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First Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This word by Paul is a conclusion to his teaching concerning the truth of resurrection.
Before speaking about the truth of resurrection, Paul first testifies about the grace and his labor: “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me” (v. 10). Paul says that through the work of grace he had become an extraordinary man. Yet he could not fully say what kind of a person he had become. He was able to labor more abundantly to bring God’s economy to His children, not by himself but through the grace of God which was with him.
Following this word, Paul speaks about the truth of resurrection. At the end of this portion, in verse 58, he draws his conclusion, testifying that any labor and work in the resurrected Lord is not in vain. If our work today is in resurrection and not in the natural realm, it will not be in vain. Personally, I have always treasured this word of Paul. Since the day I began to serve the Lord and for the past few decades, I have been constantly reminded, encouraged, and reassured by this word. I have said to myself many times, “I am laboring in the Lord. Yet this labor is not a work; it is grace, and it is not in vain. Therefore, I will be steadfast and immovable, and I will always abound in the work of the Lord.”
I have the burden to summarize or give an account of all that the Lord is doing among us in these days. We want to see what the Lord has shown us up to this point and what kind of future lies before us. This is a review of the past and a preview of the future.
When we began to change the system a year and a half ago, my main goal was to bring the church out of the old ways and to replace these ways with something new, to work from the inside out. Although we have not yet fully emerged out of the old “womb,” at least by now a certain new shape has taken form. It now rests with the co-workers and the elders to ensure that we move onward steadily and steadfastly until the work is done and the delivery is complete.
I said that we should not only pick up the burden to ensure that the churches in the Lord’s recovery increase in number but that the recovery as a whole would spread throughout the entire island of Taiwan. Whenever I speak of this matter, my heart aches within me. I feel deeply that we have come short of the Lord’s calling. In 1948 the Lord brought us to Taiwan. By 1984 we had been here for thirty-six years. In our first five years in Taiwan, the Lord greatly blessed us. Not only did the number of churches increase rapidly, but the recovery was also spread throughout the entire island. The result of this increase and spread was a hundredfold increase from four hundred people to forty or fifty thousand people and from three or four churches to sixty or seventy churches. Later, we suffered some frustrations, went downhill, and even stopped. Since that time there has been no increase or spread. The number of saints has remained the same, and the number of churches has increased only minimally.
In 1984 as I reviewed the situation of the previous thirty or more years, I was deeply bothered. Under the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, everything on this island was ideal for the Lord’s spread. From every perspective we were more than qualified to spread the Lord’s kingdom. Yet we had not done this. I felt that I had truly failed the Lord. I felt that this was the time for us to receive the Lord’s commission to pick up this burden once again and do everything we could to spread the gospel, the truth, and the churches throughout the entire island of Taiwan. At that time I resolved to accomplish this task in five years. In order to do this, I spoke of the great need to add five hundred college graduates as full-timers every year. In five years we would have twenty-five hundred full-time serving ones.
When I brought up this need, I was very clear within that this was of the Lord. Now eighteen months have passed. We can only say that we are moving very slowly and doubtfully toward this goal. Yet if we measure ourselves against our past experience and consider all the present factors, we can say that the Lord has been very merciful to us. We must admit that the Lord’s recovery does have a very strong foundation here. This has been proven by our faithfulness to the Lord during the past eighteen months. We have been willing to pick up the burden and answer the Lord’s call. About two hundred fifty young ones have given themselves to be full-timers. I hope that by the summer training two hundred more full-timers will be added. In this way, in another eighteen months, we will have at least seven hundred to one thousand full-timers. We hope that the preparation work for evangelizing Taiwan will be completed in three years. By 1988 we will be able to form an army and send it out.
There is still a year and a half to go. This is the time for us to train our army. In the full-time training these full-timers should spend at least two-fifths of their time to visit the communities, bringing the gospel and the meetings to people’s homes and learning to speak properly in their visitations. The rest of the time they should be equipped in classes. By the time they set out in 1988, these trainees must be fully equipped. They will have learned the best techniques, and they will be trained to spread the Lord’s gospel throughout all the towns.
