Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 2. Worship Is the Greatest Ceremony that Shows Reverence to God

2.1. The time of worship is a time to meet God

What is the purpose of sacredly observing the Sabbath? It is to bring salvation to humankind and to find the nation of God's desire. The reason Christianity has sacredly observed the Sabbath was in order to elevate itself and focus its efforts on magnifying the goal of salvation. The purpose of our observing the Sabbath is to promote the path to our salvation. Furthermore, it is to increase the importance of the goal of world salvation and of seeking the nation and world of God's providence. You should know that this is a higher dimension of God's desire. (69-240, 1973.12.30)

The time for worship is the time for offering. You should make atonement for your past before God. Therefore, the time for worship is a time without freedom. (11-163, 1961.6.24)

The time for worship blocks the advancement of all of Satan's authority and is a time of promising the Father that you will return the glory of victory to Him. (6-263, 1959.6.7)

The time for worship is a place more serious than when you meet your enemy in battle. (9-296, 1960.6.12)

The amount of time you come early for church service will be offered to God. Thus, its value cannot he exchanged or bought with any amount of gold. The time for worship is an offering to God. Hence, to come late to service is stealing from God.

You should be on time for service. By doing so, you can stand before God with dignity. Then you can come closer to heaven with a heart better than that of yesterday. However, if you come late, even when you pray, you will sit there blinking your eyes wondering, "What is Father going to talk about?" When I see you sitting there like that, you look pitiable beyond measure. (36-125, 1970.11.22)

When you are seeking God, can you attend church without wearing holy robes? I'm not talking about external robes. I'm talking about the holy robes of your heart. For those gathered here, if inspiration wells up inside your heart through the sermon and hymns, Heaven will work with you.

When the fallen ancestors were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were shedding tears as they left. You should be able to shed tears of joy in such a way that you can meet God with a smile on your face. Nevertheless, those who have not first shed tears of God's sorrow cannot shed tears of joy. (9-296, 1960.6.12)

You should be preparing with an eager heart three days before worship service. You should enter the gates of the church while passionately praying for the happiness of all people, so that they may connect to the authority of resurrection and life. You should attend service with a heart that is full of emotion for God. Yet this will not be enough. Instead, you are more brazen than a traveling salesman. (20-284, 1968.7.7)

For Sunday service you should purify yourself by bathing, offer a deep bow before God, and go to the holy ground to pray. Although people may not come, you must lay the foundation of heart enabling God to look kindly upon your village and work with you. You are never lonely when you pray alone with tears in front of God. God is with you; you will never be lonely. If no one is restored from that village after you have totally devoted yourself for more than three years, that place will go to ruin. (17-293, 1967.2.15)

Even when you come to the service, instead of coming thoughtlessly, you should have invested your invisible heart and offered devotion for more than two days. The longer you do so, the more you will shine. For this reason, the greater your heart is, the more Heaven will protect and shield you.

If the wife thinks all day about her husband with her invisible mind and then smiles with her visible face, a light of glory will shine through. That smiling face has a captivating power that draws her husband near. It follows the same logic. (228-84, 1992.3.15)

In the future, the messages during service will be given in the form of reports rather than sermons. Families should report about things of which they are proud. The entire family must come and offer worship. The reports of successful families will serve as an example; less successful families, by following this example, will be guided toward success. In this way, the Family Kingdom of Heaven will be built. Without building the Kingdom of Heaven in the family, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will not be established. (23-62, 1969.3.11)

First, you should be meticulous in your church life. For this, you should strictly observe the official hours for worship. You should be a good example by attending service at the official hour. (31-269, 1970.6.4)

You should be strict in keeping your promise to attend God. How can someone who does not keep his promise receive grace? Such a person would fall away from the path. From now on, I will guide you as you move. If you do not like it, you may quit. Let us see who will be the one to perish. (11-133, 1961.3.26)

You should be a good example by attending Sunday service and official church gatherings. In coming to service, husbands and wives should come together lovingly so their children will follow them because they envy their parents devotion. You should come to church before ten o'clock and prepare for Sunday service. (21-87, 1968.11.3)

Church service is a time for battling Satan. It is a showdown. How can you sleep at this time? If there is such a person, you should shake him awake. Just as Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" you should strike him on the side. That is love. I will not allow anyone to sleep during service. (15-121, 1965.10.3)

Is it right for people who offer devotion to be late for service? Such people should be so ashamed that they cannot show their faces. They should feel that they are the greatest of all sinners. They must pledge to be on time and offer even greater devotion than others. How can you pray, "Oh! Heaven most high!" when you do not even come on time! Your devotion is not for others to observe. If you want to offer devotion at church, you should come to church on foot, rather than by car. You should not just come here and pray. Rather, you should pray before coming and then come here to pray even more earnestly. This is how you should offer devotion. (42-235, 1971.3.14)

