Month: February 2021

The All-inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man, part 12

The Universal History according to God’s Economy—the Divine History within the Human History to Fulfill the Lord’s Heart’s Desire…

Morning revival verses

Day 4 / Thursday

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Ephesians 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.

Day 5 / Friday

Acts 10:45 And the believers who were of the circumcision, as many as had accompanied Peter, were amazed, because on the Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out.

1 Corinthians 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

Revelation 5:9 And they sing a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain and have purchased for God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Day 6 / Saturday

Ezekiel 36:26 I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Ephesians 2:17a And coming, He announced peace as the gospel….

Reading portion 2

Life-study of Ephesians, message 92.

No podcast this week

The All-inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man, part 11

The Universal History according to God’s Economy—the Divine History within the Human History to Fulfill the Lord’s Heart’s Desire…

Morning revival verses

Day 1 / Monday

Joel 1:4 What the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; / And what the swarming locust has left, the licking locust has eaten; / And what the licking locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten.

Joel 3:11 Hurry and come, / All you surrounding nations, / And be gathered. / There cause Your mighty ones to descend, O Jehovah!

Day 2 / Tuesday

Acts 2:23 This man, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, through the hand of lawless men, nailed to a cross and killed;

Micah 5:2 (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will come forth to Me / He who is to be Ruler in Israel; / And His goings forth are from ancient times, / From the days of eternity.)

Day 3 / Wednesday

Hosea 11:4 I drew them with cords of a man, / With bands of love; And I was to them like those / Who lift off the yoke on their jaws; / And I gently caused them to eat.

Matthew 4:19-20 And He said to them, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And immediately leaving the nets, they followed Him.

Reading portion 1

Life-study of the Minor Prophets, message 15 — Joel message 6.

Extra verses for reading

Ephesians 1:3–6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, 4 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, 5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.

Ephesians 4:22–24 That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, 23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind 24 And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.

Revelation 19:7–9 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. 8 And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. 9 And he said to me, Write, Blessed are they who are called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God.

Revelation 6:1–8 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying like the sound of thunder, Come. 2 And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. 3 And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. 4 And I saw, and behold, another horse, a red one, went forth; and to him who sits on it, to him authority was given to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and to him a great sword was given. 5 And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a black horse; and he who sits on it had a balance in his hand. 6 And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying: A choenix of wheat for a denarius and three choenixes of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine. 7 And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. 8 And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and he who sits upon it, his name is Death; and Hades followed with him. And authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with death and by the beasts of the earth.

Revelation 6:9–11 And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? 11 And to each of them was given a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until also the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed, even as they were, is completed.

Revelation 6:12–17 And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 And heaven was removed like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

Great Searchings of Heart

Morning revival verses

Day 6

Judges 5:12–13 Awake! Awake, Deborah! / Awake! Awake, speak forth a song! / Arise, Barak; / And lead captive your captives, son of Abinoam. 13 Then a remnant of the nobles went down; / The people of Jehovah went down with me against the mighty:

Judges 5:31 May all Your enemies so perish, O Jehovah. / But may those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might. And the land had rest forty years.

Acts 13:47 For so the Lord has commanded us, “I have set you as a light of the Gentiles, that you would be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Today’s Reading

I hope we will make a strong resolution to accomplish something while we are still young and capable. We must be like those in Judges 5 who made “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart” (vv. 15-16). We must achieve something for the Lord. We must never bury the grace that the Lord has given us or the gain that we have received from our training. When the Lord returns, we will be in trouble if the treasure within us is not dug out and the talents are not utilized. I hope that we will spend all we have and will not hold back anything. If we have a talent, we should spend a talent. If we have two talents, we should spend two talents. Only then will the Lord have a way to go on. Otherwise, we can wait for fifty years, and nothing will happen. Today there are almost twenty million people in Taiwan. Only five hundred thousand are saved. Are we not ashamed of this? We have been here for more than thirty years. The gospel has not spread very far. Do our hearts not ache? Perhaps we have grown numb to this fact. I hope that this word will prick our hearts. [Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, Chapter 16]

NOT GIVING OURSELVES TO THE LORD, BUT DENYING OURSELVES

The chorus of Hymns, #456 says, “O Jesus, Lord and Savior, / I give myself to Thee, / For Thou, in Thy redemption, / Didst give Thyself for me.” There is also a problem with the chorus. It is difficult to find a verse in the Bible that says the Lord wants us to give ourselves to Him. On the contrary, the Lord wants us to deny ourselves. Not only does the Lord not want our self; He even tells us that we should not want our self. Why would we give the Lord something that He does not want? Why would we give the Lord something He wants us to give up? Even though this hymn is very poetic, the truth contained in the poetry is not very high.

