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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; 18:17; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19; 1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19b; 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11; Eph. 5:25, 29, 32; John 3:29; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9; 22:17; Eph. 6:11-12; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11-13, 20; 1 Cor. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:20
The church is God’s ultimate goal. God’s goal is not just to have many individual believers. His goal is to have a corporate church that can be His house and the Body of His Son. This church is God’s expression. The church is both God’s household expressing God the Father and the Body of Christ expressing Christ as the One who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9). What we are going to cover in this chapter is an extract of the divine revelation concerning the church in the New Testament.
The church is first an ekklesia. This Greek word denotes a called-out congregation. In ancient times when the city called its citizens together for a gathering, that congregation was an ekklesia. The New Testament, beginning with the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16, uses this word to denote the church (v. 18). The church is a congregation called out by God unto Himself. The Brethren prefer to use the word assembly. I believe this is a better word to use, because the word church in English has been very much spoiled.
When I was growing up in China, we understood the word church to mean a building with a bell tower. To many of us the church was a building. Today many people think the same. They say that they are going to church, meaning to a building. This concept is absolutely off. We must drop this thought. The church is not a lifeless building but something organic, full of life.
The church is an assembly of living persons, not a physical building without life. However, to consider the church as merely a called-out congregation, an assembly, is still superficial. There may be a congregation, an assembly, yet without life. Today there are many large congregations in our society that are without the divine life.
The church is also the house of God (1 Pet. 2:5). By this we do not mean merely that the church is the dwelling of God. This Greek word oikos means not only the house, the dwelling, but also the household. Oikos means both the house and also the folks, the family, that make up the household; thus, it may also be translated as “household” (Eph. 2:19).
God’s dwelling place today on earth is the church, and God, as such a great Father, has a family, which is the church. For our family life we have a house, and inside the house we have the family. To us the house is one thing, and the family another; the house is the building, and the family is the people who live there. God’s house and God’s family, however, are the same. The house is the family, and the family is the house.
We as the church are God’s house, God’s dwelling place. At the same time, we are God’s family. Both the house of God and the family of God are one entity, that is, a group of regenerated, called ones, indwelt by God Himself. These called ones, who have been regenerated by God with His life and who are being indwelt by this living God with all that He is, are both God’s dwelling place and His family. This is more than an assembly. This is different from a group or organization of people. This is something organic — organic in the divine life, organic in the divine nature, and organic in the Triune God.
Some stressed the ekklesia very much, but they did not pay much attention to the organic aspect of the church. They did not say much about the church as God’s family. We must realize, though, that the church is organic; it is the living house of God. Paul says that the church is the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15) and that this house grows (Eph. 2:21). Does your house grow? Our houses do not grow. They depreciate. But God’s house grows! For something to grow, it must be living. Anything without life cannot grow. Anything that grows is organic, with life. Hallelujah, we are growing!
In 1964 I went to Plainview, Texas, to visit a small group of saints. Then in 1965 I went to Waco, Texas, to visit another small group. Without faith I would have been fully disappointed. When the news went to New York, a dear brother with whom I had been co-working for a number of years said to another brother that he did not believe that these small groups in Texas would last. In 1968 I went to Lubbock, Texas. I did not see a big church; rather I saw something that needed much faith. By His mercy I did have that faith. Then the saints in Texas moved to Houston in 1969, and I went to visit them. The situation there was somewhat encouraging but not entirely so. My visits to Irving, however, in 1982 and 1983 made me excited. There has been much growth among the churches in Texas because the church is something living. It is the living house of the living God. It is not something of organization but something of life; thus, its growth is by life.
God’s house, the family of God, is organic, but in a sense it is not as organic as the Body. The church is the Body of Christ. A group of Christians may be an assembly but may not actually be the house of God, because they do not live in the spirit. They may say that they are the Body of Christ, but actually they may not be, because they are still living in the natural life. As long as we live in our natural life, we are not the Body of Christ.
When I was young, I heard of two or three elders who met together to talk about matters in their so-called church. Eventually, one threw his Bible, and another got up and walked out. Was that the Body? That was not the Body but the fallen flesh.