After much consideration the Lord gave us a good way. We will group the one thousand full-timers into one hundred teams. They will work in one hundred towns, visiting people and delivering the gospel and the meetings to the homes two by two. After a month two will stay behind with the new ones in each town to do follow-up work and to establish the new church, and the other eight hundred will regroup and set out for eighty more towns, where they will work for another month. In this way, in five months we will establish churches in all three hundred eighteen towns throughout the island. The most important thing is to build up the gospel and the church meetings in the homes of all the new believers.
In the second five years, after the entire island is gospelized, and after the net of the gospel, the truth, and the church has spread over the entire land, we will move into the communities in all the major cities. We will also spread out from the towns to the nearby villages. In this way we will completely saturate Taiwan with the gospel, the truth, and the church. This is not a dream. It is not an idealistic goal. It is a workable plan. If we are faithful to the Lord and if we labor diligently, this future will become our reality.
Today we are in a different age. Taiwan has advanced and prospered in every area during its forty years of development. Communication is well developed. Education is widespread, and the standard of living is high. Industry and commerce are booming. Finance is strong, and the citizens are well off. The apostle Peter did not have the opportunities that we have. The condition in the land of Judea after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, at the time of Pentecost, was not similar to what we have today. At that time the Jews were under Roman domination. Its extortion and severe financial demands left the economy depressed and stifling. Education was limited, and communication was sporadic. One had to walk from Jerusalem to Capernaum; at the most, a donkey could be ridden. There were not the means of communication that we have today. Yet under those circumstances Paul took the lead to preach the gospel from Jerusalem outward until it reached all of Judea, Samaria, Asia Minor, Eastern Europe, and even as far as Rome. All this happened within a span of thirty or so years. Today the Lord has furnished us with such a convenient and rich environment. If we do not labor, how foolish we are, and how much we come short of the Lord’s grace!
Today we can use the telephone to call an elders’ meeting. Saints from dozens of churches in Europe, Africa, and America can gather together and use the telephone to enjoy sweet fellowship. What a gracious provision we have from the Lord! We must all wake up to realize that this is an age for great actions. We need to seize the opportunities and achieve something. We look to the Lord desperately and pray that His blood would cover all of us to fight the battle for God’s kingdom here in this land. We are not engaged in small-scale private enterprises. We are engaged in the universal enterprise of our heavenly King. We are here cooperating with the Lord, making ourselves available to Him for the spread of His kingdom. This is not a small thing. It requires our full effort and participation.
I say this as an encouragement. We are not forcing anyone to drop their jobs to serve the Lord full time. But we do hope that some elders would give themselves to serve in a full-time way. Even if we cannot serve full time for our whole life, we can at least try and serve full time during the ten years of our gospelizing Taiwan. We can go back to our jobs after all the cities, towns, and villages have churches. This is a glorious service. It is a service that is well pleasing to the Lord. This is a glorious operation in the Lord’s recovery. I hope that we all will have a part in this operation.
What should we do to bring in this glorious future and reach our goal? First, the elders in every local church should pick up the burden to build up the meetings in the saints’ homes. Every saint should have a meeting in his or her own home. Last month there were forty-five hundred saints attending the home meetings in Taipei. Now the number has reached fifty-one hundred. We should be encouraged to continue advancing. Of course, we are not for numbers only. Our emphasis is to build up the home meetings.
