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Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; Rom. 1:14-15; 1 Cor. 9:16-23; 2 Tim. 4:2a; Matt. 25:24-30; Acts 8:1, 4
Hymns, #921 was written by Fanny Crosby, an American sister who was blind. The first stanza of this hymn with its chorus reads,
For the Chinese hymnal we used the same tune and rewrote the above stanza and chorus, using updated words and expressions to be sung in the meetings concerning the preaching of the gospel. A literal translation of the Chinese adaptation reads as follows:
The secret to singing a hymn for gospel preaching is the release of our spirit. For our spirit to be released, first of all we must be freed and uninhibited, though not unbridled. When we sing freely, our spirit is released, and our heart is opened; then spontaneously, we will preach the gospel to others. On the contrary, if our spirit is depressed and our heart is closed, we cannot preach the gospel.
In order to be gospel preachers, we have to learn a few points. First, we must be “thick-skinned.” If we seriously look into this, we will see that those who have been able to bear fruit for the gospel have all been thick-skinned. People who are thin-skinned cannot preach the gospel, much less be fruitful. To have the impact of the gospel, we must have a “skin that is thicker than our soles.” Not only so, while preaching the gospel, we must have a face like brass. If we do not have a face like brass, we cannot preach the gospel. I was not a gospel preacher by nature, but due to the Lord’s mercy I was forced out of my old nature to become a “crazy” preacher of the gospel for the Lord. Forty years ago, from 1940 until 1943, I was a real “gospel fanatic” passionately preaching the gospel for the Lord.
The second point that we have to learn for preaching the gospel is to open our mouth widely to speak everywhere. It does not matter even if you speak wildly; as long as it is the gospel, there will still be the effect. If you intend to convince people by reasoning and therefore speak properly with eloquence and persuasion, you will tend to kill them with your speaking. In the past fifty years in China, the most effective gospel preacher was Dr. John Sung. I heard his preaching. While preaching the gospel, sometimes he jumped from the platform to the ground and then used someone as a steppingstone to jump back to the platform. His messages did not follow any logical order. Sometimes he screamed at people and scolded them, and occasionally he even made strange noises in his speaking. Nevertheless, his gospel preaching was very effective.
The third point that we have to learn in the preaching of the gospel is the release of the spirit. To preach the gospel you must have a spirit that is so released and strong that if you faced the devil, you would convince even him to receive the gospel. This is the spirit of the gospel.
These are the three points related to the gospel—being thick-skinned, having an open mouth, and having a released spirit. You should not be bashful. Some brothers are so “unmanly” in their preaching of the gospel that they appear to be more female than the females. They are timid and apprehensive of everything. In particular, they are afraid of offending others. Their preaching of the gospel is doomed to failure.
In January of 1933 Dr. Sung went to Chefoo to preach the gospel, and I went to listen to him. I could not help but shake my head when I listened to his preaching. He used the woman who had a flow of blood as an example (Mark 5:25-34). He drew a heart on the blackboard and said, “This is a human heart, and it is your heart, a black heart. Oh, I came and spoke about the precious blood washing man’s heart, washing man’s heart. You were moved, and your heart became burning for the Lord. But a few days after I left, the burning ceased, and the flow of blood began—the precious blood flowing out, flowing out...” He interpreted the woman’s flow of blood as the precious blood of Jesus. That was really a nonsensical speaking. Nevertheless, his speaking was very captivating. For one and a half hours he kept hammering on this subject—the precious blood washing our heart, and the precious blood flowing out of our heart. The hall was crowded with over a thousand people. I shook my head at his preaching because what he said was altogether inaccurate. The Bible tells us not that the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses our heart but that it washes away our sins. Even though Dr. Sung’s teaching was inaccurate, the audience was moved. Many went to the front weeping, and they confessed and repented, saying, “O Lord, my blood flowed out. O Lord!” By this we see that the effectiveness of the gospel lies not in reasoning but in the release of the spirit.
