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Scripture Reading:
1. Reading the Bible — 2 Tim. 3:15-16
2. Praying always — 1 Thes. 5:17-18
3. Keeping morning watch — Psa. 119:147-148
4. Attending the meetings — Heb. 10:25
In this chapter we will continue to fellowship concerning the way to care for the new believers in the home meetings. To have successful home meetings is not easy; it depends entirely upon our actions. Whenever we do something as a part of the Lord’s work, we must be released persons. We must also be persons who can cause others to be released. As descendants of Adam, all the people on the earth are under some kind of bondage. However, in touching the work of the Lord, we cannot be people under bondage; we must be fully released. If we go to visit a new one’s home to have a home meeting, yet we are not released, this can be very damaging. We all have to learn to get ourselves fully released from every kind of bondage.
There are many things that come to us to bind and oppress us. In this respect, we are very weak and fragile. A small thing can easily bind us. While a brother is driving to a new one’s home for a home meeting, one of his team members may say something about his driving. This little word about his driving will make him unhappy and bind him. In married life it is difficult to be released because small things can easily cause offenses, and to be offended is to be bound.
Before going to visit a home, you may receive a phone call that causes you to become bound. You may feel and realize that you are bound and even pray, “O Lord, release me,” but many times your prayer would not be answered. Then when you enter the home, outwardly you may shout and rejoice, but inwardly you are not released. The devil knows you are bound, your spirit knows you are bound, and even the new ones will realize that something within you is not so pleasant. Your being bound can kill the home meeting. Regardless of what you would say, preach, or teach, it would not work. Therefore, to work for the Lord effectively, you must be a released person.
Many years ago while I was in Shanghai, Brother Watchman Nee stressed this point very much. He told us that we should never open any letters shortly before speaking for the Lord. If I would open a letter before speaking, I might be damaged and lose my effectiveness. Even to look at the sender’s name and address might bother me. Brother Nee also said that when we are about to speak, we should not accept any phone calls. Many times as I am picking up my books to come to the meeting, the phone will ring. Should I answer it or not? These things are quite bothering.
Another bothering factor can be our children. If we are about to go to speak for the Lord, something will happen related to our children that will bother us. It is easy to see how fragile we are. Many things in our circumstances, in our environment, and in our situation come to us with the intention of destroying our spiritual work. This is why it is hard to find anyone on this earth who is fully released, without any kind of bondage. We cannot avoid people completely. We have to contact others, and the more we contact others, the more bothering factors we will have.
All of us are surrounded by bothering factors. How can we learn not to be bothered? This lesson is endless; we will continue to learn it until we meet the Lord. My burden in this message is to make one basic lesson clear to all of you. Regardless of how much training you receive concerning the home meetings, you must first learn how to get yourselves released. It is possible to do nearly everything under bondage. If you are under bondage, you can still teach in a classroom or you can still learn as a student. However, in touching the spiritual work, as long as you are not released, you can do nothing.
The subtle enemy that damages our work is the one who bothers us. Once we become bothered, we are not released but bound. Then our work becomes fruitless. For our work in the home meetings, we all must learn to keep ourselves always in the spirit. We should never get out of the spirit to deal with things in our environment or situation. We must preserve ourselves in the spirit. It is also good to try not to get involved in troubling situations. Once you are involved with anything, it is easy to become bothered.
On the negative side, we must learn not to get ourselves involved. On the positive side, we must preserve, or keep, ourselves in the spirit. Then even if someone says something to us concerning our driving, we would not care, we would not be interested in getting involved. The problem is that we are too sensitive and always want to be involved in everything. Some like to know everything and are always hunting for information. If we are like this, we are through with the Lord’s work.
The Bible tells us that while the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was deaf and blind (Isa. 42:19). He was not actually deaf and blind, but He simply would not hear or see. Sometimes I go places and actually see many things, but I do not care for or pay attention to those things. Instead, I might be considering a certain chapter in the Bible. Therefore, when I return, I do not remember many of the things that I have seen. I believe that the Lord Jesus’ eyes were very sharp, but He would not look upon so many things. In that sense He did not see; He was blind. In this same sense He was also deaf. He did not see, and He did not hear, so He did not become involved in so many things. We must realize that we might be persons who are involved in too many things. Some can be among us for only a few days and already be involved in more things than I am. Such persons cannot carry out the Lord’s work. We all must learn not to get ourselves involved with others or in others’ situations. We must be those who know only the Lord and nothing else.
