Author: livinglywrong

How do we care for every member of the church?

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“According to our experience and learning and based upon the clear revelation in the New Testament, the proper group meetings should consist of two sections. The first section should include fellowship, intercession, mutual care, and shepherding, and the second section should carry out the perfecting of the saints through teaching. In the first section of the group meeting, the attendants should fellowship concerning each person’s present spiritual condition and practical environment…

The group meeting is eighty percent of the church life, and the church life is a life in the Body. In our physical body it is impossible for a problem in one member to be hidden from all the other members. The circulation of life in our body carries the feeling in one member to all the members. Thus, we should not hide our problems from the other members in the church life…For the practice of the group meetings, we must first overcome this to have a real, genuine, practical, and thorough fellowship concerning each person’s current spiritual condition and practical situation. A proper group meeting does not depend on singing and praying in a formal, religious way. It depends on this kind of fellowship.

After fellowshipping about each other’s situations, the attendants in the meeting will spontaneously be stirred up to intercede, to pray, for one another. This prayer will not be formal or like a theatrical performance but will be sincere and practical. After the fellowship and prayer the attendants in the group meeting should extend their loving concern for one another in the exercise of a definite and practical care. After becoming aware of a brother’s practical situation, some saints in the meeting may consider whether the brother is in need of financial help or some other practical care. Then, after caring for a brother in this way, some may go to visit him. This is the practice of the practical shepherding.

I would say that this principle regarding the practice of the group meetings is “scientific.” As such, it cannot be changed. Everything in this universe is governed by a God-ordained law, a spontaneous principle. In order for the church to be fully built up, we must have proper group meetings, and for the group meetings in the practical church life, there is the need of fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding. In this way, every member of the church, regardless of how large that church may be, will be taken care of. The way to care for every member of the church is by the proper group meetings.”

(CWWL 1990, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Group Meetings,” ch. 6, pp. 39-40)

Beseeching.org: Prayer for the saints to see the meaning of perfecting

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Day 302: Prayer for the saints to see the meaning of perfecting

“Many saints who have regularly attended church meetings, trainings, and conferences for several years still lack growth or do not function adequately. Others function a great deal, but their functioning is not effective or fruitful. In such cases, we need to find the reason. There may be a hidden sickness or disease undermining a saint’s growth or function. Thus, part of perfecting is healing such sickness so that growth may return, function may become adequate, and there may be the rich production of fruit. Perfecting is to help the saints to grow in a definite way and to function adequately and fruitfully.”

(CWWL 1980, vol. 2, “Fellowship with Serving Ones,” ch. 4, pp. 14-16)

Beseeching.org: Prayer for a church life filled with mutuality

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Day 284: Prayer for a church life filled with mutuality

“The word mutuality is used in relation to church meetings and is the basic principle of the meetings of the church. This is shown in three portions of the Word. Colossians 3 says that we need to practice “teaching and admonishing one another” (v. 16). Teaching one another means that you teach me and that I teach you; admonishing one another means that you admonish me and I admonish you. This indicates that as believers, we should be full of mutuality when we come together. Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not abandon “our own assembling together…but exhorting one another.” Since we are the Lord’s disciples, we should not abandon proper Christian meetings. Moreover, whenever we meet, there should be mutuality. First Corinthians 14:26 says that whenever we “come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” This verse refers to the gathering of the whole church (v. 23). In such a gathering there should not be only one person speaking; rather, each one should function for building up (v. 26), that is, for mutual building up.”

(CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “The Proper Way for Believers to Meet and to Serve,” ch. 6, p. 84)

We need to grow in life, but we also must increase in number

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The brothers and sisters who have been raised up by the Lord in these days to take the way of His recovery must realize that we must always increase in two ways. We must increase in the measure of life, and we must also increase in the number of persons. This is to increase both in quality and quantity. To be increased in the growth and measure of life is to be increased in quality. However, quality always comes out of quantity. If we do not have the quantity, how can we have the quality? We need the quantity, the increase of numbers.