What is the Body? Look at yourself. Your body is the greatest part of your being. Nothing can be your body but you yourself. Dentures are not a part of your body; they are something extra without any life. Our real teeth are joined to our body not by organization but by life. They grow organically in our body. A member of your body is organic; it grows in an organic union with your body. Whatever is not in organic union with your body is foreign to it.
In like manner, the Body of Christ is an organism, not an organization. A podium, for example, consists of pieces of wood organized and fitted together. A man’s body, on the other hand, is not organized but organic, full of life.
The church is not only the living family of God the Father but even more a living organism of Christ the Head. Christianity has fallen into a state where there is organization instead of life. There are millions of Christians on earth. They have been forgiven through Christ’s redemption, washed by His precious blood, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit; they are children of God and members of Christ. Yet, actually, in their life and service what is seen is an organization, not an organism. Christ is organic, but “anity” is not. Any kind of anity, including Christianity and even “local churchanity,” is an organization.
The church should be only organic, an organism full of the life of Christ. Whatever you do must be from the life within. You are living. You have Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God living in you. Do not move by yourself. Move by Him. Do not act by yourself. Act by Him. Sometimes when I have intended to visit a brother, I have been held back because I realized that Christ was not going to visit that brother. It was only I, the natural I, the good I, the I with good intentions; it was altogether myself, not Christ. Then I would pray, giving my position, my ground, and everything pertaining to this visit to the Lord. Then the Lord began to go with me. There are many who love the Lord and are devoted to Him and yet who do not realize that their natural life should be put aside.
In the new man, the church, there “cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:10-11). All denotes people. To say that Christ is all means that He is you, He is me, and He is everyone else in the church. To say that Christ is in all means that He is in everyone in the church. The new man, the church, is not Chinese, Japanese, French, English, German, or American. The new man is Christ. Therefore, when we act as those who are Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, American, British, German, French, or Italian, we are no longer the church. In the new man there is no Jew and no Greek. Actually, in the new man there cannot be any Jew or Greek. There cannot be any Chinese or any Japanese. In the new man there cannot be any white or any black. If you still want to be black or white, you are through with the Body of Christ. The church is an organism. Therefore, we must act in our spirit, totally repudiating our natural life.
Many Christians do not understand what the word fullness means in Ephesians 1:23 and 3:19. They think that the word fullness means riches. Ephesians 1:23 says that the church “is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Grammatically, the fullness is in apposition to His Body; this means that the Body is the fullness, and the fullness is the Body. Fullness does not mean the riches. In Ephesians the unsearchable riches of Christ are mentioned in 3:8. We must differentiate between the riches and the fullness. The United States has supermarkets full of the riches of America. The riches of America are its products, but the fullness of America is a husky American. This fullness is the expression.
The fullness comes out of the riches. However, if we do not eat and digest the riches, we may have them without having the fullness. The riches issue in the fullness through eating and digesting. If we do not eat and digest the riches, we will remain skinny and short. In like manner, the church is not only the Body of Christ but also the fullness, the expression, that issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ.
This fullness is the expression of the very One, the universal Christ, who fills all in all. Colossians 3:11 says that Christ is all and in all. All, both times in this verse, refers to people. In Ephesians 1:23, however, the “all in all” that Christ fills is something universal. Christ is unlimited (v. 23; 3:18). The dimensions of the universe are actually the dimensions of Christ. How long is the length? How high is the height? How deep is the depth? How broad is the breadth? No one can tell. The dimensions of Christ in Ephesians 3:18 are unsearchable and unlimited. These dimensions are the description of Christ.
Christ fills all in all, and we the church, by enjoying His riches, eventually become His fullness. If I had only a head, without a body, I would have no fullness. This fullness is my expression. We must realize that the church as the Body of Christ is Christ’s fullness as His expression.
