Should Christians practice Sabbath? What is Sabbath and what can we learn from Sabbath practices? How does this affect our lifestyle and our pace of work? Can we practice Sabbath in our modern context? How does this change our lifestyle and how does it challenge our culture of "busyness"?

1. Sabbath

2. Greetings from
Alaska!

3. 3
AN
AND WE ARE HERE

4. Sabbath

5. Retreat?
ADVANCE

6. Embrace the Sabbath Retreat
Finding Your Path Through Spiritual Formation Practices
May / September
Gateway to the Arctic 2023
$995

7. “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the
church today, 95% of what we do would go on
and no one would know the difference. If the
Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New
Testament church, 95% of what they did
would stop, and everybody would know the
difference.”
-A.W. Tozer

8. THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

9. THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

10. Phillip Lester
• Practicing Judaism
• Judaic Christian
• Passover Seder
• Symbolism
• Family Oriented
• Emotionally Connected

14. The spiritual disciplines are the holy-spirit guided exercises to
ground us and help us REMAIN in the reality of God’s sufficient
work. They are the recovery work on our human souls traumatized
by the Fall (Gen. 3). They don’t earn us grace. They awaken us to
the reality of grace.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION PRACTICES / DISCIPLINES

15. Sabbath?

17. Sabbath?

18. Sabbath?
“Jesus and the apostles teach that the Sabbath is no longer
important.”
“We don’t need to rest on the seventh day; believing in the Messiah
and resting in his completed work is how we keep the Sabbath now.”
“God changed the day of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the
first day. “
“Christians ‘keep the Sabbath’ by going to church on Sunday.”
“The Sabbath was intended only for the Jews, not Christians.”

19. Fact
The Sabbath is an Old Testament commandment given to
an Old Testament people. Therefore, Christians no longer
need to keep this commandment, at least not in a literal
sense.

20. However…
As Jesus indicated pointedly, “the Sabbath came into
being (egéneto) for the sake of man (dià tòn anthrøpon)”
(Mark 2:27).
Because it was for the good of man and the whole of
creation, God instituted the Sabbath.

21. And Uhm…

22. However…
There are no scriptures “banning” or “abolishing” the
sabbath.
Jesus kept the Sabbath.
Rooted in deep spiritual principles that still apply to our
lives today.

23. ]
Spiritual Formation
Practices

24. Outdated Obedience

26. 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-
laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke
upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls.

27. ]
Sacred Pace
We seek to imitate what Jesus did but do
we imitate his pace?

28. WHERE DO YOU
EVER SEE JESUS
IN A HURRY?

29. Luke 4:1
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the
Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness…

30. Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely
places and prayed.

31. Mark 3:7
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to
the lake…

32. Luke 6:12
Jesus went to the mountainside to
pray…

33. Mark 6:31
Because so many people were coming
and going that they did not even have
a chance to eat, Jesus said to his
disciples, Come with me by yourselves
to a quiet place and get some rest. So
they went away by themselves in a
boat to a solitary place

34. Matthew 14:23
After Jesus had dismissed the crowds,
he went up on a mountain side by
himself to pray. When evening came,
he was still there alone.

35. Mark 2:3
Once Jesus was praying in private and
his disciples were with him, he asked
them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

36. Matthew 15:29
Jesus went on from there and walked
beside the Sea of Galilee. And he
went up on the mountain and sat
down there.

37. Mark 9:2
Jesus took Peter, James and John with
him and led them up a high mountain,
where they were all alone.

38. John 7:10
After his brothers had gone up to the
feast, then Jesus also went up, not
publicly but in private. (Jesus walked
90 miles from Galilee to Jerusalem
which was about 5 days of solitude.

39. John 10:39
Again the Pharisees sought to arrest
Jesus, but he escaped from their
hands. He went away again (walking
about 5 miles) across the Jordan to the
place where John had been baptizing
at first, and there he remained.

40. Luke 22:39 /
Mark 14:26
When Jesus and his disciples had sung
a hymn, they went to the mount of
Olives. This was Jesus’ usual place to
pray when he was in Jerusalem.

41. Mark 14:32
They went to a place called
Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his
disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

42. Harassed
Unconfident
Burned Out
Tired
VS.
Peaceful
Confident
Secure

43. In vain I have searched the Bible
for examples of early Christians
whose lives were marked by
depression, sadness, inhibition,
burn out, dullness, and caution.

44. Instead, the examples I
fi
nd are of
adventurous, risk-taking,
enthusiastic, and authentic believers
whose joy was contagious even in
times of painful trial.

45. Matthew 11:28-29
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-
laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke
upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls.

46. SABBATH:
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all of the Lord’s holy
people, to grasp how wide and long and high and
deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that
surpasses knowledge - that you may be
fi
lled to the
measure of all the fullness of God

47. Embrace the Sabbath Retreat
Finding Your Path Through Spiritual Formation Practices
May / September
Gateway to the Arctic 2023

48. THANK YOU
ALASKA LOVES YOU!
SHANE ENGEL

49. Spiritual Life Ephesians 3:7
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all of the Lord’s holy
people, to grasp how wide and long and high and
deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that
surpasses knowledge - that you may be
fi
lled to the
measure of all the fullness of God

50. Spiritual Disciplines
Meditation
Mindfulness
Crafted Prayers
A
ffi
rmations
Re
fl
ections
Fasting
Connection with Nature
Solitude
Lectio Divina
Service to the Poor /
Needy

51. The idea is that of a wholistic
approach to following Jesus.
What enabled Jesus to do WHAT he
did….

52. He Stood in the Presence of God
Alone.

53. HARASSED
AND INSECURE
PEACEFUL AND CONFIDENT
VS.

54. Without solitude it is virtually impossible
to live a spiritual life. ... We do not take
the spiritual life seriously if we do not set
aside some time to be with God and
listen to him.
Henry Nouwen

55. About Us
WE LIVE FOR THE NATURE
What am I going to do daily to be refreshed?
What am I going to do weekly to rest?
What am I going to do monthly to be renewed?
What am I going to do annually to be revitalized?

56. THANK YOU
ALASKA LOVES YOU!
SHANE ENGEL