For a long time, I thought that worship was just a place of healing; a place to renew the mistakes of the past week, and a place to earn the energy to start a new week. Many people believe that this is what worship services are for. Looking back, I feel like a big part of the elder’s prayer we offer up during service is full of repentance. Worship services were always at the lowest point in our weekly cycle of spirituality.
However, house church taught me the spirituality which puts worship at the peak point of our life. To the sincere brothers and sisters who I met at house churches, their week itself was worship offered up to God. They lived a life of worship during the week as they loved their neighbors the same way they loved the Lord. The tears and dedications they pour out through such worship become the perfume which fills the Sunday worship with sweet aroma. On Saturday night, they sit by their desk and reflect how they lived their week for the Lord with a heart of love. A tear of thankfulness fogs their eyes, and they start to write down reminiscences on a piece of paper.
Then on Sunday worship service, they slip that paper into their inside pocket and go up to the Lord. The love and sacrifice inscribed on that small paper is like the heart of the woman who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet. Even before the worship service starts, such hearts have already reached God’s heart. And these worshipers are overflowed with the grace of God even before the worship begins. Such worshippers place Sunday worship service at the pinnacle of their lives of worship.
In such Sunday worship service, thankfulness and testimonies flourish. Each and every word of praise becomes our confession, and once again worship becomes something we “offer to God.” Our hearts of offering touch the heart of God who pours out everything for us. We no longer passively tail the worship service that someone has already prepared for, but instead we become active worshipers who build up Sunday worship service with lives offered during the week. And this is how the life of worship offered on this earth is parallelled with the worship in Heaven.
Within house churches, there are countless faithful people who actively create their Sunday worship service with such passion and place it as the pinnacle of their life of worship for the week. Through these people, worship services of house churches overflow with thanksgiving, praise and testimonies.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor JiWon Choi.