In Ephesians 3:19 the King James Version says that we are “filled with all the fullness of God.” The preposition with literally means “unto, resulting in.” We are filled unto all the fullness of God. We are filled, resulting in an expression of God. Fullness here means expression. Paul says he prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into the inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts and that we may know Christ’s dimensions — the breadth, length, height, and depth — that we may be filled unto, resulting in, the fullness of God, the expression of God (vv. 14-19).
The entire book of Ephesians deals with the church. It is the house or household of God (2:19), it is the Body of Christ (1:23), and it is the fullness as the expression of Christ and of God (v. 23; 3:19). According to chapter 3, the church can be such an expression, not only of Christ but also of God, when Christ makes His home in our hearts so that we may experience His unsearchable riches. While we are enjoying Him in such a way, we are being filled with all the riches of Christ, resulting in an expression of God.
The church today should be such an expression, issuing out of the rich enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We are burdened for the situation among Christians. Where is there an expression of God? I hope that among us there will be such an expression. We all need to pray for ourselves as Paul did for us in Ephesians 3. We should bow our knees to the Father, that He may strengthen us into our inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts, fully settling down in every avenue, every part, of our inner being. Then we may enjoy His love, and we may touch and possess His dimensions. We will be filled with Him unto the fullness of God, the expression of God. This is not just an assembly or a called-out congregation of Christians. This is a group of people fully possessed by Christ and enjoying Christ to the uttermost, being saturated by Him and filled with Him to such an extent that they become an expression of God.
Whatever we eat we express. When I was young, I would sometimes visit my grandparents who lived at the seashore. They often ate fish, whereas our family hardly ever ate fish. Whenever I went to my grandparents’ home, I smelled nothing but fish. One day I asked my mother why everyone there smelled like fish. My mother replied, “Do you not know that they eat fish every day? That is why they smell like fish!” We become and we express what we eat.
When we eat Jesus, we “smell of” Him (2 Cor. 2:15), we express Him, and we become Him. What is the church? The church is the expression of the very Christ whom we eat. All the fullness of the Godhead is embodied in this Christ, and this very Christ is our bread of life (John 6:48). He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). When we eat Christ, we live by Him. This Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God; when we eat Christ, we eat the Triune God. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, is our daily manna, our daily food. We eat Him, so we express Him. This expression is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Eventually, this is the fullness of the Triune God. We can be such an expression by eating Jesus. Let Him saturate your entire being. Let Him settle in every room, every avenue, and every corner of your inner being — in your mind, your emotion, your will, your conscience, your soul, and your spirit, in your loving, your decisions, your intention, and your motive. Whatever you do must be filled with Christ.
To eat Jesus is simply to take Him in and let Him be assimilated into our being. To eat means to receive food into our being; to eat Jesus means to receive Him into our being. The issue of our eating Him is the fullness of the One who fills all in all and also of the very Triune God. This fullness is the church. The church is not only an assembly, nor is it only the house of God, the family of God; it is also the Body, an organism of this living One, which eventually becomes His fullness and the fullness of the Triune God.
Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ through the cross abolished “in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man.” Then in Ephesians 4:22-24 we are told to put off the old man and to put on the new man. This new man is the Body of Christ. To put on the new man means to live a life by the Body. Before our salvation we were living in the old man, in the old society, but now we are members of Christ, living in His Body. We should put off the old man with the old social life, and we should put on the new man, the church. In this new man there is nothing natural, nothing Jewish, nothing Greek, nothing of social rank; everyone is full of Christ, so Christ is everyone, and Christ is in everyone (Col. 3:10-11). There is nothing but Christ in the new man. Our life is Christ, our living is Christ, our intention is Christ, our ambition is Christ, our will is Christ, our love is Christ, and everything else about us is Christ. He saturates our entire being.
This new man, according to Ephesians 4:17-32, lives a life by grace and reality. These are the two main factors in the living of such a new man to fulfill God’s purpose. God needs a new man on this earth to fulfill His purpose, to carry out His intention.
In Ephesians 5 we have the church as the bride of Christ (vv. 25, 29, 32; see also John 3:29; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9; 22:17). Christ gave Himself on the cross not just for you and me individually but for the church. When we think about Christ’s death, we usually consider only ourselves individually. Yes, Christ loved us and died on the cross for each one of us, but His death was mainly for the church.