The home is a steady and stabilizing unit. Those who are saved in the homes grow up in the homes. Since they are built up in the homes, it is not easy to lose them. In the past the church life was like a social club. When a person was saved, he was frequently ignored because of lack of care and concern. Now the church must be built up in the homes. When a person is saved and baptized, he will not be dropped. Rather, the fruit will remain and be strong. I hope that the elders will see this clearly. I have no intention to build up the big meetings centered on the meeting halls. We are for building up the home meetings. The home is the base for the building up of the church. It is the basic building unit of the church. This does not mean that we will give up the meeting halls. The halls are a means and a bridge for us to take advantage of and cross over. Our real goal is to build up the home meetings. If there are one thousand saints, there should be one thousand active homes. If there are ten thousand saints, there should be ten thousand active homes. If there are ten thousand homes in Taipei, and if every home brings in one person a month, in one year we will bring in one hundred twenty thousand people. This is a tremendous thing. If we take the old way, how many elders and co-workers will we need to appoint to take care of one hundred twenty thousand people? In the new way no such appointments are needed. All the homes can take care of these people.
The more we speak, the clearer we are concerning this matter. This is the life pulse of the new system, and it must succeed. With this in view, we should pay much attention to the full-time training. A plan has already been drafted with the trainers. In the future the full-time training will be carried out in the Full-time Training Center in hall three of the church in Taipei. All the trainees must reside in the center. Some churches may not be very happy about sending all these good young people to Taipei. They may ask, “What about our own locality?” Brothers, we need to have proper foresight. We should not let localism blind us from seeing the overall future of the Lord’s recovery. These young people are being trained here temporarily. In the long run they will serve in all the localities according to the need. For the sake of the overall enterprise of the Lord’s recovery, the elders and responsible brothers in all the churches should do their best to encourage the young people to attend the training and to send them on their way.
In order to meet the need of the full-time training and of the gospelization of Taiwan, there is a great need of financial support. The need for the full-time training alone presents a great burden to all of us. From the beginning, I fellowshipped that in the churches one out of every twenty saints should be a full-timer. The other nineteen should support his living and training. All the churches should strive toward this goal. At the same time we should do our best to be faithful in material giving. Some may say that the training and giving should be up to the Spirit’s leading and stirring and that there should not be any human arrangements. But we need to understand that even though our personal walk should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, the move of the entire church should issue from the leading of the Holy Spirit through the apostles’ and elders’ instruction. In his Epistles Paul directed Timothy and arranged for the movements of his co-workers.
The Lord willing, we should even specify the way we should dress and the way furniture should be arranged in the meeting. Every time we meet, we are before God; therefore, we need to be serious about our conduct. If we act loosely and carelessly, as we have in the past, we will be selling the Lord’s recovery too cheaply. In the previous chapter I mentioned a heretical group in the Philippines. In their meetings everyone dresses properly and puts on proper attire. This is the reason high-class people are attracted to them and even pride themselves in being members. We should pay attention to this and reexamine ourselves.
Some may say that if we do this, we will be like those in James 2, who respect persons and prefer the rich to the poor. My response to this is from 1 Corinthians 11. At the time of the apostle Paul, when believers frequently gathered together for meals, the rich would bring better and finer food while the poor would bring little, yet everything was for mutual enjoyment. This was called a love feast (Jude 12). The Corinthians, however, did not properly take care of this matter. They did not wait for one another (1 Cor. 11:33). On the contrary, because each ate his own food, the rich became drunk while the poor starved (v. 21). This led to division and parties among them (vv. 18-19). For this reason Paul rebuked them for despising the church of God. In the same way, if some saints are not able to dress properly, the rich ones should offer money to take care of them. I am not speaking this lightly. My point is that we cannot despise the church of God. We cannot sell the Lord’s recovery cheaply. The Lord Jesus was not a wanton person. At the cross the soldiers cast lots for His garment. This proves that the Lord’s garment was quite dignified. If He had dressed like a pauper, the soldiers would have thrown His garment away; they would not have fought over it.
Since we changed the system in October of 1984, there was a great turn within me. I did not want to initiate this change in the West. In 1949 the Lord sent me to Taiwan. Just as I began from Taiwan and brought in the present situation, in the same way I want to begin from Taiwan and spread outward from here, gradually bringing in a new situation everywhere.
