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Scripture Reading: Rom. 7:6; 12:1; Exo. 40:17-33
In learning to serve the Lord in the church, we should be faithful in practical affairs, but our attention should always focus on the increase of the measure of spirituality. The purpose of taking care of business affairs is to dispense spiritual matters to others. If we only have the business side but are short on the spiritual side, we have deviated from the main focus of our service to the Lord. God has entrusted a spiritual responsibility to us. If we pay attention only to business affairs and neglect life, we have incurred a great loss. If we are short in life, our service will be nothing but a series of activities, and we will be in the realm of outward affairs only. If we are short of life, we will not be able to meet the need of God's children. Life takes care of the need of God's children. We must first have genuine growth in life before we can minister life to other brothers and sisters through the practical affairs.
If we want to learn to serve the Lord at all, we have to be trained in spiritual matters. In our service to the Lord, we must not be those who only work but never learn. God wants us to learn and grow. We must grow week by week and time after time. God often allows us to fail in order for us to learn some lessons. If we feel that we have succeeded in anything, God will come in to frustrate our success. We must remind ourselves that business affairs should never occupy all of our attention and that we should never neglect spiritual lessons while we are doing our work. We must learn while we work. The more deeply we learn the lessons, the better it will be, and the more thoroughly we are trained, the better it will be. We should not pay attention to our success. Rather, we should pay attention to learning the lessons.
In the Old Testament, when a priest wanted to serve in the Holy Place, he had to first pass the altar and offer up sacrifices for his own sins. Then he had to pass the laver where he washed away his defilement with water. Further on he entered the Holy Place. Everything in the Holy Place was gilded and shining. Once he touched anything with his hand, a fingerprint appeared on the utensils. As soon as a man goes into the Holy Place and serves, his real condition is exposed. At the same time, no one can act according to his own will in the Holy Place. Every move must be according to God's ordination and cannot deviate from it at all. If we serve Him, we have to see the need of the blood for the cleansing of our sins and the need of the laver for the cleansing of our defilement, or we should not serve God at all. We also have to put ourselves aside. Only those who have this realization are engaged in genuine service to God. If a man does not have this realization, he is doing something that God does not want him to do, or there is something wrong with him. If we are truly serving the Lord, we will be full of realization whenever we touch the service. It is possible for us to be short of feeling when we eat with others, but we should have a great deal of feeling when we serve together with others. It is possible for us to have little feeling when we transcribe secular notes, but when we are transcribing spiritual material, we cannot help but be touched to pray, "Lord, I am not qualified to engage in Your work. Lord, cleanse me with Your blood." If a man is flippant and indifferent when he touches the Lord's service, he is not a servant of God. Brothers and sisters, if we are doing what God wants us to do, we will immediately feel that there are things that we have not dropped yet. We still have our flesh, and we still are not perfectly submissive to God. There is still disharmony between us and the brothers and sisters. If we visit someone who confesses that he does not come to the meetings because his temper is too rash and if we rebuke him as soon as we hear this, it means that we do not have a feeling about our own quick temper, and our service will not carry any spiritual weight. We must realize that as soon as a priest enters the tabernacle and the Holy Place, he will see his own sin and defilement. He will not fail to see his true condition because he is in a place that is holy. Once a man enters the Holy Place, the self is exposed. Similarly, when we engage ourselves in the service of the Lord, our true condition will be exposed. The place to know the self is in our service to the Lord. The more a person is sensitive toward God's service, the more it proves that he is a true servant of the Lord and that he is doing a service to God. If a man is void of feeling, it proves that he is not a servant of God and that the things he is doing are not a service to the Lord. When a priest who serves the Lord comes to the altar, his sins are exposed. When he comes to the laver, his defilement is exposed, and when he comes into the Holy Place, his whole person is exposed. In the course of our service to the Lord, we see our sins, and we need the cleansing of the blood. We see that we have been defiled, and we need the washing of the water. When we go in further, we see that we cannot touch anything that is holy; the self must be removed. Brothers and sisters, we must never equate spiritual weight with excitement and activity. No, spiritual weight is the manifestation of holiness in our service. With such manifestation, there is the presence of God. Many brothers and sisters can testify that their service in the church is like the service of the priests in the Holy Place; there are things which they need to deal with. They need sins removed by the blood; they need defilement removed by the renewing of the Spirit, and they need their self-element removed through the holiness of the Holy Place. This should be our experience every time we come to serve God. If we do not feel our sinfulness, our defilement, and our self-element, we probably have very little presence of the Lord.
If a place is a holy convocation of the Lord, the brothers should at least see their own sin, their own defilement, and their self. The presence of this feeling proves the presence of God. This is the Holy Place. When a man comes in, he will be conscious of his sins, his defilement, and his self. This consciousness will force him to go to God and call on Him. This will bring in growth. Every time we see our own condition, our life grows a little more. In serving the Lord, we have to touch that which is "holy" time after time. If we touch it, we will learn something before the Lord, we will grow and be useful, and God will have a way through us. I will repeat. Our service must not be a series of business activities that do not carry any spiritual weight. May the Lord be merciful to us in this matter.
