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Since Life Lessons and the home meetings are closely related, we need to have a basic knowledge of Life Lessons.
First, the Life Lessons have been specifically prepared for the home meetings of new believers. The first two volumes cover different matters between a believer and God that he should know, understand, and practice immediately after his salvation. Then the last two volumes cover the full salvation that God has prepared in Christ for us who have believed into Him, the riches that we have obtained in Christ, the experience that we should have in Christ, the things that we should accomplish in Christ, and the goal that we should attain in Christ.
Second, it is difficult to avoid certain terms that are relatively deep and hard for new believers to understand. There is no need for added explanation while reading these lessons in the meetings. As lesson after lesson is read, a thorough understanding of the terms will be acquired. Even if there is not such a thorough understanding at the time, this understanding will be gained gradually.
Third, knowledge is empty and the letter kills; only Christ is reality, and only the Spirit gives life. Thus, there must be prayer, confession of sins, and the abundantly rich filling and saturation with the Spirit of Christ before reading these lessons. In reading, there should be the practice of depending less on the mind and more on the spirit, rejecting the old way of knowledge and emphasizing the new way of life. Sentence after sentence that is being read should be pushed out by the spirit with life that others’ spirits may be touched for them to receive the life supply of the pneumatic Christ. This point can be considered to be the most important.
As a matter of fact, the word of God does not require us to use our mind too much to think. Rather, it requires our spirit to touch the Holy Spirit. Then we are spontaneously enlightened within. Thinking causes us to have only knowledge, and knowledge is merely the letter, which is empty and which kills. When we use our spirit, we touch life. Life contains Christ, and Christ is the reality.
If we all exercise in this way when leading a home meeting, from the beginning people will touch the Spirit in their spirit, touching Christ and receiving life. They will not fall into Christianity’s old way of knowledge. We have observed in certain students in the seminaries that the more they read the Bible, the more deadened they become. As they study, God seems to be gone, and their faith toward God is also gone. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and must use their spirit. If they use the wrong organ, they will have no way to worship God. If a person is speaking, but we cover our ears and only keep our eyes open, we will hear nothing. We hear with our ears, and we see with our eyes. In the same way, in order to touch God we must use our spirit.
The Bible is not merely the letter. The Bible is God’s word, which is spirit and life. The Lord Jesus told His disciples, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). He said to the Jews that He is the bread of life and that he who eats Him shall live because of Him (vv. 48, 57). However, they did not know how to use their spirit but could use only their mind. As a result, they could not understand Him and began a contention.
In John 5:39-40 the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life...Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” The Jews searched the Scriptures not only once; they searched them again and again. However, the Lord said, “Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” This shows us that we may search the Scriptures, but we may not necessarily receive life. If we merely read the Bible without coming forward to the Lord and drawing near to Him, we can receive only knowledge but not the Lord of life. Knowledge is empty, and the letter kills. Only Christ is reality, and only the Spirit gives life. Therefore, the Lord Jesus told the disciples, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (6:63).
What is the old way of knowledge? We may illustrate this with John 1:1, which says, “In the beginning was the Word.” If a person who reads this verse studies it only with his mind, he will ask what “in the beginning” is. When is “the beginning”? What does “the beginning” mean? As a result, he may go to check with the dictionary and discover that in Chinese there is only “in the ancient times” and not “in the beginning.” We may use another example in which a person reads Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He may ask, “What is this God? How did He create the heavens and the earth?” As a result, after thinking for half a day, he still will not understand anything. This is the old way of knowledge, a natural and lifeless way of reading. A person may read the Bible for half a year or a full year and not receive any life at all.
It is this old way of knowledge that we have to reject. When we open the Bible, we should care for nothing else. The Bible says, “In the beginning,” and we should follow to say, “In the beginning. Amen, in the beginning. Amen! Oh, the beginning is the starting point. In the beginning was the Word. Amen! Oh, at the starting point was the Word. Amen! The Word was God. Praise the Lord, at the starting point was God! Oh, in the beginning was God, and God is the starting point, the origin, and the source!” If we read in this way, we will receive life. We can use another example. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We may pray, “Oh, God created. Praise the Lord, God did not form or make the heavens and the earth, but He created them! Oh, God created the heavens. God created the earth. Eventually, He created me!” In this way the Bible, the word of God, is applied to us. This is the proper way to read the Bible, reading it in the way of life.
