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How precious is this word! The Lord Jesus is the unique Man, the perfect Man, and the most holy Man. A holy man surely hates sin, and it is natural for him to condemn sin. The sin of adultery is so evil! How could the holy Lord not criticize this sin! Yet He said, "Neither do I condemn you." What love! What forgiveness! May we believers have such a spirit! We seem to have a natural ability to criticize others. Weak brothers inevitably make mistakes and have many flaws in their conduct. In these cases, we should have the forgiving spirit of the Lord. If the Lord can forgive and not condemn them, should we not take the same attitude? Indeed, God forgives men more readily than we forgive men. It is a sad fact that the saints are the quickest to condemn others. May we be as merciful as the Father. If we are not filled with the love of Golgotha and not melted by His love, we can never "love one another." Those who know and have tasted the Lord's love know how to love others. Fallen and stumbled brothers do not need our condemnation. They need our sympathy and support of love. Indignant criticism will only make them sorrowful and will not result in any profit. May the Lord remind us all the time of these words: "Neither do I condemn you."
However, there is one word which we would say to those who are unsaved. In the age of grace the Lord Jesus will not condemn man's sins. But the day will come when the words of grace that He said on earth will condemn you. Come quickly and receive Him as your Savior!
A Christian should have the continual experience of abiding with the Lord.
When we pray for a deeper experience of crucifixion with the Lord, that is, for a deeper union with His death, and to be without the self, He will cause all kinds of despising and rejection to come upon us. By that time, we should not feel sorry for ourselves, but should praise the Lord, because He is using these things to accomplish what we have asked for, which is to be free from ourselves.
"Do not judge." May the Lord cause every believer to take this seriously and practice it.
When a Christian judges others in his heart or with his mouth, he should at least recognize his own weakness.
Only those who are transformed by the word can preach the word. Those preachers who have been transformed by Christ need not worry that they would not be able to bring others to Christ.
Every true lover of the Lord should realize that if the world does not see Christ from us, there is nowhere else that they can see this living and true Lord.
A Christian is the representative of Christ and should therefore live out Christ.
A Christian who is full of the Holy Spirit will surely have the vitality of "gushing" (John 4:14) and "flowing" (7:38).
Those who truly trust in the Lord should have the three evidences of Luke 7 — humility, a fear of the Lord, and a full love for the Lord.
All those who honestly search the Scriptures will surely believe in the Lord (Acts 17:11-12).
Grace and truth go together, and neither one should be lacking.
Derailed zeal, that is, zeal that is outside God's will, whether it is toward man or God, will end up in trouble and in sin.
Every fleshly comfort is an obstacle to my homeward race for the glorious and wonderful home.
The student cannot be taller than the teacher. If the Lord had to suffer, how can His disciples crave ease and comfort? We should not crave ease and comfort, and we should not go purposely after sufferings.
One should not be afraid of the enemy's ferocity; one should only be afraid of his own breaches (Ezek. 26:10).
Do not consider how much we have given up for the Lord. Rather, consider how much the Lord has given up for us, and how much and what we have not yet given up for the Lord.
"According to the spirit" (Rom. 8:4), and "walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16, 25). What solitude and rest!
"I spoke nothing in secret" (John 18:20). Lord, those who belong to You should walk in Your footsteps.
Whatever we do, we should have the motive that we are "for the Lord." This will be our joy and peace!
Everyone who is fine has a love for cleanliness and will polish his vessels before he uses them. How much more will the Lord do the same!
The effective presence of the Holy Spirit can crucify self-pride but at the same time afford us freedom of thought. He causes us to have one object in view — Jesus.
Those who have faith can do what they otherwise could not do. Those who have love can make difficult things easy.
If we know the crucified Christ, we hold the key to our own prison. All of us should have a heart of love every day and should apply such love and add to such love a desire for the truth.
If men pay attention to me and praise me more than they praise the Lord, may the Lord cause me to fail.
Just when I am proud of myself and delighted with myself, Lord, humble me below Thy feet.
When I love people or things more than the Lord, may the Lord cause these people and things to turn against me.
Lord, if there is anything in my heart that I boast of, may these things that I considered worthy of boasting fail me completely.
