Hijacked!

On Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 1971, a man named “Dan Cooper” bought a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle-Tacoma Airport. He was described as a white male in his mid-40s, wearing a business suit and carrying a black attaché case.

After takeoff, Cooper handed a note to a flight attendant. Assuming the note was a lonely businessman’s telephone number, she dropped the note unopened into her purse. Cooper leaned toward her and whispered, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.” He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes by 5:00 pm. To make it seem like he might take a hostage, he asked for two front and two back parachutes. After receiving the ransom, Cooper parachuted from the aircraft into the night over southwestern Washington. The hijacker has never been found or identified conclusively and remains the only unsolved hijacking in American aviation history.

What’s not a mystery is the number of phrases, words, holidays, symbols, and traditions the world has hijacked from believers for years. And we’ve hardly put up a fight. It is, however, about time to start taking them back, and there’s no place better to begin than the Sabbath.

Sabbath Rest

How often do you see people fighting to keep something like the Ten Commandments posted in federal buildings like courthouses or public schools? What if they spent a fraction of that energy memorizing those very same commandments? Let’s make a rule that you can pitch as big of a fit as you like about where the commandments get posted so long as you first commit them to memory yourself. (Simplified version below to get you started)

1. No other gods before Me

2. No idolatry

3. No taking Lord’s Name in vain

4. Keep the Sabbath

5. Honor your father and mother
6. No murder

7. No adultery

8. No stealing

9. No lying

10. No coveting

If we take it one step further, how many of the Ten Commandments must Christians observe? How many are we bound to keep? The obvious answer is all ten, but would you agree there’s one in particular we’ve allowed the world to hijack? Sundays (or Saturdays for some Christian traditions) look no different than any other day of the week, and I’m not referring to people professing other religions. These thoughts are directed towards followers of Christ.

Billions of dollars get spent each year by companies vying to purchase one simple thing: our attention. That money appears well spent because they undeniably grab hold of it. But what if one day of the week we demanded, “No, not today! It’s the Lord’s Day, and my attention will be directed elsewhere.” You might think, “But does the New Testament call on us to honor the Lord’s Day? Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” In other words, Yes!

I recently heard a sermon referencing a minister in the 1800s who lamented to his congregation how exhausted he was. When an elderly lady suggested he take a day off to rest, pray, and rejuvenate, he replied, “Well, the devil never takes a day off, so neither should I.” To which the wise lady retorted, “Why is the devil your role model?”

Let me be clear, how someone feels led to spend their Lord’s Day is between them and God. That’s not my business. My business is pointing out that Christians look very much like the world. The two are pretty much indistinguishable. Sundays make us look like practical atheists.

For tomorrow’s devotion, I’d urge you to read and pray through Isaiah 58:13-14 seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance on this matter: If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Lastly, the most impressionable story regarding Sunday rest came from Wales Goebel, a wonderful man of faith. Every week Wales worked non-stop and played golf every Sunday. His wife said he needed to spend more time with the kids. His only thought: “What in the world will we do?” Her suggestion was to go riding in the country in their car. Although his golf buddies laughed him off, he decided to try it. That Sunday, after traveling about 15 minutes down the road with the windows rolled down, his oldest son reached over the seat, hugged his neck, and whispered closely in his ear, “Daddy, I sure love you. I’m so glad we’re spending time together.” Each child, in succession, followed suit. From that day forward he never played golf again, not even on Sundays.

Jesus said, for those who have ears to hear, let them hear. – Jesus

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Hijacked!

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