Right after their baptism, we must help the new ones in the home meetings. However, we should not do this in a legal way as if we were using a textbook: first, lesson one, then lesson two, and so forth. First, we must be released. We must have a spirit that is very free and which can sense the feelings of others. Then when we come to the new ones to have a home meeting in their home, we should not have a subject that we have already decided to cover. That will kill the meeting. We can sing, pray, or praise to make ourselves so released and also to release others. By this, the new ones will open up to us and say something. By listening to them, we can sense their feelings about their situation. Then we can speak something to them that is according to their need.
A new one may say, “In these two days since my baptism, I have not had any peace within.” What should you say? If you were to say something concerning consecration because you had prepared this subject for the meeting, that would not fit and would not meet this new one’s need. You must follow the spirit to speak something to this one. It is best to not speak something too quickly but to first ask him why he did not have peace within for these two days. There must be some reason. In his answer you may find out the cause of his problem. He might say that after he was baptized, he began to think of his father and of what his father might feel concerning his becoming a Christian. Now you know the cause of his being troubled and can speak something to meet his need.
Sometimes you need to ask the new ones a question in order to find out something, but do not ask too many questions. It is better to solve one question at a time. This new one is troubled when he considers his father; he may feel that his father might rebuke him or reject him. Your answer will depend upon your learning, your knowledge. You may use Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” You can read this verse to him and tell him, “This is a great promise to the believers. All believers have the right to expect that their whole family will be saved. You do not need to worry about your father; you have to believe the Lord’s Word. Sooner or later your father will be saved.” In this way you can strengthen him.
Four crucial practices of the Christian life are reading the Bible, praying always, keeping morning watch, and attending the meetings. It would be marvelous if we could cover these four crucial practices in two home meetings.
Although you may have strengthened and encouraged a new one, this alone is not adequate. You still have to grasp the time to go further, to speak something more. You should not go to a home meeting with a prepared subject, but you must have a purpose. To have a purpose in going to a home meeting is different from making a decision as to what you are going to speak. If you are going to visit a man who was baptized only two days ago, you must have a burden, a purpose, to feed, or nourish, him. You may say, “This verse, Acts 16:31, is very good and comforting. The Word is straight and pure. We Christians should know the verses in the Bible, so we need to read the Bible. From the first day that we believe in the Lord Jesus, we must pick up the practice of reading the Bible. Second Timothy 3:15-16 says, ‘From a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation...All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’” Then you can fellowship with him and charge him to set aside some time to read the Bible every day.
You may continue your talk with him by saying, “To read the Bible is good, but it should be accompanied by another thing — our prayer to the Lord. Our reading should be matched by prayer. We can take the word ‘all Scripture is God-breathed’ and simply turn it into prayer, saying, ‘Lord, thank You for all the Scriptures. Thank You that all the Scriptures are God-breathed.’ You must learn to pray the words of the Bible in this way.”
You should demonstrate how to read the Bible and pray. You can also read him 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 — “Unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks” — and say, “Prayer should always be followed by thanksgiving. This verse says to pray without ceasing and then to give thanks to God.” You can read these two verses and then demonstrate a little bit. This will help him. In contacting him in this way, you can open up the conversation to both the reading of the Bible and prayer.
After a few days you must visit this one again. This time when you arrive, rather than listening to him first, you should say, “Two days ago we talked to you about reading the Bible and praying. Now we would like to tell you about another practice that is crucial to our Christian life — keeping morning watch.” You can explain to him what morning watch is by saying, “Every day, rise up a little earlier to spend some time with the Lord to read the Bible and converse with Him. While you are conversing with the Lord, you can tell Him whatever you need. This is to pray. You do not need to do this too long, maybe about ten minutes every morning. This will be a great help to your Christian life.” You can talk to him about this practice and charge him to practice it. Then when you come back to visit again, you can check to see if he is practicing this or not.
You should also have the time to say, “Another crucial practice of the Christian life is to attend the meetings. Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not abandon our own assembling together. We Christians are like the bees; none of us can live the Christian life by himself. We must meet together. There are the home meetings, the small group meetings, and the larger meetings of the church.”