My intention is not to encourage you to speak inaccurate doctrines but to show you that you need to exercise your spirit. One time Dr. Sung went to preach the gospel at Hankow, and my second oldest sister went to listen to him. When she came back, she told us that after Dr. Sung had spoken for a while, he suddenly picked up a wooden stick and pointed at a young lady in the audience, saying, “You are someone’s mistress!” The woman was infuriated and said within, “How can you Christians behave in this way? You invite people to come to hear the gospel, yet you rebuke them.” In fact, she was a concubine, a mistress. She thought that someone had told Dr. Sung about her case, so she was angry and bitter. After she went home, however, the Spirit operated in her, saying, “Why do you blame the preacher? Consider, are you not a concubine? Are you not a sinner? Why do you hate the preacher?” Having been enlightened, she repented. The next day she went again to hear the gospel and was saved.
Therefore, I would like to tell you that when you preach the gospel, if you care only about speaking rightly and pleasingly, do not expect to lead people to salvation. This does not mean that I am encouraging you to not speak rightly and to rebuke people. What I mean is that you should take care of the spirit of gospel preaching and allow your spirit to be released. In preaching the gospel you cannot be like an old pedant with a stern expression and a snobbish attitude. Instead, to lead people to salvation you have to be thick-skinned and have an open mouth and a released spirit.
The Chinese are naturally conservative and well behaved, so when they meet together, everyone is reserved and proper. This is not to say that it is wrong to behave properly. However, often when you are well behaved, you become stiff and rigid and therefore restrict, hold back, the spirit. This is wrong. Paul says that we Christians have to be beside ourselves before God and sober-minded before men (2 Cor. 5:13). To be sober-minded is to be self-controlled in love for others’ good. We should be sober-minded before men, but have we ever been beside ourselves before God? When we are by ourselves and no one is around, are we beside ourselves before God? If we are, then when we come to the meeting, we do not need to shout loudly—the moment we pray, others will be able to sense that we are beside ourselves before God. Paul was sober-minded before men, but when he was alone before God, he was beside himself. He is our pattern.
By the Lord’s mercy I am a person who is often beside myself, a person who is often “crazy.” Sometimes after praying only three to five sentences, I became crazy, overflowing with joy. I felt that God’s grace is so great and His mercy so abundant that I could not help being crazy. If no one is with me, it does not matter if I do such things as rolling, jumping, prostrating, and turning somersaults. But once I come into your presence, I become sober-minded. I am bound by your eyes and restricted by human regulations. It is right to take care of others’ feelings, but as Christians, we should daily pray and be beside ourselves before God.
If you are a person who is beside yourself before God, you will not be reserved in the meetings. On the contrary, you will manifest some signs of “craziness.” We can illustrate this with Peter, whose true identity was revealed by his Galilean accent (Matt. 26:73). If you are often beside yourself when you pray to God in private, then once you come to the meeting and open your mouth, your “crazy” speaking will reveal your true condition. This does not mean that you pray and sing with a loud voice. Instead, it means that you are full of praises, thanksgivings, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and you are full of the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way others will know that you are a person who has been crazy before God. This is because what truly is within you will be manifested. You cannot pretend to be crazy if you are not crazy.
The spirit of the gospel is a spirit of being beside ourselves. In order to have the spirit of the gospel, we need to be “crazy” in our spirit. Do not pay too much attention to rules, and do not care too much for others’ feelings. Sometimes when we are sitting in the meetings, we look around at the brothers and the sisters, and we feel embarrassed to do anything. Whenever we have this kind of consideration, our spirit is restricted and has no way out. I hope that whenever we meet, we would break all rules, rituals, and formalities, thereby letting our spirit be released.
If we study world history with spiritual insight, we will see that since the ascension of the Lord Jesus, the entire world history has been completely under the direction of the Lord’s gospel. It is the gospel that directs the world; it is not the world that directs the gospel. By the Lord’s mercy I have studied this matter a great deal. Actually, even before the birth of the Lord Jesus, the world situation was working in different ways to coordinate with the gospel. On the political side, approximately thirty years prior to the birth of the Lord Jesus, the Roman Empire rose up and conquered the regions of North Africa and Egypt, thus unifying the entire region around the Mediterranean Sea, including Canaan, the good land. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus was about to be born, the political situation in that area was stable under the rule of the Roman tetrarchs and governors.
