1. Have you ever tried to keep a sabbath?  How did it go for you?  What did you like?  What did you struggle with?  If you haven't, do you find the idea exciting or intimidating? 

2. In your own experience, what do you think you are most drawn to about practicing Sabbath?  (just spending time abiding with Jesus? a chance to rest from the busyness of life?  a little time alone?  an opportunity to spend some time with a refreshing hobby–gardening, painting, walking in nature, etc.? something else?)

3. It's easy to think about having time to rest or even nap on a sabbath day, but does the idea that the sabbath can also be about entering into God's joy help you understand sabbath any differently?

4. Read Isaiah 58:13-14.  It's tempting to think that God rested on the seventh day because He was so tired from all that creation work on the first six days!  But when God said, "It is good" to each thing He had made, He's actually enjoying His creation!  The word "good" in Hebrew has associations with "pleasing, festive, delightful, cheerful, beautiful, and charming."  How does this help you understand the deep connection between rest and joy?  

5. Mark 2:27 says, "And Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'"  What do you think He means by this?

6. Hebrews 4:9-11 says,  "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."  What do you think "striving to enter that rest" looks like for you?  How is Jesus our sabbath rest?

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Sabbath Resources:

• Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas.  This is not specifically about sabbath-keeping, but about how different people "connect" with God.  Very helpful.

• Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn.

• Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest by Ruth Haley Barton.

• The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.  This book is written by a Jewish scholar who is not a Christian, but he does have a vast understanding of the underlying philosophy behind the sabbath.  This is not so much a practical book as a philosophical/theological one.