It is easy for Christians to be unbalanced and go to an extreme. We need to learn to be balanced in several directions. We need to grow in life, but we also must increase in number. Life always must grow in all the churches day by day, and our numbers also must always increase. Otherwise, we are unbalanced; we are a “cake not turned” (Hosea 7:8)…

The best way to check whether a commercial business is right or wrong is to look at its accounting. We should not care for the general manager’s or director’s report; we should examine the accounting books. What are the balance, profit, loss, and liabilities of this business, and what kind of turnover has it had in the past ten years? We should look at the statistics and worksheets. In the same way, we should not say that our meetings are wonderful and everything is wonderful. If everything is wonderful for a whole year yet there is no increase, there must be something wrong. We need to check ourselves.

(CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Serving in the Meetings and in the Gospel,” ch. 5, pp. 116-117)

If you are a believer, you have to open up your home for meeting

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“And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47)

According to the Greek expression in Acts 2:46, they met from house to house. This indicates that they did not select some houses that would fit their purpose. They met from house to house. They included every house. Today we should have our home meetings entirely according to the Holy Spirit’s created and ordained way. According to our feeling, we may say, “How could every brother have a meeting in his home? There are so many weaker ones. Oh, we had better consider and select some stronger ones.” But we must realize that selecting is not the Holy Spirit’s way—it is the human way. In Chinese this phrase means “door after door.” This indicates no selection, no missing. Whether you are weak or strong, whether old or young, whether knowledgeable or unknowledgeable, as long as you are a believer, you meet in your home. Do you dare do this? You say yes in the meeting, but after the meeting some may say there is no way to practice this. Some would say, “We selected thirty homes, but eventually fifteen have been sifted.” If you would select in this way, I am afraid that after another period of time only twelve homes would be left that are good for the home meetings. But you have to see that at the very beginning the way created by the Holy Spirit and ordained by God was to meet in two ways, in the congregational way and in the home way, not in selected homes but in all homes. If you are a Christian, if you are a believer, you have to open up your home for meeting. This is the first pattern at the initiation of the church life.

Since the Lord has shown this, I have begun to see all the benefits of this God-created-and-ordained way. If a new one would believe in the Lord, be baptized, and right away begin to open up his home for meetings, this opening up of his home would encourage him and even uphold him. Therefore, we can see that the home meetings are the top way, the super way, and eventually the unique way to meet.

(CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Home Meetings—the Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 1, pp. 114).

The Christian life is both a living life and a dying life

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We are persons under the shadow of the cross of Christ. The Christian life is both a living life and a dying life. We live, but we live in the mold of the death of Christ. When the Lord Jesus lived on the earth, He was being crucified every day. Every day He lived a crucified life. We also can live such a life because we have the power of His resurrection. As we have seen, this power is the person of Christ, and Christ today is the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is in our spirit. As we remain in our spirit, we experience this power in the shadow of the death of Christ. Every day our spouse and children are the “shadows of death” to us. Our children may be very enjoyable to us at first. However, one day they may become shadows, and the more they grow, the darker the shadows may become. Eventually, our children will put us into the mold of the cross. We should simply remain there and say, “Hallelujah!”

Not only are our marriage life and family life the mold of the cross, but even the church life becomes the mold of the cross to us. Certain saints may wonder why there are hardships in the “glorious church life,” and eventually the church life may not seem so glorious to them. Every brother and sister may seem to be a “dark shadow.” This may cause some to consider moving to a new locality. However, they may discover that the church in the locality to which they move is even darker. Furthermore, if they leave the church, their situation will become darker still. We have no place to which we may escape. Every locality is a cross. This is our destiny. We have been destined to pass through the cross. Only when we are in the New Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth will we be out of the shadow of death. In the New Jerusalem there will be no night and no shadow (Rev. 21:25). However, today there are shadows of the cross everywhere.

Praise the Lord that within us there is the power of resurrection. Paul said, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). The One who empowers us is the power of resurrection. By Him we can live a life that expresses and magnifies Christ (Phil. 1:20).

(The Experience and Growth in Life, chapter 12)

Christianity is not a new set of Ten Commandments

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CHRISTIANITY IS BASED ON LIFE
What is Christianity? Christianity is life. Christianity is not a matter of asking whether something is right or wrong. Christianity is a matter of checking with the life inside us whenever we do something. What does the new life which God has given us tell us inwardly about this matter? It is very strange that many people have only seen an outward standard, the standard of good and evil. But God has not given us an outward standard. Christianity is not a new set of Ten Commandments. In Christianity we have not been brought to a new Sinai, nor has God given us a new set of rules and regulations with “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.” Christianity does not require that we ask whether something is right or wrong, good or evil. On the contrary, whenever we do anything, there is a life within us which rises up to speak with us. When we feel right inwardly, when we feel the life inside of us moving, when we are strong within and sense the anointing, we know that we have life. Many times something is right and good in the eyes of man, but strangely the inner life has no response and grows cold and retreats.