We should not merely explain or present these four practices to the new ones. We need at least one month to help them build up these practices. Every time we go back to visit them, we must check with them concerning these four practices. They may tell us that they have failed. One may say that he kept morning watch for three mornings but on the fourth morning he could not rise up. We need to check with him, “When did you get up? When did you go to bed?” No one likes to go to bed early. Even if you decide to go to bed at 10:30, you may not get to bed until 11:30. If we are going to learn to keep our morning watch, we must ask the Lord to grant us His grace and mercy so that we can go to bed earlier. If we do not go to bed earlier, it will be hard for us to get up earlier. We have to try to help the new ones build up their time of morning watch as a habit.
If the new ones are to live a healthy Christian life, they must practice these four things. They must read the Bible, and to some extent they must learn to study the Bible. Prayer is healthy to their spiritual life, so we must do a lot to help them to pray. We must help them build up a habit of prayer and tell them that to pray is not merely to ask God to do things for us but to breathe God into us. We must also help them to keep morning watch and attend the church meetings. We must work to build up these practices over quite a period of time.
While we are helping to build up these four practices in the new ones, we will also need to touch other matters. We must go to the home meetings in a very flexible way. In one visit we can cover two or three things, but with some subjects we must help them over a period of time. With the matter of consecration, we do not need a long time, but with these four practices, we need a longer time. Even one month may not be adequate for building up a new one in these practices. While we are working on him concerning these four practices, we can cover other things.
Now is the time to practice the home meetings by taking care of those whom you have baptized. You delivered these babes, so the responsibility is upon your shoulders to go back to them to feed, nourish, and cherish them. Do not do things without any kind of direction. You should work for quite a period of time to develop in them these healthy practices that are crucial to the Christian life.
Question: A problem we have been having is that when we go to a home meeting, our new one will ask so many questions about so many things that we have trouble covering any point in a solid way. How can we avoid this?
Answer: If a person raises a number of questions, you should try to answer only one and try to make him understand that it is hard to answer so many questions in one visit. You can tell him that this time you will cover only one question and that you will come back after a few days. If time allows you may cover a second question. You should not try to answer every question. Some questions may be concerning secular subjects like science. In this case we must be honest and humble and say that we did not study that field and cannot answer that question. Even if you know something concerning science, it is better to avoid that kind of question because that will not render much help to the spiritual life. You should save your time and try to concentrate on rendering definite spiritual help.
Question: We have been burdened that the new ones would enter into the preaching of the gospel. Should we promote this, or should we focus on the four practices that have been shared in this message?
Answer: When we go to the home meeting, we must have a purpose. Our purpose is simply to nourish the new ones that they would grow. Therefore, we must have some points within us that we want to impart to them. For instance, every new believer should have the assurance of salvation. That is very good for them. Also, every new one should know that the Lord Jesus is not only the Savior who died on the cross for our sins to redeem us but also that after redeeming us, He became a life-giving Spirit. Today the Savior, Jesus Christ, is the life-giving Spirit, and as the Spirit, He can enter into our spirit. We have to nourish the new ones with this. Then we have to help them to learn these four basic practices so that they can start to live the Christian life. Without reading the Bible, without praying, without having morning watch, and without attending the meetings, no one can begin the Christian life. However, we cannot decide that in this home meeting we will talk to them about any particular thing. That is too legal. We must have a purpose that we want to carry out. Eventually, we can establish these practices as a base, and we can go on.
Gradually, after about half a year, they will reach a stage where they need the help of our teaching. They have been saved, yet they do not know what salvation is. They have been regenerated, yet they do not know what regeneration is. They have been justified, yet they do not know what justification is. Their sins have been forgiven, but they do not know what it means for their sins to be forgiven by God. Therefore, in this stage we have to give them some teaching. For our own help, we should refer to Life Lessons and Truth Lessons. But we should not teach the new ones in a legal way as if we were using a textbook. We must simply go with a purpose and act according to the need by living in the spirit.
Question: We are not sure whether some whom we have contacted can be gained for the church life. How should we go on with these?
Answer: We made a big mistake in the past. Our contact with people was aimless. We contacted this one once or twice; then we forgot about him. We labored on another one, but after three weeks we went to contact a different one. Then we went to another one. We thought that by this way we could gain more people, but eventually we had no result. Through over four years of study I learned that our visiting, our contacting, people must be with a very definite goal. We cannot be like a mother who delivers three children and then leaves them to deliver more. This is foolish.
