Keeping Sundays Holy - Part II

In my previous post called "Keeping Sundays Holy," I wrote about the revelation given by Jesus Christ to brother Yong-Doo Kim in 2005, regarding the need to keep Sundays holy. Yet I have spoken to people who say they see no such expression in the Bible about "keeping Sundays holy."  

In Exodus 20:8 the fourth commandment is written to keep the Sabbath holy.  My friend, the fourth commandment has not been abolished.  In the New Testament, we celebrate the Sabbath on the first day of the week, because this is when Jesus was resurrected.  In Acts 20:7, we learn that the church met on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord's Supper and listen to preaching.  In that instance, the apostle Paul preached all through evening until dawn the next day.  Meeting on Sundays has been the normal practice of the church since the resurrection.   

But we should be very careful not to compromise this day.  It's the Lord's Day, and we should delight to honor the Lord all throughout that day. I want to share with you an excerpt from the book called "Baptized by Blazing Fire" by Yong Doo Kim.  In book 3, he writes about a fellow pastor friend of his who died after many years of diligent service to the Lord, and was shut out of heaven.  In this experience, he was shown many souls in hell, who had consistently attended church meetings and faithfully lived their lives, but they ended up in hell because of the errors of their pastor's teaching.  Many were in hell, because they did not "keep Sundays holy."  This was the expression used by the angels, not mine.  Here is the excerpt:

Pastor Kim, Yong-Doo: * Oh! Pastor Kim, Young Gun

    Sung Min general hospital is located in my neighborhood. Pastor Kim, Young Gun, had evangelized and ministered at this hospital. I had once admitted myself to Sung Min hospital. When I was a patient there, the pastor and I had greeted each other and became acquainted. I had sometimes invited him to my church to give a sermon as a guest speaker.

    Pastor Kim, Young Gun once told me a story. He was in his early 60s. He had always evangelized at the hospitals. He was also well known for evangelizing on the streets. One day, he fell ill as his liver swelled. A lot of water filled his liver and stomach. More than that, he also had jaundice, an illness that colors the body yellow. He admitted himself to the hospital while he was evangelizing.

    Pastor Kim, Young Gun was once dispatched to the Philippines on a missionary trip by his church. While he was on his mission trip in the Philippines, he had over-exerted himself and worked beyond his physical strengths. The pastor was very stressed by the pressure he received from his church. They wanted results and they called him frequently. “How many people have you evangelized? How many new registrants have you enjoined?” They utilized various tactics to pressure and interrogate him. The pressure and stress eventually overtook him and he had become physically ill. He died during treatment in Korea.

    Pastor Kim, Young Gun explained the experience when his spirit/soul departed his body. He said when he breathed his last breath he experienced his spirit/soul separate from his physical body. In fact, his spirit/soul looked identical to his physical body. Pastor Kim, Young Gun was able to see the doctor use the defibrillator on his body. The doctors had attempted to resuscitate him several times with the defibrillator. With no result, the doctors confirmed his time of death and had covered his whole body and face with the white linen.

    The Pastor’s family and relatives had come too late and were informed of his death once they had reached the hospital....his soul flew at great speed and arrived at the gate of heaven. The Pastor said that the gates of heaven consisted of twelve pearl gates and were a magnificent sight. The Pastor’s first impression was amazement: “Literally fantastic!”

    As Pastor Kim, Young Gun attempted to enter the pearl gates of heaven, two angels standing guard gave him a stern, frightening look. The Pastor became very frightened and his heart was filled with fear. The two angels had a large sword at their side. They were very tall and he could not properly view all of them with one glance.

    The angels asked the Pastor: “How dare you walk near the gate? Who are you? What is your title and what did you do when you were on earth?” The Pastor answered, “I had just died from an illness; my liver swelled. I was a Pastor and I worked as a missionary.” The angels demanded a ticket. “Very well, present your ticket of permission to enter heaven. Now!” I replied in shock. “What! You need a permission ticket to enter heaven? I had never heard of such thing! I do not have one.” One of the angels immediately replied: “What! What are you saying? How dare you walk toward the gate without a permission ticket!” As the angel rebuked me, the other angel kicked me like I was a soccer ball. In that moment, the Pastor thought he was kicked very far off. Then the same angel who had kicked him caught up to him and kicked him once more for a second time and even farther away.

