The Changes of Time

Many years ago, part of my family lived in the May area, in Southwest McDonald County of Southwest Missouri. It’s down on Buffalo Creek, west of the Goodman area toward Tiff City. My great-great-grandpa had a mill where he would grind grain, and people even from the edge of Oklahoma came to have grain ground into meal, flour, or feed.

During one point, his overload in the mill caused him to work on Sunday. Now, in those days, this was something that was frowned upon; in fact, it was even against the law to be doing this type of work on Sunday, regardless of church affiliation. Someone told the sheriff, and he came and arrested great-great-grandpa and put him in jail.

For several days, he was locked up for doing this type of labor on Sunday. My great-grandfather was only a young man, but he had to do his best to keep the mill going.

Now today, who would think of such a thing? Someone arrested for working on a Sunday? We’ve certainly come a long way since then, to the point now where many people treat Sunday just like any other day.

Yes, times have changed, but the need to have a reverence for God hasn’t. Yet we find more and more people who treat the Sabbath as though it was any other day made for them; never considering it has been set aside by God – for God, about God, and people taking time concerning the things of God.

Look where we’ve come to today to tell this story. To a young child, it sounds like a fairy tale of long ago- but it really hasn’t been that long.  “Remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.”  This is the 4th commandment.