The conception of the Lord Jesus is a mysterious matter. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. At that time Mary was already engaged to Joseph, but the marriage was yet to be consummated. Amazingly, they were both descendants of David. Joseph was a descendant of David’s son Solomon, whereas Mary was a descendant of Nathan, another son of David. The two lines of David’s descendants brought forth Joseph and Mary and were joined in their marriage. When these two were married, however, both were poor, so they lived in Nazareth, a despised city in Galilee, which was a despised region. For the presenting of the Lord Jesus in accordance to the law of Moses, they could afford to offer only a pair of turtledoves or two young doves, which represent the smallest offering (Luke 2:24; Lev. 12:8). This proves that they were a family in poverty.
According to the prophecy in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), but at that time Joseph and Mary were residing in the city of Nazareth. Today we have airplanes, cars, and other modern means of transportation, but two thousand years ago it was not as convenient for people to travel. From Nazareth to Bethlehem was about seventy-five miles, which required a road trip of many days. Considering their financial condition, they would not have traveled this far to Bethlehem only to give birth to the Lord Jesus. If the Lord Jesus had been born in Nazareth, however, the Old Testament prophecy could not have been fulfilled. Therefore, for the fulfillment of the prophecy, God prepared something for them under His sovereign authority. When Mary was pregnant and about to give birth, Caesar Augustus, the emperor of the Roman Empire, sent out a decree for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth. Therefore, all went to be registered, each to his own city. Joseph and Mary were of the house and family of David and were therefore people belonging to Bethlehem. As such, they had to travel many miles back to Bethlehem. Because many had come back, the town’s inns were all occupied, and there was no place for them. It was at such a time that the Lord Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-7).
Mary had been pregnant for nine months and was living in Nazareth with Joseph. Just when it was time for her to give birth, the emperor gave the decree to take a census, paving the way for the Lord Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. This proves that the Roman Empire’s ruling the whole world was for the birth of the Lord Jesus, that He might truly be born in Bethlehem, the hometown of His ancestor David, in order to fulfill the prophecy in Micah 5.
When an Israelite slaughtered a lamb for the passover, the priest would first put two pieces of wood together, one horizontal and the other vertical, to make a cross. Then he would “crucify” the lamb with its front legs fastened to the horizontal piece of wood and its hind legs to the vertical piece. Finally, he would cut the lamb open from the chest to the abdomen. Thus, according to the type in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus, who died as the Lamb of God for our redemption, also had to be crucified.
Until the time of the Roman Empire, in human history there had not been a people or nation that used the cross as a way to put people to death. Although in the Old Testament the children of Israel might hang an executed criminal on a tree (Deut. 21:22-23), that could not be considered crucifixion. After the unification of the Roman Empire, a law was enacted that imposed a death penalty by crucifixion on anyone convicted of a heinous crime. At the time the Lord Jesus was arrested and convicted by the Jews, according to the law in the Old Testament, He could only be stoned to death. However, since the Jews had already lost their nation, they did not have the authority of execution. Instead, they had to turn the authority over to the Roman Empire. It was in this way that the biblical prophecy concerning the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was fulfilled.
From the birth and death of the Lord Jesus we can clearly see how the Roman Empire was used by God to accomplish what He had spoken in the Old Testament concerning the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s birth was a fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament, and His death was a fulfillment of the type in the Old Testament. However, the circumstances of His birth and His death were arranged by God through the Roman Empire. Afterward, the Lord Jesus resurrected and ascended for the spread of His gospel to propagate Himself. The subject of the book of Acts is that after His resurrection the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, was enthroned, was poured down as the all-inclusive Spirit, and sent His disciples to preach the gospel everywhere for the producing of the churches and for the spreading and propagating of the kingdom of God.
We all are clear today that the preaching of the gospel has to be matched by a proper environment. For the spread of the gospel we need a peaceful situation, a free flow of traffic, and a common language.
The nation of Israel was unique. Moreover, the land of Canaan, which they occupied according to God’s arrangement, was also unique. In terms of geography it was isolated, but in terms of transportation it was linked to all directions. Because of this, God raised up the Roman Empire to conquer all the civilized regions in Europe and to take over all the lands around the Mediterranean. Due to its strong political and military power, Rome was able to maintain a situation that was peaceful, stable, and safe.