    The Pastor was suddenly kicked toward hell and was dangling at the edge of a cliff. The Pastor was able to observe the miserable sights of hell. As the Pastor dangled off the edge of the cliff, he pleaded for someone to save him. Then the angel pointed and said, “Look at those souls! Look very closely at those souls going to hell! All of those souls attended church and lived a faithful life but the errors of their Pastor’s teaching led them to hell! I am showing you this scene because you are also a Pastor who led a ministry. You cannot be forgiven for you have committed the same atrocity. They did not keep Sundays holy and did not properly keep their faith. They mocked God and believed according to what they wanted to believe and based their faith on what was in their minds.”

    Within the moment Pastor Kim was about to be thrown in hell, two souls immediately came and earnestly grabbed hold of him. The Pastor found out later that the two souls were his relatives who were prayer warriors. Due to their earnest pleadings, the Lord had granted the Pastor an extension of seven more years to live. The Pastor received special grace. He had been given another chance and had escaped from being thrown into hell.

    The Pastor came back down to earth to reunite with his dead body. When he came back, his relatives were still singing hymns....[at his funeral]

    He had experienced a supernatural event. With the power of God, the Pastor had come back alive. Now, this is the seventh year and because of exhaustion and illness, he had relapsed once more. His liver had swelled up and the Pastor had to be admitted to intensive care. Pastor Kim, Young Gun earnestly appealed, “Pastor Kim, Yong-Doo, I was very proud of myself. Until now, I thought I had evangelized properly throughout my life and in faith. I later realized that I had done it all with my strength and passion instead with the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit. Please Pastor Kim, Yong-Doo, you must seek help from the Holy Spirit in every case. I want you to lead your ministry with the help and strength of the Holy Spirit.” Pastor Kim, Young Gun then asked me to sing many hymns that are powerful and strengthening. Joo-Eun, Sister Baek, Bong-Nyu, my wife, and I gathered around Pastor Kim, Young Gun. The Lord, Jesus, accompanied us as well. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the guardian angels watched and prepared to take the Pastor to heaven.

    Today is Thursday and the Lord announced that He was going to take Pastor Kim, Young Gun to heaven soon. When Joo-Eun and Sister Baek, Bong- Nyu glanced up to heaven, the home of Pastor Kim was almost finished. The last thing was for the Pastor’s soul to arrive in heaven. His home was waiting. Pastor Kim, Young Gun and his wife were very joyous once they heard of that news.

[end of excerpt from Baptized by Blazing Fire book 3]

Putting it All Together

If you are a pastor, I recommend you diligently search the Scriptures, pray and ask the Lord for guidance, and then be led by the Spirit in obedience to the Word.  If you are not a pastor, then submit to your leaders and honor the day they designate for worship.

I hope this has served as a wake up call for you, if you have been lax about Sundays.  Please get with God and repent, if you have not properly kept Sundays holy.  If you have properly done so, then please do others a favor by sharing this testimony with them.  This is not an isolated incident.  Other pastors have also seen souls in hell for not keeping Sundays holy, and after reading this, we have no excuse for this sin.  Now is the time of God's favor.  Now is the day of salvation.

You cannot rely on your obedience to the Law to save you, because it is only by grace that you are saved through faith (Eph 2:8-10).  But don't receive God's grace in vain.  We were saved to be the righteousness of God.  If you know Him, you will keep His commands.  Always remember that we can do nothing apart from the Lord Jesus (Jn 15:5), and if you keep His commandments, you will abide in His love (Jn 15:10).

