why I began celebrating the seventh day sabbath

In April of 2007, I knew of one person in my life, a Christian, my maid of honor at my wedding, my friend who was instrumental in leading me to the Lord over 30 years ago, who celebrated a day of rest on the seventh day, as Scriptures command for the Sabbath day. We had already been celebrating the feasts of the Lord; we had for several years. We attended a church which holds a big feast of Tabernacles celebration every year. This previous year, the pastor was saying that one year, a conflict came up in the schedule (this must have been before we were going there) and they decided to have the Tabernacles on a different day than the actual day, thinking it would make no difference to the Lord (being ignorant Gentiles -- his words) and the presence of the Lord, which is so strong among us during this celebration, was absent that year. He said it mattered to God that we celebrate His feasts according to His calendar.

So I was thinking about that on a Friday in April of 2007, when I looked up in Leviticus 23 to remind myself of the command concerning the feasts. I knew this, but had forgotten it -- the weekly feast of Sabbath is the first feast listed. I asked myself, “Why do we celebrate all the feasts but this one?” I spoke with my husband, who believes that Sabbath- keeping is no longer required, and I asked him, “Would you mind if I kept the Sabbath on Saturday? I am curious to discover what will happen.” He had no objection, so I prepared dinner for that evening, and extra food for the next day, and cleared up all my work.

Then when the sun began to set, I excused myself from the family, went into my “prayer closet,” and prayed to the Lord, “I am not exactly sure what to do, but the Scriptures say that in six days You made the heavens and the earth, and rested on the seventh day, and hallowed it; and we are to keep the seventh day holy -- the seventh day is beginning, so here I am to honor You.” These words were barely out of my mouth when the presence of the Lord descended so powerfully upon me that I could not speak any longer. I ended up worshiping the Lord for several hours, but it seemed like only a few minutes had passed. I slept like a baby that night, and had the most peaceful day the next day, filled with joy. We attend church Saturday evenings anyway, and as we were coming out of the assembly of the believers that night, the sun was setting. I told the Lord, “That was the most beautiful seventh day I have ever experienced -- thank You for making the Sabbath for man.”

My next task was to study all that the Scriptures say concerning the Sabbath, and why the Church does not celebrate this day. From my experiment on that Friday evening in April of 2007, it seemed to me that the Lord was pleased and blessed my Sabbath day of rest.