The people and nations within the territories of the Roman Empire, though very complicated, were all under one rule. Therefore, no matter where the citizens went, they could travel freely throughout the empire without having to apply for passes. Not only so, history tells us that the Roman Empire, after its unification, actively engaged itself in building highways from Rome to countries all around. It also put an end to the pirating activities on the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, traffic on the land and on the sea flowed freely and conveniently.
Before the establishment of the Roman Empire, about three hundred years before Christ, Greek became the language commonly spoken in the Jewish and Egyptian regions due to the conquest by Alexander the Great. After the unification of the Roman Empire, the government also picked up the usage of Greek and promoted the Greek culture as well. Thus, Greek culture became prevailing everywhere, and all language barriers were torn down. This shows us that all the environments are arranged by God for the spread of the gospel.
If we study the book of Acts and observe world history, we can realize that the world situation always goes along with the gospel. God’s way is marvelous. Whenever the gospel was about to reach a certain place, a certain change or action, such as a migration, would occur there.
In the book of Acts we clearly see a migration taking place. In Jerusalem at the beginning, three thousand people were saved at once, and then at another time, five thousand were saved (2:41; 4:4). In the old days, especially with the inconvenience of transportation, who would be willing to migrate to a faraway place? Most were attached to their native land and were unwilling to leave it. However, with many people saved in Jerusalem and concentrated there, naturally there was no way for the gospel to spread. Therefore, the Lord had to raise up a persecution so that the believers living in Jerusalem were scattered to other localities. These scattered believers went throughout the land preaching the gospel (8:1, 4). When we come to chapter 21 of Acts, we see that there was a great number of Christians gathering again at Jerusalem (v. 20). This is a principle: whenever there is a move of the gospel, the residents of the locality involved will have to make a change; that is, a migration has to take place.
The history of China is a history of changes. However, even though there have been many dynastic changes, there have been few changes and movements among the people. It was not until the sixteenth century that the Western wind started to blow toward the East, and the Western culture and customs gradually spread to China. This opened up a way for the gospel. First, Catholic priests such as Matteo Ricci went. Then in the nineteenth century, group after group of Protestant missionaries also went. Once the gospel arrived, China began to change. Later, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was influenced by the West, began a revolution. Up until the 1900s, there were still very few believers in China, but due to the Boxer Rebellion, more Western missionaries had the burden to go to China for the gospel. After the establishment of the Chinese Republic, the country was widely opened to the gospel. Because of the changes in the environment, people began to open themselves to changes and would no longer hold on to the old things. By 1920 the gospel invaded the universities, and many young people of high achievements received the Lord.
Even though this was the case, the gospel was still not prevailing in China. Later, God raised up situations that led to increased and drastic changes. Eventually, several million people left mainland China and settled in Taiwan. We were included in that move. When I first came to Taiwan, I had already been carrying on a work for the Lord for almost twenty years, which was quite fruitful. However, it could not be compared with the work we had after we went to Taiwan. When we first began to work in 1949, people were saved in throngs. This is because the transplanting from mainland China to Taiwan caused the people to become softened in their heart and therefore more ready to receive the gospel.
At that time in Taipei, we had gospel marches every Lord’s Day afternoon. After a march we brought people to the amphitheater at the New Park. The three thousand seats there would be filled each time. After the meeting we would bring back four or five hundred names. The next night we would ask the saints to come together and then distribute the names to them according to districts for follow-up visits one by one. This kind of action proved to be very effective. People believed in the Lord in groups and companies, and they were caught in “net after net.”
Due to the large number of people who received the Lord, I worked out a way to baptize three people in one minute. The plan included seat arrangements, changing into baptismal robes, coming down into the baptistery, being baptized, and changing back into street clothes. I supervised the entire process and especially made sure that each one was baptized in less than twenty seconds. I still remember one baptismal meeting on a Saturday that lasted from 6 P.M. to 9 P.M. Because there were only three hundred eighty baptismal robes, we had to wait until the morning of the following day, which was the Lord’s Day, to finish baptizing everyone. That time we baptized more than seven hundred. The saints served by groups in shifts.
