2003-08-12 - Saturday Evening

1 Chronicles 16:29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him; worship the Lord in holy array.

There used to be a common practice in the life of believers that is now for many not the practice common to them. This practice was to end the activities of the day early on Saturday so that the individual might have some time to prepare the heart for worship on Sunday. Family worship, individual reflection, and secret prayer are all ways for us to prepare for the activities of the coming morning. This practice is a positive way for us to set our hearts and minds in a manner that helps us join in worship more deeply.

The gains that we can make by working late or the joys we can experience by going to the movies, visiting friends, or playing miniature golf are not to be compared to the advantages of preparing our hearts for worship. When we appear in worship unprepared, or drowsy, or listless, how is it that we honor the Lord by simply appearing. We ought to appear in a manner that gives honor to Who it is that we are going to worship.

Besides the above there is a great benefit to us by preparing our hearts before worship. It can be a help to spiritual growth in our lives. We have to keep in mind that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. Our real home is in heaven, with the Lord. Those of us who have our treasure in heaven are to have a different sort of conduct. My suggestion is that it might be to your advantage to take that different sort of conduct to a new level, if you don't already, and set yourself up for a blessed time with the Lord the following Lord's day morning.

Worship can be a wonderful experience. In some respects we attend worship to acknowledge the undeserved grace and mercy that is granted to us in Christ. So one reason we worship is to praise God and honor Him. But in many respects worship gives back to us. It can be a great experience.

The Hebrews dated their Sabbath from sunset on the previous day until sunset on the Sabbath. I honestly am not sure if that is still the common practice but I know the phrase that was used regarding the Sabbath, namely, "from even until even." I am not even saying that I treat the Lord's day in such a rigid manner, but in some respects, I wish I did. We are an example to a dying world which does not understand what we believe or why. It would be a great example to this perishing world if we made the honor of the Lord's day an open priority in our lives.

"A well spent sabbath we feel to be a day of heaven opon earth...we love to rise early on that morning, and to sit up late, that we may have a long day with God." Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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