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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:46; 5:42; 20:20
In the previous chapter we pointed out that the knowledge of the truth and growth in life are for the church’s increase and spread. However, we should also realize that the increase and spread of the church are the increase and spread of Christ. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as a grain of wheat. As the only begotten Son of God, He was the one grain of wheat. When He went to the cross, He fell into the ground and died. Then in resurrection He produced much fruit, that is, many grains as the multiplication of Himself as the unique grain. Much fruit in verse 24 refers to those who believe into Him.
The New Testament reveals that the only begotten Son of God became flesh, passed through human living, and died on the cross. After passing through death, He entered into resurrection to impart His divine life into those who believe into Him so that they could become many grains. Individually speaking, these grains are individual believers; collectively speaking, they are the one Body of Christ, the church.
Through the multiplication of Christ, He is both increased and spread. The increase and spread of the church is the increase and spread of Christ. Through His death and resurrection, Christ has been propagated, increased, and spread. Christ is present on every major continent of the whole earth, and the expression of this spreading Christ is the church.
On the surface, the book of Acts is merely a record of the activities and work of the apostles. In actuality, it shows how the resurrected Christ in His ascension and by the Spirit of power has been multiplied continuously on the earth through His believers. This propagation begins in Acts 2, and it does not stop even at the end of chapter 28. Bible readers throughout history acknowledge that the book of Acts has no conclusion; it is a book that transcends time and space. Perhaps God in the heavens today looks upon the continuing acts of His disciples as further chapters in the book of Acts.
In the Gospels there was Jesus. Then in Acts 1 there were one hundred twenty believers in Jesus, each of whom was His increase. In this regard, the one Jesus was multiplied by one hundred twenty. In chapter 2 three thousand people were saved on the day of Pentecost (v. 41), bringing the number of Christ’s multiplication to three thousand one hundred twenty-one. Then in chapter 4 another five thousand men were added (v. 4). In chapter after chapter of Acts there are the continuous increase and multiplication of Christ. In chapter 21, when Paul went up to Jerusalem, James said, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed” (v. 20). This means that by the time of chapter 21 the propagation of Christ had reached many thousands just in Jerusalem.
The increase and spread did not begin with us; it began with Peter and continued with Paul. In Acts Peter, Paul, and all the other saints continuously propagated Christ so that Christ could be increased and spread on the earth. Today in the twentieth century there are genuine Christians in every large city of every major continent on the earth. The number of those who have been washed by the Lord’s precious blood, who have been regenerated with the divine life, and who have become members of Christ to be constituted as the Body of Christ is in the hundreds of millions. This is His propagation.
However, in comparison to the population in the world, the propagation of Christ is not enough. For example, the population of Taiwan is close to twenty million, but there are less than one million Christians in Taiwan. This is not even one-twentieth of the population. When the Lord’s recovery first came to Taiwan in 1948 and 1949, there were meetings in only three to five places. Thirty-five years later there are more than eighty churches; nevertheless, there are three hundred eighteen towns in Taiwan. In other words, we have spread only to one-quarter of the towns in Taiwan; three-quarters of the towns do not have the Lord’s testimony. Therefore, Christ needs to multiply in Taiwan and to advance from multiplying to spreading.
Not long ago many of us made a vow before God that we would lead one person to the Lord in a year. This means that the Lord would double our number through propagation in one year. When we presented this consideration to the saints, we felt that this was not much to ask since it should be easy to gain one person when we are daily involved in the burden and work of propagation. According to our experience with fruit trees, a tree that grows only one piece of fruit is rather unsightly.
If some saints have already borne one fruit, it would be good to bear even more. We should be able to bear fruit during each of the four seasons in a year. We also need to recover the saints who have not been meeting for a long time, even those with whom we have lost contact. We have heard many testimonies of how some of those who have not been meeting with us for a while have been revived and recovered through the small group meetings. Such a fourfold propagation would truly make this a year of propagation.