Christ also nourishes and cherishes the church (Eph. 5:29). To nourish is to feed. To cherish is to embrace with loving care, full of warmth, like a mother holding her child in her bosom. Christ treats His church in this nourishing and cherishing way.
The great mystery spoken of in 5:32 refers to Christ and the church. Chapter 5 refers to love (vv. 2, 25) and light (vv. 8-9, 13). Love is the source of grace, and light is the source of truth. When light shines, there is truth. When love is expressed, there is grace. In chapter 4 as the new man, the church experiences grace and reality, but in chapter 5 the bride that satisfies Christ experiences something deeper and higher, that is, love and light. As the new man, the church fulfills God’s purpose. As the bride, the church satisfies Christ’s desire. He is the Husband, and the church is His wife, satisfying her Husband’s desire.
In chapter 4 the new man fulfills God’s purpose. In chapter 5 the bride satisfies Christ’s heart’s desire. Now in chapter 6 the church fights against God’s enemy as the warrior (vv. 10-17).
The universal aspect of the church is mentioned in Matthew 16:18. When Peter recognized that the Lord Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God, the Lord told him that He would build His church on this rock. The church here is universal, comprising all the believers of all times and in all places, including Paul, Peter, and all the saints throughout these twenty centuries (1 Cor. 12:13).
The local aspect of the church was referred to by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:17. The Lord Jesus in the four Gospels mentioned the church only twice: once in Matthew 16:18, referring to its universal aspect, and the second time in Matthew 18:17, referring to its local aspect.
In Matthew 18 the Lord Jesus said that if we have any problem that we cannot solve, we should tell it to the church. This refers to the church in a certain locality. It would be hard to tell a problem to the universal church. Today many Christians who love the Lord care only for the universal church. In their concept, as long as they are members of the Body of Christ, that is good enough; but we would ask, practically speaking, where is their church? If we have any problem that needs the church’s help to be solved, where shall we go? We must have a local church that we are part of, from which we can get help and to which we may go with our problems.
Universally, the church is one. But locally, the churches are many. In Acts 8:1 there is the church in Jerusalem. In Acts 13:1 there is the church in Antioch. Then there are churches mentioned in Acts 14:23 and 15:41; here the word churches is used because there were a number of cities in these regions. In Romans 16:1 there is the church in Cenchrea. There is the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2). In Galatians 1:2 we have the churches of Galatia; there were several because Galatia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire with many cities. In Revelation 1:4 and 11 there are the seven churches in Asia. Asia was also a province.
Verse 11 says, “What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” This verse reveals that a local church equals a local city. To write to the church in Ephesus means to write to the city of Ephesus. These are local churches. A local church is not a term used as a name, but it describes the fact of one church in a locality. The church does not have a name, just as the moon does not have a name. There is no such thing as an American moon or a Chinese moon. The moon in China is the same moon as in other countries. When it is over China, it is the moon in China. When it is over Britain, it is the moon in Britain. It is the one moon. In like manner, the church is one; it is unique. The church is both local and universal.
These local churches are lampstands. A lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. How do we know this? First, the substance of the lampstand is gold, signifying God the Father and the divine nature. Then, the lampstand has a shape; it is not just a lump of gold but has a definite form. This signifies Christ as the very embodiment of God. Third, the seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lamb and the seven Spirits of God (5:6; 4:5). The seven lamps as the seven Spirits of God are the expression of the Triune God. The Spirit is the expression, the Son is the shape, the form, and the Father is the substance of the church as the wonderful lampstand.
