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The Blessings of the Sabbath Services, October 16
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;
but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching.
Hebrews 10:25
.
Bring your choicest gifts to God on His holy day. Let the precious life of the
soul be given to Him in consecrated service....
Everyone should feel that he has a part to act in making the Sabbath meetings
interesting. You are not to come together simply as a matter of form, but for the
interchange of thought, for the relation of your daily experiences, for the expression
of thanksgiving, for the utterance of your sincere desire for divine enlightenment,
that you may know God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. Communing together
in regard to Christ will strengthen the soul for life’s trials and conflicts. Never think
that you can be Christians and yet withdraw yourselves within yourselves. Each one
is a part of the great web of humanity, and the experience of each will be largely
determined by the experience of his associates.
Why do we not obtain a hundredth part of the blessing we should obtain from
assembling together to worship God? Our perceptive faculties need sharpening.
Fellowship with one another should make us glad. With such a hope as we have,
why are not our hearts all aglow with the love of God?
We must carry to every religious gathering a quickened spiritual consciousness
that God and His angels are there, cooperating with all true worshipers. As you
enter the place of worship, ask the Lord to remove all evil from your heart. Bring
to His house only that which He can bless. Kneel before God in His temple, and
consecrate to Him His own, which He has purchased with the blood of Christ. Pray
for the speaker or the leader of the meeting. Pray that great blessing may come
through the one who is to hold forth the word of life. Strive earnestly to lay hold of
a blessing for yourself.
God will bless all who thus prepare themselves for His service. They will
understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit because they have
received Christ by faith.
The place of worship may be very humble, but it is no less acknowledged by
God. To those who worship God in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness
it will be as the gate of heaven. The company of believers may be few in number,
but in God’s sight they are very precious. By the cleaver of truth they have been
taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world and have been brought into the
workshop of God to be hewed and shaped. But even in the rough they are precious
in the sight of God. The ax, the hammer, and the chisel of trial are in the hands of
One who is skillful; they are used, not to destroy, but to work out the perfection of
every soul (
Testimonies for the Church 6:361-363
).
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