We should never think that discerning the truth is an easy matter….[In Matthew 16:21–24,] the Bible clearly tells us to deny ourselves; it does not want us to give ourselves to the Lord…. Romans 6:13 says, “Neither present your members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as weapons of righteousness to God.”…[Here,] yourselves in Romans 6 refers to our bodies. [We should present our bodies to the Lord.]

Myself in the chorus of Hymns, #456 refers mainly to the person in our soul, not to our body. Strictly speaking, we cannot give ourselves to the Lord; we must instead put ourselves aside. This is what Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The I, the self, in this hymn does not refer to the body but to the person, which is our natural I, the soul-life.

LETTING CHRIST LIVE IN US

If we do not have a basic knowledge of the truth when we read this hymn, we will gain a wrong understanding. The hymn says that we must give ourselves to live for Christ. To live for Christ is an erroneous concept. It is not that we live for Christ; it is that we let Christ live in us. Then, in our bodies we need to cooperate with the Lord and allow Him to direct us. According to what is written in Romans 6, when we present our bodies to be under His direction, we are offering our members to God (v. 13).

If we do not have the light of the truth when we sing this hymn, we will offer ourselves to God and think that we can do something great for Him. One of the problems in Christianity is that before believers give themselves to God, they do not have many difficulties. But as soon as they consecrate themselves to God, they have problems that result in divisions and produce many sects. Therefore, we must remember that we must not bring our “self” with us when we love the Lord. We should never think that after we have consecrated ourselves, we must live for Jesus from then on, nor should we want to accomplish something for Him. If we do this, we will fall into trouble, and after ten years the full-time serving ones will be divided into five or six different groups.

We should not consider living for Christ; instead, we must realize that we have already been crucified with Christ, that we have died, and that it is Christ who lives in us. We should not be persons who live for Christ; rather, we should be persons to whom to live is Christ. “Because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died” (2 Cor. 5:14). If we have died, how can we still live? We must remember that we have all died. However, every way that we take in resurrection is a living way with a tremendous future because Christ is living in us. In ourselves, we are at a dead end. However, because Christ is living in us, we are full of hope and have a bright future.

If the young people have the slightest misconception concerning Hymns, #456, they will get into trouble. Anyone who is sixty-five years and over, however, will have a heart filled with so much gratitude that they will think it is sufficient just to have the opportunity to love the Lord, and they will be satisfied simply to serve Him in the church. The older ones do not really want to go out and do something great. Those who have been called by the Lord to serve Him full time for their entire lives have a wonderful testimony. Just as Judges 5:15 and 16 say, they have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart. But when we see some with such a lofty desire, there is also some concern because we fear that as “wild oxen” and “wild asses” they will desire to live for Jesus and want to accomplish something great. We fear that they will destroy the church. I say this because of lessons we have learned in the past. [Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 3: The Future of the Lord’s Recovery and the Building Up of the Organic Service, Chapter 11]

Great Searchings of Heart

Morning revival verses

Day 5

Judges 5:1–2 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying: 2 That the leaders took the lead in Israel, / That the people have willingly offered themselves, / Bless Jehovah.

Judges 5:7 The villages ceased to act; / They ceased in Israel; / Until I, Deborah, rose up; / Until I rose up as a mother in Israel.

Judges 5:9 My heart is with the commanders of Israel, / Those who offered themselves willingly among the people. / Bless Jehovah!

Today’s Reading

Before we come to 3:7—5:31, I have the burden to speak a word concerning the intrinsic significance of this portion of Judges.

Prior to the history recorded in these chapters, the people of Israel had never had a female leader. Then, suddenly, God raised up a female, Deborah, as a judge of Israel. Regarding this, we need to realize that in the Bible, whenever God does something which stands out as being extraordinary, it is very significant. It indicates, first, man’s failure, and then, God’s excellent act. At the time of Judges 4, all the men of Israel had failed, so God raised up a woman. That raising up of a female changed the entire condition of Israel.

In the Bible a proper female indicates one who is in submission to God, one who keeps God’s ordination. This is the position that Israel should have taken before God, but the situation in Israel had become fully abnormal. The men had left their position before Jehovah. Hence, Israel violated God’s ordination, leaving her position as God’s wife and forsaking Him for hundreds of idols. This brought Israel into a miserable situation and condition.