The gospel was powerful at that time because the people had experienced a great change. If they had still been in their native land, many of them probably would not have received the gospel. While I was in Chefoo, I had observed and studied the situation. I found out that Chefoo had a population of about three hundred thousand, less than one-third of which were the local people, the majority being from nearby regions, especially from the Liaotung Peninsula. I myself was not a native of Chefoo; I came from the nearby county of Penglai. Ninety-nine percent of the believers in Chefoo were from other places. Out of one hundred Christians it was hard to find one who was a native of Chefoo. This is because the local people were deeply rooted in their ways. Because they had their families, relatives, neighbors, and family shrines with ancestral tablets, for them to believe in the Lord was extremely difficult.
When I came to Taiwan, after more observations I was finally clear. In the early days in Taiwan, to bring a Taiwanese to believe in the Lord was not easy. To gain a Taiwanese was to gain a treasure. The mainlanders, on the other hand, were considered less valuable because they received the gospel in groups. Sometimes out of three hundred who were baptized, only five or six were natives. Why was this the case? It was because the mainlanders had been uprooted. There is a Chinese saying: “Move a tree, and it will die; move a man, and he will live.” This means that a tree should not be moved, because once it is moved, it may die right away. However, if a man is uprooted and moved, it will be easy for him to live. Therefore, those who migrated to Taiwan from China all survived, and many of them believed in the Lord.
On August 1, 1949, we held a conference and thus officially began our work in Taiwan. At that time the total number of brothers and sisters from the south to the north of the island of Taiwan was no more than three to five hundred. Within five years, however, the number of saints increased to twenty to thirty thousand. At that time none of us thought of going to America. Our heart was to go back to China. We all thought that the Lord’s intention was for us to save sinners and nurture the believers in Taiwan; then after a few years He would bring us back to mainland China as apostles. We could not forget that there were four to five hundred million people waiting for us to preach the gospel for their salvation.
The current of the world never reverses its course or flows backward. Similarly, the flow of the gospel brought us from mainland China to Taiwan and then to America. Ever since my youth, our family had been in contact with some American missionaries, so I understood them very well. A hundred years ago, American missionaries who went to China had to travel by boat for six months. Often they got serious motion sickness. Some died right after they reached the land and were buried there. Some remained in China for at least six to seven years before they could return to their country for a visit. I know much about the hardships they experienced in their labor for the gospel.
In 1938 a saint in Beijing sent me a monetary offering that included two checks—one in the amount of sixteen hundred American dollars and the other in the amount of twelve hundred Chinese yuan. The sender enclosed a letter, which read, “Brother Lee, I studied in America. After listening to your preaching of the word, I feel that it is truly what America needs. Please go to America! The check for sixteen hundred American dollars is for your round-trip tickets by boat and your living expenses in America. The check for twelve hundred Chinese yuan is for your family. I have calculated that they will need at most one hundred yuan each month, so this money is enough to cover a year’s family expenditure.” Immediately after I received the letter, I wrote a reply, saying, “I am sorry, but I do not have the interest or the burden to go to America. What should I do with these two checks?” This saint wrote again and said, “Do not return the checks to me. Please keep them. Put them in the bank. I believe that one day the Lord will take you to America.”
I deposited the money in the bank. Afterward, because of the change of the political situation in China, the currency changed again and again. In the end that amount of money was worth only a little. In 1948 some churches in Southeast Asia invited me to visit them. I had just received my passport in Nanking and was about to take the trip, but due to the political situation, our whole family migrated to Taiwan. In Taiwan we did not have the slightest thought of going to the United States. During that time I published a magazine called The Ministry of the Word, which contains many messages concerning service. In those messages I often referred to the fact that in bringing us to Taiwan the Lord had put us in a wonderful geographical setting. To the south we could go to Southeast Asia, to the east we could go to Japan and Korea, and at the same time we could take care of mainland China. In Southeast Asia there were a great number of overseas Chinese. As to Japan and Korea, both are very close to the Chinese in culture and writing. In addition, of course, mainland China is a vast land. In those messages I never mentioned anything about the Western world, because I felt that we had no connection with it in terms of culture and language.
