S.O.S. - Save Our Sundays!
The desk calendar for my denomination has tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 12, designated as "Lord's Day Observance." It one follows the church calendar, at least once a year he may preach on the subject of the biblical doctrine of the Lord's Day.
When Christians refer to the Lord's Day, they mean Sunday, the first day of the week, the Resurrection Day of the Lord which the early Church took as a day of worship to "honor" the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely when God gave the Fourth Amendment "to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and not do any work," he meant for man to worship him and to keep the day as a time of rest for his own body. The God who created bodies surely knows they need rest and relaxation in order that they may be literally "recreated" for more work.
Too many count as antiquated any admonition relative to keeping the Lord's Day as God intended for man's own good both in the spiritual realm and the physical realm. The "spiritual" realm is man's acknowledgment of God whenever he keeps the Lord's day holy by worshipping him and thereby in the act of worship acknowledging there is a God to whom he owes allegiance.
Since Christians know that we're not under law but grace, Many have used grace as an excuse to disregard and genuine biblical observance of the Lord's Day; and to them Sunday is no different than Monday primarily because worship is so often forgotten. When worship is forgotten, God is forgotten! Perhaps Voltaire was right when he wrote: "if you want to kill Christianity, You must abolish Sunday."
Dwight L. Moody once said: "Show me a nation that forgets Sunday and I will show you a nation with the seed of decay." It we're honest in our thinking today, we will do well to heed Moody's statement.
Let us remember that only Christians can pray, work, and set the example for any "return" to the Biblical Doctrine of "remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Therefore let us: (1) Take time for worship on Sunday thereby acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ who died for us for in worshipping Him we honor Him; (2) Examine individually how God would have us spend his day for His glory; (3) Use the few hours on Sunday to be with family and enjoy children; (4) Inasmuch as possible do all shopping on the other six days and not be responsible for others having to work on Sunday. (Who among us cannot spend all his or her income in six days?)
Only you can make the choice about how to keep the Lord's Day Holy. When Andrew Jackson was President, he was asked to go to New Orleans to dedicate a statue on Sunday. He declined the invitation because it was set for a Sunday. The committee issuing the invitation said, "But you fought the Battle of New Orleans on Sunday." "Yes," said Jackson, "it was of necessity, this is of choice."
In our time one of the greatest witnesses we can make as Christians is to keep the Lord's Day Holy. To the Christian, Sunday can't be just another day.
There will be blessings to follow - the blessing of God upon all who gather in the Church (of their choice) to worship Him, and there will be the blessings of having relaxed bodies in a pressure-oriented world, and the blessings we will experience with those closest to us, our family members. September, 1982