I would rather see myself making mistakes, and confessing my own untrustworthiness, and turning away from trusting in myself, than to see my own goodness and praise myself in private for being trustworthy in myself. Lord, whenever I think that I deserve any merit or trust, may You cause what I consider trustworthy to fail! In this way, when You have perfected me to the point where I will make no more mistakes, I will not dare to uplift my "self" before the Lord and before men, and I will not any longer trust in my "self."
I would rather that others see me not zealous, than to have the Lord see me zealous outside of His will.
If we pay more attention to the work than to the Lord Himself, what will become the goal of our work?
Believers are too prone to work for men and for the Lord, but neglect the Lord's work within the believers. This is why they are anxious beyond reason when they have no work. Give some time to the Lord to work on us!
If one does not go up to Mount Moriah, he will not see the Lord's preparation. But how many are there who will go up to the mountain? Who will go up willingly? Let us go up to the Lord's mountain!
"Know and do it" — and not know and talk about it.
If we hate ourselves because we are shamed by others, and not because we have seen the Lord's glory, we are still loving ourselves and are not hating ourselves.
When the things the Lord wants to destroy are destroyed, men grieve over them and weep for them. If we are after the Lord's heart, will we do the same?
It is easier to put the sacrifice on the altar that sanctifies the offerings, than to tie the sacrifice with the love-cord by the altar.
He Himself is better than all the works that His grace has done on us. Through excessive labor we can accomplish zealous works while neglecting personal fellowship with the Lord. Such negligence not only reduces the value of our work, but robs us of the qualification for the highest work.
Dear friends, if there is a living God, who is faithful and true, may we grasp hold of His faithfulness. If there is a happy eternity that will be a reward to those who love Him, and if He indeed will not hold back one good thing from those who walk in an upright way, may we lay hold of God's faithfulness and be worthy of Him in our walk.
Many believers sigh and lose their strength of joy and their opportunity to help others through losing hold of God's faithfulness!
How easy is it to think that we are trusting in God when there is money in the pocket and food on the shelf. But even while our faith has failed, His faithfulness remains unshaken.
The living God is still living, and the living word is still the living word, upon which we can rely. We can glue ourselves to any word which God has spoken or has written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Those who begin the day by feeding well in the morning watch hour and those who delight in the law of Jehovah and who meditate in it day and night mingle their faith with the word and are nourished and strengthened spiritually.
Mere knowledge of the truth may not make you rejoice in your work or benefit you. If we are merely exercising our knowledge, we will find that we are very confused! The vitality of the Holy Spirit is within us. When we work, we are under His (the Holy Spirit's) hand. The exercise of our understanding is also important.
If we want to humble a person, we can ask him about his prayer. I know of no other subject which can cause a person to become sorrowful and penitent. Whether in public prayers or in private prayers, we should always remember the humbling experience of having a reluctant start, a drifting course, and an unsustainable result.
Once a few of us were under an oak tree comparing notes and considering the best method to work. In particular, we discussed the most effective way to preach. One of my friends said, "I always write down my sermons and edit them carefully. If there is anything that would offend any of my audience, I would erase it right away." This was the word of a young pastor who was very eager that others would recognize him. For fear that I had misunderstood him, I asked him again, "Do you mean to say that all the serious words that come from you or from the Bible concerning sin and the fearfulness of the coming judgment can be softened or removed?" He answered, "Yes, if I think that these words will offend my audience, I will do it." I am afraid this honest testimony shows why so many preachers are so powerless among their colleagues. "The fear of man bringeth a snare" (Prov. 29:25). This is indeed true.
Work is not my love. I do not know if this is being lazy, but I do know that I love the Lord who is altogether lovely!
Who says that we should not work for love? What the Lord wants is that we would love Him above everything else! Honestly speaking, the Lord is altogether too lovely!
The faithfulness which the Lord demonstrates concerning one of my hairs amazes me. This being the case, I have to be faithful all the more in the least thing!
Is there a difference between the One who is Lord over one of my hairs and the One who is Lord over the heavens? They are the same unique Lord! If this is the case, it is only man who has made a distinction between the greatest and the smallest things.
What does the Lord Jesus require of individual believers? It is a pure and total love!
Two people cannot walk side by side on the way of the cross. There can be helpers (like Simon of Cyrene) along the way. But ultimately it is a lonely path.
All the mistakes come from us. If there is any goodness in us, it is the Lord's grace. What is there to boast of in the wicked self?
I am so proud because I have nothing left, and I am so proud because God has become my all.
Those Christians who cannot be related to their environments cannot be related to God's will.
To consider the sufferings in one's environments is a proof that there is too much self-love.
We should not commend others for their goodness, for their goodness may be something natural that is from the flesh. If we do this, we will have lifted up their flesh. We should not consider others' shortcomings, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and he that is of the flesh cannot please God. If this is the case, what should we consider? We should consider what the Lord's hand has done in a person, and how the Lord's grace has operated in a person. If we do this, what we see, what we commend, and what we praise will be the Lord Himself. We will not deny the Lord's name, nor will we veil His glory.
Sickness can show us how much we have loved ourselves.
Brokenness before God will have its manifestation before men.
Faith is something that is absent in a man who is full.
The reason that faith is too little is that the self is too great.
No quick person can run after God.
If I cannot join myself to God's arrangement, I cannot join myself to the higher life of God.
The Lord's will is hidden.
If a prayer does not move us ourselves, it will not move God.
The degree we are lost in the Lord is the degree we forget about ourselves.
We have to make a choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and Christ.
To do the will of God is our utmost goal.
It is easy for us to humble ourselves when others uplift us. But when one sees those who are lower than he is, that is, those who are inferior to what he is, mistreating him, he becomes conscious of his superiority. It is then that the temptation is the greatest.
When by faith we acknowledge the fact of being "in Christ," the immediate result is joy.
The secret of an unsatisfied life many times lies in an unconsecrated will. How wrong and foolish this is!
Every worker of Christ encounters many hills and valleys, crooked and uneven places in his own particular environment, which only God can deal with. Such a person should not only rejoice in the fact that God's power matches his encounters, but also in the fact that such difficulties many times manifest God's power, and turn them into open and wonderful things.
We believe that the time has arrived for us to perform all that He has commanded us to do. By His grace we have to do it, and not just try to do it. We do not see a commandment in the Bible that tells us to try to do anything. "To try" is the slogan of the unbelieving ones. In our experience, "to try" means "to fail."
God cannot, will not, and does not bless those who live in disobedience.
We see that the way the apostles work is not through many ways and means, but through themselves going out, and trusting in His sure word: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matt. 6:33).
Selfishness will corrupt a person, but obedience will lead to blessing. God commanded Noah and his sons to fill the earth, but they said, "Let us build us a city, and a tower....lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:4). Before God scattered them, He confounded their language. If we want to learn to know Him more and know Him fully, we have to live out the life of God.
If we are faithful to God in the small things, we will gain the experience and the strength which will become our help in more severe trials.
God does not give His glory to others. Many times He conceals the result of His work. He does this to remove man's pride.
Be careful of your mind and of the condition and habits of your heart. Occasional good works and words are only brief performances; the nature that is subconsciously with us is the true expression of spiritual growth, and it is the virtue which builds up the fine fragrance.
How quick we are to identify the power of money, unions, education, class, appearance, and discernment, more than the power of the Holy Spirit. How we love the glory of visible things more than the One who is invisible.
The only prayers that will be answered are those that are one with God's manifested will. "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him" (1 John 5:14-15). Unless we have God's word abiding in us, how can we know for sure that what we ask is according to His will?
Do not have a concert before tuning the instruments. In the same way we should start the day with God's word and prayer. The first thing is to be one with Him.
Whenever, wherever, and whatever brings you a burden, you should stop. Come to Jesus to receive rest. Lay your head upon His breast, pour out your burden upon His ears, and rejoice in His love. In this way, after you have rest and joy, "whatever He says to you, do" (John 2:5). You will see that this short word will take you on a long journey.
Whenever the inner being surrenders, Jesus reigns, and whenever Jesus reigns, there is rest.
If I pour a glass of wine into water and mix them together, the water will be in the wine, and the wine will be in the water. In the same way, our walk should express the Savior who is living within us.
The fruit we bear should be grapes, that is, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and not works of the flesh.
What you need is not a great faith, but faith in a great God.
How do we gain Christ? By offering up to Him what we consider as precious, and bearing willingly every loss and the crosses dispensed by the Father's love. If we want to fellowship with Christ, we have to draw near to Him. If we want to meditate on His person and His work, we must not neglect applying His grace and meditating on His word. Many people do not abide in the Lord because they do not know how to eat; rather they fast.
If the workers of the Lord know indeed that they are the temple of the living and true God, and that they belong to, are ruled by, and are used by the Almighty One, they will have no place for "cowardice," for before the Lord, rocks can turn to pools, and boulders into springs.
Those who mingle faith with the word will see that their yoke is light and their burden easy. He will fulfill His work within them. For those who acknowledge this supernatural power, the life of faith is undoubting. The way of faith is not a risky one.
Our need today is great and pressing. God is greater and nearer, because He is everything! All is fine and shall be fine.
Workers of the Lord should beware that in everything they do not trust in the wonderful grace of God more than in God Himself.
Without the Lord's protection, nowhere can we find peace. With His protection, everywhere is peace.
We need a kind of faith that rests in a great God, that waits on Him to keep His own word and to accomplish according to His promise.
To me, borrowing money is unscriptural. It is to try to get what God has not given to us while knowing clearly that God withholds the good things from us for good reasons.
Satan can build a fence around us to stop us from going forward, but he cannot cover us to stop us from going upward.
The more we know the Lord, the more we will realize that the Lord is everything.
Faith walks by setting its eyes on the Lord Jesus and does not care for the wind and the waves on the sea.
The branches of the grapevine do not worry or strive. They do not have to rush here for sunshine or rush there for rain. They rest in the oneness and fellowship with the vine. At the right time, in the right way, the right fruits will be found. May we abide in the Lord in the same way.
We are saved not by striving, but by trusting in what Christ has done for us. Hence, our fruit-bearing is also an outflow of our trust in the work of the Savior within us.
In fruit-bearing, the question is not what you are or what you can do. "I am the true vine." After this, the crucial work of cultivation is in the unerring hands — "My Father is the husbandman" (John 15:1). He has turned our thoughts completely away from ourselves and has said assuringly, "Believe into God, believe also into Me" (14:1).
"I am the vine; you are the branches" (John 15:5). The branches cannot bear anything apart from the vine; they enjoy everything there is in the vine. This is the way we are in Christ, if we are indeed His fruit-bearing members.
"He makes me lie down" (Psa. 23:2). How precious is this word! Are we not aware that sometimes we are even too tired to lie down, too restless to receive the needed rest? But if He makes us rest, who can disturb us? If He makes us lie down, who can make us weary and cause us to worry?
Satan always tries to make us bear tomorrow's burden with today's grace. He tries to cause us to lose heart with the tribulations that are far off and to disobey the Lord's commandments. However, "Do not be anxious for tomorrow" (Matt. 6:34). "In nothing be anxious" (Phil. 4:6).
"The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up into eternal life" (John 4:14). This word explains why those who partake of the water of life do not thirst anymore. The water of life becomes a spring that is available and gushes up from within the believers. Not only will they not thirst anymore, but they will overflow to supply man's need continuously.
"He who believes into Me, as the Scriptures said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38) — not trickles or summer torrents that afford a brief supply, but eternal rivers, rivers of life.
If our Lord works through the disciples and is not willing to work alone, how can we not join ourselves closely to Him and do His work in one accord? Our most blessed Lord has told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. Even if we have forgotten our oneness with Him, He will not forget it.
One thing that will help us is to concentrate on God's view toward Christian work. We should realize that God's work (which has nothing to do with man working for God) is God working in man.
Let us be clear whether we are putting God before our eyes. Are we walking on His way, and seeking to please Him and glorify Him in all things great or small? Those who do God's work and who walk on God's way will not lack God's supply.
Sometimes we may lament over the hardness of the unbelievers' hearts. Actually, we may be the ones who are hardened in heart, because we have not seen the soberness and reality of eternity.
The most callous and evil thing is to neglect the human body. How much more punishment is there for those who allow souls to perish? As Cain had said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen. 4:9).
Christ is the standard of the believers. Our love should be as broad as the love of Christ, and our faithfulness should be as narrow as the faithfulness of Christ.
Faith sees that God is greater than our sins, rather than our sins greater than God.
We should not work according to our self-strength; rather, we should seek for strength according to the work.
I want to see the Holy Spirit gaining all the freedom, and the flesh not having any freedom.
The more the Lord was faithful, the more He was despised and opposed. The more the Lord was gentle, the more He was dishonored. But none of these things changed Him, because the Lord did all things for God.