Actually, I did not have the intention to labor in Southeast Asia. Since I had been invited, however, I went to the Philippines near the end of 1950. From then on, for about eleven years, I went every year and stayed for at most three or four months each time, mainly in Manila. I did not go to any other places. However, the Lord did not go along with my concept. He stirred up my environment to thrust me to the West. I came to the United States the first time in 1958. That was because of an invitation that I received from England and Denmark. When I went to Europe, first I stayed in England for a month. Then I went to Denmark and stayed there for about ten days. On my return trip I stopped in America for a short while. Two years later I came to America again; at that time I had a deeper impression.
After a year I came to America again, and my impression of it was even deeper. That was twenty-three years ago. There were not many Chinese who went there to study, nor were there many Chinese who immigrated there. At that point I was clear inwardly that I should receive the burden to come and labor in America. Therefore, I applied for immigration. The lawyer told me that America gave the Chinese a quota of only one hundred five immigrants yearly. The Chinese who were already in America had applied for their families to come, and the number of applicants had already exceeded ten thousand. Therefore, if I were to follow the normal procedure, I would have to wait one hundred years for my turn. Fortunately, since I was considered a preacher and because I had written many books, my application was quickly approved.
Soon after that, Kennedy became the president of the United States. He proposed a revision of the immigration law to remove racial discrimination. Every country would be given a quota of twenty thousand, but the total number of immigrants could not exceed three hundred thousand yearly. From the Americas one hundred thirty thousand would be allowed, while from the other four continents one hundred seventy thousand would be allowed. The applications would be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. In 1966 Congress passed the new immigration law, and in the next year the implementation of the new law began. From that year on, five countries have met their maximum quota every year; these are China, India, South Korea, the Philippines, and Greece or Italy. Some of the countries did not fill up their quotas, so the Chinese were given more opportunity to come. In addition, a great number of Chinese with special qualifications applied under other categories. Therefore, within seventeen years, there were approximately five hundred thousand new Chinese immigrants. In 1982 when Reagan became the president, he felt that the Chinese immigrants were performing very well in America, so he gave them special treatment with a double portion—twenty thousand for Taiwan and another twenty thousand for mainland China. From that time on, there have been forty thousand new Chinese immigrants in America every year. Right now the Chinese make up the largest number of immigrants coming to America per year.
The Chinese immigrants’ first choice of residence, which may be related to where their relatives live, is Southern California, and their second choice is New York. Among the new immigrants, many are Christians, including the saints who are in the recovery. Because of this, we have received the burden to start a Chinese-speaking work.
Twenty-three years ago when I received the burden to come to the United States, I was very clear within that the Lord did not want me to work among the Chinese immigrants. Rather, He wanted me to bring His recovery to the typical Americans. Therefore, I concentrated my pioneering work among these Americans. The Lord confirmed this and greatly blessed our work. Beginning in 1970, even though it became evident that we definitely needed a Chinese-speaking work, I still did not touch this matter. This is because I knew that once I gave my attention to the Chinese-speaking work, the English-speaking work would suffer loss. Also, in principle, once the number of the Chinese increases in the meetings, more typical Americans are reluctant to come. Therefore, it was not convenient for me to touch the Chinese-speaking work. In this way we were not keen in our perception, and after six or seven years we lost from five hundred to one thousand saints. Later, we began to have the Chinese-speaking meeting, and two years ago we began the Chinese-speaking work. Now the number of the Chinese saints has become stabilized, and new ones are gradually being gained.
To summarize the different situations mentioned above, we cannot carry out the Chinese-speaking work in the same way that we did two years ago. At that time I considered that the Chinese-speaking work was transitory in nature and would serve as a bridge for those with a language problem. Every year forty thousand Chinese have been coming to the United States, and most of them are not proficient in the English language. I studied this situation and felt that if many of the immigrants want to get over the language problem, it would be best if they could come to America under the age of fifteen. If they come after they have graduated from college, they can study, do business, or get a degree, but they will still feel handicapped in the meetings. They cannot thoroughly grasp the meaning of the messages, nor can they freely express themselves in prayer. If after finishing junior high, they come to America to study in high school and college, then after seven years of learning English, they will have just enough to meet the needs of the church life.
