Faith training to choose God without being tainted by the world
153 Family Worship Service starting today with your family!

The home is the present home of faith and also the eternal place of ministry.
In that respect, it is difficult to apply even the best manual or guide to family worship without the stories of the families who have worked hard to create it.
This is a practical book on family worship that explains the background of the '153 Family Worship' that the author practices and suggests, how it has developed, and the know-how that has enabled the entire family to practice missions and service.
『153 Family Worship』 is derived from one word, five expressions of gratitude, and three prayers.
153 Family Worship, simple yet grounded in biblical principles, is an easy and moving manual for family worship that can be easily practiced with young children and even elderly parents who have come to faith late in life.
As the author's children recommend, "There is a difference between saying you should pray and actually praying," this book is structured so that any believer who wants to hold a family worship service can start today.
You can gain wisdom through the author's answers to detailed questions about moments when you want to give up during family worship, uncooperative adolescent children, and the time and place of worship.
It contains not only the author's own family cases but also cases from students and parents encountered in lectures and educational settings, providing even more helpful information.

The family worship that I started with my husband after getting married began to take shape within the community of the family as I gave birth to and raised my children.
On days when I had a lot of work to do, I took a day off, on days when my spouse and I fought, I skipped it, sometimes I just did it for the sake of it, and when I couldn't live by the word, I wanted to give up. But 25 years have already passed since I started holding family worship services.
Looking back, I think family worship was a place to acknowledge that God is the master of our family, and, going one step further, a place to strive to know Jehovah God.
--- From the "Prologue"

My mother taught me through words and hymns that the world changes day by day according to trends, but the truth does not change.
Those words and hymns guard my heart today.
Looking back, it was a family worship service.
My mother's faith, which allowed her to maintain family worship even on her own, became my legacy.
And now, the husband's faith, which did not cease from worship even in the midst of suffering, is being passed on to his children.
This is another reason why pain becomes a gift.
I hope that the families in this land who know the Lord will be established as families of faith who will not give up worship no matter what hardships or crises they face.
As the darkness deepens, may the next generation of faith, like the dew of dawn, be raised through family worship.
--- From "Epilogue"

The climax of God's creation is the family.
Family is a valuable and beautiful community just for the memories we make together.
My views on family are divided into before and after marriage, and I am a person who had no expectations about marriage at all.
In fact, I have nothing to speak of as memories of my family, and the memories that remain are mostly lonely and desolate.
But God gave me a family and gave me a new perspective on family while raising two children with my husband.
He continued to show us what the prototype of a family is, which is the true image of a family that is restored through worship.
Perhaps, if it weren't for family worship, I still wouldn't have realized what the true nature of family is.
Every time we worship, there is restoration in our family.
It was not a recovery achieved through anyone's will or effort.
It was simply God's work through obedience in going to the place of worship.
The relationship between husband and wife is a sample of the relationship between Christ and the church.
However, many families in this era have been broken, and countless families are still in crisis.
I have had a heart for family restoration ministry for a long time.
With divorce rates exceeding 50% and even couples who don't divorce having no choice but to live together, family restoration ministry feels like a calling.
But I tried to erase the thoughts that came to mind, wondering what qualifications I had to talk about family restoration.
But as we held family worship every night, we realized that the restoration of the family did not lie in words, but in the restoration of worship.
'Ah, the family God seeks is a family that worships.' My thoughts were clearly organized.
After that, I decided to be more obedient.
We decided not to stop family worship.
I learned that the key to recovery lies with the Lord, not with people, and that the call to worship is not limited to special families, but applies to all families.

--- pp.25-26

We went through quite a bit of trial and error before family worship became established.
No, maybe I'm still in the process of trial and error.
In fact, I often dozed off during worship services since the beginning of my marriage.
Even when I was doing fine, I would feel sleepy when I opened the Bible, but as soon as the service was over, the sleepiness disappeared as if it were a lie.
My husband couldn't stand to see me like that, so one day he installed a hidden camera and filmed me sleeping.
It was a kind of shock therapy.
But, shamefully, my habitual drowsiness never really went away.
When I said I was going to give a class on family worship, my husband suggested that I use the photos we took when we were newlyweds as reference material.
That day, our children burst into laughter as they looked at an old photo of their sleeping mother and their father looking at them with an angry expression.

--- p.29

When my children were young, we had a daily time to tell them Bible stories, sing hymns, and pray without any special format. Looking back, that was family worship.
Some people ask how faith comes about.
Trust comes from knowing the other person.
There's no one who blindly trusts someone they just met, right?
Some people ask how they can know God.
If you want to know God and believe in God, you must read the Bible.
The Bible is like a navigation system for life.
Think about the process of entering an address into a navigation system and finding your destination.
You don't go there because you believe in the address, but if you trust and go, you will reach your destination.
Likewise, when reading the Bible, you can begin by believing.
If you read the Bible believing that it is a living story, you will meet God, the Lord of life.
Therefore, we must diligently tell our children Bible stories.
We must tell the living Word of God, more realistic than any entertaining animated movie.
For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

