Glorify God through worship
God is worthy to receive glory and does receive glory. Everyone, regardless if they believe in God or not, lives on the things provided for by God. Everything that is essential for man’s survival such as the air, water, food, sunlight, and so on, all belong to God, and acknowledging this truth and giving thanks to God is the way to glorify God.
God received glory through His Son Jesus Christ, and now He desires to be glorified through His church. The Church is the body of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus Christ gave thanks to God and thus glorified Him, the Church – His body – ought to do likewise. Jesus gave thanks in every situation. When He fed more than five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, or when He called Lazarus from the tombs, what Jesus did was to give thanks to God the Father. For us also, whether we are worshipping God, listening to His words, giving offerings, or singing praise, we ought to have a thankful heart before God.
What is the external difference that sets Christians apart from unbelievers? Though there might be many factors, the chief would be that their lives are marked by worship to God with thanksgiving. Unlike unbelievers who do not worship God, every Christian worships God irrespective of the depth of their faith. On the Lord’s Day, unbelievers are busy going out and seeking their pleasure, but Christians worship God in holiness and thereby glorify God.

Fellowship with God through the Lord’s Day worship
For the people of Israel, who were under the Old Testament, they observed the Sabbath as the Holy Day and consecrated it. The Sabbath is a day to remember how God created the world over six days and rested on the last day. On the other hand, Christians in the New Testament era, take the day after the Sabbath as the Holy Day and worship God on that day. This day, also called the Lord’s Day is the day on which Jesus resurrected, and the Church was born by the coming of the Holy Spirit.
During the Old Testament times, the day after the Sabbath was also observed holy. Leviticus 23:36 says, “For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation”. Assembling together on the Lord’s Day is about remembering how the Lord shed His blood for us, and spreading this news. Acts 20:7 says, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread”. When we gather together before God, it is not only about our physical presence but we must show our hearts before God by preparing our offering. It is written in 1 Corinthians 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come”. The Lord’s Day is the day we receive God’s revelation as it says in Revelation 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet”.
God commanded those who are saved to keep the Holy Day. What is the reason that people pray to God and yet receive no answer? Even worse, why are they so unsuccessful in what they pursue to the point of feeling they have been cursed? Before we start searching anywhere else, we first have to reflect on ourselves, whether we are obeying the basic commandments of God such as tithing and observing the Lord’s Day.
Among the different worship services in the church today, there is a service on the third day which is sometimes referred to as the Wednesday service. The third day was when Moses received the Commandments on Mount Sinai. God commanded the Israelites to be consecrated and prepare for that day, that they should even abstain from having relations between husband and wife (Ex 19:15). What goes on between a husband and wife is most private and secret, which no one else except God knows about. And God wanted those who prepared for the Holy Day to consecrate themselves wholly, even in the matters which others do not see nor know about.
Like so many of the kings of Israel who relied on God at first but gradually became corrupt and were brought to a wretched end, there are Christians who are faithful at first but slowly change over time to become like dry branches. This is because they did not wholly consecrate themselves; it is the outgrowth of the part of themselves which was not holy in God’s eyes. God remembers those who always worship Him in holiness, and prepares everything for them.

Worship in spirit.
Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). If we consider the Hebrew meaning of “spirit and truth” mentioned above, it can be replaced by “the Holy Spirit and truth”. As the Law which was delivered through an angel was fleshly ordinances, those under the Law were sanctified in their flesh. They observed the Law most strictly, for they received immediate punishment if they failed to keep the Law. For example, they did not walk more than a certain set distance in order to obey the commandment that forbade them from doing any labor on the Sabbath. Now do Christians today honor the Holy Day as much as they did? How many times do they miss the Lord’s Day worship because they have to attend a friend’s wedding or a school reunion? We have to understand that God is watching over our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
We are different from the Old Testament people in that we rely on the Holy Spirit when we worship God. Jesus commanded His disciples not to leave Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father and emphasized that they receive the Holy Spirit: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:4-8). The reason for this was because it is impossible to worship God properly without the Holy Spirit’s help. Why is it that people lead their faith lives zealously for a while but then fall into temptation and forsake their faith? They had never really fellowshipped with God through the Holy Spirit.
Until He received the Holy Spirit, Jesus was merely a Nazarene. However He started working as the Son of God after the Holy Spirit came upon Him. His authority and power made even the demons that were hiding inside people’s bodies tremble in fear. That was because He was filled with inspiration from God. In our lives of faith, God’s inspiration is what we need to seek above all else. Only when we have inspiration through the Holy Spirit can we walk with God, and hence receive God’s help.
Those who were under the Law went before God in fleshly holiness and reverence that were observable by man. If so, what about us who go before God through the Holy Spirit? In the same way that the relations between husband and wife were under God’s observation when the people of the Law worshipped Him on the third day, we must follow God’s will even in the most private affairs that are hidden from the eyes of others.