We have to admit that language is a problem. If the saints who immigrated here cannot get through this problem within the first three to five years, then it is likely that they will not be able to get through it in their lifetime. They may be able to do grocery shopping, make phone calls, and greet people, but they will not be able to prophesy or pray in the meetings. Therefore, there is a definite need for the Chinese-speaking work. If the Lord allows, I will fellowship with the elders that from now on, the Chinese-speaking meeting and work are no longer temporary in nature but are a part of the local church. The American government not only passed the new immigration law but also made preparations to receive the new immigrants by establishing schools and hiring teachers to teach them English. Today the church here cannot be a typical-American church; it has to be a local church, a church that includes all the saints in that locality. Since there are many Chinese among the saints, the church will naturally have to make arrangements to include them.
The book of Acts also shows us a problem with language. In chapter 6 it says that as the disciples were multiplying in number, the problem of language began to appear. The Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily dispensing. Therefore, the apostles made arrangements for the appointment of some deacons to take care of the need (vv. 1-6). This indicates that the church must solve the language problem and meet the need of all the saints. For the past twenty years the Chinese-speaking saints have been somewhat neglected in America. Therefore, we should now make the proper arrangements for them. That is, the churches should accept the fact that there should not only be a Chinese-speaking work but that such a work should be considered also a part of the church.
The Chinese in America can be categorized into two groups. One group is composed of those who come as foreign students. Many on the honor rolls in the American schools are students of Chinese descent. In many of the universities the greatest number of foreign students are Chinese. The hearts of these Chinese students are wide open to the gospel. There is a university near Dallas that has many Chinese students. One time, over a hundred of them came to a gospel meeting of the church, and nearly all of them received the Lord. The second group is composed of overseas Chinese, including those in the industrial and business circles. They came to America to study when they were young, and after they graduated, they stayed to work, spreading into all classes of society. Because they left their homeland and came to struggle in a new country, they also are very open to the gospel.
Man is a social being; no man can leave society and live alone. The best social group is the Christian group, and the best society is the church. The Chinese left their homeland to come to America. Since they do not have many relatives or friends here, they have a great need to belong to a group. Under this circumstance, to preach the gospel to them will be very effective. They are Chinese, and we also are Chinese. Therefore, for us to meet in a foreign land, we naturally feel very intimate with one another. Moreover, as believers in the Lord, we are always happy and rejoicing; this invariably stirs their admiration. Therefore, their hearts have been prepared by the Lord. Now it depends only on whether or not our spirit is released in our gospel preaching. If we are thick-skinned, open our mouth, and release our spirit, the gospel will enter into people, and they will be saved.
The new immigrants are the best targets for our gospel preaching. The older immigrants have become deeply rooted. They have a crowd of relatives and friends, and they are not moved by the gospel. Take Taiwan as an example. Those who migrated to Taiwan from mainland China have already been there thirty years. They have become rooted and have branched out and spread, so it is hard to preach the gospel to them. However, some of them do not intend to stay permanently, and their heart is still soft, so it is still easy to preach the gospel to them. The hardest ones are the local people, the Taiwanese. Their hearts cannot be moved. However, regardless of where the people were originally, once they come to America, they all are immigrants and have all been uprooted, so they are wide open to the gospel.
I have spoken this much because I hope that you all can see how much the Lord has done in the world situation for the spread of the gospel. Without the Lord’s work in the world situation, none of us would have come to America. Nearly none of us had a predetermination to come. Formerly, when I was in mainland China and saw hundreds of churches being raised up, I thought that was truly wonderful. I never even thought about coming to America. Eventually, because the Lord stirred up the environment, we all have come one by one, and more and more are still coming. For this reason we must rise up to face this situation and to cooperate with the Lord’s work.
When we began the work in Taiwan, I spoke about a certain principle, and it was printed in The Ministry of the Word in 1952. By observing the history of the world, studying the biographies of the saints throughout the ages, and recalling my personal experiences, I saw that wherever the gospel goes, there the Lord’s blessing is. Again, take Taiwan as an example. I truly believe that the reason Taiwan is so prosperous today and has become a “miracle” in the world is that the churches with the gospel are there, and therefore the Lord’s blessing is also there. However, due to the Lord’s blessing, people have become rooted again, so the Lord has to stir up the environment once more to uproot them so that all things would work together for the spread of the gospel.