Second, the elders must build up the truth-teaching meetings. These meetings must become the center of all the meetings. In these meetings we must not only teach the truth but also help the saints to meet. In the future all large meetings and consolidated gatherings should be truth-teaching meetings. We do not have sermon meetings. Our sermon meetings are truth-teaching meetings.
Concerning the teaching of the truth, the Lord’s recovery should be the most qualified and experienced among the Christian groups in Taiwan. Our teaching has spread even to other countries. No one’s teaching can compare with ours. Our Truth Lessons have rich main points, clear outlines, simple and concise language, and are easy for new believers to understand. Of course, we should never be satisfied. We should study and improve our teaching and delivery skills.
The important thing is that we must not only teach; we must also make our meetings living. If we do this, we can bring our friends and relatives to the truth meetings. I hope that in the coming days, the truth meetings will be the most attractive meetings in the Lord’s recovery. We need to turn with the age. Today everyone wants knowledge and information. Even an unbeliever wants to know the truth. If we preach in an ordinary way, others will not be attracted; however, if we speak logically, concisely, clearly, and with much content, others will be convinced. The whole world knows that Christianity teaches the Bible. Everyone more or less respects the Bible. If we can present the truth properly and clearly, based upon this well-respected “classic,” others will rise up to admire it.
Today most people have received a good education. Most people are college graduates. We cannot invite people to come listen for an hour and a half to a message given in a sloppy manner. This is what we did before. The truth meetings, however, present a simple and clear message that is packed with truth and logic. This will easily touch people. To the educated and thoughtful people this is very effective and attractive. Hence, we must make the truth meetings our goal. We should even use these meetings to preach the gospel. If we practice this, it will become a new move in Christianity; others will not be able to match us.
Third, we need to actively engage ourselves in the visitation work in the communities and on the campuses. The co-workers and elders need to take the lead to do this work. Today Taiwan is growing rapidly. The expansion in the big cities mainly revolves around the new urban communities. There are high-class, young, and ambitious people living in these new communities. Some of these urban developments are more advanced than those in the United States. If we do not bring the gospel to them, we will miss the opportunity. We must take action and begin visiting. We are not the only ones who have noticed this phenomenon; the denominations are also paying attention to these new developments. If we take the initiative, we will gain people. If we wait until Christianity has started their work, it will be difficult to catch up. Hence, the co-workers and the elders need to wake up and take the lead to visit and work in these communities.
In the next term of the full-time training, there will be three hundred trainees. Every week they will spend two days visiting the communities. However, this work is not primarily theirs; this work belongs to the whole church. The elders must, therefore, stir up and encourage all the local saints to do their best to cooperate and coordinate together in the visitation work. In the future the spreading of the gospel will depend almost entirely on the communities. We must go to the communities. In addition, the campuses are important targets. In Taipei we should work to gain the students and to prepare the best material for the Lord’s recovery. We should build up a strong testimony on all the campuses.
I have a proposal concerning the campus work. I hope we will fellowship thoroughly concerning this proposal. We must locate good meeting halls adjacent to good universities such as National Taiwan University. The location must be right, and the building must be large enough. Hall three was originally remodeled for this purpose. However, National Taiwan University is located near hall nineteen, and hall nineteen is not suitable for this use. I visited that hall once and was discouraged by what I saw. The location is hidden, and the hall is shabby. If I were a college student, especially from overseas, I would surely hesitate to go to such a hall. Even if I wanted to become a Christian, I would not want to enter such a shabby-looking place.
Let me say a word to the church in Taipei. For a brief time let us forget about Linkou. Let us focus on this goal and this burden. Secure a large and suitable building near the campus for a meeting hall. Find one that will hold at least three to four hundred people. National Taiwan University is the top university in this country. This university produces all the top people and has a large student population. We should have the foresight. If we want a campus work, we must work on National Taiwan University. I ask the co-workers to give me the liberty to bring up some old complaints. You have been under my training for many years and have been serving this entire time. Why have we not had this kind of view? We have always boldly declared that we are for the campus work, but what has been done on the top campus in the country? If I were taking the lead in the church in Taipei, I would surely go back to all the meeting halls and fellowship aggressively about this burden. I would encourage all the brothers and sisters to make offerings for a new building near the campus. We should have this kind of spirit and this kind of view.