Over thirty years ago we began to have a “life-study” of the Bible. Previously, such a thing could not be found in the history of Christianity. From that day onward, our study of the Bible has been a study in life, not in knowledge. We study with our spirit, not with our mind, and we study by prayer, not by thinking. If we study by thinking, we would use our mind to explain. This is the old way of knowledge. Instead, we study with our spirit, which requires us to pray. What do we pray with? We pray with the Scriptures that we read. For example, in the sentence, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” there are five excellent words or phrases: in the beginning, God, created, the heavens, and the earth. Although we do not read mainly with our mind, this does not mean that we do not use our mind at all. We still have to use our mind to understand the text. We need to understand the literal meaning of this sentence — in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth — by using our mind. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we read with our eyes, then comprehend with our mind, and then receive what we read with our spirit.
Reading with the eyes, comprehending with the mind, and receiving with the spirit are the three steps of reading the Bible. A big mistake of the old way of knowledge in general is that after people read with their eyes, they think too much with their mind without going on to the third step of receiving with their spirit. The ones who read in this way do not seem to have a spirit, or their spirit seems to be dead, so they rely entirely on their mind. Consequently, after studying for a long period of time, they are killed and do not receive any life supply. Whatever we do, we need to use the right organ. Therefore, when we read a verse like Genesis 1:1, we read first with our eyes, we understand the text with our mind, and then we receive and assimilate these words with our spirit. How do we use the spirit? It is by praying. We can compare this to walking. Can we forget about our legs and use our nose, ears, shoulders, or head to walk? We all would say that this is foolish. In order to walk, we must use our legs. When we step out with our legs, we spontaneously are walking. It is the same with spiritual matters. Once we pray, we are using our spirit: “O Lord Jesus! In the beginning. Oh, in the beginning God! God created. Oh, God created the heavens, the earth, and man! God also created me. Thank You, God, You created the heavens and the earth, and You also created me.” In this way our spirit is activated.
When we are sad, we should not try to listen to joyful messages. The more we listen to them, the sadder we may become. Neither should we use our mind to look for some verses in the Bible about rejoicing. We simply need to open up the Bible. When we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” we can say to the Lord, “O Lord, in the beginning! O Lord! In the beginning! In the beginning God created.” Once we use our spirit in this way to touch God, we will spontaneously rejoice. It is not by reading the word rejoice that we rejoice. Rather, we rejoice when we use the spirit to touch God. Similarly, some people say that Christians should have power, but we do not have power by talking about power. Instead, power comes from our touching God through pray-reading. This is a very wonderful matter.
In the past some people said that what we are saying here is merely a kind of psychology. They say that when a person calls on the Lord and pray-reads, he is only emotionally released and uplifted. If this is only psychological, they can try praying to George Washington, calling, “George! O George! O Washington!” He can also try calling on Confucius or a popular Chinese idol to see if he will receive an inner feeling. It is remarkable that the more a person calls on an idol or George Washington, the less of a joyful feeling he has. However, when he calls, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” the more joyful and powerful he feels within. This is absolutely not a matter of mental response, because calling other names has no effect. Only by our calling on the unique name of the Lord Jesus will something happen inwardly.
If pray-reading is entirely a matter of mental response, a person can also try to pray-read the newspaper and see what happens. For example, a newspaper headline may read, “Government decides to suspend foreign exchange controls.” One can start to read aloud, “Oh, foreign exchange controls! Government suspended!” Consider what the result will be. However, if we open up the Bible, even only to Matthew 1, which contains the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we can pray-read, “Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers” (v. 2). If we pray-read in this way, we will all be enlivened.
We all must realize that in order to use our spirit, we have to pray. If we do not pray, we will have no way to use our spirit. It is impossible to use our spirit with our mouth shut and our eyes closed. Suppose I try to walk, but my two feet determine not to move. No matter how hard you command me to walk, it will be futile. As long as you use your spirit to pray, that is sufficient. It is not necessary to continually command ourselves to move our legs; as long as we walk, we are moving our legs. Similarly, it is not necessary to cry and shout in order to pray. Even if we speak to the Lord gently from within, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” our spirit will be activated. Once we pray, our spirit moves.