You must carry out the Lord’s work in a definite way. Go to a new city, and visit homes to get some baptized. As long as you have two or three newly baptized ones, stop visiting new homes, and take care of these two or three by feeding them. Eventually, you may lose two of these, leaving you with only one new one. This is not enough, so you must try again to gain more new ones by door-knocking. As long as you are laboring on two or three, that is good enough. You must visit them again and again.
While you are working, you must exercise the Lord’s discernment concerning these ones. Then after about three or four weeks, you will realize which of these three are worthwhile for you to labor on further. You may find out that only one of the three is really worth the time you are giving to work on them. Then you should try to get some more new ones to labor on. This does not mean that you would give up the other two completely; you would simply not spend so much of your time on them. By doing this, you can work on certain persons in a definite way, and within a year you can gain one or two solid ones as remaining fruit. You may think that this is too few, but actually, this is not too few. If you are a full-timer, you can bring in from five to ten every year by this way.
Question: How should we take care of the Christians whom we contact?
Answer: Many times you will go to visit people and find out that they are Christians. You have to discern what kind of Christians they are. If they are settled with their denominations and are saved, it is better not to waste your time. If you realize that they are real Christians, but they are not settled in any denomination, it is worthwhile for you to work on them. In the United States people move very often. Out of so many Christians in the United States, many are moving to new places every year, and they are looking for a new church. I heard that some brothers called people’s homes by getting numbers out of the telephone book. One who answered said, “Who told you that we were waiting for someone to call us? We have recently been considering that we would join a church, but we did not have a way. It is so good that you called.” You should work on this kind of person. There are many Christians in this country, but if you focus your labor on the Christians, you will gain very little. That would not be so profitable.
Question: There is a family that was baptized through some whom we had baptized in the summer of 1987. We had home meetings with this family for a long time and were training them in the four crucial practices that were shared in this message. The home meetings seemed very good, but eventually the husband said that he did not want us to come back anymore. He said that his heart was too hard and that he could not live up to what was in the Bible. We shared many things with him, and he is still open to fellowship with us, but we do not know how to go on. I feel that this is a good family. What can we do to help this one?
Answer: You probably have taught this man too much in the way of legality. You have pointed out to him what the Bible says and implied that he has to do it. This is legality. Some people will not listen to this kind of legal teaching. What you should do is simply open the Bible to certain verses and help them to read it. They may feel that what they read is hard to keep. Then right away you can say, “The Lord is gracious. The Lord loves us. If we want to do it, He will help us. If we are not willing to do it, He will still be patient with us.” This is the way to present something from the Bible in a loving way that would not burden them too much. If you teach in a legal way, every requirement in the Bible is a demand that no one can meet. We have to lead them by telling them, “This is what the Lord wants, yet the Lord knows that we cannot do it, so He will be our help.”
This man you have met is honest. After listening to your kind of teaching, he says, “I cannot come up to that.” Do not be legal in teaching anything. It is better to take the way of grace, the way of love. This will work.
Question: We have shared these basic practices of the Christian life with many new ones, yet most of them do not pick them up very quickly. Some of them do not seem to have any desire to practice them. What can we do to help these ones?
Answer: First, when we go to labor on people, we always expect to see the result. However, the result will never come quickly. Therefore, we must continue to work, and we will eventually get some results. However, here is a principle: today’s good result may not remain forever, and today’s poor result may become the best. No matter how good one may seem to be, we cannot be certain that he will still be here in twenty years. After twenty years he may become the worst result. Another result may seem too poor. He may not react. He may not accept anything, yet he likes to listen. He always invites us to come to his home, yet there is no progress, no result. However, after five years he may become the top result. I can tell you that many who were good results in my eyes are gone. Also many whom I considered to be bad results years ago became very good. It is hard to say who is a good result and who is not. We must simply go to work; the result is in the hands of the Lord. We should never be disappointed; to work is much better than doing nothing. If we consider that the result is too poor and just stay home, nothing will ever come out.
Second, if you try to help one to read the Bible, to pray, to keep morning watch, and to attend the meetings, and there is no result, you should not continue to push these matters in the same way. That would not be wise. As long as this one would receive you, you should keep working on him. You should realize that he will not take these four practices at this time, so you must approach him from another angle. If you cannot do anything by one way, you have to change your way. You may not stress the reading of the Bible, yet you can take the lead to read the Bible when you are with him to set up a pattern so that he can see something. You should never be legal, insisting that anyone follow certain practices. When we go to visit people in one way and cannot get through, we should try another way. We all have to learn to be flexible.
