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Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; Rom. 1:14-15; 1 Cor. 9:16-17, 22; 2 Tim. 4:2a; Matt. 25:24-30
Hymns, #930 reads as follows:
This hymn was written long ago in America by Charles C. Luther. It was translated into Chinese at an early date and was widely sung among Chinese Christians. The story behind this hymn concerns an American sister who lived an ordinary Christian life. While she was on her deathbed, she suddenly felt that she had failed the Lord and was ashamed to meet Him because she had not led one person to Him in her lifetime. Therefore, she was exceedingly sorrowful. Her pastor, who was Charles C. Luther, not knowing how to comfort her, wrote this hymn to express her sentiments. When I was young, every time I attended a gospel revival meeting, we would sing this hymn. The tune can easily arouse one’s spirit. Even though the original Chinese translation was poor, each time after we sang the hymn, there would always be people walking up to the front in tears and consecrating themselves for the gospel.
Later, when I was compiling our hymnal, I spent much time considering whether this particular hymn was suitable to be included. Because our emphasis has always been on such high topics as the Spirit, life, Christ, and the church, I felt that the content and thought of this hymn were rather ordinary and therefore did not deserve to be included. However, because I had obtained a deep impression from this hymn, I truly liked it and could not forget it. Moreover, there is something special about the tune that can easily stir up the believer’s spirit for gospel preaching. Therefore, I decided to do my best to improve the translation and to include it in the hymnal.
This hymn says that when a believer dies and goes to meet the Lord, he should not be empty-handed but should offer some trophies to Him. We preach the gospel not in fear of death but because we do not want to meet the Lord empty-handed. That we are saved is not a problem, but we still need to live an overcoming life so that we may have “trophies” to offer to the Lord. Paul says that the believers whom he led to salvation were his hope, joy, and crown of boasting before the Lord (1 Thes. 2:19-20). If when you meet the Lord, you see that everyone else is bringing a herd of lambs, and you alone are empty-handed, you will feel sad and ashamed. However, if you also bring with you a good number of lambs, your feeling and joy will be indescribable.
According to this hymn, while we believers are alive, it is day, and when we die, we enter into the dark night, that is, the night of death (stanza 4). We must work while it is day, for when night comes, no one can work (John 9:4). Therefore, while it is still day, before the night falls, we should work actively to save many souls that we may bring with us to offer to the Lord. Although the spiritual meaning of this hymn is not very deep, it has its value in practicality.
While living on earth, we believers should bear fruit and save souls. Then when we meet the Lord or when the Lord comes, we will be able to settle accounts with Him and feel glorious. Otherwise, if we did not lead one person to salvation in our lifetime, we will be full of shame on that day and not have a good feeling.
In Matthew 25:14-30 the Lord Jesus spoke a parable about three slaves. One received five talents, another received two talents, and still another received one talent. The one who received the five talents went and traded with them and gained another five. Similarly, the one who received the two gained another two. But the one who received the one talent felt that he was useless. He did not know how to preach the gospel, how to give a sermon, or how to do any other kind of work. Therefore, in order to not disappoint the Lord or throw away His grace, he dug in the earth and hid his one talent. When the Lord returned, this slave thought he had done a good job because he did not lose the talent but had kept it intact. However, the Lord not only did not praise him but reprimanded him for being an “evil and slothful slave.” How strict the Lord is!
The Lord loves us, but sometimes He also rebukes us. If we are not faithful now, when He comes back, He will not let us get away with it; rather, He will rebuke us as being “evil and slothful.” The third slave was evil because he had the talent but did not go to work with it, trade with it, or even earn interest with it. Not only so, he blamed the Lord for not sowing or winnowing (v. 24). To trade with the talent is difficult because it requires psychological as well as physical labor. To earn interest with the talent is also not easy but troublesome because it requires some calculation. However, to wrap the talent in a handkerchief (Luke 19:20) is very easy; it is the slothful way. Therefore, the Lord called that slave an “evil and slothful slave.”
