Call To Worship February 26 2017
“The conduct of this suffering Jewess may well put to shame many a strong and healthy professing Christian. How many in the full enjoyment of bodily vigor, allow the most frivolous excuses to keep them away from the house of God! How many are constantly spending the whole Sunday in idleness, pleasure-seeking, or business, and scoffing and sneering at those who ‘keep the Sabbath holy!’…How many find religious services a weariness while they attend them, and feel relieved when they are over! How few know anything of David’s spirit, when he said, ‘I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.’ ‘How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!’ (Psalm 122:1; Psalm 84:1.)
Now what is the explanation of all this?…The most have no heart for God’s service. They have no delight in God’s presence or God’s day. ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ The moment a man’s heart is converted, these pretended difficulties about attending public worship vanish away. The new heart finds no trouble in keeping the Sabbath holy. Where there is a will there is always a way.
Let us never forget that our feelings about Sundays are sure tests of the state of our souls. The man who can find no pleasure in giving God one day in the week, is manifestly unfit for heaven. Heaven itself is nothing but an eternal Sabbath. If we cannot enjoy a few hours in God’s service once a week in this world, it is plain that we could not enjoy an eternity in His service in the world to come. Happy are those who walk in the steps of her of whom we read today! They shall find Christ and a blessing while they live, and Christ and glory when they die.”
(J.C. Ryle, Luke: Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, vol. 2, [Banner of Truth, 2012], pg. 89-90)