Do Christians Need a Labor Day?

The Bible says in Exodus 20:8-10:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

So it seems to me, the Lord provided Christians with a Labor Day. A day to rest, praise the Lord and celebrate the work they have done to the best of their ability all week long. But the financial demands of modern day life and the necessity of working for non-Christian employers may demand some of us work on Sunday. Perhaps we need a Labor Day after all. What do you think?

What Does Labor Day & Christianity Have In Common?

It's Saturday September 1st and first thing this morning I found myself working on my Inspirational Gift Gallery web site and I couldn't help but wonder, 'What does Labor Day and Christianity have in common?'

It certainly isn't the backyard barbecues or a day at the beach that will answer my question, or is it?

The American Labor Day was created over 100 years ago. It was Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker and pioneer unionist who proposed a day dedicated to all who labor. McGuire introduced his idea formally at a meeting of the Central Labor Union on May 18, 1882. "Let us have, a festive day during which a parade through the streets of the city would permit public tribute to American Industry," he said. The following September New York workers staged a parade up Broadway to Union Square. Year after year other cities followed suit and on June 28, 1894 Labor Day was passed through Congress by President Grover Cleveland. Over a century has passed since the first official Labor Day and Americans continue to lay down the tools of their trades for a holiday.

But thousand of years previous to 1894, in the book Exodus, Chapter 20, Verses 8-11 (King James Version) it is written,

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 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.

And so it seems to me that in reality God passed the first law for the first Labor.

So while I enjoy this Labor Day weekend, especially Sunday and Monday with a day at the beach and backyard barbecues, I will smile and know in my heart that man's desires simply follow God's commandments and that's just what Labor Day and Christianity have in common!