The Lord Jesus truly knows the hearts of men, so we all need to be reminded to not be like that slave. He may have thought, “I am not a co-worker or an elder. I cannot do any kind of work. I am slow of tongue and clumsy in utterance. I do not have the talent or the gift of speaking. When I speak, no one listens to me anyway. This is not my fault; the Lord created me this way. Therefore, I have a reason for not working, not preaching the gospel, and not saving souls. The Lord cannot rebuke me.” However, the Lord knew his heart and knew that everything he said was an excuse. To put it bluntly, he was lazy.
That slave was not only lazy but also evil. He miscalculated the Lord by making up some excuses, saying, “You created me to be untalented, and You caused me to be born without eloquence. Moreover, You did not give me a good environment to receive a great deal of education. It is already a fortunate thing that I learned enough skill to make a living. But now You are making things difficult for me by asking me to go and lead people to salvation. I do not have this ability. Not only so, Lord, but You seem to be very unreasonable. You asked me to reap where You did not sow. Do You expect me to reap from bare land? You also asked me to gather where You did not winnow. Are You not imposing a difficult task on me?” He argued at length with perfect assurance.
Nevertheless, the Lord’s answer was very remarkable. It seems that He admitted that He is such a Lord who requires His slaves to reap where He did not sow and to gather where He did not winnow. If you ask the Lord, “What do You expect me to reap if You have not sown?” the Lord will answer, “Do not care whether or not I sow. You simply must go and reap. When you go, you will see not only that I sowed but that what I have sown has grown forth.” Today you may not see the Lord winnowing, and you may feel that there are no gospel preachers sowing the seed. Accordingly, you may wonder where you can go to reap. In actuality, He has sown much seed, yet you may not know it. He has scattered many seeds, yet you do not see them.
When we were doing the Chinese-speaking work on American college campuses, we discovered a marvelous thing. It seemed that when we went to reap where there had been no sowing of the seed, there were clusters of fruit. In a Chinese-speaking gospel meeting for new students at the University of Southern California, fifty to sixty people came, and not one rejected the gospel. Who sowed the seed? I can testify that fifty years ago in China, in the early days of my service to the Lord, it was very difficult to preach the gospel to a college student. The college students at that time thought of themselves as people of the modern age. They idolized science and rejected “superstition,” so no one would listen to the gospel. However, under the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, after the eight years of the War of Resistance against the Japanese, the situation became completely different. The college students began to be open to the gospel, and there were many who received it. When we resumed our work at that time, I was traveling back and forth between Beijing and Shanghai. One time when we preached the gospel at Chiao Tung University in Shanghai, seven hundred students and professors attended the meeting. All the brothers and sisters wore gospel robes and served in different ways, such as ushering the guests, conducting them to their seats, and conversing with them after the message was given. Over three hundred seventy were baptized. Who did this? It may have seemed to some that the Lord had not sown. Who would ever have thought that He had done much sowing in a hidden way?
When I first came to America, according to my observation, the Chinese who came here for advanced studies were very proud, thinking that they were superior to others. When we preached the gospel to them, they would simply ignore us. Nowadays the Chinese who come to America to further their education come in groups and throngs, so they are no longer special, and as a result, their attitude is different from that of their predecessors. When we invite them to come and hear the gospel, they come right away. Recently, the Chinese-speaking saints in three localities near Dallas preached the gospel. There were a total of one hundred twenty students who came to the three meetings. They were all Chinese. This surely is the Lord’s doing.
Therefore, we cannot say to the Lord, “You did not sow, and You did not winnow, so it is unreasonable for You to ask us to reap and gather.” Apparently, He is not sowing. In actuality, we just may not know that He has sown already. Even when He was living on the earth, He said, “Behold, I tell you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white for harvest” (John 4:35). He then said, “The harvest is great, but the workers few; therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2). This proves that the Lord had already sown the seed, which had turned into a harvest that needed workers to reap. Today this is even more the case.