The book of Acts not only records the facts related to the church’s increase and spread; it also shows four important means of the church’s increase and spread. The first means is the economical Spirit, the Spirit of power, descending on the lovers of the Lord (1:8; 2:2-4). The second means is prayer, which is continued steadfastly (6:4; 1:14; 2:42). The third means is God’s word (6:7), which is Christ Himself. God’s word has power, because the word of God is life, light, and truth. As such, it brings salvation to man. We do not preach ourselves or philosophy, and even more, not ethics or theories; we preach and release the word of God. The fourth means is the believers’ homes; this is the practical means for God’s increase and spread. Acts does not contain a record concerning meetings in a chapel, but there is a record of meeting “from house to house.” The believers broke bread and prayed together from house to house (2:46). They also announced the gospel and taught Jesus as the Christ from house to house (5:42). Finally, Paul spoke of teaching and admonishing the believers from house to house (20:20).
The means for God’s spread is through His Spirit, by the prayer of the believers, by the release of God’s word, and through the believers’ homes. These four aspects occupy a very important position in Acts. In addition to these four aspects, we need to be His witnesses. In 1:8 the Lord clearly said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Witness in Greek means “martyr,” one who lays down his life, who pays the price of his life, to be a witness.
Peter, James, and John were the Lord’s witnesses. They testified not only by their words but also by their living; eventually, they testified even with their lives. Each one was a martyr. Every witness should be a martyr. In order for God to have a way to propagate, we must have the spirit of a martyr, willing to sacrifice everything, offer everything, and even lose our lives to testify for Christ.
Through these five means in Acts, there was a continuous increase and spread of Christ. The Lord can have a way on the earth only through the Spirit of God, through the prayer of the saints, through God’s word, through the believers’ homes, and through living witnesses who are martyrs.
Now we need to fellowship concerning the statistics of the church in Taipei and evaluate them in light of our condition. It has been thirty-six years since the church in Taipei was established in 1948. Today there are many young people, all below the age of thirty-five. For this we are truly happy. Even though the older saints are very precious, the young saints are more important. Every successful business relies on young people because they are the ones who are able to move forward. In this respect, the church in Taipei is a moving church; it is normal in many aspects, and it is full of vitality. Regrettably, it is not normal enough, because there is almost no increase. This is quite painful to me.
When the church in Taipei began to meet, there were only twenty to thirty people. Not long afterward, Brother Chang Wu-chen and others contacted me and then came here. Thereafter, the number increased gradually. In April or May of the following year, I also came here. At that time the church was meeting in a Japanese-style house on Shanghai Road.
Later I spent some time traveling south by train from Taipei, visiting the saints who were scattered in various places along the way. After this time of visitation I realized that the Lord had a way to go on, even though the saints were scattered throughout Taiwan. After returning to Taipei, we decided to officially start the work on August 1, 1949.
At that time there were between three and five hundred brothers and sisters in Taiwan. The meetings of the church in Taipei included seventy to eighty saints. With these saints as a base, our numbers increased to three thousand over the next six years. We had an annual rate of increase of over one hundred percent. Even when counting all the saints in the churches on the island, we still had a forty percent annual rate of increase.
Three thousand saints is a conservative number. In the past thirty-five years more than fifty-seven thousand information cards have been filled out by saints in the church in Taipei. In 1956 there were approximately thirteen thousand eight hundred. In other words, the church in Taipei included over thirteen thousand saints in 1956. Although we had a large number of people on record, a smaller number regularly attended the meetings. In particular, the church in Taipei was well known for its high percentage of absent saints. In times of good attendance, approximately one-third would come to the meetings. At other times, only twenty-five percent would come. Thus, the actual number of regular attendees, those who were solidly in the church life, was about three thousand in Taipei in 1956. Nevertheless, the rate of increase was very high in the first five to six years.
Since 1956 to 1984, this base number of three thousand has remained fairly constant. While we do not need annual rates of increase that equal our early years, we do need to increase. Even a twenty percent rate of increase would be commendable. However, over the past twenty-eight years we have not even reached this standard; this exposes a great shortcoming.
I regret very much that I did not pay attention to our statistics when I came back over ten years ago. If we had paid attention to them, perhaps we could have redeemed much time. For many years the number of people attending the Lord’s Day meeting in the church in Taipei has averaged about three thousand one hundred. On the most recent Lord’s Day, however, there were about three thousand five hundred, an increase of four hundred. This increase reflects the impact of beginning to once again meet in small groups, which has brought in some new ones and recovered some dormant saints.
The actual number of saints in the church life in Taipei may be closer to five thousand five hundred. But even if this is the case, the number of those in the normal church life in Taipei has increased only from three thousand to five thousand five hundred in a span of almost twenty-eight years. This is an average annual rate of increase of less than three percent. This is truly not justifiable.
