Month: August 2019

Genuine spiritual life grows in desolate circumstances

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“Genuine spiritual life grows in desolate circumstances. We should not expect to always receive light when we read the Bible, to have the Lord’s presence when we pray, to save many sinners, or that our wife, husband, children, parents, and siblings will be spiritual. These expectations are unrealistic. Those who are genuinely spiritual pitch their tent between Bethel and Ai. God does not allow us to be free of desolate situations, that is, to become a monk or an ascetic, nor does He want us to become mystics. God desires that we remain in the status in which we were called (1 Cor. 7:20). Those who have a wife, a husband, children, or a family should remain where they are. They should learn to labor and work with their hands. If we can be normal human beings in our troublesome, complicated, and fallen situations, then we will have the genuine exercise of spirituality. Living between Bethel and Ai should be our normal experience.

We all want the church in our locality to be spiritual, free from problems, full of harmony and God’s presence, and in a glorious situation. However, no matter how much we try to maintain the situation, a storm may come, there will be discord, or the flesh surfaces. In other words, Ai always accompanies Bethel. Like Abraham who followed God, we must pass between Bethel and Ai. We will see God’s house on one side but a heap of ruins on the other side. No matter how we pray or labor, we should be prepared for desolate situations. The church may be Bethel today but Ai tomorrow. This is a picture of our true situation.

Our outward circumstances in coordination with the operation of God give us the opportunity to develop a genuine spiritual life. We should not expect to be in a situation that is heavenly and without any problems. God did not create us to be human beings in heaven. He ordained that we be human beings on the earth. His desire for us to be genuinely spiritual does not mean that we should break away from human relationships. Rather, we need to live and conduct ourselves properly in these relationships.

No matter how much we grow in life and no matter how many visions we see, there will always be a feeling of desolation in us, because we live on the earth, remain in our old man, and have the flesh. As long as we are on the earth, our circumstances will give us a sense of desolation, a sense of Ai. We are in between Bethel and Ai, and we seek progress. On the one hand, we have a sense of desolation, but on the other hand, we are in the house of God and have the presence of God. On the one hand, we are not satisfied with the ministry of the word, but on the other hand, we receive grace and are supplied. We have weaknesses and desolation, but we also have the Lord’s blessing. We must leave our spiritual longings and learn to experience God in our desolate situations so that we may have genuine growth in life.”

(The Suffiency, Pursuit and Learning of the Lord’s Serving Ones, Chapter 2)

We should call hymns by following the flow and atmosphere of the meeting

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“We need to learn how to enter into the particular atmosphere of each Lord’s table meeting and stay on one line. Once the meeting begins, we should sense the atmosphere and follow it. We should not have more than one beginning by trying to change the atmosphere or direction of a Lord’s table meeting well after it has begun. There should be a smooth transition from one hymn to the next. We should not take this word in a legal way, but we need to exercise our spirit and our mind with its function of understanding to recognize, enter into, discern, and taste the flavor and atmosphere of a meeting. This requires learning.

We should not call hymns and offer praises in a [Lord’s] table meeting according to our personal feeling but should follow the corporate flow and atmosphere. In a particular Lord’s table meeting, someone may call Hymns, #86, which is not high but is deep and tender. This hymn praises the Lord for His human living. Many Christians do not know how to enter into the feeling of such a hymn because they do not know how to appreciate and praise the Lord for His human living. There will be a lack of continuation if soon after we sing this hymn in a Lord’s table meeting, someone calls a hymn such as Hymns, #142, which begins, “Crown Him with many crowns.” After a hymn has been called, we should spend some time to taste and digest the hymn. At least four or five prayers of praise are needed to digest most hymns. The dishes in a feast are not served in rapid sequence; instead, there is time between each dish for enjoyment. To call a hymn with a different feeling soon after another one has been sung is to not sense the atmosphere but only take care of one’s personal feeling. Our hymn calling should build up a proper spirit of remembering the Lord in His presence. We all need to learn, but no one should be discouraged or take this fellowship as a legal regulation.”

(CWWL, vol. 1, 1979, Fellowship During Various Lord’s Day Meetings, ch. 5)

Singing hymns frees us from our soul

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“The best way to exercise the spirit is first to pray and second to sing. Hymn singing is very effective in freeing people from the soul. It causes them to forget the soul. Before you go to preach the gospel, it is best to sing one or two gospel hymns. When you sing or pray, your spirit will be strengthened. ”

(Messages in Preparation for the Spread of the Gospel, p. 37)

We need to call proper hymns at the appropriate time

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“In order to call the appropriate hymns in the table meeting, we need to learn to know the hymns first in their categories. The table of contents in our hymnal can help us with this, since it categorizes all the hymns. Then we need to read and even to study the contents of the hymns. We also need to find out the central thought, the focus, of each hymn. Finally, we need to know the hymns in their sensation and taste. Each hymn has its own sensation, so it has its own taste. When you know the hymns in these four aspects—in their categories, contents, focus, and sensation and taste—you know the hymns thoroughly.