According to God’s creation, Deborah was a very capable person. By reading her song in chapter five, we can see that she was full of ability, capacity, insight, and foresight. But such an excellent person was very submissive. God made her the leader, yet she kept the proper order and took Barak as her covering (4:6-9). She realized that she needed a man to be her covering. Actually, Barak did nearly nothing, yet Deborah took him as her “head covering.” When she took this kind of standing, the whole nation became different. In their miserable situation no one would take the lead to fight for Jehovah’s interest, and no one would be willing to follow. But when this excellent, extraordinary woman took the lead to practice the female submission to the man, the entire country came into the proper order. Everyone returned to his or her proper position. Thus Deborah could say in her song, “Then a remnant of the nobles went down; / The people of Jehovah went down with me against the mighty” (5:13). All the leaders took the lead, and all the people followed; the army was formed. At first, only some of the people followed, but eventually they all followed. From this we see that the entire country came into an excellent order, assuming the proper position before Jehovah.

Judges 5:15-16 speaks of “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart.” In Israel’s miserable situation, no one was searching his heart. But the people needed a great searching of their hearts, and they needed to make great resolutions in their hearts to rise up and follow the others to fight for God’s kingdom.

We may apply this to our practice of the [young people’s meeting] today. For the [young people’s meeting] we need much prayer with repentance. In our prayer spontaneously the searching of the heart comes to us. This issues in a resolve to live for the Lord and to fight for the Lord according to the present need in His recovery. In particular, we need to make a resolution before the Lord concerning gaining persons for His increase. This is “great resolutions in heart.”

Judges 3:12-13 says that Jehovah strengthened Israel’s enemies, but 4:6-16 reveals that Jehovah was fighting for Israel. This shows that God is a God of incarnation. God wants man to match Him so that He can move. If Israel had not fought, God would not have fought for them. However, because Israel did fight under Deborah in a proper order, God fought for them. The principle is the same with us today. If we do not go out to gain sinners, God will not go, but if we go, God also will go. However, this kind of going out needs a searching of our heart and a resolution in our heart. God will not work until we become active in this searching of our heart and making resolutions in our heart. This is the way to fight the battle; this is the way to preach the gospel; and this is the way to gain sinners to become members of Christ.

Judges 5:31b says, “May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might.” For the sun to rise in its might means that it shines brightly, brilliantly, and gloriously. We need the searchings, the resolutions, and the rising up to shine like the sun. If all the churches would be like this, they surely would enjoy the victory. May all the dear saints in the Lord’s recovery have great searchings and make great resolutions, and may they all, by loving the Lord, rise up like the sun to shine brightly. [Life-study of Joshua, Judges & Ruth, Message 19]

Great Searchings of Heart

Morning revival verses

Day 4

Judges 5:15–16 And the princes in Issachar were with Deborah; / And Issachar was true to Barak; / Into the valley they were sent behind him. / Among the divisions of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart. 16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds / Listening to the pipings for the flocks? / In the divisions of Reuben / There were great searchings of heart.

Judges 5:18 Zebulun was a people that despised their own lives even unto death; / And Naphtali, on the heights of the field.

Today’s Reading

Having Great Resolutions of Heart for the Lord

There Being a God in the Universe

Dear young friends and brothers and sisters, may the Lord be with you. With a sincere heart, in great rejoicing, and as an elderly person, I would like to speak a few words to you. First of all, it is a sure thing that God exists in the universe. I am over eighty years old, and since my youth I have known God and the Bible. I have studied the Bible in detail with a pure heart for more than sixty years, and the more I read, the more I believe that there is a God in the universe. It can be said that the Bible bears the strongest testimony of God.

If, in the universe, there were not a God who is the sovereign Lord and the almighty Creator, it would not have been possible for the Bible to be written. In the Bible there are not only words of profundity and wisdom but also prophecies concerning the world situation throughout the ages. The more I read these prophecies and observe the world situation, the more I realize that all the events in the world are fulfilling the prophecies in the Bible. Therefore, the Bible makes it impossible for me not to believe that there is a God in the universe.

God Creating Man that Man Might Express Him

The Bible tells us that God created man and moreover that He created man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). Hence, man is the most meaningful of all of God’s creatures. Man is most meaningful in that God wants man to be like Him and to receive Him. God wants to come into man to be his life and content so that man might live for Him and express Him on the earth.

The Meaning and the Purpose of Human Life

As I see thousands of young people here, I deeply feel that while you are still young and promising, you should see clearly what the purpose of human life is and wherein lies the meaning of human life. You all are studying hard, longing for and striving toward successfully completing your education. For this, I ask the Lord to bless you all that each one of you may be successful in completing your education. However, I would ask you, after you have completed your education, what are you going to do? World culture has already been developed to the utmost. For example, in Taiwan education has raised its standards and has been made widely available. Consequently, you all have been fully enlightened in your understanding. Even though you are quite young, you have already started to consider life. I want to tell you that the meaning of human life lies in God. Without God, man is meaningless; without God, human life is without purpose.

