What should be our career as normal Christians?

/ livinglywrong

“To serve the Lord is to be the Lord’s slave…. To be a slave is the status of those who serve the Lord and the meaning of serving the Lord. Serving the Lord is not about doing a great work before men; it is about being a slave before the Lord.

… Since serving the Lord is a matter of being a slave, it is also a matter of living to the Lord. The entire being of one who truly serves the Lord is to the Lord. His whole living, his entire life, is to the Lord. Therefore, service is a matter of one’s entire living. The call to serve the Lord is not limited to full-time workers and preachers. With the Lord’s leading, it is possible to serve the Lord by maintaining respectable works in any career (Titus 3:8, 14)…. No matter what our career or job may be, we can serve the Lord as long as it is according to the Lord’s will. It is not the Lord’s intention that every Christian would leave his job or career to be a full-time preacher. The Lord’s will is for every one of us to serve Him, but serving Him does not necessarily mean we must become a preacher. It only means that we live to Him in everything. There are many preachers today who do not necessarily live to the Lord. Similarly, there are many believers who love the Lord and truly live to Him, even though they have a career or job. They may not be preachers, but they are truly serving the Lord by living to the Lord.

According to the Bible, we are not called to make a profession out of preaching; rather, we are called to serve the Lord. This is our career. Any career or job that we have is a secondary matter. Our principal occupation is to serve the Lord; serving the Lord comes first. Our goal for living on the earth is to serve the Lord. We should make serving the Lord the center and goal of our lives. The only reason that we have a career or a job is to make a living and to supply the needs of the Lord’s work. We also can contact people through our careers and jobs to preach the gospel to them. No career or job is more important than serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. We should consider our occupation only as something that we do on the side. Our focus should be on serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. Regardless of whether we are doctors, teachers, businessmen, or laborers, our career or job should be for serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. Doctors should serve the Lord and preach the gospel while practicing medicine. Teachers should serve the Lord and preach the gospel while teaching. Whatever our profession, we should serve the Lord and preach the gospel. Each of us should consider serving the Lord and preaching the gospel as our primary occupation and our careers and jobs as secondary occupations. This is the living of a normal Christian. This is the only way to live to the Lord and to serve Him.”

(Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, Chapter 3, Section 1)

The church is a home, hospital, and school — not a police station

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“The church is not a police station to arrest people or a law court to judge people, but a home to raise up the believers. Parents know that the worse their children are, the more they need their raising up. If our children were angels, they would not need our parenting to raise them up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children. The church is also a hospital to heal and to recover the sick ones. Finally, the church is a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones who do not have much understanding. Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, the co-workers and elders should be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to cover, and to teach others in love.

Some of the churches, however, are police stations to arrest the sinful ones and law courts to judge them. Paul’s attitude was different. He said, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak?’ (2 Cor. 11:29a). When the scribes and Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to the Lord, He said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’ (John 8:7). After all of them left, the Lord asked the sinful woman, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you’ (vv. 10-11). Who is without sin? Who is perfect? Paul said, ‘To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak’ (1 Cor. 9:22). This is love. We should not consider that others are weak but we are not. This is not love. Love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ.”

(The Vital Groups, Chapter 8, Section 4)

God is not after our work, but ourselves

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“For what purpose was the burnt offering placed on the altar? It was to be wholly burned. Many of us think that we offer ourselves to God to do this or that for Him, whereas what He wants of us is a burning. He does not need a bullock to plow the field for Him; He wants the bullock to be burned on the altar. God is not after our work, but ourselves. He wants us to offer ourselves to Him and be burned for Him. The altar does not signify doing something for God but living for God. The altar does not mean having busy activities but having a living for God. No activity or work can replace the altar. The altar is a life that is totally for God. Unlike the sacrifice of the Old Testament, which was utterly burned in one act, the sacrifice of the New Testament, as depicted in Romans 12, is the presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice. Daily we are consumed on the altar, yet daily we are living; we are ever living, yet ever consumed. This is the sacrifice of the New Testament.”

(The Life of the Altar and the Tent, pp. 5-6)

If everyone speaks mutually the meeting will be very much enriched

/ livinglywrong

“[1 Corinthians 14:4] says, ‘He who prophesies builds up the church.’ To speak forth Christ and to speak for Christ builds up the church. Verses 23 through 26 say, ‘If therefore the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak in tongues, and the unlearned or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are insane? But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so falling on his face, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among you. What is it then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.’ Each one has! You have a psalm. I have a teaching. He has a revelation. Another has a tongue. And a fifth one has an interpretation. This is mutuality. A basketball team has five players. If, however, one player keeps the ball to himself and never lets it go, that is not mutuality, but rather individuality. The principle is the same in the meetings. We must practice mutuality. If during a meeting only one person speaks the entire time, everyone will leave feeling poor. But if everyone speaks mutually the meeting will be very much enriched.”