I truly worship the Lord that I have been in His work for more than fifty years. The first thirty years were among the Chinese, so I know very well the situation of the Chinese-speaking work. In America, according to my observation, the atmosphere in the Chinese society and its constituents has completely changed. This is not in the hands of you and me. There is no way for us to change the situation. It is the Lord’s doing. Therefore, I said in the previous chapter that based on my observation, my understanding of history, and my fifty years of study of the world situation and the news, I came to a conclusion: apparently, the gospel has nothing to do with the world situation; actually, according to history, the world situation is completely under the control of the Lord’s hand with a view to the spreading of the gospel.
Numerous events in history show us clearly that the world situation is in the Lord’s hands. He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and the throne is His. On the throne He carries out the universal administration and rules over the entire universe. Daniel 2 says, “He deposes kings and causes kings to ascend” (v. 21). We can see in the Old Testament that whatever nation He raised up, that nation would rise; and whatever nation He caused to fall, that nation would fall. What is the purpose of God in governing the universe and ruling over the nations on the earth? We all have to answer that it is fully for the spreading of the gospel.
It was a great event in world history when Columbus sailed the seas and found a new continent. However, very few have seen that it was God’s doing in order to prepare a place for the gospel to be brought in, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to serve as a refuge that could give protection to the believers who were being persecuted. For several centuries the believers under persecution, such as the Puritans, could not find a safe place to stay in Europe, so they escaped to the new continent. Today we are also refugees. Otherwise, who would be willing to leave their homeland to come to America? Therefore, America is truly a refuge. Thank and praise the Lord that among the six continents there is this piece of land, a land of abundance and freedom, that serves as a shelter to God’s children.
America today is not a nation of a single race. Rather, it is a nation made up of “refugees” of many races. The first group that came was the Puritans, who paved the way for the founding of a new nation. The rest of us who came later are the “enjoying refugees.” I am a fourth-generation Christian. I went with my mother to the Baptist Church when I was little. I was regularly in contact with the Western missionaries, so I liked America from my heart. Nevertheless, I never thought about coming to America. Eventually, however, I came. I truly like America, but I nonetheless miss my homeland. I believe many of you are like this also.
We have to see that everything on this globe was created by God. We cannot change anything, but the world situation, being under God’s sovereign rule, can change. Our move on this earth is not up to us. Today you and I are here in America, but who dreamed about coming here? Nevertheless, we are here. One hundred years ago, to go from America to my homeland of China took up to six months of sailing by boat. To make a round trip would take a year. Many Western missionaries became so sick at sea that they died immediately after landing. However, there were still many more who came in succession. Transportation is much more convenient today. To travel from Shanghai to the West Coast of America takes only twelve hours; you can make the round trip in one day. Because of this, the frequency of travel among human communities has greatly increased, and the sphere of travel has also been broadened. Therefore, we have even less excuse for not going out for the gospel.
Even those who were already in America before World War I were not qualified for naturalization, but after the two world wars, the world situation altogether changed. The unequal treaties were revoked automatically, and colonies became independent one after another. As a result, many small countries were raised up. In the United Nations today, all countries both great and small are equal, each having one vote. Facing the international state of affairs, the United States has become lenient concerning the quota of applicants for permanent residence. After 1967 twenty thousand Chinese immigrated here annually. Then since 1982 forty thousand have been coming yearly. For this reason the Chinese-speaking work has become a task of the greatest urgency at present.
Amazingly, among the saints in the Lord’s recovery, those from Taiwan comprise the greatest number, which is almost fifty thousand. Therefore, there are always some saints among the immigrants from Taiwan every year. This forces us to actively carry out the Chinese-speaking work. We work in conjunction with the Lord, and the Lord also works in conjunction with us. Irvine is a newly developed city in Orange County. We foresaw clearly that there should be a church there, so we sent twenty to thirty saints as forerunners. Praise the Lord, after the saints moved to Irvine, the Lord sent multitudes of Chinese there, including many engineers, doctors, and dentists, all of whom are targets for our gospel preaching.
We have to see that it is the Lord who arranges and controls the situation of the whole universe. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, shows us the situation of the churches and of the universe. In chapters 4 and 5 we see that there is a throne in the heavens, and God is sitting upon it. Our Savior, the Lion-Lamb, stands before the throne and receives the scroll to execute God’s economy. His seven eyes are the seven Spirits as the executors carrying out His administration. Today the whole world is under the authority of our Redeemer. The unbelievers do not know this, but we know. He is King of kings and Lord of lords (17:14; 19:16). He is above all the kings, rulers, and all those who are in authority. He manages and arranges everything in the universe.