This is the reason I was merciless to the co-workers when I came back a year and a half ago. I was clear that if I was nice and polite, our work would not go on. I hope we will pray much before the Lord. Today we are engaged in the heavenly King’s enterprise. We are building up His kingdom. This is a tremendous matter. We love the Lord. We want to be faithful to Him; for more than two or three decades we have given up everything and consecrated our all to Him. What have we accomplished? According to my observation, we have managed to hold on to a certain attainment; we have maintained a certain amount of truth and life. But what have we actually accomplished? In reality we are merely eking out a living. We should not be that passive and impotent. We should shake off this lethargy.
We should have a proper and practical plan concerning the campuses. Some meeting halls are five or six stories tall. What is the use of having such tall buildings in places that do not have a good campus? If the saints cannot afford to give for the campus work, I do not believe we need to keep the big meeting halls. We can sell three or five of these halls and direct the money to a large facility by the campus. This is worthwhile. Even if we can gain only one hundred students from the campus, this is still worthwhile. When a nation launches a project, it cannot spend too much time calculating the cost involved; it can only count on the success of the project. If the project succeeds, it is worth the expense. I hope the elders will pray and fellowship thoroughly concerning this matter during the elders’ meeting.
I hope we will overturn the Chinese disposition, which is to be nice and polite when sitting in a meeting. Even if everyone decided to visit hell, there would be no disagreement; at the most there might be an oblique suggestion to visit heaven instead. But after the meeting, everyone is freely criticized and condemned. When the elders come together, they can talk and debate about everything, but in the end everyone must be in one accord to carry out the decision. No one can act independently. Please remember that we are not serving merely as elders in our own little halls; we are serving as one of the elders of the entire church in conjunction with eighty other brothers.
In the past I told the senior elders that they should not carry the burden of the church in Taipei entirely on their own shoulders. They must build up the elders’ meeting and let that meeting lead and direct the church. Only in this way can the church be strong and the Lord have a free way to go on. When I returned to Taiwan a year and a half ago, I appointed eighty elders. The purpose of my appointment was to build up the elders’ meeting. I hope that we will learn to pick up the burden of the church and will learn to expand and head up the church in a good way. Only then will the church advance and have a good future.
In summary, our goal is very clear. We need to work on the communities because the general population is there. The church must follow the direction of the population. At the same time we must work on the campuses. We need to gain the present generation of young people for the Lord’s recovery. In particular, the church must do something at National Taiwan University. For this purpose the elders need to rise up, pray much, and fellowship concerning what to do. For now, we will advance toward these two main goals. The spreading of the gospel in other areas will follow.
It is right to be careful and cautious, but “where there is a will, there is a way.” The Lord wants our cooperation. The church is here, and it should have some action and endeavoring. Several times in the past I rebuked the co-workers. I pointed out that in Taiwan, industry, commerce, education, and politics are all advancing, but the church is not advancing. I have waited for many years, but nothing has changed; everything has remained the same. This is the reason I made the drastic decision to come back and do something myself. The elders can consider themselves a new generation. The senior elders should also consider themselves as young and vigorous. We should begin everything anew and build up the church anew. We cannot sit around and do nothing, merely conveying a little truth and life to the saints and expecting them to grow in life at their own pace. On the island of Taiwan the Lord has been delayed by our delaying for more than thirty years. There has been no gain, no progress. In the face of all the advances and prosperity around us, we must do something. We should strive with all we have. Only then will the Lord have a way. We must pick up these three burdens — building up the home meetings, having a success in the truth-teaching meetings, and aggressively developing the community and campus work.
