Remembering the Sabbath

I decided to skip church today. I did that ahead of time so it was planned. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep since Carolina Girl entered the picture. She and I both have addictive personalities and we are both addicted to each other. Its like emotional crack. Im not sure if other couples that fall in love go through this. But it sure has me in its grasp. So I want to make sure that Im doing the right thing here, and I think I am. The commandment is remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. I always took that to meaning go to church on Sunday. But since they do the weekends differently here we go to church on Friday. Does that mean Im not keeping the commandment by not going to church on Sunday? Lets take this a step further, I have started my own home church, on Monday. I like to consider that my Sabbath. Is that wrong? There is also a commandment “forsake not the assembling of yourself together.” I am doing that. So by skipping the normal church service on Friday, am I still being obedient to God by going only to my own service on Monday? I really think I am. I am really struggling with maintaining my attendance at my home church and that has nothing to do with Carolina Girl. I just haven’t been able to get over the spurning of my small group because of the one elder that didn’t like Osteen’s message. There are a lot of people that don’t like Osteen’s message, so I understand that mode of thinking, but I disagree whole-heartedly with it. My small group/home church has made an impact in quite a few people’s lives since I’ve been here. How those others will impact their circle of influence is yet to be seen. So to reject the results based on preference really bothers me. So Im seriously considering leaving the church. I don’t want to throw a spiritual hissy fit, but I just have a hard time attending knowing that the short-sighted philosophy is in place. I do volunteer to help teach the teens. So Im going to be leaving that. But I just think its time to move on. There are some other good churches in Bahrain, like the National Evangelical Church that I can attend or I can just thrown my effort into my Monday group. So I just have a lot to think about for that. I would appreciate your prayers. I think Im under spiritual attack. The enemy only goes after those who are being most effective. I think Im pretty effective, by the grace of God, and that is why I think Im a target.

I talked to Carolina Girl all morning long which is nice. Then I got up to take Pat to brunch at the Ritz Carlton. He’s letting me stay with him for no charge, so this is something small I can do to say thanks. Pat doesn’t like to spend a lot of money so he would never spring for the Ritz. So Im glad I was able to be a blessing to him. I have a membership card that gives me a buy one get one free so that makes the brunch a little more reasonable. It’s amazingly expensive but Oh…so good. Its probably one the best brunch’s in the Middle East. We just ate and ate and ate. I don’t think I would eat there if it wasn’t for the discount, but its palatable with it.

After the brunch I went out to play squash with the Finn. He is an amazing player. He completely kicked my butt, though the games were close. I was completely knackered at the end. It is such a great work out. I played Racquet sports, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’m trying to get in shape so as to best to try to woo Carolina Girl. She has a countdown clock on her facebook page, counting down the time til she gets to Bahrain. Its kind of cute. We are soooo hooked on each other. She is calling me to pray for her now. So even across the oceans we can bond spiritually. That’s kind of cool. Im heading to bed a little early. Carolina Girl is calling me late tonight for a webcam date. Thank you skype.