(The Home Meetings, chapter 4)

Do we want one or two leading ones to do everything for us?

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“If we would neglect the home meetings and only care for the big meetings, we would not need much practice. One or two leading ones would do everything for us. They would become the clergy and everyone else would become laymen. That is not the church life. There would be no way for the Lord to build up His Body. The building up all depends upon the home meetings. So all of us have to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening into our inner man. Then we will be full of the Triune God, full of His attributes, and we will be strengthened in our spirit. Then when we come together, everyone will be equipped to carry the home meeting on. This is the way. I hope that this would not be just a message to you, but rather a kind of instruction that you would practice. Practice daily to be filled in your spirit and to be strengthened into your inner man.”

(The Home Meetings, chapter 2)

Without home meetings there can be no building

/ livinglywrong

“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.” (Acts 2:46)

“[T]o meet in today’s Christianity way, to have the great congregations, is altogether natural, worldly, according to human society. I have never heard of any kind of movement or any kind of culture which invented this way of meeting in every home. Such a thing is only in the Bible [Acts 2:46].  At the very initiation of the church life the saints met from house to house. This is quite extraordinary. This is not following the natural way.

…You may ask, ‘Without the big meetings how could we have the increase?’ In the sixties when I came to this country, the evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was promoting small group meetings. Because Billy Graham found out that many brought to the gospel were scattered in the denominations and eventually became cold, he encouraged people to form small groups to have Bible study and to pray together. What he promoted was the same in principle as what we are talking about. Although thousands of people may be brought in without the small groups, how many of them could remain? There is no way. It is just like bringing the water out of a deep well and pouring it on the earth. All the water will sink back. We may get the increase, but without the small group meetings they cannot remain in the church to be built up.

…I say this especially to the leading ones of all the churches; what you have been doing is just to maintain a meeting situation of the church. As you do not have small groups, how could you have the building up? It is impossible…. After the meeting we have much contact with each other, but we still do not have much positive building because we are short of the home meetings. We must see the need of the home meetings. Without home meetings there can be no building.

…Do not say that you are weak, that you cannot overcome your self, that you cannot overcome your temper, that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot do this or that. Just set up a home meeting in your home. I have seen in many cases that when you set up a meeting in your home the Holy Spirit brings people to you. Gradually people will come. I would say that if you are a Christian, yet you do not have a home meeting, you are not up to the standard. You may know the Bible, be spiritual, be seeking, love the Lord, and so forth, but if you do not open your home, you are not up to the standard. Even a single sister could open her apartment for meetings. Every lodging of the saints, whether single or with a family, should be opened up for meeting.

…Are you going to be holy? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to be spiritual? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to know the Bible? Nothing will force you to seek the knowledge of the Bible more than setting up a home meeting. The home meetings will force you to seek after the proper, spiritual knowledge, and while you are seeking the knowledge for teaching others, you yourself will be taught, enlightened, and nourished. I can recall my own history. When I was trying to teach others I began to realize that I needed to be taught. The definite, single, and sole step for the Lord’s recovery to take today is to promote the home meetings. This is the unique way.”

(The Home Meetings, pp.12-13, 20)

Don’t look for things other than they are

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“Surely You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.”  (Isaiah 45:15)

“The very fact that the church has continued on this earth for nearly two thousand years is the result of the working of Him who is a God who hides himself. It is often true that the greater the display accompanying any work, the less the divine content; and the more silent the work and the less our awareness of it, the greater the divine content. Since all the work we do is done unto Him who hides Himself, it must be based on faith, not on sight. [2 Cor. 5:7]

I trust these words will help some of us to realize that when we are most conscious of impotence, God is often most powerfully present. Don’t look for greater things. Don’t look for things other than they are. Don’t set your expectation on some great vision or on some great experience. And don’t expect anything outward, for the God who hides himself is at work within your life, and He is working mightily. Your responsibility is to cooperate with Him by responding to His voice within — that ‘still small voice,’ that voice that seems so much a part of your own feelings that you scarcely recognize it as a voice at all. To that voice, registered in the deepest depths of your being, you must say, ‘Amen,’ for there, secretly and ceaselessly, the God who hides himself is working.”