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this message, I also recommend reading David Wilkerson's message, Honoring the Sabbath, which I discovered after writing this article. You may also be interested in the other posts on this blog, available on the Home page, especially Resting from Work, Faith Works!, Christian Sabbath is Sunday, not Saturday, Is Practical Righteousness a Lost Truth?  and Pleasing the Lord. Please allow me to also recommend Restored Truth. I also invite you to visit my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master. 

________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Keeping Sundays Holy

I previously wrote about Resting God's Way.  In that post, I tried to explain the need to keep the Sabbath holy, and proved from Scripture that God expects us to do so.

Since that time, I have been reading an amazing book by brother Yong-Doo Kim, called Baptize by Blazing Fire.  In Book three, he documents how he inquired of the Lord about the matter of Sundays, and the answer he received from the Lord Jesus Christ will probably shock you.


I would like to now include an excerpt directly from his book about this:

Excerpt from the book:
*Keeping Sunday Holy, Do Not Spend Money On Sundays

    I decided to ask the Lord about Sundays, the Sabbath day: how we should keep it Holy and if we are to spend any money on Sundays. I wondered how He thought about it. “Lord! Currently, I see many churches and saints not keeping Sundays holy. Sundays are utilized by families to eat out, as a day for recreation, and to spend time on their hobbies. They say that if those things are done for the sake of the gospel, it is justified. Their conviction of keeping Sundays holy is lackadaisical at best. Moreover, their faith has no convictions to God‘s Word. The servants of God are not emphasizing the importance of this subject in their sermons. Furthermore, Sunday evening services are gradually decreasing and being eliminated. Most only have day services. Please give me your thoughts on this subject.”

    As soon as I asked, the Lord became quickly angry. His expression changed and His anger showed on His face. The Lord wanted me to reference and document scripture: scripture that described kindling a fire to those who do not keep Sunday holy.

        “But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates of thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched.” (Jeremiah 17:27)

        “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call a Sabbath a delight, the Holy of the Lord, honorable and shall honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:13-14)

        “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day” (Matthew 12:8)

        “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” (Matthew 12:12)

    The Lord had commanded us to keep Sundays Holy in every way. He rebuked watching television, dining out with family, and other secular activities. Furthermore, the Lord did not permit Christians to run any business of any kind for profit on Sundays. He also did not approve Saints to do any shopping on Sundays.

    As a matter of fact, only a few saints barely made it to heaven that did not keep Sundays properly. And on the contrary, there were an over flowing number of saints who were in hell for not keeping Sunday holy. The saints in hell were shouting in anguish. They were experiencing countless degrees of torment.

    The Lord commanded: “Look at those souls! Those souls did not consider my day with much relevance. They had made my day unclean. Look very closely.” The church congregation and I had witnessed a shocking scene. We were in total shock. After witnessing the scene, I concentrated on repenting of not keeping Sundays Holy in every way.

    We need to adjust our concept of Sundays. There are numerous saints who think that spending money on Sundays is justified if it is for the sake of the gospel. With that thought, they spend money on Sundays.

        “And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)

    If we simply justify spending money for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of people, then everybody will validate with their own reasoning to spend money on Sundays. Eventually, they will continuously create more special cases or reasons to spend money. Within time, people will create their own excuses to spend money on Sundays.

    The Lord had clearly clarified the reality of the church’s deception.

    The Lord stated. “People obfuscate, misuse, and abuse the commandment of Sunday for the sake of the gospel. They do it consistently. Do not spend money on Sundays! Once men have decided to do what is in their hearts, they present their reasons or justifications to break the commandment at any cost.” The Lord looked very serious. His majesty overflowed. His seriousness and majesty vividly touched me.

    Moreover, on Sundays, Jesus did not want us to spend any money on the coffee machine before or after a meal in church. The Lord desired us to raise money for missions and missionaries on weekdays and not on Sundays. The Lord told me to document this problem. Currently, the people throughout the churches cry out for revival and reformation but the ministers and church congregations must first be changed. They must fearfully repent. They do not properly teach or proclaim keeping Sunday Holy. In fact, they treat this matter with negligence. The Lord had given a stern warning.