Even though we have lost contact with some saints in the last twenty-eight years due to moving, emigration, and death, we have also baptized at least ten thousand people and possibly as many as forty thousand. According to our observations, we have not lost contact with many as a result of moving, and at most, five thousand have emigrated. In addition, the increasing life expectancy in Taiwan has limited our losses due to death. This indicates that we have a high rate of those who are simply absent from the meetings. We cannot comfort ourselves with excuses; rather, we should locate the source of our problem.
This is a family matter and a family discussion. In 1980 I began to notice that the condition of the church in Taipei was at a standstill. Whenever I saw the responsible brothers, I would raise this issue and say, “The church in Taipei should not be like this, having no advancement at all. Just like a boat that is in a current, the church will either advance or be pushed back; the church must always advance.” I have been concerned about this situation for four years, but due to many burdens I have not been able to do anything. Therefore, after finishing the work of the New Testament footnotes and the Life-study messages in October of last year, I decided to return to Taiwan immediately.
Before the Lord I decided to pay attention to the work in the way that I did in 1949 when I began the work in Taiwan with the brothers. Thus, as soon as I returned to Taiwan, I began to pay attention to the matter of statistics. In order to do anything in society today, we cannot neglect statistics. Furthermore, with over thirty years of history, we can more easily locate the source of our problem, based on our history.
Honestly speaking, the condition of the church in Taipei, whether in terms of the number of people or the meetings, is second to none. For this we worship the Lord. However, we must study why we had an annual rate of increase of one hundred percent from 1949 to 1956, but less than three percent since then. Through our lack of attention to the matter of statistics, we missed an opportunity to see our lack. Therefore, we must rise up and once again pay attention to our statistics so that we can make a correction.
According to the information cards, over forty thousand people have been baptized in the past twenty-eight years, but the number of people meeting has increased by only two thousand five hundred. This indicates that most of the believers that we baptized do not meet with us. There is no need to blame anyone for this, but this is a fact that we cannot deny. Actually, we all are responsible for this situation, but those of us who take the lead in the work must bear more of the responsibility. Our way has been wrong because we have ignored our statistics.
Today, regardless of whether one is operating a business, a government agency, or a school, there is always a set of accounts for each year. From these accounts, statistics can be derived in order to evaluate and make improvements. However, we have neglected statistics for more than ten years. This allowed us to be content with our condition because the church in Taipei was larger than churches in other cities. However, once we began to look at the statistics, we discovered that our condition has not advanced much over the last twenty-eight years. There has not been much increase, because we did not utilize our family assets appropriately.
We preach the gospel quite well; otherwise, forty thousand people would not have been baptized. On average, we baptize one thousand five hundred people every year. According to statistics, many have been “born,” but almost as many have “died.” The average life expectancy of a person in Taiwan is over seventy years, but our spiritual life expectancy may be less than seven years. If we had statistics on the spiritual life expectancy of the saints, I am afraid that it would be quite short. Our negligence of statistics has kept us from formulating a way to deal with our situation. We need to find a way to correct our current situation.
There are mainly three categories of people who have neglected these statistics. The first category includes just myself, because even though I lived overseas, I still bear some responsibility. Furthermore, I have fellowshipped with the brothers often and even returned to Taiwan often; therefore, it is difficult to avoid blame. The second and third categories are the co-workers and the elders. We neglected our statistics and did not formulate a way to properly respond to the facts revealed by these statistics. This is because we were satisfied with the number of saints who were in the meetings. Consequently, we simply muddled along day by day. But many years have passed with no change, and in looking back, we realize that we have gained very little increase.
The first practice that we did not carry out in a proper way relates to the small groups. From 1949 to 1956 our average annual rate of increase was mainly attributable to the formation of small groups. We gained people through the preaching of the gospel, and we retained people by meeting with them in small groups. If a mother continuously gives birth to children but has no place where they can be safeguarded, nurtured, and educated, there will be many premature deaths in her family. This is the main factor in our negligence over the past twenty-eight years. We preached the gospel constantly. The co-workers and elders were busy every day for twenty-eight years, bringing in forty-five thousand people to be baptized. Yet we did not pay attention to how to keep them, and thus, most of them have been lost. If the elders had paid attention and done a thorough job of evaluating the information cards, they would not have allowed this kind of situation to persist for so long.
