Heat Wave, Sunday, and Christianity

Heat Wave: End it by Remembering God on Sunday

Dinner Topics for Friday

“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
“Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. “And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.“And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.” (Lev. 26:2–6.)21
If we love the Lord, we will observe the Sabbath day [or Sunday] and keep it holy.

A Dinner Topic Story for your Children

I am old enough to remember a couple of years in the late 1970s when we had two very severe winters. (Around that time, “a new Global Ice Age” was the popular doctrine of the day).At that time, Spencer W. Kimball, a Christian leader, told us that if we would more faithfully honor the Sabbath, we would be blessed. We endeavored to obey his counsel, and not long after that, the severe weather relented.

Sometime in the 1990s, California had a severe drought, and water was strictly rationed. Thanksgiving of that year, Christian leader Ezra Taft Benson called upon member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to fast and pray for relief for the people of California. On the Monday following that weekend, California experienced downpours of rain. Relatives in California thought it was mere coincidence, but I know that it was answer to our prayers.

Might this current relentless heat wave be a “sermon from on high,” to remind us to look to the Creator who gives us our daily sustenance? How long has it been since we thought about the Sabbath, or Sunday, as a Holy Day? Think about it; pray about it; try it. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of Jesus Christ, is waiting to bless us, if we but seek Him. Look to God and Live. ~C.A. Davidson    

The Lord has promised blessings to those who faithfully observe the Sabbath.

By Spencer W. Kimball

The purpose of the commandment [to keep the Sabbath day holy] is not to deprive man of something. Every commandment that God has given to his servants is for the benefit of those who receive and obey it. It is man who profits by the careful and strict observance; it is man who suffers by the breaking of the laws of God. …

In my travels I find faithful people who forego Sabbath day profits and the handling of forbidden things. I have found cattlemen who have no roundup on the Sabbath; fruit stands along the roadside, generally open day and night through the fruit season, closed on the Sabbath; drug stores, eating houses, and wayside stands closed on the Lord’s day—and the owners seem to get along, at the same time taking genuine satisfaction in abiding by the law. And every time I see good folk foregoing these kinds of earnings, I rejoice and feel within my heart to bless them for their faith and steadfastness.19

I know that men will never suffer, ultimately, for any seeming financial sacrifices that might be made, for [God] has commanded us to live his laws and then has challenged us:

“… prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Malachi 3:10.)20

With respect to this commandment, among the others, let us follow the prophet Joshua: “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: … choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:14–15.)

Bible Verses

Then we can hope for the blessings promised the children of Israel: “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

“Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

“And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

“And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.” (Lev. 26:2–6.)21
If we love the Lord, we will observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

It would appear that the reason the Sabbath day is so hard to live for so many people is that it is still written on tablets of stone rather than being written in their hearts. …

… In our own day it would seem that [the Lord] recognized the intelligence of his people, and assumed that they would catch the total spirit of worship and of the Sabbath observance when he said to them:

“Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” (D&C 59:8.)

… He gave us the first and great commandment:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt. 22:37.)

It is unthinkable that one who loves the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and who with a broken heart and contrite spirit recognizes the limitless gifts which the Lord had given him would fail to spend one day in seven in gratitude and thankfulness, and carrying forward the good works of the Lord. The observance of the Sabbath is an indication of the measure of our love for our Heavenly Father.22

People frequently wonder where to draw the line: what is worthy and what is unworthy to do upon the Sabbath. But if one loves the Lord with all his heart, might, mind, and strength; if one can put away selfishness and curb desire; if one can measure each Sabbath activity by the yardstick of worshipfulness; if one is honest with his Lord and with himself; if one offers a “broken heart and a contrite spirit,” it is quite unlikely that there will be Sabbath breaking in that person’s life.23