Quote of the Week

"I would like to say a word to the young people who have the heart to serve the Lord full-time. I must tell you that hardships await you and that there is no future for you on earth. You will have nothing earthly on which to rely for your security and for your human living. You may feel that you will be very useful to God, but in the end you will be ashes. Everyone wants to be somebody, but if you would serve the Lord Jesus full-time, you must prepare yourself to be nobody, even to be ashes. Are you willing to be burned? To be burned to ashes is a matter not of enjoyment but of suffering. The destiny of a full-timer is a life of suffering. What is offered to God as a burnt offering must be on the place of burning, not on the place of anything glorious or high. Eventually, the outcome of such a life, a life of suffering, a life without a future and without security, will be a heap of ashes." 

- Witness Lee, Life-study of Leviticus.

The National plays D.C.

Hip and somewhat upbeat, with somber lyrics and Leonard Cohen vocals. This is an old favorite: The National. Take a listen, and tell me what you think about the last piece on the set, it's "About Today."

What is the church?

In the past all the churches tried to invite gifted co-workers to work, preach the gospel, and edify their saints. But I would ask a question: What is the church? The church is where everyone rises up to serve. The church is not just a few people like Witness Lee, Watchman Nee, and Peace Wang. Only when the entire Body rises up is there the church. The church is the Body of Christ, and everyone is useful. We should never think that we have the church as long as we have a wooden table to conduct the Lord's table or that we have the church as long as we have a few strong members. The church involves all the material, that is, all the one-talented ones coming together to serve. Not everyone has to be like Brother Lee before he can be a piece of material. The church is not a conglomeration of five-talented ones; it is not a corporation of two-talented ones. It is a Body composed mainly of one-talented ones. When men like you and I come together to serve, we have the church. When all the one-talented ones are coordinated together, that will be a potent force. Only by serving this way will we have a strong church.

You should not put your hope on better and stronger ones coming to join you. You can gospelize the place where you are with the number you have now. In a strong church a great evangelist would be treated just like one of the brothers. Suppose there is a church with two or three hundred people. There may not be any five-talented and two-talented ones. Perhaps all the saints are one-talented ones. You may think that something is lacking, but if all these so-called "untalented" ones would coordinate together, God would have a way to go on. Never think that you are too short. A person like yourself is more than qualified. I believe that the age of giants is over in the church life. Perhaps in the next generation, the so-called "giants" that we have now will disappear altogether. Today is the end time forgiants. What God wants today is the service of the whole Body. Today God forbids any member from becoming too strong. What He wants is a strong church.

(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 3) Vol. 62: Matured Leadings in the Lord's Recovery (2), Chapter 2, Section 4)

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.