there were more than one pharmacy in the town, they alternated on being open.
     Many of the commandments that God gave to us to perform had an underlying reason that would behoove us to obey the commandment.  Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy, is such a commandment.  When God had completed his work of creation on the sixth day, he then rested from his labors.  That is a pattern he expects us to follow.
     There have been attempts to try to change the schedule of God, usually resulting in a disaster.  France experimented with a ten-day work week.  That experiment ended in failure for them.  Coal mines that used donkeys to pull the carts of coal to the surface discovered the donkeys performed better when they had the day of rest.
     I often hear people quote scripture for their reason for doing something, though that might be the only scripture they try to follow.  Such is the man who desecrates the Sabbath.  He very well may say, "The ox was in the ditch and I had to get him out."  Obviously that is true, but it ceases to be valid if we first push the ox into the ditch.
     There was a case in federal court, prior to Arkansas becoming a state, in which a man was charged with desecrating the Sabbath.  His offense was--burning a brush pile on Sunday.  Whether we understand all the reasoning behind the ten commandments, we must remember they are not the ten suggestions.  We speak about breaking the ten commandments, we really mean transgress against or violate the commandment.  You can't break the commandments, however, you may break yourself against them.
     Many a person scoff at the words of the Bible, but there is one truth they cannot deny, "It is appointed unto man once to die...."  Would it not be better to "...fear God and keep his commandments for it is the whole duty of man."