Every Friday night on this website we share a 'Christian Sabbath Candle lighting' to encourage you to gather your family together with bread and wine, we encourage you for an entire 24 hours to stop, rest, delight, and worship, to share with family and God. This is an ancient custom Jews have practiced for centuries and that Jesus practiced. To take time to remember God's creation of the world and to relax, and celebrate life, with family and friends every week. Those who practice it will tell you that Friday is the BEST day of the week!

The Sabbath is one of the practices of Jesus. As apprentices of the Rabbi Jesus the disciples saw His habits and routines, they saw him, heal the sick, cast our demons etc, but they also kept Shabbat (Sabbath) with him, saw him read the scriptures, spend time in solitude and prayer. Jesus had a set of habits, practices that set a rhythm and meaning within his life. He was setting an example for them and all of us. So the practices are ancient disciplines based on the lifestyle of Jesus himself that create time and space for us to access the presence and power of the Spirit, they slow us down and open us up to the transformational power of God.

The Practices are a means to an end: to live and love like Jesus. Because love is how you measure spiritual maturity, not discipline. The Practices are:

These Practices are not the whole of the Spiritual life, they are just parts of it and in reality almost anything can become a spiritual discipline, if we give control of it over to Christ and allow it to be a channel of grace - including our relationships.

But Sabbath - the Friday Shabbat is a really good place to start, which is why we include it nearly every Friday, in this website. In this modern world, life seems to be always rushing at an almost frantic pace, hurrying from place to place, trying to meet deadlines, never just stopping to 'smell the roses' and let your soul breathe for a moment. Overwhelmed by circumstances, the news with its wars and tragedy, the race for money and sometimes just simple survival. It is an age of exhaustion. Scripture tells us:

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? - Matthew 16:26

Note it says the soul NOT the spirit - the soul, the inner person, your consciousness, intellect, will, and emotions - your MENTAL HEALTH! What happens when people BURN OUT? The truth is burn out is SOUL SICKNESS! The Sabbath as Jesus said was designed for man - to prevent burn out and exhaustion! - A full 24 hours every week to stop, rest physically and emotionally, to delight in what makes you happy, to 'smell the roses' and worship God and it begins with gathering with loved ones and inviting God to join you for dinner.