In order to pick up the burden and to spread the work aggressively, we need to match God’s work with our material supply. The present urgent need is to take care of the full-timers. Today the standard of living in Taiwan is high, yet our support for the full-timers is very low. These full-timers have given up their future for the spread of the Lord’s recovery. In addition to taking care of their living, they also give away books and booklets to their contacts and the new believers. We need to take care of them. For this reason I have seriously considered before the Lord to raise the support of the full-timers so that they will not need to worry about their living and can concentrate on the great work of evangelizing Taiwan.
I have presented all these needs to the churches. I hope we will see that the gospelization of Taiwan is not a slogan. We must give our all. The need of the full-timers is at least NT$120,000,000 (approximately US$4,000,000) per year. If we can raise this amount, we can be elders. If we cannot raise this amount, we are not qualified to be an elder. In order for all the saints to give everything to the Lord, the co-workers and elders must be in one accord. We must take the lead to charge forward. The result will surely come. However, if we expect the horses to run fast without supplying them with adequate grass, we are impractical. The Lord cannot bless this kind of attitude.
I say this because I am clear within that the Lord has blessed us greatly in material supply. Today the assets and income of most of the saints far exceed their need. The question is whether or not we are truly for the Lord. Have we truly consecrated our all to the Lord? When we all put our shoulders together, we can build a city. When everyone gives a hand, we can lift many things easily. If everyone puts in his share, we will more than meet our needs. This requires not only the churches’ attention and the saints’ awareness but also our practical consecration.
In addition to all this, should any church or meeting hall have some promising persons, I hope we would send them to the United States for special training. Their mind will be opened when they learn from other churches and fellowship with other churches. This is the way the world advances in science, education, and commerce. It encourages international exchange, and the result is phenomenal. We, however, are barely moving at all. We need to learn so that the church can catch up with the advance of the age.
Please forgive me for saying all these things. I may appear to be a foolish man. It may seem that I am beside myself. However, I have seen a vision and have received a burden to release the truth in the Lord’s recovery item by item. These truths are published in books, but these books are only sitting on our bookshelves. Meanwhile, the entire Christian world, with all the children of God, is starving spiritually. We must realize that it is to our shame that these truths have not gone out. We have wasted the Lord’s great grace upon us!
Thirty-five years ago I came to Taiwan with only my two hands. Among us we had only a few books by Brother Nee and a hymnal consisting of about one hundred eighty songs. I began to publish a magazine entitled The Ministry of the Word and a book entitled Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures. At that time there were twelve members in my family, but we lived in a studio that was big enough for only eight beds. There was no desk; I had a rattan coffee table. I prepared all the publications from that table and began the work in Taiwan in this way. During the past thirty-six years we have published many books, but they are all sitting on the shelf. This truly grieves me. I cannot bear to think of this.
By the Lord’s mercy I am sharing this with the co-workers and elders. I hope we will receive this fellowship from a “foolish” man (2 Cor. 11:16-17). The Lord did not have a way among us in the past. The tragedy is that we know what the way of the Lord is; our eyes are clear. We know that His truth is in our hands, but who will send this truth out? You may say that you can sleep peacefully, but I cannot sleep peacefully. I am an old man, yet I still want to spend and be spent. I want to be able to answer to the Lord. For years there was no progress in the work of translating the Bible into Chinese. I have been here for two months, and there is now a good foundation laid in this work. On the one hand, this is not an easy task. On the other hand, this is not that difficult a task. It all depends on whether or not the brothers are willing to pay the price. I hope that from now on, we will all make a strong resolution to advance and make progress. Strive to produce some result, and labor to spread the Lord’s testimony.