I hope that every time we lead a home meeting, we will do this. Then others will spontaneously follow. A mother teaches her child to speak not by reasoning but by speaking to him directly. When she says, “A rubber ball,” the child says, “A rubber ball.” When she says, “Play the ball,” the child says, “Play the ball.” When she says, “Kick the ball,” the child says, “Kick the ball.” As the child gradually understands, he will speak. Then when he grows older, he can speak everything. He will know how to say something even though no one has taught him to say it. This is very wonderful. Do not worry that you and other people do not understand the Bible. You simply need to pray and pray-read more and teach others to do the same. Then spontaneously and gradually they will understand.
We have to exercise to rely less on our mind and more on our spirit, rejecting the old way of knowledge and paying attention to the new way of life, by pushing out the word we read, sentence by sentence, by the spirit that brings life. Life is Christ, and Christ is in our spirit. When we use our spirit and push out our spirit, Christ is brought out. By using the spirit that brings life, we can push out the Spirit of God. Here we need to “push” and not merely to think. In this way we can touch others’ spirit so that they may receive the pneumatic Christ as the life supply.
We need to learn this particularly when we read with others in the home meetings. We must exercise to depend less on the mind and more on our spirit, reading sentence after sentence. Not only should we read the words, but we also need to use our spirit and push out our spirit to turn the words into prayer, which will bring forth Christ. Then our spirit will touch others’ spirit. When we use our spirit to read the Scriptures to others, this kind of reading will touch the spirit in them. This will affect them. We all need to learn to pray and read the Bible with our spirit to push out the word. The word entering into others will become the Spirit, which touches the spirit within them so that they can gain Christ in the spirit as the life supply. This is very important.
The Bible verses in Life Lessons may not be quoted in their entirety but only in part, economically according to the need. Therefore, the verses are quoted concisely, not too much or too little, and adequately, being most suitable for the new believers. Furthermore, their explanations are both concise and adequate, having no need for further explanation. The only need is to repeat-read and emphasize-read. To repeat-read is to read with repetition, and to emphasize-read is to read with stress.
Besides repeat-reading and emphasize-reading, we also need to “vitalize-read.” To vitalize-read is to do what we mentioned before in the example of Genesis 1:1. As we read this verse, we can give thanks to God, thanking Him for creating the heavens, the earth, you, and me. Reading in this way will vitalize us. This is to apply the word in a flexible way without diverging from the subject and main points. We have seen the need to repeat-read, emphasize-read, and vitalize-read. Now we also have to add pray-reading.
If we want to read the Bible in a living way, none of these four ways of reading can be omitted. For example, when we read a verse and find it very good, we can first repeat-read it, then emphasize-read it, then vitalize-read it, and then pray-read it. These four ways combined together form an effective method for reading. Pray-reading contains repeat-reading, emphasize-reading, and vitalize-reading. These four ways mingled together are the best reading method. This does not come merely from our thinking but from our experience.
In the home meetings, hymns are also indispensable. Hence, there is a hymn attached to every lesson. We need to learn to use the hymns in a flexible way and not to sing in a rigid way every time. For example, if a hymn has six stanzas, you do not need to sing all six stanzas. You may sing only the stanza that is suitable. If only the chorus is suitable, you can sing only the chorus. Sometimes you need to match the singing with a small testimony, not a lengthy one that will use up the time. Never extend the meaning of the text or develop an understanding based on inference. Never think that you are experienced. Once you extend and infer, you will easily be side-tracked from the subject and the central lane.
We need to fellowship about a few matters related to the home meetings. We all know that the home meetings are the most important item of our present practice. We all must learn to exercise our spirit to touch people’s condition and observe all the situations so that we can make the correct decisions concerning them.
Take the bread-breaking meeting for instance. We do not have a set rule about this meeting. For example, after leading the home meeting in a certain home for three to five times, or even ten to twenty times, we should set up a Lord’s table meeting for them. We can compare this to studying; after we read a few lessons, we need to give them an advanced curriculum. If we do not first observe their situation, we should not make a decision concerning the Lord’s table meeting. We must first study their condition, leading them in meeting after meeting. We should lead them to the point where we can sense that the inner condition of the few saved ones in this home is stable before the Lord. Furthermore, we must sense that there is nothing pertaining to idols in the furnishing and environment of this home and nothing that will cause damage to the Lord’s testimony. When the condition of the home is ready, we can lead them to start breaking bread. In this way we have no set rule in this matter.