Worship in truth.
Jesus told us also to worship God in truth, that is, in truthfulness. Throughout our lives of faith, we have to endlessly seek the inspiration of the Word. The Law and the Gospel are both God’s words, but only the Gospel can be said to be the truth (Jn 1:14). The truth is the word of God that the Holy Spirit enables us to understand (Jn 14:26). Just as the Israelites went before God in fleshly piety being subject to the Law, we ought to go before God with reverent hearts under the truth.
The disciples of Jesus drove out demons and performed miraculous sign as they followed their teacher. However when Jesus began speaking of spiritual matters saying, “Eat My flesh. Drink My blood”, they were unable to receive His words and left Him. Then Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (Jn 6:63). If we receive God’s word through the flesh, we might become sanctified in the flesh, but our spirits will not be able to receive life that way. For this reason, we must not keep God’s word locked inside our reasoning. Even if the promises of God in the Bible are logically incomprehensible, we should not refuse but believe that they will be fulfilled.
In order to receive God’s word wholly, we need to have the inspiration of the Blood. For the people under the Law, they had to shed the blood of animals when they entered the temple and worshipped God. Similarly, those who go before God through the Holy Spirit must rely on the precious blood of Christ shed on the cross. No matter how grave our sins might be, we can go before God with confidence by relying on the power of the Blood. And for that, we need to have faith. Whoever refuses to believe in the power of the Blood and only tries to interpret it with their own reasoning is bound to perish. It is important that we understand the point of God’s word which is ‘to preach the Lord’s death until His return’ (1 Cor 11:26). Any sermon or preaching that is absent of the Lord’s blood is empty of life.
Thirdly, we must have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to believe God’s words. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ”. Jesus Christ also spoke by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2). Hence to receive His words, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. If when we hear God’s words we receive them as the words of men, we will fail in our spiritual lives (1 Thess 2:13). Especially when we listen to the sermon from the overseer at church, we should not receive it as the word of man but as that of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the speaker called the overseer. If we listen to God’s word through the Holy Spirit, the power of the word would raise even the dead to life.

Let us please God through perfect worship.
God seeks those who worship by the Holy Spirit and truth. We ought to be the worshippers noticed by God. For that, we need to be filled with the inspiration of God’s word, inspiration of the Blood, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our worship to God should not be a fleshly ordinance that is merely a shadow of the truth. When we worship in Christ, that in itself is the truth which is pleasing to God. And in order to succeed in our worship and thus please God, we must have a truthful heart to faithfully obey the word of God, even in our most private affairs, such as that between husband and wife.

“Fellow saints of Jesus Christ, my friends, let us walk together. On the path set out for us by the Lord, together we shall endure, and together we shall be blessed. As one would take up the hand of their love in marriage, we are a people patiently waiting upon the coming of our Lord Jesus, the bridegroom we adore with a love everlasting. But how many times have our hearts changed? The Lord knows of these things and will hold them against us on the last day. Are you truly the Lord’s lover? There is nothing we can say that will turn away his disappointment. Though we drive out demons and perform the wonders of His powers, those who have forsaken the integrity of their love for the Lord, be it once or twice, will have surely humiliated the Lord.

In writing these letters to you, I hope to convey how grieved I am by this matter. Love is unchanging, eternal. It continues until we enter through the gates of His kingdom. If you are truly the Lord’s lover, please do not change, protect your heart. For you hold a love inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is the envy of angels. Thus, I ask that you let go of all forms of pretense that lead you to change, and that you truly love the Lord.”

Love the Lord, o my soul. Love the Lord with a heart pleasing to Him until my very last breath. Is this not the path I have walked for so long? Thus, each day is precious to me. For the Lord awaits me with open arms in Heaven above, I commit my soul to Him and surrender my body unto death. Do not look to the left or right, o my soul, but whole-heartedly love the Lord. With all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength, love the Lord, for He will surely reward. Until I meet Jesus in the sky, love Him with great fidelity and devotion. Like Juliet for Romeo, love the Lord without fail. Let me go before Him and offer up this wasting body. Is this not my wish?

In the span of a transient moment, the blooming garbs of spring have all escaped the scene. One with the wind, they have swiftly paraded past me, leaving me alone with the golden hue of autumns leaves as I embark on a short journey to the past. The world is a surreal place. As per waking from a dream, everything will soon be lost, and we will finally come to meet our Lord Jesus. Indeed, it brings delight to my soul. My friends, when your time comes, there is no need to rely on machines for another gasp of air, for the Lord has already prepared a place of rest for you and I; and it is Paradise.

Brothers and sisters, thank you. You have gone through great extents for me during my time on earth. You have gifted me a car and have even spared some allowance. Now, let us become one body, let us meet the bridegroom. Marriage in this world is simply for the continuation and preservation of our species and thus, it is not the intertwining of souls. But the Lord will take up our souls in marriage on the last day, that is, the day of the first resurrection. Oh, how I eagerly seek the coming of this day. Here, it stands before me. Here, I see it, the day of glory. Hallelujah.

Pastor Ki-Dong Kim
Lord’s Day Worship Column

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Outline and Summary translated by Sarah Nam
Letter translated by Jeremy Kim
Interpretations by Sarah Nam

Chief Editor: Helen Nam
Korean Summary by Ki-Taek Lee