Brothers, I hope we will make a strong resolution to accomplish something while we are still young and capable. We must be like those in Judges 5 who made “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart” (vv. 15-16). We must achieve something for the Lord. We must never bury the grace that the Lord has given us or the gain that we have received from our training. When the Lord returns, we will be in trouble if the treasure within us is not dug out and the talents are not utilized. I hope that we will spend all we have and will not hold back anything. If we have a talent, we should spend a talent. If we have two talents, we should spend two talents. Only then will the Lord have a way to go on. Otherwise, we can wait for fifty years, and nothing will happen. Today there are almost twenty million people in Taiwan. Only five hundred thousand are saved. Are we not ashamed of this? We have been here for more than thirty years. The gospel has not spread very far. Do our hearts not ache? Perhaps we have grown numb to this fact. I hope that this word will prick our hearts.
Dear elders, there are no easy tasks. Even to be a little elder is a difficult task. We need to struggle and strive. I believe we all love the Lord. All of us are willing to consecrate ourselves to the Lord and sacrifice for the Lord. Regrettably, in the past we did not receive this kind of help. That was a great shortage. I hope we will take this fellowship and the exhortation of the apostle in his revelation concerning resurrection: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). The word used here is not work but labor. To labor implies not being discouraged, pressing on, and striving with all that one has. For any work, before success comes, there are struggles, frustrations, and failures. One has to strive and labor before he can reach his goal. In order to build up the home meetings, the truth meetings, the community work, and the campus work there must be this kind of labor and struggle.
I hope every elder will struggle and strive in this way. We should not avoid the difficult path and take the easy way. Nor should we settle for the light tasks. We must endure to the end. Nothing and no one should deter us, and we should never be discouraged or dejected. Success is not measured in a day. No account is settled until the Lord comes back. We were born here, raised here, saved here, and perfected here. This is our destiny. Today it is the Lord who has honored us by making us elders. We must respect this honoring and give our all to His commission. We must not only give our money and our career; we must give our blood and our life as well. If we have this kind of spirit, we will be successful elders.
Based on my experience of more than thirty years, and according to my studying and observation, I can say that the three ways that we have fellowshipped today are the best and most excellent ways. In addition to these ways, we have the richest inheritance, which is the truth among us. It serves as our shield and support. Everything depends now on how we conduct ourselves in the work. I hope we will take this word of encouragement and exhortation. I hope the elders will have an elders’ meeting at least once a week to pray and fellowship much and to take up the burden of the church. May the Lord be gracious to each of us.
Lord, we bring all the situations before You. You know everything. We believe everything is in Your hand. We believe that the recovery is Yours and that all the moves are Your moves. We believe fully that You will gain the glory in Taiwan and will spread Your kingdom here. For this reason bless all of us. Bless the saints, bless their homes, and bless their service. Lord, especially bless the full-timers, and bless their training. May their work and walk in Your presence be burnt offerings on the altar, and may they be acceptable to You. Lord, we are full of peace and rest and are assured that this is what You want to do. You will accomplish this work for the coming of Your kingdom and the realization of Your will on the earth.
Lord, cover the co-workers and the elders, especially the elders in all the meeting halls, to take up this burden to build up the homes, the truth-teaching meetings, and the work in the communities and the campuses and to produce full-time trainees for the gospelization of every city. Lord, remember the brothers and sisters and bless them. May they consecrate everything on the altar for Your love’s sake and for the sake of fulfilling Your work in this age. Lord, manifest Your riches in the midst of all the needs. May You gain a clear highway in Taiwan and gain a glorious testimony on this earth to be a model to all the churches. Lord, we look to You to accomplish this. We hide ourselves in You and exercise to put everything under Your care.
Lord, protect our coming in and our going out. Protect everyone and every home. Do not allow Satan any opportunity to attack, frustrate, or obstruct this move. Lord, take away our discouragement, our lack of confidence, and our fear. Make us steadfast and immovable, and give us faith in everything we are doing. We desire to see Your glory. May all the glory go to You! May the love of God, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit operate among us, and may we daily enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God. Lord, gain this earth, and remember Your testimony on the earth. Amen!
