Most of the duties set forth in connection with the Sabbath in Scripture relate to corporate rather than private worship. The “song for the Sabbath day” included morning and evening worship (Ps. 92:1–4). If the church of which you are a member has evening as well as morning worship, if you are at all able, attend both services. We often undervalue what happens in corporate worship simply because we lack the faith to believe that God is there in our midst. Although some of us gather together in small congregations in simple buildings with poor singing, we must come to corporate worship recognizing that, in a peculiar manner, we enter into the heavenly sanctuary and join the chorus of an innumerable company of angels. A large part of keeping the Sabbath is taking advantage of corporate worship. This is the high point of the day, and it is the part of the Sabbath that most closely resembles heaven.

RYAN M. MCGRAW, THE DAY OF WORSHIP – REASSESSING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN LIGHT OF THE SABBATH, 84.

The primary benefit of the Sabbath day comes through the means of grace, and you should structure the day so you are able to spend as much of it using the means of grace as you are able.

RYAN M. MCGRAW, THE DAY OF WORSHIP – REASSESSING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN LIGHT OF THE SABBATH, 83.

Disagreements among those who believe that the purpose of the Sabbath day is worship do not always reflect disagreements over principles, as much as the customized struggles and temptations of each individual heart.

RYAN M. MCGRAW, THE DAY OF WORSHIP – REASSESSING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN LIGHT OF THE SABBATH, 81.

Don’t be a digital dooms-dayer. Yes we must be aware of the dangers in social media, and, as pastors, we must alert and protect our sheep. But if we only or largely communicate condemnation and warning about social media, etc., then most people, especially young people, will just turn off.

David Murray, The Christian Ministry, Loc. 1643.

Disagreements over Sabbath-keeping should not rupture the fellowship of believers, and the doctrine of the Sabbath does not share the importance of the doctrine of justification or the authority of Scripture. Yet neither do the Scriptures treat the Sabbath as a peripheral issue. Can we honestly say that the modern church has attached the same importance to Sabbath-keeping that God has? Whatever position you adopt with respect to Sabbath-keeping, may the weight the Word of God attaches to this subject drive you to study these things with greater urgency and with increased earnestness to understand the will of the Lord.

Ryan M. McGraw, The Day of Worship – Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath, 29-30.

In 1853, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA boldly declared, “A church without the Sabbath is apostate; a people who habitually desecrate this divine institution have abandoned one of the grand foundations of social order and political freedom.” Cited by Thomas Peck, The Works of Thomas Peck (1895; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1999), 1:195. Whatever you think about this statement, part of the reasoning behind it is that the world is predominantly dependent upon the means of grace that are exercised on the Sabbath for its knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a church that denies the Sabbath day is implicitly rejecting the covenant of grace, of which the Sabbath is a sign. Imagine the violent reaction that would arise if a statement such as this one were even mentioned at the General Assembly of one of the major American Presbyterian denominations today! This shows how far the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with respect to the church’s attitude toward Sabbath-keeping.

Ryan M. McGraw, The Day of Worship Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath, 22.

The Bible confirms a link between distorted thoughts or emotions and many of our bodily ailments: “A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Prov. 17: 22). Guilt also damages the body (Psalm 32: 3– 4).

And what about feelings and thoughts? Where do they originate? What do they influence and impact? What do they link with and overlap with? How come when our body is sick, even with a common cold or allergy, that our thoughts, feelings, and even our spiritual life are impacted? Does that go the other way as well? It seems to. When our spiritual life is damaged, it often seems to impact our bodies as well. When our emotions are depressed, so many things go wrong with our bodies as well. Doctors call this psychosomatic (mind/ body) illness.

David Murray, The Christian Ministry, Loc. 2463.

Does Satan attack our strengths or our weaknesses? Does he try to destroy us where we’re strong or where we’re weak? For most Christians, it’s usually our weaknesses that the devil targets. But for Christian leaders it’s usually their strengths, the areas they’ve built ministries upon, the moral and spiritual qualities they are best known for promoting. Why? Why does the devil go for the citadel rather than for the little cracks in the wall? Because the damage is so much greater, the fallout is more horrendous, the church is more discouraged, and the world is most delighted when a Christian leader falls in the one place he really planted his flag and made a stand. . . .

What a warning to us all, especially to those of us who have leadership roles in the church, and especially in the areas we are strongest and most vocal on.

Is defending the doctrine of justification your big thing? That’s where the devil will attack.

Has the Lord given you a passion against Internet porn? Be sure the devil has targeted that area of your life.

Do you preach against materialism? Know that the devil is planting seeds of discontent, greed, and covetousness in your heart.

Do you protest against the promotion of homosexuality? That’s right, the devil’s set his sights on kindling that lust within you.

Is gospel-centeredness your “thing?” Watch the devil turn that into a new “law” to forcefully impose on others.

Do you major on humility and service? The devil has pride and tyranny lurking just round the corner.

“Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10: 12).

David Murray, The Christian Ministry, Loc. 1480.

For many of us, our wives are the best professors and our homes the best seminaries. What a blessing to be prepared for the ministry by being married to a godly wife.

David Murray, The Christian Ministry, Loc. 241.

A special agency is also attributed to them as the servants of Christ in the advancement of his Church. As the law was given through their ministry, as they had charge of the theocratic people under the old economy, so they are spoken of as being still present in the assembly of the saints (1 Cor. xi. 10), and as constantly warring against the dragon and his angels. This Scriptural doctrine of the ministry of angels is full of consolation for the people of God. They may rejoice in the assurance that these holy beings encamp round about them; defending them day and night from unseen enemies and unapprehended dangers. At the same time they must not come between us and God. We are not to look to them nor to invoke their aid. They are in the hands of God and exercise his will; He uses them as He does the winds and the lightning (Heb. i 7), and we are not to look to the instruments in the one case more than in the other.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 643.