Having Great Resolutions in Heart and Great Searchings of Heart—Living for God

The Bible says that among God’s people there were great resolutions in heart, and there were also great searchings of heart (Judg. 5:15-16). For whom did they have great resolutions and great searchings? A person of aspiration, though he lives on the earth, always turns his heart to the Lord. We should have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart toward God. May all the young people, starting from today, be willing to have great resolutions and great searchings of heart. To have a great resolve is to make a firm decision, and to have a great searching is to devise a plan. This is not just to have a resolve but to have a great resolve, and not just to make a plan but to make a great plan. May today be the day that you have a great resolve and make a great plan.

Some may ask, “What is the purpose of having a great resolve and a great searching?” It is to live for God on the earth. The meaning of these three words living for God is quite broad. In brief, it means to receive God as your life for your entire life. God will lead you to live on the earth for Him. In other words, God will lead you to express Him on this earth by going to every place, every country, and every nation to testify on His behalf and to lead people to know Him.

Due to the advancement of transportation in recent times, the world has become a smaller place. People all over the earth are able to communicate with each other. The world situation today is surely full of darkness and wickedness, and the primary reason is that men do not know God or receive God. If they knew God, they would get out of darkness and enter into light, staying away from wickedness and drawing near to good. Therefore, all the people on the six major continents of the whole globe need to hear the gospel and know the true God so that they can be saved out of darkness into light and out of corruption into the eternal life. Now who will go and do this? Certainly it is you, the younger generation. You should believe in Jesus and receive Him as your life and Savior. Not only so, you should have a great resolve and make a great plan before Him to live for Him.

Learning Languages to Bear Witness for the Lord

I would advise you to study hard and endeavor to learn some languages, because one day you will all go for God to different parts of the world to bear witness, to preach the gospel, and to lead people to know God. Today the most common languages are Chinese, English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. I hope that as young people you can study hard and endeavor to learn some languages, letting no one despise your youth but being patterns to many. You can choose to learn one or two languages besides your mother tongue.

In addition, I would like to ask the young brothers and sisters to put forth an extra effort in studying Greek. This will be a great help in understanding the Bible. Perhaps in the future some of you will labor to study Hebrew, which is a real necessity in studying the Old Testament. If you are willing to devote and equip yourselves in the study of languages and become proficient in them, after your graduation it will be easy for you to find a job in any profession. In this way you can easily earn a living and live for the Lord without much difficulty. Even if you go abroad, because you have a few languages as your tools, you will be able to live conveniently while bearing witness for the Lord.

I hope that in the next ten years Taiwan can produce five hundred thousand young people to go all over the world as the Lord’s witnesses. I believe that because of your testimony of the Lord in all the tribes and nations in the world, people will be led out of darkness into light. This will not only be for your own honor or for God to be glorified; this will also bring great honor to our nation.

A TESTIMONY

I was born and raised in Christianity and educated in Christianity. Before I was twenty, even though I often went to Christian worship services and also listened to the words of the Bible, I was not saved. I had not had personal contact with the Lord, nor had I personally received Him as my Savior. I did not receive the Lord Jesus until I was nineteen years old. Seven years later, the Lord raised up a church in my hometown through my testimony for Him. From the day I was saved, I had a feeling within me: “Lord Jesus, I want to spend my whole life serving You and bearing witness for You.” It can be said that at that moment I had a great resolve and made a great plan to spend my entire life to live for Jesus and to study the Bible.

In the past sixty years, I cannot say that I have had any academic accomplishments, but I can testify that all that I have learned and obtained, as well as my entire heart, are for the Lord Jesus. Initially, I had hoped to stay in my hometown, carrying my Bible bag, preaching Jesus village by village, county by county, and city by city, bearing witness for the Lord. However, in His good pleasure He brought me from northern China to southern China, causing me to travel to many places on both sides of the Yangtze River. He also brought me from mainland China overseas to Taiwan, and then He brought me to Southeast Asia for ten years. Later, He brought me from Taiwan to the United States, and I have been living in the United States for more than twenty years. Today I truly worship the Lord from within my heart, as Judges 5:31 says, “O Jehovah. / …may those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might.”

