Discusses the importance of observing the Jewish Sabbath as both a practical and spiritual exercise, and provides guidelines for properly incoporating the Sabbath into everyday life.

Rest your mind, body, and spirit and focus on God's principles for keeping the Sabbath with this helpful guide from bestselling author Robert Morris. A constant stream of busyness can slowly wear away at us over time: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Yet believers often forget that taking a day of rest is one of the Ten Commandments! When we don't give our minds and emotions a break, our will to make good choices can often become compromised. Resting is also important to those around you. If you have a weary soul, you can't pour yourself into others at home, work, or wherever you are. It's vital -- you must take the day off. In Take the Day Off, Pastor Morris explains why rest is central to your wellbeing, how to do it, and how helpful it can be. You will be inspired to experience true rest and make it a priority in the rhythm of your weekly schedule. Don't wait and delay God's blessings in your life. Start implementing the principle of rest in your life and you will see eternal benefits.

Over the last years of our country's war efforts, one of the struggles of our warriors and their families is getting refreshing rest and sleep. There are many factors that contribute to this reality. Wartime training, operational schedules, traumatic experiences, family life stress, sleeping environments, and even diet can impact a warrior's ability to connect with their Creator's gift of rest and sleep. While military agencies have connected with many in the medical and psychological field to address this problem, I was certain that the Scriptures could also be a resource for warriors' rest. One of the most influential warriors of the biblical tradition is King David. In the Book of Psalms, many of his reflections can be found on his combat and political experiences. As I have studied these with the theme of sleep and rest in mind, I have noticed key themes of rest that David wrestled with in the Psalms. Over the course of David's life, he faced various situations that brought on considerable levels of danger, stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. It was in these times that David learned to rest in a relationship with his God. My prayer is that the reflections found in this short book would encourage warriors and their families toward a relationship with God that follows in the footsteps of David. The book is divided into four chapters that follow a gradual development from night's distress, to perspective, onto praise and into hope for a new morning. While there are several other Psalms not written by David that address rest and sleep, I have selected the Psalms of this ancient warrior-king because of his correlating experiences with our contemporary warriors.

Staying busy is easy. Staying well rested-now there's a challenge. How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional. Dr. Dalton-Smith shares seven types of rest she has found lacking in the lives of those she encounters in her clinical practice and research-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, creative-and why a deficiency in any one of these types of rest can have unfavorable effects on your health, happiness, relationships, creativity, and productivity. Sacred Rest combines the science of rest, the spirituality of rest, the gifts of rest, and the resulting fruit of rest. It shows rest as something sacred, valuable, and worthy of our respect. By combining scientific research with personal stories, spiritual insight, and practical next steps, Sacred Rest gives the weary permission to embrace rest, set boundaries, and seek sanctuary without any guilt, shame, or fear.

In today's world, with its relentless emphasis on success and productivity, we have lost the necessary rhythm of life, the balance between work and rest. Constantly striving, we feel exhausted and deprived in the midst of great abundance. We long for time with friends and family, we long for a moment to ourselves. Millennia ago, the tradition of Sabbath created an oasis of sacred time within a life of unceasing labor. Now, in a book that can heal our harried lives, Wayne Muller, author of the spiritual classic How, Then, Shall We Live?, shows us how to create a special time of rest, delight, and renewal--a refuge for our souls. We need not even schedule an entire day each week. Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk. With wonderful stories, poems, and suggestions for practice, Muller teaches us how we can use this time of sacred rest to refresh our bodies and minds, restore our creativity, and regain our birthright of inner happiness. Praise for Sabbath “Muller's insights are applicable within a broad spectrum of faiths and will appeal to a wide range of readers.”—Publishers Weekly “One of the best spiritual books of the year.”—Spirituality and Health “Wayne Muller's call to remember the Sabbath is not only rich, wise and poetic, it may well be the only salvation for body and soul in a world gone crazy with busyness and stress.”—Joan Borysenko, author ofMinding the Body, Mending the Mind and A Woman's Book of Life “This is a book that may save your life. Sabbath offers a surprising direction for healing to anyone who has ever glimpsed emptiness at the heart of a busy and productive life.”—Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

Many of us have endless demands and stifling daily routines. Learn why Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith, a rhythm of work and rest set by God that if restored to our lives will bring prolonged life, enriched relationships, increased fruitfulness, and abundant joy. We are waylaid by endless demands and stifling routines. Even our vacations have a panicky, task-like edge to them. “If I only had more time,” is the mantra of our age. But is this the real problem? Pastor Mark Buchanan believes that what we’ve really lost is the rest of God—the rest God bestows and, with it, that part of himself we can know only through stillness. In The Rest of God, you’ll: Form a deeper relationship with God by understanding Sabbath’s true purpose Learn how Sabbath allows us to live more fully into our status as free people, released from the grueling, incessant demands of life Connect Sabbath to the ultimate rest—heaven Receive practical advice for restoring Sabbath in your life With this book, Buchanan reminds us that Sabbath is about much more than going to church on Sunday. It's about the much-needed time to be still. The gift of Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith. God, knowing that and knowing how easily we might neglect it, made it a command. Begin your own journey of restoration and renewal!

We live in a 24/7 culture of endless productivity, workaholism, distraction, burnout, and anxiety--a way of life to which we've sadly grown accustomed. This tired system of "life" ultimately destroys our souls, our bodies, our relationships, our society, and the rest of God's creation. The whole world grows exhausted because humanity has forgotten to enter into God's rest. This book pioneers a creative path to an alternative way of existing. Combining creative storytelling, pastoral sensitivity, practical insight, and relevant academic research, Subversive Sabbath offers a unique invitation to personal Sabbath-keeping that leads to fuller and more joyful lives. A. J. Swoboda demonstrates that Sabbath is both a spiritual discipline and a form of social justice, connects Sabbath-keeping to local communities, and explains how God may actually do more when we do less. He shows that the biblical practice of Sabbath-keeping is God's plan for the restoration and healing of all creation. The book includes a foreword by Matthew Sleeth.