When people are settled, it is not easy to preach the gospel to them. When people move, their hearts turn and become open to the gospel. I saw this in Shanghai and in Chefoo as well. The natives, those who were born and raised there, had a hard time and were afraid to believe in the Lord. The believers were mostly people from out of town. Later, due to circumstances, three million people moved to Taiwan from mainland China all at once. I also went. Preaching the gospel was very easy at that time. A Chinese proverb says, “Move a tree, and it will die; move a man, and he will live.” This has been proved to be true many times in the past. This is why in America the Chinese community, including the Chinese students, are all very open to the gospel. This is because when these Chinese immigrate to a foreign land, they are uprooted, and their hearts begin to turn as well. They have no family relationships here and feel that they are in a strange land. Under these circumstances, when they meet some fellow Chinese who preach the gospel to them, they spontaneously receive it.
We have to understand that the Lord is not only our Redeemer but also the One who arranges the world situation for the spreading of His gospel. Today He has appointed us as His “ambassadors plenipotentiary” to give His gospel to others. The Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19). Do not think that preaching the gospel is a small matter. We have to see it as a big matter that needs to be carried out through the authority of the heavens and the earth. If there were no operation of the authority of the heavens and the earth, who would listen and believe when we preach the gospel?
In six thousand years of human history, no philosophy, doctrine, theory, or any other religion has been so prevailing as the Christian gospel. Today people can talk about and extol many things, but eventually with the passage of time nothing is left. This, however, is not the case with the gospel preached by Christians. Regardless of how much people despise, ignore, and oppose the gospel and even attack and persecute the preachers of the gospel, the gospel continues to spread. The gospel will spread throughout the earth and will gain many believers. Many of us can testify that we are not foolish, yet we all heard and believed the gospel and are preaching and speaking Jesus every day.
We not only believe in the Lord but also love Him. In Hymns, #208 the first two lines of stanza 2 read, “I love Thee so I know not how / My transports to control.” Then stanza 4 reads, “Burn, burn, O love, within my heart, / Burn fiercely night and day, / Till all the dross of earthly loves / Is burned, and burned away.” We love the Lord, and we also ask the Lord to burn us; this is to be captivated by the Lord. These words give us a sense of sweetness, though they are not rich in philosophy like, “The principle of the great learning is to cultivate the bright virtue.” When I first began to work for the Lord, I was burning with love for the Lord and for the preaching of the gospel. After more than fifty years the sweetness within is still increasing, and my joy is overflowing. I feel sweet even while I am eating and sleeping. This is the difference between Christians and non-Christians. We do not accept a religion; rather, we believe in the Lord. We are not superstitious; rather, we are enjoying “super-sweetness.” The more we believe, the more we feel sweet, and the sweetness becomes so great that we even become “crazy” for Him.
In Matthew 25 the Lord likened His believers to virgins and slaves, indicating that He wants us to be virgins who love Him and slaves who are faithful as He is faithful. He is sowing every day. Only those slaves who are evil and slothful do not see this and say that He wants them to reap where He did not sow. Let us calmly consider how we came to the United States. If it were not for the world situation at present, we would not have come and would not have needed to come. In fact, if it were not for the progress in technology, such as the production of the 747 airplane, we would be bringing misery upon ourselves if we came slowly by boat. Who brought about the intricate situation and the technological progress? The Lord did.
The Lord is not only sovereign over the situations to bring the Chinese to America, but He also opens up their hearts so that the gospel can enter. Many Chinese in America are especially interested in two kinds of business—the restaurant business and the “church” business. In Orange County alone, there are already twenty-nine established Chinese “churches” preaching Jesus Christ. It was not easy to have such a situation thirty years ago, but it is easy now. This is not something you and I could have done; only the Lord can do this.
