Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

5 May, 2007   comments: (0) Classic Devotion   The Lord's Day: Pipa's Preparation Points Unless you are a modern believer in "all nine of the ten commandments", or even if you ARE mathematically challenged when it comes to the 4th commandment but yet you still want to make Sundays special, here are a few tips on how you can leverage Saturdays to help you get ready for the Lord's Day. These are a few pointers from Joseph Pipa (no that's not how they spell Piper in Massachusetts). I grew up in a mainline church with all of the smells and bells and ceremonies. Frankly, I couldn't wait to get out of the place on Sundays and my mind was always elsewhere. I remember seeing people roll out of bed and into church with a hangover, or some other obvious signs that they had been out partying the night before. That's not exactly the best way to use your Saturdays, if you are serious about God (which nobody there really was and neither was I for that matter). So here are a few tips from Joseph Pipa's book entitled The Lord's Day: Spend time in self examination. Perhaps use the ten commandments, or the Sermon on The Mount, or other scripture to examine your life in order to discover and confess your sin. Seek to stir up your affections. So that you attend church ready to adore and praise God. Spend time meditating on the character and work of God. Pray for God to aid you and your church in worship. Pray for the sermon, and for the hearts of the hearers, and pray that God would use the preached Word to call unbelievers to Himself. Review the sermon scripture text the night before. If your church preaches through books in the bible, you will know ahead of time (Saturday night) what scripture passage is up next. One other thing that I would add to that last point, is to review the song lyrics with your kids the night before. Our church often publishes any hymn lyrics the day before, and I make an effort to explain some of the "big words" to my kids, so that they will be ready to mean what they sing. The concept of the Lord's Day has fallen on hard times lately, but it's important to realize that centuries of Christians have viewed the day as being something much different than today's "gotta get home for the football game" evangelicals. In addition to Pipa's book, I also recommend Walter Chantry's book Call The Sabbath a Delight. Oh, and . . . get yourself a Tivo to record your football games for later in the week! Do you have any other ideas of how to prepare for the Lord's Day? Share them below: Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.668   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism