Search
Scripture Reading: Gen. 4:17-22; 5:4-21; 11:31-32; 12:4; 16:16; 17:1, 25; 25:7; 35:28-29; 47:9, 28; Exo. 12:2; Lev. 27:3-7; Deut. 1:2; Josh. 14:10; Matt. 20:3, 6; John 13:30; 1 Cor. 3:1-2; Acts 13:36; Rev. 2:10; 3:11; 1 Kings 6:1 (cf. Acts 13:18-22); Joel 2:25
You may think that we have read too many verses today. Actually, there are not that many. We only read a few of the verses in the Bible that have to do with time. Our goal is to see what God says about time and how He numbers our spiritual days. One interesting thing is that in Genesis 4 and 5, which we have just read, there are two genealogies. In chapter four there is the genealogy of Cain; in chapter five there is the genealogy of Seth. Adam had three famous sons (although he had begotten more than three). They were Cain, Abel, and Seth. Abel died in his youth and had no genealogy. As for Adam's other two sons, the Bible records both of their genealogies. In chapters four and five we see two groups of people begetting generation after generation. One group, including Lamech and Tubal-cain, came out of Cain. The other group descended from Seth; Abraham, Moses, and Christ were all his descendants. You can see these two branches continuing to propagate. Cain's genealogy is recorded in chapter four, and Seth's genealogy is recorded in chapter five. They are similar. One genealogy tells us who begat whom, and who begat whom. The other also tells who begat whom, and who begat whom. However, there is one big difference. That is, in chapter four it only says that Cain begot Enoch, and Enoch begot Irad, and so forth. It does not tell us how many years Cain lived; there is altogether no record of their days on earth. Chapter five is different. Not only does it mention "births," but it also mentions "deaths" and the ages of the people. Hence, chapters four and five are not quite the same. Chapter four purposely does not record the ages, not because they are forgotten. Chapter five clearly records men's ages; it tells us who lived to what age, and begat whom, and then lived on for how many more years. Then it tells us the total number of years that such a person lived. We saw that Adam is recorded in chapter five. It says that he lived nine hundred thirty years. From Adam and Seth to Noah, the genealogy was clearly recorded. This is the basic difference between these two chapters.
Why is there this difference? In God's eyes, Cain had no years that could be countable. Perhaps he was married at age fifty, gave birth to a son at age sixty, and lived until he was six hundred years old. But God made no account of Cain and forgot him. In God's eyes, this person had never lived. He was dead. Even when he was living, he was still dead. Therefore, only his birth (which is equivalent to his death) was recorded, and his actual death was not recorded. Since he had not lived before God, there was nothing countable, and there was no death. Who do the men in chapter four represent? They represent those who have not been born again, those who are dead in Adam, have no life, and have no countable days. The men in chapter five represent those who are in the Lord. The name Seth means a replacement. Because Abel died, Seth was appointed to replace Abel. This shows that only those who are born again have countable days.
We have also read another verse, Exodus 12:2: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." God told the Israelites to rename their month. They were to rename the current month as their first month. Have you ever heard of people renaming the months? We have heard of the renaming of years but not of the renaming of months. For example, during the various Chinese dynasties, the years were named according to the name of the reigning monarch. When one king passed away, the name of the years was changed. When the Republic of China came into existence, the name of the year changed again. For example, today is the twenty-second year of the Republic of China. We call a year the first year because a new beginning has come. However, no one ever renames the months. Yet the Bible renamed the months. It might have been the fifth month, and God changed it to the first month. Why did He do this? He did it because the Israelites left Egypt, the Passover Lamb was slain, and the Israelites were freed from the hands of Pharaoh. Why did the months have to be renamed? They were renamed because this was the beginning of a spiritual history.
Do you have a spiritual history? Today among us some may be quite old; some may even have grandchildren. However, I want to ask you, have you been born again? If you have not been born again, in God's eyes you are not even a month old. You may be fifty or sixty years old physically, yet your first spiritual month has not started thus far! If the Israelites had not left Egypt, if they had not escaped from the bondage of Pharaoh, if they had not struck the blood on their door posts and escaped the punishment of God, they would not have had a first month before God. Therefore, the beginning of our spiritual history starts with the blood. Please remember that the day that you accept the precious blood is the day of your new beginning. If that day has not yet come, you have no days before God thus far. There is a question we always like to ask: "How many births do you have? How many births have you celebrated?" If you say only one, then I fear for you. You need two births. It is not bad for our wretched body (which becomes the temple of God after our regeneration) to have one birthday. However, we need another birthday. I am afraid that there are some of you who have had only one birth. Such people do not have a first month; they are like Cain who had no days before God. He could have lived for five hundred or seven hundred years, and he might have achieved many things, yet none of these are countable. When the Israelites were in Egypt, God did not count their days. The month they left Egypt was counted as their first month. Therefore, the counting of our spiritual days begins with our regeneration and salvation.
One day I was conversing with a brother, and I asked him a question. It was strange that Paul asked Timothy, who was quite young, to ordain elders. Are not elders supposed to be quite elderly? How could he, being so young, ordain elders? Is this not illogical? How could Timothy ordain elders? Please remember that God has a different way of numbering a person's days. You may be sixty years of age but have had only one month before the Lord; or you may be twenty years of age and have had only ten years before the Lord. Your days are counted from the time you are saved. The days before you were saved were not counted; they were put aside. Today I am not talking about your years before you were saved and how they were not counted. Therefore, I will only say this much.
Now let me say a few words to the believers. Not only are the days before a person's salvation not counted; even after a person is saved and believes in the Lord, not every single day is counted. You may have believed in Him for five years, but that does not mean that you are five years old. Please remember that the number of years is one thing, and age is another thing. This does not make sense according to the world's mentality. However, it is quite true in the spiritual sense. You may have been born again for fifty years and not be fifty years of age.
Did we not just read two verses that we can use as a comparison? Let us read it again carefully that we may understand how God numbers days. Let us read Acts 13:18-22 very carefully and see how many years there were between the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the time that Solomon built the temple. Paul said, "And for a time of about forty years He carried them as a nurse in the wilderness...And after these things, for about four hundred and fifty years, He gave them judges...and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had deposed him, He raised up David for them as king [ for forty years]." How many years are there? Forty years plus four hundred fifty years is four hundred ninety years. Four hundred ninety years plus forty years twice is five hundred seventy years, which plus three years of Solomon's reign up to the time of the building the temple becomes five hundred seventy-three years. Therefore, from the time of Exodus to the fourth year of Solomon when he built the temple was five hundred seventy-three years.
Now let us see what is recorded in 1 Kings 6:1: "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord." Here it says four hundred eighty years, not five hundred seventy-three years. There is a difference of ninety-three years! There must be an error either with the book of Acts or with the book of the Kings. Otherwise, why would there be such a discrepancy of years? They both recorded the period from Exodus to Solomon's building of the temple. There must be an error in one of them, or both of them are wrong. But you cannot say that, because the spiritual principle in them is the same.
Let us read the record in Acts. Forty years in the wilderness is correct. Saul's reigning for forty years is also correct. David's forty years cannot be wrong. The temple was built in the fourth year of Solomon's reign; therefore, only three years were past when he built the temple. All these years cannot be wrong because the Israelites were reigning at that time. But during the age of the judges, the Israelites were captured several times. Let us see how many years they were captured away as slaves. Judges 3:8 says, "Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years." This was the first captivity which lasted for eight years. The second time was recorded in verse 14 of the same chapter: "So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years." "And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel" (4:2-3). This can be considered as the third captivity because the Israelites at that time did not have their own judges and were completely in the hands of the Gentiles. "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years" (6:1). This was the fourth time. Another time was recorded in 13:1: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." The Israelites lost their freedom and had to serve the Gentiles altogether five times. How many years in total? Eight plus eighteen plus twenty plus seven, and finally another forty years must be added together. How many years are there altogether? Exactly ninety-three years, no more and no less. This matches the difference between Acts 13 and 1 Kings 6 both are ninety-three years. It is apparent that Paul counted those ninety-three years, but they were not recorded in the first book of the Kings. Therefore it has only four hundred eighty years, whereas it should have been five hundred seventy-three years!
Why were those ninety-three years not counted? There was a reason. Those were the lost years! Oh, whenever we are captured, lose our freedom, serve the Gentiles, and do not have our own judges are the times when we do not have any years to be counted. Now we have gone one step further. We see that not only were we dead before we were born again, but even after we are saved and have eternal life, God considers many days to be dead. Even if we have been redeemed and belong to God, if we are entangled by the world and sold to Moab, the days in which we do not freely serve the Lord are days when we cannot be considered as God's children, and they cannot be counted. The days when we are serving man but are not serving God are lost. We need to count from the day we were saved until now. How many days have we belonged to ourselves? How many days have we been free? How many days have we been controlled by others? How many days can be countable before God? Perhaps we may say that we have believed in the Lord for five or eight or ten years. Yet how many of these days were spent foolishly? How much time should be discounted? We have wasted too many days. Will these days before the Lord add up to even one year? The days that are spent according to our own will or the will of another, the days in which we fall away from God, will be forgotten. Oh, let us ask, "Have I spent any days before God? Do I have a beginning in the first month?" This is the first question. Then the second question is, "I have been born again for many years, yet how much time have I wasted? How much time is counted before God?" The days we spent as a slave and without fellowship are lost. How many days do we have before God? This is a matter of utmost importance!
Remember how Paul spoke to the Corinthians: "And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. But neither yet now are you able" (1 Cor. 3:1-2). This means that they had wasted many days. They had become aged children. Their ages had increased, yet they were still like children. They should have grown, yet they had not grown at all. Oh, the lost years! They should have become strong men, and they should have been able to run the course that lay ahead and eat solid food. They had wasted many days, and still they remained fleshy. In their daily walk, in their submission to the Lord and trust of the Lord, they should have had many experiences. They should have been able to guide others. However, they still did not know. We may have believed in the Lord for eight or ten years yet not progressed since the day we were born again. Therefore, the apostle said that even after we have been born again, there are many days that cannot be counted, and it is possible that we can remain as infants.
Please remember the parable of the Lord concerning laboring in the vineyard. The Lord went out several times to hire laborers. What did He say? "He went out...and saw others standing idle in the market place, and to those he said, You also go into the vineyard" (Matt. 20:3-4). To be idle means to stand inactive, not doing anything. The Lord wants you to work! Even when He went out at the eleventh hour, which is four or five in the afternoon, He still saw people standing there. The Lord said to them, "Why have you been standing here all the day idle?...You also go into the vineyard" (vv. 6-7). What is the meaning of these words? This is a parable. It says that for His work, God has set a boundary which is the vineyard. Outside of this boundary is idleness. It does not matter what you are doing outside. As long as you are outside, you are idle. You may have been the president of the government for many years, a professor for a long time, a good father for many years, or a good mother for many years. You may have been an excellent pastor or a missionary all your life. You may have spent your whole lifetime for the church and for spreading the gospel and heavenly kingdom. You may have even contributed greatly to the works of society; yet God says that you are idle. No matter how busy you are, if you are not living in the will of God, you are idle in the eyes of the Lord. It does not matter how much you have sweated. You may even claim that you have been busy working at home and do not have even one moment of free time, yet God says that you are an idle person.
Are men really idle, having nothing to do? No. There is not a person in this world who is not working. Everyone is extremely busy. Some are busy with their daily necessities. Some who are rich and have abundance are busy with earthly pleasures. Some are busy making their living, and others are busy with pleasures. There is no one who is not busy. Even many Christians are working zealously for the Lord. What then does God mean by being idle? It means to be outside the vineyard; anyone who is outside the vineyard is idle. Any works, activities, or labors that are outside of God's will are vanities. You may be working very busily in spiritual matters, but God will speak to you quietly, "Why are you idle? Any work outside of the vineyard is not mine." Therefore, in God's eyes you are extremely idle. Only those who are inside the vineyard belong to God. The whole question rests on whether or not a work is from God and whether or not it is for God. The days spent outside the will of God are not counted. As the Lord said to those people who came at five o'clock in the afternoon, "Why have you been standing here all the day idle?" (Matt. 20:6). For some, their entire life and all their years have gone by, and nothing is counted. "All the day" here means an entire life. Brothers and sisters, how about us? It does not mean that we should all give up our jobs to preach the gospel. This is not God's word. The most important thing is that every one of us, in whatever we do, should be fully clear that we are standing according to God's will. Let us do everything according to God's will and let the vineyard be our center. There are different types of work in the vineyard; they are not all the same. Some work involves digging the ground, other work involves sowing seeds, and other work involves repairing. Whatever work you are doing, it is all right as long as you are working for His vineyard. Some work is very dirty, such as preparing the fertilizer. Some work is cleaner, such as picking the grapes. Do not think that you have to be like certain ones in order to do God's work or that you have to do certain work in order for your labor to count. There is no such thing. Any time spent in the vineyard is countable.
You may have been saved for sixty years, fifty years, or for just three years or five years. How much time, energy, and money have you spent for the Lord? Undoubtedly, you have to work. But for whom are you working? It is all right for you to be involved in earthly matters as long as you are sure that you are in the will of God. God does consider those who do not have a job and just engage themselves in gospel preaching as the workers of the vineyard. Some may be doing "God's work," and yet it is not God's will. On the contrary, God has to call them to work. It is all a question of your heart and the will of God. Therefore, consecration is absolutely necessary. If you are saved but have not consecrated yourself, the life you live is considered idle. If you say that you have done nothing in saving souls, nor anything else for God since you were saved, your life must have been idle. This is the true accounting. The days that are lived for the self, that are lived in captivity or in sin, are not counted by God. How many years can you live on this earth? Seventy years? Eighty years? Not too many can live that long. Have you ever seen a Christian who is one hundred years old? Perhaps you have not. If you subtract the days before you were saved from your short life span, how many more days are left? Brothers, how many more years will you live? There may be sixty more years until that day. The Lord may say, "The days you have lived before me are less than ten years." Perhaps fifty years from now the Lord will say, "You have lived only a few days before me. The rest of the days have all been forgotten." Oh, may we number our days and use the rest of our days wisely!
Now, let me mention another matter briefly. This matter is not only mentioned in the New Testament but is exemplified in the Old Testament. One of the examples is Abraham. According to Acts 7, when Abraham was in Mesopotamia, that is, Ur, God appeared to him and charged him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house to go into Canaan. How did he respond? If he disobeyed, he would lose his peace. Yet he was not willing to obey to the end. He came to Haran and became "a halfway Christian." He not only went out himself, but he also brought along his nephew Lot and his father. God told Abraham to leave his kindred, but he brought them along. God told him to go to Canaan, but he went only to the border. He became a "borderline Christian." With many Christians, you cannot consider them totally cold because you can sense a little warmth in them. But you cannot consider them hot because they are not. It was the same with Abraham; he left Ur of the Chaldees but had not entered into Canaan. Today some may think that they are too spiritual for the world and too worldly for the Christians. In this way, they become borderline Christians.
However, we see that God again called Abraham after his father died (Gen. 12). This time, God did not call him from Ur but rather from Haran. God's will never wavers. Once it is spoken, it stands forever. God told Abraham that he should move to Canaan. The fact that he had moved to Haran did not change God's will. God called him the second time, and Abraham had to leave. Surprisingly, as soon as he started his journey from Haran, the Bible immediately recorded his age as being seventy-five (Gen. 12:4). His age was not recorded when he was in Ur or when he reached Haran. Only when he left Haran and entered into Canaan did the Bible record his age as being seventy-five. This shows us the beginning of his years. God does not count the days that are in the halfway state and in the border region. He demands that we surrender to Him absolutely. Oh, the days spent in Haran are the lost and forgotten days! If we desire God's blessings, we need to leave Haran. God does not count any days in which the self is mixed. I do not know indeed how many days I have lost, how many years I have lost. When I review my past history, I do not know how many days are to be condemned. God did not take notice of any time that was spent in Haran. We spend many days in a foolish way, in a way that is against our conscience and according to our own will. Many times we are lazy and only care for an easy life. All these are just Haran. All these are lost and become null and void. The counting begins at age seventy-five.
Unfortunately, this was not the only period that Abraham lost. The same thing happened again in chapter sixteen. In chapter fifteen God promised Abraham that he would have a son. In chapter sixteen he was influenced by his wife's suggestion and fell into a presumptuous sin before God. Her intention was good, and she tried to help God. She gave Hagar, her maid, to Abraham, and the latter bore him a son. This was the effort of the flesh and was not something from God. Interestingly, Abraham was recorded as being eighty-six years old in the last verse of chapter sixteen; in the first verse of chapter seventeen he was recorded as being ninety-nine years old. There is a total gap of thirteen years. During these entire thirteen years, not one incident was recorded, nor was any altar built. (Altars were often built by Abraham.) Also, there was no appearance, no new revelation, or any new promise. This period was the period when Ishmael grew up. Let us remember that anything which comes out of our own will and our own flesh is not counted by God and is lost. God began to keep record again at the age of ninety-nine. The entire thirteen years were lost, forgotten, spent in vain, and counted as nothing.
Let us ask ourselves whether or not during the last few years we have had any new experiences, any new light, or any new messages? In these last few years, did we save any souls or help anyone? Oh, let us consider! A few years have passed. Do we know God in a deeper way? Do we have a renewed assurance concerning God's promise? Do we have any new consecration toward God? Do we have any new altar that we built ourselves? Please remember that if the answers are no, all those days were lost. There is an elderly sister who is still alive today; the time that we can still be with her may not be too long. Once she said that with a Christian, every day he lives on earth should count, and that this is the way to gain the reward. Many times for us, ten days of living do not add up to one day. If we would only live daily by fulfilling our duty, everything would be all right. Please remember that this is a daily matter and cannot be treated lightly. If we live foolishly, rebelliously, sinfully, and act according to the self's will, this type of living in God's eyes is a waste of time and a squandering of our days. What a pity!
Why did God mention the age of ninety-nine? Because Abraham was circumcised during that year. Abraham had to experience circumcision. After one year, Isaac was born to him. We know that the meaning of circumcision is to rid oneself of the flesh. Therefore, the days in which the self and everything of the flesh had not been dealt with cannot be counted. Because Abraham received circumcision, he was counted again at the age of ninety-nine. Oh, many Christians today are extremely loose; they make light of their daily lives. But let us begin from today to strip off everything fleshly and offer all on the altar so that we will not live a life in vain again and not waste our days any longer. All those of us who are saved know that we have eternal life, but let us count our days and strive to gain back our precious moments. No doubt, we very much desire the return of our Lord. But if the Lord delays, let us count every one of our days. Do not let fifty years pass by and find out that forty-nine of them were lost. Oh, let us consider how many days we have spent in a foolish way. We do not know how many days there are left. Therefore, awake! We see from Abraham that many of his years were lost and gone. How wonderful it would be if he had not lost all those years!
It is most interesting to see the journey that the Israelites took in the wilderness. Recall the fact that the Israelites' journey from Egypt to Kadesh took only two years. This is recorded in Exodus 12 to Numbers 13. Due to their unbelief they did not enter into Canaan. They journeyed another thirty-eight years before they entered into Canaan. Those two years of journeying were normal but the thirty-eight years were just a waste. From Mount Horeb they circled around until they returned to the original place. We have also seen from the book of Deuteronomy that from Mount Horeb through Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea was a journey of only eleven days but it took them thirty-eight years to finish it. This circle was so large that they made their eleven-day journey in thirty-eight years! This was not three years or five years. All the time they circled around; there was no beginning and no end. This is the experience of many Christians. Some problems can be solved in three to five days, but they wait three to five years and the problems remain unsolved.
According to our knowledge, from the time Paul went to preach in Corinth to the time he wrote 1 Corinthians there was a span of only a few years. In that time, Paul hoped that they would become spiritual and grown-up men. Seeing that they remained as infants after these years disappointed Paul. It seems that he was saying, "It has been so long; it is already a few years!" From this we see that, according to Paul, being a spiritual man does not require a long period of time. It is not right to take three to five years. However, what is our point of view? When we see that a believer is living a foolish life, we make excuses for him, by saying, "Since he has only believed in the Lord for three or five years, how can he do what he is supposed to do?" However, Paul's view was totally different. After one year, a person should have the stature of a one-year-old. He should not take three to five years to do that. Three to five years after salvation is enough for a person to become a grown-up spiritual person. Unfortunately, in these days there are many fifty-year-olds who are still babies. They have never consecrated themselves and do not know what is meant by walking on the right path, seeking after God's will, or fellowshipping with God. They cannot help others. They read the Bible but do not have any light; they do not know how to lay hold of God's promises. Many have taken thirty-eight years to go through an eleven-day journey. These are the days that are forgotten and lost.
Every time I think of this matter, I become sorrowful and find the thought unbearable. However, I still thank the Lord who gives me comfort in my despair. In Joel 2:25 He said, "I will restore to you the years/That the swarming locust has eaten." Thank the Lord that He still has a way. You may be sixty years old this year and have wasted thirty or forty years. You may say, "What should I do about this today? I do not have a chance any longer. How much longer do I have to live? My strongest years have already been eaten up by Satan." What has been lost will never come back. This is like what Mr. Gladstone, a very famous politician in England, said in his old age to a young missionary, "Sir, you are still young. I give you my blessing for going again to preach the gospel in the foreign countries. Unfortunately, I am already old. Although I have succeeded to become the most important man on the political stage, and although I have been a pillar and have spent much time and energy for England, I regret the time spent in the past. If I had three lives, I would spend every one of them to preach the Word of God. Today I am unable to do so because the strongest and the best time of my life has been eaten up. Therefore, I encourage you to run for the Lord and gospel."
Once there was a young girl who fell into sin and contracted tuberculosis. She was dying in the hospital. An old servant of the Lord preached the gospel to her, telling her that the Lord Jesus had borne all her sin and persuading her to confess her sins, repent, and accept Jesus as her Savior. At first this girl resisted. She wondered how the Lord could forgive a sinner like herself. However, after she accepted the Lord, she was saved and became very happy, and peace filled her heart. After a few days, this old servant went to see her again. He was surprised to find her with a very sad face and very sorrowful. The servant asked her, "Why? Do not let Satan cheat you." She said, "No, I know that my sins have been forgiven." "Then why are you so sorrowful?" She answered sadly, "My years and days are almost finished. I am lying here, and I am about to die. When I stand in front of the Lord, the Lord may reckon me as saved. But what do I have to bring to Him? I can only tell the Lord that I have come empty-handed! How can I face my Lord with empty hands?" Truly, if the Lord takes you today, what do you have to bring to Him? Have you ever saved a soul? That is why this sister was very sad. The old servant said to her, "Sister, do not worry. I will take what you have just said and will write a song right next to your bed to encourage others to preach the gospel. In this way, all those who preach the gospel and save souls because of this song will share their rewards with you." He wrote the now well-known song: "Must I go, and empty-handed,/Thus my dear Redeemer meet?" Because of this song, many were touched to go out to preach the gospel. That is what the Lord means when He says, "I will restore to you the years/That the swarming locust has eaten,/The licking locust and the consuming locust and the cutting locust." Therefore, let us testify for Him today, serve Him, and recover the zeal which was in the beginning.
Ten years of a man's life on earth may be counted for only one day. But then one day may also be counted as one thousand days. David said that a day in the Lord's courts is better than a thousand. Therefore, our service is not in vain. The days in heaven are not measured by twenty-four hours. This is spiritual accounting. The way we reckon a day is not necessarily the same way God reckons it.
All those who are for the Lord are in the light; everything that does not have the Lord is filled with darkness. The most tragic verse in the whole Bible is John 13:30: "Having taken the morsel, he [Judas] went out immediately; and it was night." This is a very dark verse. Judas went out and left the presence of the Lord. It is forever a dark night when one betrays the Lord. From that day on, that man never saw day again; he never saw daylight, and everything for him was darkness. It is a very dangerous thing to leave the presence of the Lord. Whenever a person leaves the presence of the Lord, it is darkness for him.
Therefore, let each one of us consider how we are going to spend the rest of our days! May we not lose our days, but spend each day as a thousand. We should go on day by day and should never stop. Every step of our walk should be in the light of God's will, and we should not delay any longer. If we have fallen, we should rise up again right there. Let us remember that the fallen time is the lost time.
Concerning the ministry on the Notes on Scriptural Messages, I need to clarify a few things. Most of the manuscripts are notes on messages. Although I spent some time in correcting it, the contents and style are like the spoken form. If we intended to publish it in book form, we would have made it easier to understand, and fewer phrases would be missing. However, I can only admit that it has been impossible to rewrite them because of my busy schedule. Therefore, please excuse any mistakes found in structure and style.
March 24, 1934Shanghai