Therefore, we should not say anymore that the Lord did not sow. Right now the field is ripe, but the workers are few. This requires you and me to rise up to reap the field as His faithful slaves. The Lord Himself does the sowing, but He gives us the job of reaping. When we go out and preach the gospel today, we are not sowing but reaping and gathering.
Let us not be so foolish as to believe that the Lord has managed the world situation so that we could come to America merely to live a peaceful life. I appreciate and I like America. Here we have freedom and an abundance of material things, and it is not hard to make a living. However, I am also clear that the Lord has sent me here not to enjoy these things but to reap and gather people for Him. I thank the Lord for giving me such great mercy and grace that an old Chinese man such as I, who never studied in America, could be reaping so many Americans here. Now the Lord has committed the Chinese-speaking work to us. This responsibility is not just mine, but it is yours also.
I encourage my grandchildren to study diligently, telling them that this is their responsibility to care for before the age of twenty-five. But I also tell them that regardless of how high an education they receive, their goal should not be their own living in the future but should be the Lord’s work. Do not think that the only goal of your coming to America is to make a living and that you have to struggle very hard to achieve this goal. Actually, America is not so good that if you do not come here, you will not be able to live. If you ask me why I came to America, I would say that I do not know. Nevertheless, the Lord did something and sent me here, so I came with the determination that I am here not merely to live an American life but to gather and reap people for the Lord. This is my greatest joy.
Dear saints, what is the meaning of our human life? What is our goal in coming to America? If we are not here for the preaching of the gospel and saving souls, then what are we here for? You are working so that you can have food to eat, and you have been eating for so many years, yet it is still the same food. What is there to this? If we are not here for the Lord, what is the meaning of our eating? We cannot be the evil and slothful slaves. We must arise to do the work of reaping by actively preaching the gospel.
To the older saints I would say that when you retire, you should not be jobless and stay home. Instead, you should come together in small groups to meet and to pray. Perhaps it is not convenient for you to drive, but you can ask your relatives or friends to help you. Do not feel embarrassed to ask. We never feel embarrassed toward our Lord Jesus. He likes for us to bother Him frequently. If you want your children to take you somewhere merely for your pleasure, that should be condemned. However, since you are going to attend the elderly saints’ prayer meeting, it is right to ask your children or grandchildren to serve you. Do not say that you are old and cannot do anything. You are old, but you can still breathe. If you can breathe, then you can pray and preach the gospel. In the same way I would say to the young people that you have to rise up and cooperate. Do not be here merely for making money. Even if you gain the whole of America but do not gain one soul for the Lord, you will have lived and worked your whole life in vain. I hope that you all can see that on that day you will not be able to bring anything before the Lord except souls.
In 1948 I released a message in Shanghai entitled “Coming and Going.” At that time my burden was very heavy. The Lord said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Then in 28:19 He said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” Coming and going is the living that the believers should have. We come with sorrow; we go with joy. We come with our sins; we go with grace. We come with death; we go with life. We come empty-handed; we go richly filled with God. Not only so, in coming we are saved; in going we bring others to be saved. Coming, we receive grace; going, we dispense grace to others. Coming, we pour out our pain and sorrow; going, we are filled with joy and peace. This is the normal living of a believer—coming and going.
The Bible speaks more of “going” than of “coming.” Regrettably, most of the believers pay attention only to coming, such as coming to be saved, coming to be baptized, coming to the throne of God, coming to the meeting, coming to pray, and coming to read the Word. However, they have neglected the matter of going, such as, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:19); “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel” (Mark 16:15); and “Go; behold, I send you” (Luke 10:3). In Isaiah 6 the Lord said, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” (v. 8). This indicates that almost no one is willing to go for the Lord. The believers who can and will come are few; those who will go and who can be useful are even fewer. Hence, we need to be reminded not to be a “half believer” but to be a “whole believer”; that is, not to be a “coming yet not going” believer but a “coming and going” believer.