We also need to learn how to apply the hymns at the appropriate time. Certain hymns are good for certain times in the meeting, so we have to know the hymns first and then apply them at the proper time.

Certain hymns are very good to start a section of the meeting. After a section of the meeting has been started, we may need another hymn to strengthen and enrich the started section. To strengthen and enrich what has been started is not so easy. Teamwork is involved here. One person starts, and all the others have to continue to strengthen and to enrich what has been started. Also, a hymn may be needed to prolong and uplift the same section. Here there is the need of skill. Something has been started and strengthened and enriched, but within a short time it may disappear. This is why we have to prolong it and uplift it.

Furthermore, to apply the hymns at the appropriate time, we need to follow the atmosphere of the meeting. If the atmosphere of the meeting is solemn, a hymn of joy, a rejoicing hymn, does not fit the atmosphere. Thus, calling a proper hymn at a proper time depends upon how much we can sense the atmosphere of the meeting.”

(Basic Lessons on Service, chapter 4)

Singing is one outstanding trait of a Christian

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“If we walk according to the Spirit, our spirit will be filled with God. This is what Ephesians 5:18-19 refers to: “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” Once we are filled with God in spirit, we will spontaneously sing psalms, hymns, and songs with our heart, speaking to one another and praising the Lord. How many songs did the Chinese scholars of Confucius write? Among all the scholars of Confucius whom you know of, how often do they sing, and how often do they sigh? But we sing every day. Although we do not sing that well, we Christians are those who have songs. We Christians are a singing people.

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled in spirit.” We should not be drunk with wine, but we should be filled in spirit. If we are to be filled in spirit, we must sing. When we are filled in spirit, what we have within will spontaneously be expressed without. We will begin to sing. I always sing. Every day when I go for a walk, I sing. Singing is one outstanding trait of a Christian. I am the worst in music, but I like to sing more than anything else. I always sing off-key.”

(Key Points on the Home Meetings, p. 40)

Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church

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“I have stressed in the past that the group meeting should not be a formal, religious worship service. But after attending some of the group meetings, I have observed that we are still somewhat having a religious meeting, a worship meeting, a kind of service. This is because we are too formal. In the group meetings, we should fellowship freely, sing freely, pray freely, and ask and answer questions freely without formality. When we sing a hymn, we do not necessarily have to sing it in order from the first verse to the last verse. We may begin with the last verse or with any verse according to the leading of the Spirit. We should not sing the hymns in a dead way but in a living, exercised way with the release of our spirit. We need vital groups, not formal, religious, and dead groups. We need to pray, “Lord, make us vital in singing, vital in speaking, and vital in everything.” The Psalms tell us that we need to give a ringing shout and make a joyful noise to the Lord (71:23; 100:1). Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church.”

(Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, p. 161)

The Christian life should be a rejoicing life

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“In the book of Leviticus we also see how God trained His people to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life. A holy life is a life which is like God, a godly life. Here we mention a clean life, not a pure life. To be pure is not to be mixed. To be clean is not to be dirty. We do not realize how dirty we human beings are. Leviticus tells us that even our birth is dirty (ch. 12) and that every little discharge out of us is dirty (ch. 15). We need to live a clean life, a life which is not dirty.

According to the Old Testament type, we have to contact God through the offerings of the bronze altar and through the laver. Paul told us that we are cleansed by the washing (lit., laver) of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26). In the word of Christ there is the water of life to cleanse us. This is typified by the laver situated between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7). The laver is the place where we wash away our earthly defilement and are made clean.

We also need to live a rejoicing life, a happy life. We all have to be “hallelujah people,” who rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). Sometimes the most restful thing is to sing a hymn. Singing a hymn fills us with joy and helps us to enjoy Christ as our rest. The chorus of Hymns, #308 says: “This is my story, this is my song,/Praising my Savior all the day long.” A rejoicing life is a life of enjoying God in Christ as everything; this enjoyment makes us happy and causes us to exult all the day. The Christian life should be a rejoicing life.”

(The History of God in His Union with Man, p. 172)