We are like broken cisterns, which cannot hold water (Jer. 2:13). We are continually drawing water, but we are letting it leak away. After drawing water for twenty-eight years, we still do not have much water. We should repair the “cistern” so that we can retain at least half of those who are baptized. If we would have been able to retain twenty thousand out of forty thousand people who were baptized over the past twenty-eight years, we would be in a most wonderful and encouraging situation.
I have no intention of rebuking anyone. If I were to rebuke, I would rebuke myself the most. Rebuking is useless; our goal is to find a remedy. In our early years we benefited greatly from the small groups. Regrettably, after 1956 we suffered a great loss after inviting a “spiritual giant” to “help” us, and our way of small groups was torn down. After 1956 the small groups ceased to function even though we did not officially announce that we would put aside the small groups.
Without the small groups, there was no container to hold the water. Consequently, the water that was drawn was poured onto the ground, and it seeped back into the soil. When we discovered that we were low on water, we went to the “gospel” well again to draw water, but the water that we drew was also poured onto the ground. For over twenty-eight years we have repeated this pattern: preaching the gospel, baptizing those who are saved, and then pouring them back onto the ground. As a result, almost everyone who has been saved has seeped back into the ground. This is like having a back door that is wider than our front door; people can leave faster than they enter. We have been satisfied for the past twenty-eight years because we have looked only at those who are coming in through the front door, but we have failed to notice that almost all of them have left through the back door. This is the result of our neglect of the small groups.
The purpose of my continuous talk about statistics is to help us understand the means and base for the increase and spread of Christ. These statistics can point us in the proper direction to find the means and base. For the past twenty-eight years, we have not had a proper base. Whenever a person builds a house, the first thing is to build a foundation as a base. For twenty-eight years we have been building, but it has not been on a firm base. This base is the small groups. By 1980 all the small groups were gone. In place of the small groups, there were big joint meetings, mass gatherings, and meetings involving one man speaking. This was a return to the old condition of Christianity.
The main method for bringing people into the Catholic Church is not gospel gatherings. One rarely sees the Catholic Church advertise a gospel gathering; their main method is personal contact and personal support. Even though Catholicism is full of heresies, their methods are superior. The Protestant denominations have more truth, but their methods are very traditional. They rely only on large gatherings, and they hire well-educated and eloquent speakers who know how to contact others, using their social and psychological skills. The success or failure of such methods depends upon one person.
In the New Testament there are no “chapels.” In the early days the believers met frequently in the temple of Judaism, but this practice did not please the Lord, because it brought a mixture of Judaism into the New Testament church. This mixture reached its climax in Acts 21 when Paul was almost caught in a trap of offering sacrifices. Actually, he had been in the temple for six days, and he was waiting for the seventh day when the priest would complete the offering of sacrifices for him and for those on whose behalf he had paid the expenses. However, the Lord did not allow this to happen; He raised up a confrontation to deliver Paul out of this situation of confusion. The Lord delivered him not only from the rioting of the Jews but also from the mixture of Judaism with the New Testament church.
Strictly speaking, the meetings of the church in Acts occurred mainly “from house to house.” The saints went from one house to another, house after house. This is the correct meaning of from house to house in Greek. Even if a house was large, it would not have been able to accommodate a mass gathering. At the most, it would have been able to provide a place for immediate neighbors; the capacity of a house is always small. This is the reason that we refer to such meetings as small group meetings.
In 1922 we began establishing churches in mainland China, starting in Foochow in the south. In 1932 the church in Chefoo was established in the north. Altogether we had twenty-seven years of history. In that period of time we did not encounter any great needs related to size. The number of people in the church in a locality rarely reached one thousand. Chefoo reached close to one thousand, and Shanghai eventually reached about one thousand seven hundred. During this time, if there was a need, we met in separate meeting halls, calling them districts. This was our practice before coming to Taiwan.
After coming to Taiwan, the number of people increased so quickly in the first six years that even separate districts were inadequate for our needs. After some study, the districts were divided into groups that met in homes. Our initial plan was to have fifteen to twenty people in a group, but because of the unexpected rate of increase, a group often reached eighty to one hundred people. We could not divide the groups fast enough. Sadly, after 1956 the negative influence that we received caused us to neglect the practice of meeting in small groups in the homes. From then on we went further and further toward the way of having joint meetings of all the saints in a hall and of assigning speakers; this took us back to the old ways of Christianity, which relies on preachers rather than the saints. This was a mistake.