Today the Lord has truly commissioned us with the gospel. Facing this fact, we need to have a response. We need to have people, especially young people, who receive this burden and are led by the Lord to serve full time. Do not worry that you cannot make a living as a full timer. Apparently, no one takes care of your living, but in actuality, the Lord will take care of you. I was saved on a certain afternoon in April 1925. At that time, while I was on my way home, I consecrated myself to the Lord. I determined to give up the world and become a poor preacher going from village to village to preach the gospel for the Lord. If there was no food, I would eat roots from the ground; if there was no water, I would drink water from the mountain streams. I was prepared to forsake everything and to suffer for the Lord. Those who were my classmates at that time eventually all became successful, but today they have nothing that can compare to what I have. I am living longer than they have, and the money that has passed through my hands is no less than theirs. I did not have to eat roots from the ground, and I did not have to drink water from the mountain streams. Furthermore, I did not have to walk from village to village; rather, I travel from country to country. This is something that I had never imagined.
Therefore, you young people need not worry. You will not starve serving full time. You will always have a way to live. Looking back at my own experiences, I cannot explain what happened. To this day the Lord has been leading me. I passed through all kinds of situations and environmental changes, yet I always ended up better than I was before. This is the Lord’s doing. Acts 27 and 28 tell us the story of Paul’s being held as a prisoner on a ship sailing to Rome. Eventually, he became the one reigning on the ship. Even the navigator listened to him, and the centurion who put him in chains also listened to him. Whatever he said counted. Even though he was in chains, at the end, he still had the upper hand. This shows us that whoever is for the Lord’s gospel will be blessed. Whoever gives himself for the gospel will have the upper hand. Likewise, whoever opposes and tramples the gospel will not have a good ending. History proves this. Therefore, if we live in the world merely to make some money to feed our stomachs, we are not wise.
Dear saints, we are blessed to be here giving our all for the sake of the gospel. We have to do our best to meet the need of the present situation. When we first arrived in Taiwan, compelled by the situation, we truly gave everything we had. At that time our only thought was that if we die, so be it. We did not care for anything except earnestly preaching the gospel. Whatever number of people there were in Taipei, we would print that many gospel tracts. We asked the brothers and sisters to pass out the tracts within a definite time to every house on the two streets adjacent to the street where they lived. Furthermore, we went to the big streets, small lanes, intersections, and main traffic stations to put up gospel posters with statements such as “Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners” and “God loves the world.” We also had gospel marches on regular days as well as on the Lord’s Days. Because the saints were willing to give themselves to the Lord, they were blessed by the Lord even in material things.
As those who are separated by the Lord for Himself, believers cannot love the world. If they love the world, they will suffer. If they do not love the world, they will be blessed. For the gospel’s sake Paul became an ambassador in a chain. While he was held as a prisoner on a ship, the Lord sent an angel to him, who said, “You must stand before Caesar...God has granted you all those who are sailing with you” (27:24). Thus, Paul became the one who reigned over them. Therefore, Paul was able to boldly say to them, “Now I advise you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship...For I believe God that it shall be so, even in the way in which it has been spoken to me” (vv. 22, 25). In the end everything happened according to what Paul had said.
We need to be those who are wise to cooperate with the Lord. If you seek your own success or your own gain, you will not gain what you want. But if you give up the world and give yourself wholly for the Lord and His gospel, the world will be for you. Paul clearly tells us that “all things are yours” and “you are Christ’s” (1 Cor. 3:21, 23). We believers should clearly see this.
I hope you understand that you did not come to America for your own enjoyment. Rather, you were sent by the Lord to preach the gospel to thousands and thousands of Chinese here in America. You all have to receive this burden. You need to contact them, invite them to your homes, and preach the gospel to them. If all of you would work for the Lord’s gospel in one accord, the Lord will give all things and all men to His church, and He will add to us day by day those who are saved.