MAY THOSE WHO LOVE THE LORD
BE LIKE THE SUN WHEN IT RISES IN ITS MIGHT

Young brothers and sisters, I hope that from the days of your youth you will have a great resolve and make a great plan to live for the Lord. May you all travel to all parts of the world and to all the nations, using different languages to bear testimony for the Lord Jesus, glorifying Him so that you may also share in His glory. May your future be, as the Bible says, “Like the sun / When it rises in its might.” May the Lord bless you according to these words you have heard.

[A Blessed Human Life, Chapter 3. A message given in the graduation meeting of the young people’s training in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 2, 1987]

Great Searchings of Heart

Morning revival verses

Day 3

Judges 4:6–9 And she sent word and called to Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, Jehovah the God of Israel has indeed commanded: Go and deploy your forces on Mount Tabor; and take with you ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and from the children of Zebulun. 7 And I will draw out Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his throng, toward you at the river Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand. 8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go. 9 And she said, I will surely go with you. However there will be no glory for you on the journey you are taking, for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Today’s Reading

If we love the Lord and desire to live for Him and please Him, we will choose to [preach the gospel]. This is the type of life that the Lord wants us to live, and this is also the way to please Him. We must be determined….[This] is difficult….[However,] such difficulty is worthwhile. May we be those who look to the Lord for His grace to have such a determination.

Judges 5:15-16 says, “Among the divisions (watercourses, streams) of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart. 16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds / Listening to the pipings for the flocks? / In the divisions of Reuben / There were great searchings of heart.” As Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben should have been preeminent in dignity and power. However, he committed a gross sin when he defiled his father’s concubine (Gen. 49:3-4). His descendants were children of a sinner, but there were watercourses among them. According to Psalm 23:2 and Jeremiah 17:7-8, watercourses signify God and His grace. This means that God’s grace came upon the descendants of Reuben. Some of his descendants were sitting beside the watercourses, beside God, and by the grace of God, they had great resolutions of heart and great searchings of heart for the kingdom of God. Some of Reuben’s descendants, however, enjoyed sitting among the sheepfolds to hear the pipings for the flocks. This means that they rested and did not move, because they desired a life of ease, comfort, and amusement. Likewise, many saints are not willing to receive the grace of God in order to have great resolutions of heart and great searchings of heart, because they desire a life of ease and comfort.

Human life is wicked and corrupt, but we have watercourses of God’s grace by which we can have great resolutions of heart and great searchings of heart. Many saints do not make resolutions, because they yearn for a life of ease and comfort. To settle down is to live a life of ease, comfort, and pleasure, but to migrate is laborious and difficult. However, settling down will not enable us to enjoy God’s grace. Migration is the way for us to enjoy the grace of God. Do we want to ignore God’s grace by settling down to enjoy ease and comfort? Or do we want to be supplied by His grace to go out and enjoy more grace? Do we want to sit restfully among the sheepfolds and listen to pleasant music? Or do we want to be at the watercourses of God’s grace to have great resolutions of heart and great searchings of heart for the Lord? May we be willing to flee the enjoyment of our own ease and comfort in order to draw near to the grace of God. [Serving According to Revelation, chapter 8]

Great Searchings of Heart

Morning revival verses

Day 2

Matthew 24:3 And as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, When will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the consummation of the age?

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us? And I said, Here am I; send me.

Today’s Reading

Grasping the Opportunity to Sow Seeds

[We] should grasp the opportunity to preach the gospel to the people around us. The students should grasp the opportunity to preach the gospel to their classmates. This can be compared to sowing seeds. We are bound to have results if we sow many seeds. Even though our sowing may seem ineffective today, after twenty years a classmate or a friend may remember what we said and be saved. Many people have this testimony. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said, “In this the saying is true, One sows and another reaps” (John 4:37). The young saints should sow seeds today, and it may be that twenty years from now someone in Europe will reap the harvest. God will add the ones who are saved to our account. Therefore, we must sow the seeds. Paul says, “Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

COORDINATING TO PREACH THE GOSPEL [IN THE SCHOOLS]

There is a new arrangement in the church….The young people on the…campuses and the full-timers must work together to fight for the gospel. They can coordinate together to lead [students] to study the Bible or to have meetings in order to be saved. I hope that every [student] can lead two classmates to salvation in one semester. Then they will all have two new ones. The students can bring in four new ones in one year. There are now more than one thousand three hundred students attending the training. According to our calculations, by this time next year there will be more than five thousand students if every student leads four people to salvation in a year. We should not say that this is not easy to achieve; it all depends on us. Some of the young people can lead even twelve people to salvation in a year. We need to make great resolutions in heart and have great searchings of heart (Judg. 5:15-16). [The Fullness of God, chapter 8]