To say that the church is the embodiment of the Triune God is not to make the church a part of deity, an object of worship. We mean that the church is an entity born of God (John 1:12-13), possessing God’s life (1 John 5:11-12) and enjoying God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The church has the divine substance, bears the likeness of Christ, and expresses the very God. Since we have been born of God, we surely have God’s life and possess His nature, and we enjoy this life and nature every day. We are learning by His mercy and grace not to live by our natural life but by the divine life and nature. As we are thus being transformed, there will be the fullness, the expression, the form, the appearance, of Christ, and we will be shining, not by ourselves but by the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
The church is the embodiment of the Triune God to express Him. We as members of Christ are the sons of God born of Him, having His life and possessing His nature. We are doing our best to live by this life and nature so that we may be filled and saturated with this rich Christ to become His expression through the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
This is a local church. It is not just an outward assembly. It is something inward, of life, yet expressing the very God. Dear saints, this is God’s goal.
The content of the church is the pneumatic Christ. Great teachers in early church history used such a term. It means that Christ is identical to the pneuma, to the Spirit. We cannot explain this, yet it is a fact. Today you and I are living Christ. Christ is not only our inner life but also our outward living. Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21a). We live Christ. He is not merely the objective Christ sitting on the throne; this Christ who is on the throne at the right hand of God simultaneously is within us.
How can Christ be on the throne in the heavens and also be within us? Romans 8:34 tells us clearly that Christ is at the right hand of God, but verse 10 of the same chapter says, “Christ is in you.” In the same chapter, one verse tells us that Christ is in the heavens, and another verse tells us that Christ is in us.
Electricity provides us with a good illustration of how this can be. The light in a room comes from electricity. This electricity is at the same time in the power plant and in the room. There is a current of electricity. This current connects the power plant to the building. Similarly, Christ is “electrical,” pneumatic. There is a current from the throne of God to our spirit. Hallelujah! Our spirits are all connected to the heavenly throne, just as the lights in a room are all connected to the power plant by the inner current of electricity. The current of electricity is simply the electricity itself. The current is the electricity in motion. The moving electricity is the current. Christ is the moving pneuma. In his first Epistle, John calls this moving current the fellowship (1:3). The fellowship is the current of Christ. Christ is circulating, moving. We are short of the human utterance to describe something so mysterious and profound. Electricity, however, can help us illustrate such a mysterious, abstract matter.
Our Christ is the current of electricity. Our Christ is the blood circulation in His Body. He is the very fellowship between God and us and among all God’s children. The current is the pneumatic Christ, and this pneumatic Christ is the very content of the church. Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), is always moving to impart Himself into us. The purpose of the electric current is to impart electricity into the bulbs so that they might all express the light of electricity. This pneumatic Christ is moving within us for the purpose of imparting Himself into us so that we may express His life. We all have been baptized in Him, and now we are drinking Him (12:13).
The church’s foundation is Christ, revealed and ministered through the apostles and prophets. Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This foundation is the very Christ whom they ministered to others. Paul says that Christ is the unique foundation that he laid. No one can lay another foundation (1 Cor. 3:10-11). The Christ who is the foundation of the church is the unique Christ revealed and ministered by the early apostles, as recorded in the New Testament.
We must stay with this Christ. We should not take “another Christ.” How grateful we are to the Lord that He has kept His holy Word on this earth and that under His sovereignty it has been translated into so many languages! What a mercy! If there were no Bible on this earth, what a dark age this would be. Hallelujah, we have the Bible! This is surely the lamp shining in a dark place (2 Pet. 1:19). It has become the light of our pathway (Psa. 119:105), and we are walking in this light — the light of the Bible.
First Corinthians 3:11 says there is no other foundation that can be laid except the unique foundation, Jesus Christ. Before a foundation can be laid, however, a house must have a site on which it can be built. The lot is the ground on which the foundation is built. Then the house is built on top of the foundation. The structure is built upon the foundation, and the foundation is laid on the ground.
The Catholic Church claims that its foundation is Christ. The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches also claim that their foundation is Christ. All the denominations make this same claim. Their foundation, however, is built upon different grounds. The Presbyterian Church is built upon Christ on the Presbyterian ground. The Baptist Church is built upon Christ on the ground of immersion in their water. The Methodists have a Methodist ground upon which Christ as their foundation is built. The various denominations follow the same way. They build their denomination on Christ, but on their particular ground.
