The Pharisees loaded the Sabbath with untold stupid laws and turned it into a day of fear and misery. Jesus now recovers it. For he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the God of the seven days of creation. He was the one who created the world and who rested on the Seventh Day.

My good friend has a heart problem. Sometimes it races uncontrollably, and dangerously. He’s a very busy man, with lots of plates in the air. The doctor says he has to slow down: “There needs to be time each day when you end up saying to yourself, ‘What shall I do now?’” Times of boredom are highly recommended. Does he ever find such times? I doubt it.
Our pace of life is frantic, perhaps especially if you have some kids running around. And then there’s our mind. There’s a three-ring circus going on up there: action, anguish, anger, drama, dismay, debate, and more action. “When I lay me down to sleep” is exactly when the circus of the mind is unmasked, “with inward furies blasted.” It can take a while to find sleep, and when you wake in the night, it begins again.
Whenever do we find rest for our bodies and minds? Rest from our worries? Rest from our financial obligations and strains? Rest from relationship clouds and puzzles? Above all, rest from sin? From relentless nagging temptation? From failure? From guilt and shame? When will we be able to look at one another with a placid conscience? When will we be able to look full into the awful and holy face of God without flinching with the shame and guilt of a sin-stained soul?
Rest is right here. Right here in the first three verses of the second chapter of Genesis.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (Gen. 2:1)

Moses pictures completed creation: light, firmament, verdant land, sun, moon, stars, birds, fishes, and the mighty creatures of the ocean deep, the land animals—domestic, wild, and swarming—as a mighty and splendid army, a great host arrayed before her general. And we, male and female in the image of God, are at the head of that array, made by God to enjoy, subdue, and govern it all for the mutual benefit of humanity and creation.
God finishes what he starts.
God was thus successful in his work. This is emphatic—both verses one and two begin in the original language with the verb “finished.”
How many times do we start something that we never finish: War and Peace, a home-project, learning German, or writing a piece of music? And we fail so often to complete far more important things: we pull out of a friendship, we give up on parenting, or even a marriage. Why do we fail? Sometimes because we lack the strength and ability: we thought we could write an EP, or build a greenhouse, but we just can’t. More often we get bored, or we simply lack the will to stick with what we promised to stick with. God set out to create the universe, with humanity as his leading image-bearers; and lacking neither the power, ability, or will, he completed his work.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Gen. 2:2-3)

Work is good.
God worked. Work is good. We were created to work. Work is not the result of the curse any more than childbirth is the result of the curse. It is the difficulty and frustration of work that came as part of the curse, just as it is the pain of childbirth—of bringing a child into a world of war and disease and evil—that was curse-caused.
The great goal of many in the West is retirement from work: endless summers of eggs Benedict, country drives, and barge tours down the Rhone. Work is painful and frustrating. Who does not want to be freed from that? But our Maker works (“My Father is always at his work to this very day,” John 5:17), and he made us to work. Work is good, and it is sin to want to have no work and responsibility. To get old and frail in body and mind, where we can no longer do as much work, is a sadness. We should look forward to those new bodies that are promised to Christ’s people, so that we can get back to work! What we need is not the absence of work, but the redemption of work.
Yet on the Seventh Day of creation week, God stopped working, and rested. Work is good, yet work is not an end itself. It is done to make something good, to achieve something worthy, and then after completion there is rest and the enjoyment of what is made. It is very bold of Moses to say that “God rested,” and even to say that he was “refreshed” on that day (Exod. 31:17). The idolatrous mind, always hankering to belittle God, instinctively seizes at his phrase: “Who is this god who is so wearied by his exertions that he needs to rest? Is he really almighty and self-sufficient?” Genesis 2 doesn’t say that a tired god needed to stop. This is God’s way: he works, and then he ceases from work and rests.
God’s way: work, and then rest.
This is likewise to be the way of God’s image-bearers. For God “blessed the seventh day, and made it holy.” When God blesses, he turns his face towards someone or something, communicates his goodness to that thing, and bestows function. (Thus, God had blessed the birds and fishes, land-animals, and humanity [Gen. 1:22, 28].) The Seventh Day alone is blessed, to reflect the face of God and all his goodness. The Seventh Day will carry a special function: God makes it holy—distinct, life-imparting, and good.
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Although the new school policy does not require parental consent for any changes in gender recognition for their children while in school, John Fisher-Klein, executive director of the LGBT-advocating Attic Youth Center, made a “plea” to parents, imploring them to “create a space where your child can be authentically themselves.”