    Any kind of events held in the house of God must be free of charge. Many churches today sell meal tickets since they have numerous attendants. Purchasing meal tickets is not keeping Sundays Holy. The Lord meticulously showed me how Korean churches and the saints therein are not approved by our Holy God -- just by not keeping Sunday Holy.

    The Lord also wanted the church to feed any guest speakers at either the Pastor’s house or a saint’s house if the special event is held on Sundays. The Lord did not want the church to take the guest speaker out to a restaurant on Sundays. If the church had a kitchen, the guests could be fed there. The Lord ended His admonition by stating that He forbade us to spend money on Sundays....

     As a Pastor, I had never properly taught my congregation about keeping Sundays Holy. I, myself, have not kept Sundays Holy as well. Therefore, I repented. Now with a fearful and trembling heart, I wholly keep Sundays Holy. My family and I, including the church congregation, avoid going out for personal pleasures of any kind. Now on Sundays, we gather together in church to have service and evangelize. We gain rest from it.

[End of excerpt from Baptize by Blazing Fire, Book 3.]

You can read more of a Scriptural explanation for keeping Sundays holy on my other post called Resting from Work.  And Part II of this article is now posted online at Keeping Sundays Holy - Part II. 

Putting it All Together

Here are the lessons I've learned from this part of the book, which are essentially quotes:

• We entangle ourselves with various kinds of business and/or recreational activities and give the excuse that we are too busy for the Lord. We then often forget the Lord. Rather than relying on the Kingdom of God, we rest on our current physical world. As a result, we miss hearing the voice of God. Slowly and gradually, we change and follow the life that is irrelevant to the Lord.
• Always put the Lord and His business first.
• We need to adjust our concept of Sundays.
• People obfuscate, misuse, and abuse the commandment of Sunday for the sake of the gospel. They do it consistently. Do not spend money on Sundays!
• If we simply justify spending money for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of people, then everybody will validate with their own reasoning to spend money on Sundays. Eventually, they will continuously create more special cases or reasons to spend money. Within time, people will create their own excuses to spend money on Sundays.
• The Lord desires us to raise money for missions and missionaries on weekdays and not on Sundays.
• The Lord also wants the church to feed any guest speakers at either the Pastor’s house or a saint’s house if the special event is held on Sundays. The Lord does not want the church to take the guest speaker out to a restaurant on Sundays. If the church has a kitchen, the guests could be fed there. The Lord ended His admonition by stating that He forbade us to spend money on Sundays.
• The Lord had commanded us to keep Sundays Holy in every way. He rebuked watching television, dining out with family, and other secular activities. Furthermore, the Lord did not permit Christians to run any business of any kind for profit on Sundays. He also did not approve Saints to do any shopping on Sundays.

It's time for us to repent, church!  I have not kept Sundays holy, although I may have thought I was doing so.  Up until now, I have justified my own actions, and assumed that what I was doing was alright.  But the Lord has used this book to bring me to repentance, and as I write this, I am still in the process of repenting.  I hope you will allow it to do the same in your heart, too.

You cannot rely on your obedience to the Law to save you, because it is only by grace that you are saved through faith (Eph 2:8-10).  Always remember that we can do nothing apart from the Lord Jesus (Jn 15:5), but if you keep His commandments, you will abide in His love (Jn 15:10). 

If you are a pastor, I recommend you diligently search the Scriptures, pray and ask the Lord for guidance, and then be led by the Spirit in obedience to the Word.  If you are not a pastor, then submit to your leaders and honor the day they designate for worship.  

Author's Note: Please see Opportunities to Serve the Body of Christ.  I also recommend reading David Wilkerson's message, Honoring the Sabbath, which I discovered after writing this article. If you enjoyed this message, you may also be interested in the other posts on this blog, available through the archives on the Home page, especially Resting from Work, Faith Works!, Christian Sabbath is Sunday, not Saturday, and Is Practical Righteousness a Lost Truth?
I also recommend Restored Truth, Pleasing the Lord, and invite you to visit my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master. 

_________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.