We do not like to criticize, but we must speak the truth. I feel sorrowful that the Southern Baptist Church only recognizes those who are immersed in their water and by their pastors. If someone has been immersed elsewhere, they will not let him join them unless he accepts their immersion done by their pastor. This makes Baptist immersion the ground and makes them a sect, a denomination. The Church of Christ has a similar practice, except that they believe in baptismal regeneration, that their water can regenerate those who are baptized in it.
Before I came to Dallas in 1966, I was invited by a brother in Los Angeles to his home for dinner. While we were eating, a brother asked if I believed in water baptism. I said, “I believe in water baptism and in Spirit baptism as well.” He immediately began to argue that there is no such thing as water baptism in the Bible. I had been a Christian for forty years and had never heard any Christian say that in the New Testament there is no water baptism. When I referred him to John 3:5 about being born of water and the Spirit, he said that the water there is the water in the mother’s womb! To him everyone must first be born of his mother, signified by the water, and then he must be born of the Spirit. I had never heard such an explanation. The concept was so off that I felt there was no need to talk further.
The next morning I flew to Dallas. In the evening I held a meeting there. While I was speaking, a bold woman asked me about water baptism. I found out that she was from the Church of Christ and was totally for water baptism in their water. In Los Angeles someone had been completely against water baptism, and the very next day in Dallas there was someone completely for water baptism. Such is today’s situation. People build a so-called church on their kind of ground.
All the different denominations came into existence on their different grounds. Their different names — Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, and others — are the grounds on which they build their church. On what ground are you being built? Do not say on Christ. Every Christian says that. Whatever denomination or group you go to, they will say that their foundation is Christ. But what about the ground where the foundation is laid?
What is our ground? The ground from the very beginning of the Christian era, from the time of the apostles, is the unique oneness of the Body of Christ, kept and expressed in each local church at its locality (Rev. 1:11). This means that we Christians, in whatever locality we are, come together to be the church there. We have no other ground than that of the unique oneness of the Body of Christ. A local church is an expression of the universal church. The church universally is one, and this one Body of Christ is expressed in many localities. In every locality where there are a number of saints, these saints should come together as the church there, not to take the ground of baptism by immersion, tongue-speaking, the presbytery, a method, the episcopal system, or any ground except that of being one with all others meeting there as a local expression of the Body of Christ.
This unique oneness should be the ground on which we are being built. We should not be sectarian; we should not be exclusive. We must be all-inclusive, open and loving to all the dear saints. As long as they are Christians, they are our brothers. Our brothers have been scattered to many denominations. In spite of this, we still love them. We should not have an attitude or spirit of fighting, opposing, or debating. That is wrong. We should always hold a spirit and an attitude of loving all Christians. As long as they bear the name Christian and believe in the Lord Jesus, they are our brothers and sisters. In the local churches we do not have any wall. We have no fence. We consider all the dear Christians as our brothers.
We must learn the truth, grow in life, and go out to contact people. What we say will depend on our discernment. If the person is not saved, we will preach the gospel. If we find out that he is a Christian, we can present the truth we have learned. Christians greatly appreciate the truth. Maybe we could present the truth of transformation as in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Then, if possible, we can minister life to him by witnessing, telling him how we have received Christ and how we experience Him as life. A testimony will minister life to people. Do not expect to bring people to the meeting to have an increase for the church. Leave the matter of increase in the Lord’s hands. Our testimony is not a great number. Our testimony is a group of saints living in the spirit, walking according to the spirit, and being the living expression of Jesus in the family, at school, on the job, and in the church life. Our burden is to present the gospel to the unsaved, the truth to the saved, and life to the seeking ones. Leave the church matter to the Lord. Let each person choose for himself according to his discernment. No one can manage today’s Christianity. It is too big. We have to realize our smallness. We are to live Christ and walk in the spirit, being the living testimony to Him. In this way we will be a benefit to all those whom we contact. We should not expect to have them come to our meeting. If they would like to come, of course we do not refuse them. I hope that we are all clear about where we stand and how we practice the church life. May the Lord bless us all.