After this home has started to break the bread, it may reach the point where there is a need to bring in another two or three homes to break bread together. When this is appropriate depends on the condition of the home and our inner feeling. It is not possible to have a set rule.
The offering of material riches is not a simple matter, and we also cannot make a set rule regarding this. There may be two or three or even many different ways of doing it. The first way is to come to the meeting hall to offer every Lord’s Day. We hope that the brothers and sisters who meet regularly will take this way. However, a brother may have met in the same meeting hall for thirty years, always bringing an offering to the Lord when he comes to break bread, either on the Lord’s Day morning or evening. Now that the church is taking the new way to meet, he will be burdened to meet in the home meetings, so he will not be able to come to the meeting in the meeting hall. However, if it is possible and if time allows, before he goes to the home meeting, he can go to the meeting hall to see the brothers and sisters and see what is happening there. At that time he can drop his offering in the offering box, and then he can go to the home meeting. This is a good way. On the one hand, we can meet in the small meetings in the homes, and on the other hand, we can also care for the big meeting in the meeting hall. It is very good if we can take care of both. This is the first way to make an offering.
The second way is to carefully and properly put out an offering box in the home where we meet. In order to do this, we should arrange for at least two persons, or better yet three, to serve together. It does not necessarily matter if they are brothers who serve in this way, or if they are sisters. They simply need to be honest and faithful, keeping a proper account and record whenever they open the offering box and count the offerings in it. In addition, in every Lord’s table meeting there can be an offering box. As soon as the meeting ends, those who serve should open the offering box and not wait for another day. Then after these two or three brothers or sisters open the box and count and record the offerings, they should sign their names in an appropriate format.
Depending on the situation, the serving ones can decide how to hand over the offerings each week to the meeting hall where they meet. When the offerings are handed over, it is again necessary to have certain procedures, including a record of signatures that confirms the amount of the offerings and from which home meeting they were received.
The brothers and sisters who meet regularly in the homes may have been accustomed to meeting corporately in the meeting hall. When they went there, they brought their children so that while the adults were meeting, the children could also have their meeting at the same time. Now that some of these brothers and sisters attend the home meetings, the arrangement for their children will become a problem. Again, there is no fixed way. You should decide what to do according to the actual circumstances at that time. If certain home meetings are located near each other, the children can be grouped together to be cared for in one home. Alternatively, it is not bad to bring them to the home meeting to be blended with the children at that home. This requires us to observe the situation while we are carrying it out.
The last thing, which is also the most important thing, is that we should not keep people only in the home meetings and not let them contact the big meetings. This does not work. To do something in particular may not be necessary at the beginning, but gradually we have to bring them into the knowledge of the church. There are several ways to do this, so we need to be flexible.
If there are ten to twenty saints in a home meeting, we may sometimes bring them to attend the Lord’s table meeting at the meeting hall on the Lord’s Day morning. I believe that this will be a great encouragement to them. Both the newly saved ones and those who have been saved for a long time will blend together in the meeting and be mutually encouraged. Still, we need to bear in mind that this is not a set regulation but is something entirely organic and flexible. This requires us to observe the situation and contact, fellowship with, and pray with the brothers in the districts or the meeting halls.
Both the former way of meeting and the present new way require our exercise of flexibility. There is no dead regulation for us to follow. Rather, we must determine something according to the actual situation. If some brothers and sisters are newly baptized and are meeting in a few homes, they should remain in their home meetings for a month or two. By the time the number in their district increases to thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty, we can lead them to set up a corporate district meeting. They do not necessarily have to go to the meeting hall. We may choose a house among them with a larger living room for the saints nearby to meet together corporately. These matters do not have to be arranged by the elders. As long as the saints in the district fellowship and pray according to the real situation and need, the thirty to sixty people can meet together. After three to four weeks we can bring these brothers and sisters to the meeting hall to attend the Lord’s table meeting on the Lord’s Day.
The result of this practice will be encouraging. In the future there will be people here in Taipei attending different kinds of meetings on the same Lord’s Day. Some will meet in homes, some in the districts, some in the meeting halls, and still others in the stadium. This is my long-term view. If the Lord has mercy on us, I hope He will grant us a big meeting hall that can accommodate ten thousand people for the blending of the saints.
Our view has to be broadened. If we want to increase our number and propagate the Lord’s recovery, we must take this new way. As we all realize, if we take the old way, we will be bound in fetters and confined, and there will be no way out. May the Lord bless us.
