This page assumes that you just finished the ARC webpage "Why the ARC Observes the Sabbath" http://users.techline.com/leiske/arcsabbathday.html

Now that you see some of the Biblical reasons for our understanding of the importance to God of the Sabbath and how He wishes that we all "remember" it weekly, giving Him the credit for being our creator, let me give you a view of what that means to us in a practical day-to-day and week-to-week life of a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and the Adventist Rodders Club.

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SDAs are not legalists, trying to earn salvation, like some other Christian groups teach, nor do we believe in a cheap grace. We believe that when we are saved, God gives us the desire to want to become more and more like Him, thus becoming more happy and kind to others. This viewpoint has a direct impact on the respect we give the Sabbath day and how it relates to our hobby of cars.

So what does this Sabbath thing have to do with everyday life and cars?

Each Christian's walk is different and God accepts us where we are and leads us closer and closer to where He wants us to be. He has our best interest in mind and knows how to set us up for a truly happy life, not only in the life after this, but here and now.

I, Donn Leiske, ARC President, can only tell you my own personal experience.

The Sabbath is my FAVORITE time of the week. The Bible says to work six days and rest on the Sabbath. I can tell you that the rat race life that I choose to live, would not work if it were for seven days a week. I think I would just fall over dead.

But when the sun goes down Friday evening and Sabbath begins (see creation week and the crucifixion week for examples of God's clock), we all breath a sigh of relief and totally enjoy the rest and fellowship of the Sabbath. It is a time to not have to have the stresses of business or school, of work around the house, or typical worldly distractions.

Again, I cannot speak for others, but in our home, we choose not to even watch the typical TV stuff or the empty partying of normal worldly entertainment. We choose (as the Sabbath commandment modeled) to work as little as possible and avoid unnecessarily having others work for us as well).

As far as the cars are concerned, the typical rod run kinds of stuff does not fit into my choice of a Sabbath. An ARC event is different in several ways. A typical ARC Sabbath activity would include going to church in the area where we are holding the event. We often supply some of the church service, such as special music or the sermon. We usually have an ARC potluck dinner, then go for a cruise in our cars (inviting anyone who wants to come) in God's nature...countryside, mountains, a lake, etc. There we will have a supper with an open fire in a park or something and visit. It is extra special if we are able to see the sun go down and sing some praise songs to our Lord to bring the Sabbath to a worshipful end.

As you can see this is in deep contrast to non-Christian rod runs.

By the time we have had a 24 hour rest on God's Sabbath we are full of energy and enthusiasm for the week to come. This is one of the significant reasons, I believe, that SDAs live nine years longer than the average American (according to a government funded ongoing study).

When we first started the ARC, we thought it would provide a way to network with SDAs who attend a typical car weekend event. We SDAs would connect and do things appropriate for the Sabbath together then return to the major car event that we were attending. Since that time, we have found that our ARC events are more fun than the secular events we originally schedule around.

ARC events are a "drive your car," family event. ARC events are a "on the move" event full of family activities. We have found that the whole family has fun at our events, rather than just the guys who like cars.

ARC events do not have the typical competitiveness of other events, like being stressed out because "my car should have won that trophy!" We are not as attached to our cars as the typical "car guy." You see, we believe that they will all burn someday anyway, when Jesus returns at His Second Coming. So, even though we like our cars, we are not in love with them. That takes the edge off of our events. We don't care what kind of car you driving, or simply dreaming about.

Like one of our members said once, "This is a club of people, not cars."

If you are not an ARC member, we invite you to join in the wholesome family fun of an ARC event.

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If you would like to know more about this subject, I would be happy to dialog by E-mail with you at leiske@techline.com.

Donn Leiske, ARC President

Some additional online resources are:

The Bible Information Line "The Sabbath" - BIBLEinfo.com

The Bible Information Line "Sabbath Observance" - BIBLEinfo.com

Amazing Facts "Don't be Fooled" - amazingfacts.org

Check out this really cool animation of the creation week - http://www.kids4truth.com/eng_creation.htm

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