Life-study of Hebrews (45)

Have you ever been asked whether your salvation is eternally secure? Today some are theologians are peddling this teaching of an "elevator salvation" which blatantly undermines the pure revelation of the Scripture. Imagine that you could wake up one morning as a called, redeemed, and regenerated person but then loose your salvation by the end of the day? Such an erroneous concept actually exposes a huge cavity of misunderstanding in today's theological circles regarding regeneration (more on this later). Anyway, in this chapter Witness Lee addresses this pernicious teaching and unpacks a few verses (e.g. Eph. 1:5, John 6:39, 1 John 4:10, Rom. 8:38-39, Rom. 1:16-17, Heb. 8:8-13, John 10:28-29, James 1:17, Rom.  8:34) to draw a clear line between dispensational punishment and eternal perdition. I'm not going to be able to summarize the main points, but here are two enjoyable quotes:

Both God's selection and calling, being initiated by Him, not by us, are the security of our salvation.

 Our works may often fail, but God's grace never fails. our salvation is secured not by our works but by God's prevailing grace which comes out of His unchanging love.

(Lee, Witness. Life-study of Hebrews, p.501) 

Bible & Ministry Reading Project

It is likely that this plan is overly-ambitious, but I'm going to attempt a creative Bible & ministry reading schedule. The idea is that each day you read 1 chapter of the Bible, 1 Life-study message, and 1 chapter in a ministry book. So here goes...

I'm currently reading 1 John w/ footnotes; with the help of the Read His Word website. This aspect of the schedule is simple. It involves reading just the verses in the morning, and coming back to read the footnotes later in the day. Whether we do a whole chapter a day or less is insignificant. My main priority is that each morning begin with a nourishing time in the Word. And ReadHisWord.com is helpful because I want to set deadlines and (attempt to) keep them.

For a few months I've been reading through the Life-study of Hebrews, by Witness Lee. Today I'm slated to read message forty-four (that's 44) regarding our coming forward to the Holy of Holies rather than shrinking back to Judaism - which actually is surprisingly relevant to our Christian living today. Anyway, the idea with the Life-study reading is nothing too fancy, just read, highlight, underline, enjoy, etc. The days of outlining Life-study messages (often on a Monday) are now just a treasured memory.

The real highlight of this schedule is the daily ministry reading rotation. This may turn out to be overwhelming, but I consider it nothing more than a solution to a daunting, even life-threatening issue (i.e., which ministry books to read and where to begin). So each day (Monday - *Friday) receives a ministry book assignment based on five, okay, maybe six categories:

1. High Peak books

2. Witness Lee classics

2. God-ordained Way messages

3. Watchman Nee classics

4. Ministry of the Word Magazine

5. Secular reading (give me a break)

6. *Whatever I want to read

Okay sure, there could obviously be overlap between these categories. Strictly speaking they are not mutually exclusive; a book I consider as a "Witness Lee classic" could possibly be a high peak book or a GOW book, but I'm making the rules, not you. 

So each of these categories will correspond to a day of the week. There could possibly be significance to the matching of day and category (like a delicate wine and cheese pairing, if you will). For example, if you select the Ministry Magazine that matches your HWMR it may fit well on Saturday as you begin to compose your prophesy. A GOW book might be fun to read on Friday. You could read it before your home meeting to figure out what to do, or after the home meeting to figure out what you did wrong. Of if you're slick you might just start your week in the GOW.

Obviously these pairings need more consideration and thorough prayer. Each day this week (starting tonight) I'll have a post to introduce the "book of the day" and explain why it was selected. If you are lucky there may even be a frameable (spelling?) quote or tasty excerpt. Stay tuned...


*Saturday is still under consideration,

Ivan Turgenev

Shubin writes from time to time to Uvar Ivanovitch, who alone has remained quite unaltered in all respects. 'Do you remember,' he wrote to him lately, 'what you said to me that night, when poor Elena's marriage was made known, when I was sitting on your bed talking to you? Do you remember I asked you, "Will there ever be men among us?" and you answered "There will be." O primeval force! And now from here in "my poetic distance," I will ask you again: "What do you say, Uvar Ivanovitch, will there be?"'

Uvar Ivanovitch flourished his fingers and fixed his enigmatical stare into the far distance.

Word of the Day

The Training, Nee

(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 26: Collection of Newsletters (2) & Watchman Nee's Testimony, Chapter 8, Section 5)

If the return of the Lord should be delayed, it will be necessary to raise up a number of young people to continue the testimony and the work for the following generations. Many co-workers have already prayed concerning this matter with the hope of providing a suitable place for the purpose of training young people. My thought is not to establish a seminary or a Bible institute, but to have young people staying together to live the Body life and practice the spiritual life. In such a place they would receive training for the purpose of edification, by learning to read the Scripture, to pray, and to build up a good character. On the negative side, there would be training for the purpose of learning how to deal with sin, the world, the flesh, and the natural life. At a suitable time, the young people would return to their respective churches in various places to be tempered together with other saints to serve the Lord in the church. I have purchased over ten acres of land at Chenru, in the suburbs of Shanghai. Planning for building on that site is in progress, and before long, young people will be able to go there for training.

In the future my personal burden and work will generally comprise these four aspects. May all the glory be to the Lord. We have nothing at all in ourselves, and though we have done something, we admit to being useless and unprofitable servants.

Quote of the Week

"A turning point in our spiritual history does not come through our decision to do something for God; it comes when we see Him."

#WatchmanNee

(cf Acts 9:6)

Word of the Day

Gaggle - a noisy or jumbled group or crowd.

Quote of the Week

"The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know."

- Blaise Pascal  (French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and philosopher)