excerpted from a letter by Samuel Lee Yen Keon
"...why can’t you be a true-blue Christian without causing any offense to your parents?"
Unfortunately where the home is already divided, i.e. where there is no unity of belief in your family, there is no physical peace in the home. Jesus already warned us of that, “I come not to bring peace to the world, but a sword…”, and further explains that in many families because of your decision to accept Christ and stand for Him in His name...you will suffer persecution even in the home: brother/sister against brother/sister; father/mother againsttheir children and vice versa. The battle is fiercest when it involves those you love and wish to honour. After all, the Ten Commandments does command you to honour thy father and thy mother, etc., so would you say this means that if your parents demand that you should deny Christ in any aspect of your born-again existence, you are now given a passport to do so? In fact this would be a better excuse (than) to question what purpose Sabbath would serve if in the end you do not obtain any rest because of conflict and persecution.
I’m sure you already understand that honouring your parents is indeed a commandment but not the only commandment . Notice this is very similar to the system of obedience advocated by Confucius.
Subjects obey your King.
Children obey your parents without question.
But the part that most people tend to leave out of this equation is what Confucius posits as central to such a system, which is -
the King must obey Heaven.
So obedience and honouring elders in the family works where those same elders are to honour and obey God. Similarly (the) Wife-obey-your-Husband theme only works where the Husband is bound in strict obedience to God and then in turn loves and cherishes his Wife. Otherwise battered wives have no right to be rescued if they are supposed to honour and obey their abusive husbands.
So let’s have another look at the Ten Commandments. Notice the first priority as in the first commandment is obedience and honour to God. And then everything follows thereafter. See the New Testament summary of the TEN - ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy mind and spirit etc’ and ‘shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ . Where God is central in the family, there is perfect peace and there is perfect Rest (whether on the Sabbath or not).
As you will come to know if you are still unaware, that the Sabbath issue will be made the main focus for the final battle in the very last days, i.e. Satan’s followers will make Sabbath the main issue in their attack on God’s people. This has already started and the Sabbath issue is a point of persecution even now. You aren’t alone...(t)here are brethren all over the world who are facing abuse from their own family members for keeping the Sabbath. My classmates used to make fun of me over this and others face the loss of a cherished job for not compromising and going to work on the Lord’s Day. They -- more than you -- can push that argument, i.e. the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. After all what harm is there working on the Lord’s day? Daniel’s three friends could also have argued - what harm is there in just bowing down once to the King’s Gold Idol? You don’t have to mean it or you can be worshipping the true God in your heart and so in effect you would really be bowing to God and not the Idol.
Remember (the) challenge every Sabbath on being a true Witness to God instead of just an armchair one. While some of us have to get up and enter the field of battle, in your case Satan has already brought the battle to your doorstep and using the most effective tool he knows how -- emotional blackmail, i.e. he is attacking your weakest point (mine too for the matter), i.e. through those you love!
Question you must ask yourself: "Do you trust God enough that He will see you through this persecution?" "And that the reason He is allowing this trial in your life must be for a good reason which you at this point am not able to fathom?" Of course one reason would be (that we) are living witnesses to (our) own family of the Way, (the) Truth and the Life.
In context of exams. Major exams or not, if you plan things out, Sabbath is not a waste of time. I notice with my non-believing (friends) when we were doing our postgrad law that no matter how pushed for time they were they always had time to take most of one day off to either go shopping, mess about and even watch a movie, etc. So even the world takes at least one day off regardless of how pushed for time they are. In (the) UK it was a Wednesday (this is just the chosen day picked arbitrarily by my (friends) and not a national holiday or anything). Saturday they would spend half the day doing laundry or just sleeping in and would start studying again in the afternoon and onwards the whole Sunday etc. Humans do need a break whatever their responsibilities are. And a break or rest does not necessarily mean just sleep. Do you see the point I am making?
Well, if your parents won’t let you read your Bible during the Sabbath afternoon -- you can always pray. Prayers to God especially the ones you pray in your heart are just as welcome to Him if not more so. You can take the opportunity and try to have a nap after praying. You see Sabbath was a Day the Lord just set aside...He has chosen a Day we just devote totally to Him. One day when you have a (boyfriend/girlfriend) you will understand this more. Even though you may speak to him/her on the fone during the week or once every day, you will find yourself setting apart some truly special time, i.e. one day or most of a day where you devote to the other and vice versa -- more so as husband and wife. In a Christian Family the Sabbath day is also perfect for the family to get together or husband and wife to get together and fellowship with each other as they worship God...fellowship means communication. So it is not a wasted day if you are communing with God even if you are deprived (of) your Bible.
I am truly sorry you...have to face such a battle. It may be easier to bear if you realize that in the end it is not your parents fighting you...it is the evil one using them to get to you. So this should only encourage you to love them more even if you have to continue making your stand because of your first love to God. Your continual prayer would be that they will learn to accept you as a person of principle and learn to rejoice and be proud of you because you are what every parent wishes his/her child to be: a person of character with a backbone willing to stand up for what she/he believes is right.
Take courage...The going’s toughest now, but ifyou persist and remain consistent in your Faith, God-willing He will help your parents to accept you and even at a later stage respect you. Remember you can always respect another even if you don’t see eye-to-eye on every point. Currently your parents are just reeling from the culture shock, i.e. the new you. Whatever the outcome, have Faith that the Lord is in control and as long as you give Him total control of your Life come what may and glorify Him in everything you do even in your studies, He will never abandon you! PS
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