Now we must rise up in order to catch up, turning our attention away from joint meetings with individual speakers to the small groups. The co-workers and the elders have all agreed to divide the saints in the church in Taipei into about four hundred groups. There are currently about three hundred sixty groups exercising in this way, and even in a short period of time four to five hundred dormant saints have been recovered. This is only the beginning. From now on we must pay attention to recovering the practice of the small groups. We must practice the small groups and actively seek to bring the small groups into function even more.
Our initial hope is that each group would not be too large in number. Twelve is a good number, but if it reaches fifteen to sixteen, it should be split into two groups. The smaller the number of people, the more effective is the function of the small group. With this focus there is no need for a so-called responsible one or leader in a group; rather, every member of the small group can equally function. We must definitely raise the level of function in the small groups. For example, after preaching the gospel and leading people to be baptized, we do not need to focus on getting the new ones to a big meeting; instead, we can hand them over to a small group to be taken care of practically.
In order for a country to be powerful and prosperous, the most essential component is the need for strong family units. A family unit will produce and nurture strong, healthy descendants who will be strong citizens of a country. Without sufficiently strong families there will be weak citizens of a weak country. This principle is the same for the church; if a family is not strong, it will be difficult for the saints to be strong.
In order for a country to be powerful and prosperous, another essential component is the need for a matching system of education. Homes are for nurturing, and schools are for educating. Both of these components are necessary. Therefore, after studying our situation, we realize that there is still a need for joint meetings in the church life, which are in the nature of school education, and for small group meetings, which are in the nature of home nurturing. When the citizens of a nation have proper nurturing in the homes plus a good education at school, its young people will grow spontaneously to become strong citizens who will make the nation powerful and prosperous. The church also has a need for proper nurturing in the “family” units of the small groups and, at the same time, for gathering together in joint meetings from once a week to at least once a month. During these times, there should be some education in the truth, which is in the nature of a school.
From now on we should stress both sides because everything needs two sides in order to go forward with balance. For example, a person with only one leg has difficulty walking, and a person with one eye has difficulty seeing. In order for a church to go on in a good way, there must be home nurturing and school education. In other words, we must have small group meetings for home nurturing, and we must also have joint meetings to educate in the truth. In the past we relied only on joint meetings and neglected the nurturing in the homes; consequently, many people did not remain. In other words, without the “family” units in the homes, our newborn children were not nurtured and could not grow. We must recover the small groups and build them up as the base of our increase and spread.
Forming small groups has another advantage of not needing additional large facilities. If the Lord blesses us in our pursuit of our vow to bring one person to the Lord in the coming year, we will double in number. Furthermore, if we continue to recover the saints who have not been meeting for some time, the number in the Lord’s Day meeting in the church in Taipei will surpass ten thousand. If we are dependent upon big meetings, where could these people meet? We would not be able to keep up with the need even if we immediately began to build new meeting halls. However, if our homes are the base, whether or not we have a meeting hall will not be a problem. Even without a meeting hall, people can meet in homes and receive care. But if there are no homes, many people will have no place to go.
Therefore, we cannot rely solely on the big meetings; instead, we must rely on the small groups. If there are five thousand saints meeting in the church in Taipei, there needs to be at least five hundred small groups; if the number of people meeting increases to ten thousand, then we need to form one thousand small groups. In principle, the number of homes and the formation of small groups should increase proportionately to the increase in the number of people. In this way, with or without meeting halls, we can still have the church life and take care of people. As long as we have homes as our base and set them up well, all our basic problems can be addressed. Even if we have no “schools” for higher education, we can provide a general education, even if it is at a high-school level. Therefore, our first responsibility is to recover the small groups and to make them more effective than before.
I hope that all of us would be impressed deeply and receive this fellowship. This is not for others but for us so that all our homes can be opened “from house to house.” This is the means and the base for the increase and spread of the church. Once this way is established, even denominational groups in Christianity will adopt this way. Today Christianity is not flourishing because they rely on big meetings and on one preacher or pastor. Although this is better than nothing, it is not the proper way. The proper way involves small groups. Once small groups are established, there will be the increase.