Heaven relates to those who earnestly yearn for God. God does not randomly visit anyone. Therefore, you should, at least, absolutely be on time. From now on, if you are not on time. I will have you stand in the front and make you feel ashamed. (11-133, 1961.3.26)

I should lock the doors after service begins. I do not want to gather and talk to people who come late. I gather people here and talk for two or three hours in order to raise them up to a certain standard. Only then can I maintain the standard of heart that I set while praying with determination before God. (11-132, 1961.3 26)

Time is more important than anything else when coming before God. If you cannot be on time, you will fail. If you fail to connect to the right time, you will perish. God demands a sanctified environment and an utmost pure heart. But you cannot even be on time, and when late you sit in the back and sing praises. God does not want such praise. (1-132, 1961.3.26)

You should keep the official time for services. Then you will surely prosper. (31-268, 1970.6.4)

2.2. Early morning and evening services, and all-night vigils

Concentrate on evening services. (10-249, 1960.10.21)

You should hold all-night vigils at church on Saturday nights. (17-347. 1967.5.11)

From now on, many gatherings will be held at night. This is because we have to break up the realm of darkness. In order to do this, you should have a serious and sincere heart. (1-247, 1961.1.1)

Witness and bring people to the evening service. Unless you do so, the dignity of the church will not stand. You should be at service before the one who is leading the service. (10-250, 1960.10.21)

Some may say, "We should sleep as long as we want like others, eat our fill and then come here and sit comfortably to attend service. Why do we hold it so early? Why do we have early morning service?" It is because we must be different from others. You must not be the same as other religious groups or people of faith. We must be different from others. (84-194, 1976.2.29)

I will set this tradition of gathering you at three in the morning for a year or so, without letting you sleep. It is not right for people to become lazy. It is not right to become comfortable. There would be no growth in a comfortable world. Therefore, no matter what nation it is, if it goes through a new revival and yet becomes conceited and self-absorbed, it will come to ruin. (51-280, 1971.11.28)

Although you should work during the daytime, religious work should be done at night as well. It is more effective at night. It is also effective to teach in the early morning. So, you should spiritually inspire a new guest so much that he decides to escape from his home, sweeping aside all obstacles. You should become like that. How can there be results without motivation? If you have not been able to do it, from now on you should work harder and do better. You should make it possible by coming up with something creative. (97-196, 1978.3.15)

Try conveying the Word till after midnight and until you hear the crow of the first rooster. How mysterious it is! Try conveying the Word as you listen to the barking of dogs in the neighborhood in the quiet, tranquil night. You will feel as if you have broken through on a new path of life in search of the bright sunlight; you will feel like the captain of a ship who determines anew to find the lighthouse. You will experience a sense of valor, pride, and majesty as if you were alone in this world filled entirely with mysteries of all kinds.

In order to have that bond of heart, you should give guidance during the nighttime. It is necessary to conduct such activities during the night or at dawn. (29-196, 1970.2.28)

Night, the deep night, has a strong mysterious quality. Therefore, you feel more grace during a nighttime revival than you would in a daytime revival. The reason is that in the daytime all our senses are dispersed and unfocused. In other words, sight, hearing, and all other senses through which we can perceive are easily distracted.

However, at night they are not like that, but on the contrary become focused. At night, everything focuses on me by surrounding me, and in such a realm I come to stand naturally. For that reason, during the nighttime, it is easier for me to work with God when He is bestowing His grace. God, too, can work more easily. (29-196, 1970.2.21)

When you wake up in the early morning you should pray, so that your life in the coining day can become an embodiment of gratitude in front of Heavenly Father. You should make the determination to become the embodiment of God's hope in a flower-filled spring garden that Heavenly Father can raise and use for His providence.

In the afternoon, which is like summer, you should be resolved at work to develop yourself a step further as you grow to become a valuable being in whom God can dwell.

When it becomes evening, which resembles the autumn time of cultivation, you should determine and pray in front of God that you will stand in the position of an offering. And at night, which is comparable to the winter season, you should pray that by possessing the energy of life, you will establish the intrinsic father-son relationship with God, and thus become a person who realizes his or her full value. If there is a person who turns all 365 days of the year into days of victory and gratitude, then that person will feel that a give-and-take relationship with God is truly the most worthy life. (29-340, 1970.11.4)

The reason you do not notice that time is passing is because you are intoxicated in God's love. It was common in the early days of the Church for me to stay up all night talking or listening to the members. (97-307, 1975.3.26)

I am saying that you should not calculate your sleeping time and think, "Since 1 did not sleep enough yesterday, I had better make it up today." Yet that is what you do, right? It is the same when you think, "Since I am fasting on Sunday morning. I had better eat more on Saturday evening." On the contrary, it is better for you not to fast, because if you eat more for dinner the night before a fast, you will become hungrier. After your stomach has stretched from a full dinner and then is empty the next morning and you feel hungrier, well, then what? (44-161, 1971.8.6)