(A God Who Hides Himself, Chapter 1, Section 6)

If you only hold the Bible in your hand, you will miss Christ

/ livinglywrong

“In John chapter 7 there is another case of finding Christ. Christ was doing some marvelous things, and the people were saying, ‘Of a truth this is the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ Then some said, ‘Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said, that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem?’ Yes, the Scripture does say that; they were one hundred percent right. But they missed the mark just by being right. If they did not know the Bible so well, I believe it would be easy for them to grasp the Christ. They were frustrated by their Bible knowledge. Yes, He was born in Bethlehem, but He was raised in Nazareth. This really bothers people. If you only hold the Bible in your hand, you will miss Christ. You must follow the living Christ.

Then Nicodemus, who had come to know Christ somewhat, began to argue with them. But they protested, ‘Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet!’ They were absolutely right; not even the least prophet came out of Galilee. What would you say? We should not say, ‘Search and look,’ but, ‘Come and see!’ If you search and look, you will miss the mark, you will miss Christ. Christ was right there; yet they said, ‘Search and look.’ This is today’s situation. So many Christians are missing Christ. They keep themselves to the Scriptures: they say, ‘Have not the Scriptures said?’ But they miss Christ. Here is the Bible, and here is Christ. They care for the Bible, but they would not care for Christ.

Oh, it is possible to be so right, but wrongly right! You may be right, but you are just partly right; eventually you are not right, for you have missed the mark. The Lord always acts in a ‘sneaky’ way to those who feel they are so right. He does it purposely; He does not want us just to know the knowledge and go to sleep. He wants us to be alert at all times lest by knowing the Bible we lose His presence. Oh, it is possible to lose the presence of the Lord just by knowing the Bible. I would rather lose the knowledge of the Bible and keep the presence of the Lord. Do not say that as long as you are scriptural, you are all right. Regardless of how scriptural you are, if you lose the presence of the Lord, you are absolutely wrong. The Lord be merciful to us. Knowledge alone does not work. It did not work with the scribes, the chief priests, and the Pharisees, and it will not work for us.

What is the New Testament way to find and follow the Lord? It is continually to keep His presence, His hidden presence. He prophesied that he would come out of Bethlehem, but He came out of Nazareth. Give up your searching. God can never be understood by searching. [John 5:39-40] I am not searching; I am seeing, I am enjoying. I do not understand and I do not care to understand, but I enjoy. His presence is really hidden. Isaiah 45:15 tells us that He is a hidden God. He is a God that hides Himself. Learn to praise Him, learn to see Him, learn to trace Him, learn to find Him, but never try to understand Him. We are not qualified to understand Him; we are only qualified to enjoy Him. So ‘come and see.’ ”

(Finding Christ by the Living Star, pp. 16-19)

God wants only the feeble ones

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“God does not want those who are strong in themselves. He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Cor. 12:9-10). They can become His armies because the fighting is not in their hands but in His. God needs a people who are one with Him, a people who are submissive to Him, signified by the plaited hair (SS 1:11), and obedient to Him with a flexible will, signified by the neck with strings of jewels (SS 1:10). Those who are counted worthy to be overcomers will be the weaker ones who depend on the Lord (cf. Rev. 3:8; Rom. 9:16; Gal. 2:20).”

(Song of Songs 6:13, Recovery Version, footnote 2)

The reason for our barrenness

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“I believe that not having the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and not having the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit is the reason for our barrenness. I realize that you all work hard, but there is almost no fruit. The Lord says, ‘By the fruit the tree is known’ (Matt. 12:33), but we are a tree without any fruit. Everywhere among us barrenness is very prevailing. A good, gentle, pastor may not have a particular gift, such as the gift of speaking; he may simply visit people and welcome them when they come to his meeting, but according to statistics, he will have a ten-percent yearly increase. We, however, do not have even a ten-percent increase. Can you see how barren we are? Many of you are good speakers, knowing the higher truths. The truths we hold are much higher than those in Christianity. However, we do not have fruit because we are lacking in the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Son’s shepherding and seeking spirit. We condemn and regulate others rather than shepherd and seek them. We are short of love and shepherding. These are the vital factors for us to bear fruit, that is, to gain people. I am very concerned for our full-time training. Do we train the young ones to gain people or to regulate people? We have to reconsider our ways, as Haggai said (1:5). Our way is not right; something is wrong.”

(A Word of Love to the Co-Workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, ch. 3)