--- p.39

Listening to my husband's explanation, I thought that the worship form was simple and clean.
We started the '153 Family Worship Service' and soon felt that our attitude toward worship had changed significantly.
First of all, my perception of worship time has changed.
Perhaps because they had once experienced a crisis of interruption, the children returned home on time for family worship even after going out and sat down in a prepared manner.
The way we share words has definitely changed, and the topics of gratitude and prayer that we started out sharing simply have gradually gained more depth.
There was sincerity in sharing.
After the service, an hour had passed without me realizing it.
It also seemed like there was a stronger bond between family members.
The best thing about the 153 family worship service was that I didn't have to ask each person about what happened that day.
If you divide by 1.53, you can hear the whole life of a day.
The format is simple, but it is a fun and smooth communication.
The 153 service opened up a new horizon for family worship for us.
--- p.43

153 The greatest importance in family worship should be placed on the words of the Bible.
The Word takes priority over sharing topics of thanksgiving and prayer requests.
Because the core of worship is meeting God, who is the Word, and obeying His Word at face value.
If we are not careful, we can easily end up just extracting the lessons from the words and ending it there.
Therefore, we need training to apply the Word specifically, and if the result is obedience, there is nothing more to be desired.
In that respect, Eugene H. Peterson
Peterson's words are worth remembering.

--- p.53

Children who make prayer a habit and part of their daily routine through family worship remember God first in both good and difficult times throughout their lives.
Therefore, it is important to develop the habit of praying consistently, even if it does not last long.
Sometimes prayer doesn't go well.
If you feel stuck while praying, you must first open your heart honestly to God.
In our family's case, we found the reason for the hindrance in prayer in the problem of sin.
I was so focused on things to be thankful for every day that I was overlooking the problem of sin, but the Lord made me realize it.
They sat in the place of worship carrying a lot of sins that God does not like, such as hatred, strife, envy, and jealousy.
If I do not repent of the sins that block me from God, the Lord, who is the Word, cannot enter into me.
Just as light and darkness cannot coexist.
To obtain heaven, you must first repent.
It is not that you go to heaven and repent, but that you must repent to obtain heaven, and it is not that you receive power and become pure, but that you must be pure to receive power.
When we shared prayer requests, we also shared requests for repentance, and if there were any secret sins that the Holy Spirit had revealed to us, we were to bring them before God.
God has made us realize through His word that repentance is not about shedding tears and feeling guilty, but about correcting our actions and turning away from the path of sin.
Therefore, before holding a family worship service, a prayer of repentance to break the chains of sin must precede it.

--- pp.60-61

Just as great athletes are made through long training, so too are disciples of Jesus made through training.
Family worship is also a form of discipleship training that helps us discern the world through the Bible.
Therefore, we must gather every day.
We need to gather together and listen to the little stories that happen to our families each day, accept their feelings, think about difficult things together, and fight together against sin.
That's a healthy family.
When we provide a space for children to honestly share their mistakes and failures, their faith becomes real, not abstract.
You will learn how to use your faith in the real world.

--- p.74

Family worship is not simply a place to develop good habits.
This is the place where God's love continues to bestow grace upon thousands of generations.
No matter how outstanding an individual's faith may be, God's love cannot flow unless the faith is passed down. Family worship is the conduit through which that love is connected.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus.
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).
It shows how the lineage of faith that began with Abraham continued.
Perhaps because it is difficult to find a family that continues to believe these days, the history of Israel, which spans 4,000 years, is considered a miracle.

--- p.115

Just because you have family worship doesn't mean your family will always be happy and harmonious.
There is no place in the world that is free from conflict.
But in my house, we don't tend to let conflicts linger for too long.
Because even the wounds in your heart have a golden time.
The longer you let the hurt go on, the longer it takes to heal.
The golden time for conflict resolution, as the Bible says, is before sunset.
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26-27).
It means not to put off conflict until the next day.
Therefore, the solution to resolving disputes and conflicts within the family lies in daily family worship.
It is said that a couple promised early in their marriage that they would always have family worship no matter how angry or difficult it was.
They knew that to harbor anger until the sun went down was to give the devil an opportunity.
If you give the devil a chance, your body and mind will be harmed.
If you want your family to be healthy both physically and spiritually, don't stop having family worship.

--- p.124

Share five things to be grateful for.
It may not be 5, or it may be more, but I recommend trying to stick to 5 if possible.
It is a training to speak logically.
The key to sharing gratitude is listening to and empathizing with even the smallest stories.
Listening and empathy lead to acceptance of the other person and change in character.
When others are talking, most of the time we focus on, "What will I say when it's my turn?" But we must remember that listening comes first.
It is important to listen carefully and show empathy by saying, “Oh, I see.”

--- p.144

Even if you decide to have family worship every day, there are days when unavoidable circumstances arise.
So, our family holds family worship services on average 3-4 times a week.
It is a good idea to discuss with your family how many times you will do it, and once you decide, make them feel obligated to keep to that schedule.
It takes at least three weeks for a new habit to form.
Therefore, once you start family worship, I recommend that you continue it for a month.
Once it becomes a habit, your children will be the first to come to the worship service shouting “153!”

--- p.149