Obeying God in Faith—Part 2

In the eNews just before the Day of Atonement, I wrote a short personal about Obeying God in Faith. I would like to continue that theme with another short personal regarding the importance of obeying God in faith regarding the weekly Sabbath.

Frankly, I find that life is quite difficult in many ways. We all have our challenges in one way or another. And if we aren’t feeling challenged enough, that day will likely come—and, perhaps, very soon.

Observing the Feast this year, the 46th time for me personally, was another amazing spiritual boost! I am thoroughly convinced that one of the main reasons God implemented His annual (and weekly) Holy Days was to help those He is now calling to stay on the right and proper spiritual path.

I shudder to think how difficult it would be to remain faithful to God without these regular spiritual appointments with Him. We obey God, in faith, each Sabbath and every high Holy Day, when we observe these days in ways that are pleasing to God our Father and to Jesus Christ, our elder brother.

These days in 2020 have been the most challenging, in some ways, to stay spiritually focused because we have not always been able to meet together physically on the weekly Sabbath. Nevertheless, God has been so gracious to provide the electronic means to stay connected to Him each Sabbath. We have always made a webcast available and we have thousands of sermons one may listen to on the Sabbath at ucg.org. Of course, that is only one aspect of properly observing the Sabbath. However, it is a very important aspect.

Assembling together on the Sabbath is commanded by God, whenever He makes assembling possible. First and foremost, we should always strive to meet physically with our brethren on the Sabbath. Certainly, that is best and what God intends for us. But God allows various challenges to arise in our lives that are not ideal. It does seem to me that 2020 has been more challenging than any year I have been attending services in God’s Church, at least when it comes to whether or not we are able to meet in person.

Hopefully this virus we are facing will soon dissipate so we won’t have that ongoing barrier to our physical assembly anywhere around the world. I hope that everyone sees the need to fellowship together in person once the threat of the virus has lessened. God does give His Church leadership the decision to meet, where to meet, and what time to meet in all our areas around the world. We are doing our best to be obedient and faithful to God as we consider all things and as God provides for us.

God greatly blessed us so that we were able to hold the Feast and most of God’s people were able to attend services in person. From the reports I have heard, and you will soon be reading much more in the United News, God richly blessed us as we assembled together to observe His Holy Days. I also believe God richly blessed those who tuned in to our webcast to observe the Feast in the best way for them, as they looked to God for guidance and direction and made their decisions in faith.

I always strive to allow those types of decisions to be between each person and God and try not to insert myself in trying to persuade them to my way of thinking. At the same time, I firmly believe in assembling together and I look forward to the time when God will provide an atmosphere where all members are comfortable assembling without concern of contracting a serious illness.

Also, I have never understood why some people seem to think that the annual Holy Days are more binding in regard to assembling with our brethren than the weekly Sabbath. The command to assemble together on the weekly Sabbath (Hebrews 10:26; Leviticus 23:3) is very important and we ought not forsake doing so, whether God provides a way for each of us to assemble together in person or whether, for a time, we need to “assemble” spiritually online or in some other way.

Let us all seek God’s will, His direction, and His guidance, and let us also have faith in one another that we are all doing so. May you all have a very spiritually rewarding Sabbath day!