PHILADELPHIA (LifeSiteNews)—The Philadelphia School District bowed to Leftist gender ideology after the district superintendent announced that schools will begin allowing students to self-select their gender identity for school records, including a new “non-binary” option.
In a December 9 letter to parents, Superintendent William Hite said that, as part of the Philadelphia School District’s commitment “to providing safe and inclusive learning environments that support the emotional and mental health of all our students,” he was “excited to announce” a new policy whereby students will have the option to change their school record to reflect the notion that they are “non-binary.”
The policy, which took effect on Monday, affirms an alleged “right” of students who falsely consider themselves as “transgender and gender non-conforming…to select and identify as their preferred name and gender, even when that is different from what is printed on their birth certificate,” Hite’s letter explained.
The superintendent noted that students would have the opportunity to update their gender identification preference “without providing legal documentation or needing parent or guardian approval.” This preference will then be reflected on digital school learning systems, like Google Classroom, as well as on “assessments and report cards, etc.”
“This is an important step forward in our effort to become a more equitable and inclusive school district,” Hite commented.
However, state records would not be updated since Pennsylvania law requires a student’s records to accord with their legal birth certificate.
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Out of His lovingkindness, God chose the believers in Thessalonica to be His children, and His grace would undergird their entire Christian lives. They had peace with Him in Christ Jesus. The Lord’s blessing was upon them. He was keeping them steadfast in the faith. His face and grace shone upon them. The Lord’s name and blessing rested upon them, granting them a peace that pervaded every aspect of their lives (see Num. 6:22-27). 

The church is the family of God. Paul beautifully expresses this truth at the end of his letter to the Thessalonians by using the term “brothers” five times (1 Thess. 5:12, 14, 25, 26, 27). Every family has rules, whether spoken or unspoken, or more likely, a combination of both. So it is in God’s family. There is certain conduct that is to flow from those converted by the power of God. God doesn’t save us to leave us alone. He saves us to sanctify us. We are His holy people, set apart for His glory.
Unlike some of Paul’s other letters to churches, the church in Thessalonica received a good report. To be sure, there were problems that needed to be addressed, like idleness, but overall this church received praise. Even so, Paul wants them to increase in doing the good things they are already doing. Therefore, he closes his first letter to them with exhortations regarding how to conduct themselves as the family of God. These exhortations have much to teach our churches today.
Community Standards
Paul first exhorts the believers regarding their relationship with church leaders (1 Thess. 5:12-13). These leaders had received their position by the Lord, labored among the believers, and admonished them in matters of the faith. The church members were to recognize their work and respect them in love. One of the greatest ways they could do this was by being at peace with one another.
The same is true today. The more we dwell in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, the less our pastors and elders have to spend time seeking to resolve conflict between us. How are you holding your pastors and elders, as well as other leadership, in honor? Are you a joy for them to lead because you’re respectful and submissive to their leadership? Do you pray regularly for them and encourage them with your words and works?
Second, Paul exhorts the believers regarding their relationship with three specific groups of people (1 Thess. 5:14). Some among them were idle. Instead of leading orderly, disciplined lives, they were depending on others to support them and bringing disgrace upon the gospel. Paul tells the believers to admonish them. Others were fainthearted. Perhaps persecution, or their own personal problems, had deeply discouraged their faith.
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