Please remember, God’s Word tells us that our Christian living is based on an inner life, not an outward standard of right and wrong. Many worldly people, who are not saved, live according to the best standard of living they can attain: the principle of right and wrong. If you or I also live by the principle of right or wrong, we are the same as worldly people. Christians are different from non-Christians because we do not live by an outward standard or law. Our subject is not human morality or concepts. We do not determine whether something is right or wrong by subjecting it to human criticism or opinion. Today we have only one question: What does our inner life say? If the life is strong and active within us, we can do this; if the life is cold and retreating within us, we should not. Our principle for living is inward instead of outward. This is the only real principle of living; the others are false. People may say that many things are right to do, and I may feel that to do them is right, but what does the sense of the inner life tell us? The inner life does not agree. If we were to do them, we would not be rewarded, and if we were not to do them, there should be no shame, because they are outside of us. We can only see what is really right when the Spirit of God operates within us. If we feel that there is life inwardly, then that matter is right. If we do not feel the inward life, then the matter is wrong. Right and wrong are not decided by an outward standard but by the inner life.

(Two Principles of Living by Watchman Nee)

The Lord trusts in His members, not in spiritual “giants”

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“The Lord trusts in His members, not in spiritual “giants.” As small members in the Lord’s Body, we all are very useful to Him. Every member must work; every member must function; every member must visit others. Then we will all become vital. Do not think that by hearing a stirring message and praying for three days and three nights something miraculous will happen to us to cause us all to be vitalized. There is not such a thing. Through my study I have found out that no revival really works. But the sevenfold Spirit is now moving on this earth (Rev. 5:6). He is moving in Australia, in New Zealand, in South America, in Central America, and in North America. He is moving in many places and in many hearts. He is also moving in our hearts. If we all would realize that we do not need a great “revival” but simply need to go out to visit people, this would be much more effective than a hundred spiritual giants.

We should not trust in specially gifted persons. We should not consider them more capable than we are. In reality, we may be much greater than they are. We need to receive mercy from the Lord to labor. According to my experience, if I do not labor, I cannot be healthy. When I labor, all the illnesses become afraid of me. However, when I cease to labor, illness may come. We should not welcome sickness. Rather, we should love people. Every day we need to be beside ourselves, doing things that other people would consider foolish. Every day we need to contact people and speak to people about Christ.”

(The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, msg. 12)

An overcomer is a vital person

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“A proper Christian should be vital. To be vital means to be living and active. Since I am a man, I must believe into Christ. If I am a Christian, I must be in the recovery. If I am in the recovery, I must be vital. If we are not vital, we may be in the church, but we are not among the overcomers. An overcomer is a vital person.”

(Introductory Word from The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups)

If the saints in a certain locality do not migrate, eventually that locality will become a “Dead Sea”

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“For some years many of the saints in this country were reluctant to migrate. But we thank the Lord that recently the saints have begun to migrate again. In the last year a number of churches have been raised up through the migrating of the saints.

The saints in all the churches should be encouraged to migrate. If the saints in a certain locality do not migrate, eventually that locality will become a “Dead Sea.” The Dead Sea is a reservoir for the water from the river Jordan. Once the water from the Jordan reaches the Dead Sea it does not proceed any farther. If the church in a particular locality is to avoid becoming such a Dead Sea, a “canal” must be dug to allow the “water” to flow out. Perhaps ten percent of the saints in a locality may migrate each year. This will allow for the necessary outflow without devastating the church. Furthermore, if water is allowed to flow out, more water will flow in.

Using the illustration of a hose, we may say that every church should be like a hose that is open at both ends. When a hose is open in this way, water is able to flow in and out. But if water is not able to flow out of a hose, nothing more will be able to flow in. How much water flows in depends on how much flows out. If we want the church to increase, there must be the outflow. Only when there is an outflow can the church in a certain locality be preserved from becoming a Dead Sea.”

(Life-study of Acts, pp. 180-181)