Based on Acts 2:46; 5:42 and 20:20, small groups met from house to house. These three verses show that the church life of the saints in Jerusalem was mainly in the homes; the homes were the base. They broke bread, prayed, taught the truth, and preached the gospel from house to house. This is not something we invented; we discovered this by reading the Bible, and now we are presenting it to you. Since the Bible speaks of these four things, we should study how to break bread, pray, teach the truth, and preach the gospel from house to house.
From now on, we should use our statistics to understand our true situation more clearly. With these statistics we can make a plan. A plan involves more than a vow. Nothing can be done in a good way without a plan. Government organizations and large companies all have a business plan, but even a family or a single person should have a plan. A college student should not be impulsive; rather, he should know when he will graduate, when he should begin to look for a job, how much his monthly income should be, and how much money he can spend each month. If he does not have a plan, it will be easy to buy things that he cannot afford.
Just as we need a budget plan for income and expenses, we should also have a budget for our life. A person who desires to be married should have a “marriage budget,” that is, a consideration of things such as when to get married and the level of education and age of his or her spouse. Once there is the budget plan, he or she should pray earnestly, “Lord, by Your mercy I am standing here today. I need a spouse who at least has a college education and who is within five years of my age. Lord, may You bestow grace upon me.” We should all have a plan and pray to the Lord earnestly.
In the same principle, if we want the church to increase and spread, we must have a plan. If our plan is to have an annual increase equal to one hundred percent, doubling every year, then we will reach three hundred twenty-five thousand in six years. If we plan for a fifty percent increase, we will reach a similar number in ten years. Since any plan involves the church corporately, every member must contribute his or her part, including how many people to bring to the Lord each year and how to bring them in. Everything should be planned; we should not lack focus, expressing agreement with the church but returning home to sleep in peace. Without a plan we will not have even a one percent increase. The church must have a corporate plan, and the saints must have a personal plan.
The personal plan must be very practical and specific. For example, in a thorough consideration before the Lord, you can draw up a list of names of relatives and friends. You can narrow it down to a few who could be saved and then make them your target, praying for them specifically. You must pray until you even dream about them. If you have time to write letters, you can write to them or send them a few verses. After months of prayer, consideration, and contact, you will gain them as fellow believers.
A young person can consider his schoolmates and think about how to pray for them, how to speak to them concerning the gospel, and how to lead them and invite them to a home. Even if they are annoyed with you, you should still seek them out. Eventually, there will be a few who will listen, receive the gospel, and believe. We know of many stories like this. We can apply this way not only to relatives, friends, and schoolmates but also to colleagues and neighbors. When we make a plan in these areas, we need to be like a person planning to open a restaurant. He needs to consider how to attract customers, including whether he should distribute leaflets to his neighbors to notify them or to invite relatives and friends for a free meal. He cannot wait until the restaurant opens and then go to the roadside to notify people. In the universe, only God can produce something out of nothing. Since we are not God, we cannot expect instant, but unplanned, results. Therefore, we need a plan. Since we all agree that the church should have an increase equal to one hundred percent, each of us should go home and make a proper plan.
One day you and I will all stand before the Lord, and I believe at that time the Lord will ask each one of us questions based on John 15: “Did you bear any fruit? How much fruit did you bear?” How will we answer? It is not a miracle but a duty for a tree to bear fruit, because of the laws of nature. The people in the charismatic movement superstitiously believe in miracles, thinking that if they pray to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will be poured down, and many people will be saved instantly. Actually, the number of people who are saved through the charismatic movement and who remain is very small because they do not work according to the “laws of nature” revealed in the Bible. The Bible speaks of the believers as being branches of the vine; branches bear fruit as a matter of nature, not as a consequence of miracles.
The Lord in whom we believe is real and living; He does not act on superstitious impulses. We should act according to His word because we will be accountable to Him based on His word. He said, “You are the branches...In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (vv. 5, 8). How can He be pleased if we bear no fruit? I implore you to earnestly consider this message and to have a plan before the Lord. We all need to say, “Lord, my past days have been consumed by locusts. Forgive me. I pray that You will have mercy on me; redeem this year for me so that I can bear at least two fruits.” This is not such a difficult matter. May the Lord have mercy on us. The aggregate sum of each of our plans will enable the number of people to double or even triple. In this way the church will surely increase, spread, and flourish.
