First, why is keeping the sabbath day holy important?
Jesus Christ states in Mark 2:27 "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath", the preceding verse speaks of rest and spiritual growth, so the day of rest is not for the Lord but for our good. It was in remembrance of the creation, and the blessing of origin. Exodus 20:10-11 is the actual giving of the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy, verse 11 states "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it". Now the Lord of all creation explains the creation and the essential part of rest, then he commands we do like wise. The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is the only commandment that you can keep once a week, all other commandments you can strive to live everyday, Sabbath only comes once a week...
So for a brief review,
1)The Sabbath day worship is a commandment made for man.(Mark 2:26-27, see Joseph Smith translation)
2)The Lord commands the Sabbath and its observance.(Exodus 20:10-11, also see Mosiah 13:16-19)
Now comes the question, How does one keep the Sabbath day holy? I will simplify a few different activity's conclusive with Sabbath day worship, including and are not limited to, Church attendance, Scripture Study, Rest or abstaining from tasks that normally can be performed other days of the week, Christ centered activity's, ect...
1) Church Attendance, when we take time to attend the house of the Lord we place ourselves in an environment that the spirit of God can influence us, answer questions, and lift us to new plains of spiritual enlightenment. We also partake of the Sacrament every week, in the New Testament the apostles "broke bread" on every week in remembrance of the sacrifice Christ made(Acts 20:7), this being Sunday or the first day of the week. Only within the authorized congregation can sacrament be administered for the healing of the soul unto repentance.
2)Scripture Study, Lord has given us his holy writ, giving us direction and a Gospel that ultimately leads us to life eternal. If we never read his words how are we to know how to act? The truth be known with out learning the revelations and prophecies contained in the Words Christ has given us, the learning of man we obtain will die with us, and carry not into eternal realms, only eternal truths will stretch into eternity. So as we feast upon the words of Christ we obtain a knowledge of what we need to live with our Father in Heaven. If study performed on Sunday remembrance of the Christ's mission will flood our minds and encompass us in the fire of truth.(Moroni 10:3)
3)Abstaining from medial tasks, As the Lord commands in the Old Testament(exodus 20:10-11) we are to perform any work, this even includes making others work is part of said commandment. As we focus our time and devotion to the Lord our minds are brought to him, our hearts are purified and strengthen, his hands can do their perfect work.
Its the principle of this that empowers us to become the sons of God, our mids can be distracted over many eternally medial things, as we search for the opportunity to fulfill commandments and ingrain them into our soul's, then the full blessings can be loosed. I invite all who read this blog post to do like wise and keep the Sabbath day holy, in action and principle, attend church(http://mormon.org/worship/), study scriptures(http://www.lds.org/scriptures/?lang=eng), and act in a way Christ would know you cared about his holy day.
Sites/Refference
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/sabbath.t1?lang=eng&letter=s
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/lords-day?lang=eng