There was a background to my speaking in 1948 concerning coming and going. In 1943 there was a big revival in Chefoo. It is hard to describe the condition of that revival. I can still remember a sister here in Anaheim who was saved in that revival. When she first came among us, I saw that her hair was like a tower of three stories. I could see it clearly from the platform. There were several hundred people in the room, but only this young lady’s hair was “three stories” high. However, one day when she came again, the top story was gone. After a few days the second story was also gone, and not long afterward her hair became even. During this time she was saved.
There was a brother named Sun Feng-lu, who was a judge at the local court. He loved the Lord very much after his salvation. Later, he became one of the elders in the church in Taipei. During the Chefoo revival, he had just been promoted from a local court to the higher court. One day he came to me and said that the condition of the Chefoo revival was probably more glorious than the condition portrayed in the Acts and that it was worthwhile to record it as history. In truth this might not have been so, but the impact of that revival was far beyond one’s imagination.
I can still remember the current of the revival. It began from December 31, 1942. The afternoon after the Lord’s Day meeting, an announcement was made that there would be a meeting on the next day. What followed was one hundred continuous days of meetings. The time was not scheduled, but it was from morning to night. There was also no specific procedure for the meeting; everyone was free in spirit. Mostly it was I who gave the messages, but there was not a particular subject. The meetings were different every day. The Spirit was truly free. Hence, it can be said that it was a real revival.
After a month, on a Lord’s Day afternoon, we blessed the saints by laying hands on them. The elders and I knelt down in the center of the meeting hall and laid our hands on the heads of the saints. The saints, brothers and sisters separately, knelt down in the two aisles. They came forth one by one to receive the laying on of hands. You could not imagine it. The prayers for that many saints were just one continual prayer when put together, even though the portion that each saint received was fitting to his situation. It was the work of the Spirit. Included in that prayer were many biblical allusions, such as “You are a little Benjamin,” and “You are John.” We laid our hands on and prayed for over two hundred saints. Afterward, everyone rose and was surprised at how marvelous that prayer had been. Later on, those who had received the laying on of hands testified that the words of blessing were exactly fitting for each of them.
On another Lord’s Day, after the preaching of the gospel in the morning, there was an edification meeting in the afternoon. Before I was about to release the message, I had a feeling within that I needed to pray, so I did. Once I opened my mouth and began to pray, I could not stop. I raised my left hand and prayed loudly that the Lord would shake us. Saints later testified that this prayer was like a waterfall pouring down. After I prayed with my hand lifted for half an hour, a brother came up to the platform to support my arm. I was there praying, and he was there supporting. That occasion was truly amazing.
This revival brought forth a great undertaking of migration. The first group to go comprised seventy saints. They each consecrated their whole family and set out in April of 1943. They sailed from Tientsin and then moved on to Suiyuan Province in Inner Mongolia. Their boat tickets were bought with the money offered to the church; we also provided each one with three months of living expenses. Originally, a number of Swedish and British missionaries from the China Inland Mission had been working in the region of Suiyuan for many years. However, due to the breaking out of the Pacific War, all the Caucasians, including the missionaries, had been imprisoned. The saints who migrated there were engaged in shoe repair, teaching, selling goods, and other trades. Their zeal for the gospel and their one accord truly touched the local Christians, who subsequently came and joined them. By the end of 1943 more than forty churches had been raised up.
Another thirty saints went out at the same time with the first wave. They set out from Chefoo to the mouth of the Yalu River in Antung Province, in the northeast of China. Thus, at one time there were one hundred saints who migrated from Chefoo. This move shocked the office of the Japanese secret agents. They could not understand what had happened that such a small civic organization had such a great mobilizing power. They therefore put me into prison and interrogated me with severe torture for a month. After they concluded that I was just a “Jesus addict” who was leading a group of other “Jesus addicts” to do such things, they released me.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do not need to migrate to Suiyuan or Antung. We simply need to go to the places close to where we live; that is enough. The Lord has already delivered the crops to our door and driven the fish into our water. If we would just give this matter a little attention and exert a little energy, we will be able to gain many Chinese around us, gathering them into our nets and putting them into our storehouses. Now it simply depends on whether or not we will cooperate with the Lord as His good slaves to open our homes to reap and to gather His crops.
The book of Acts shows us that once a church was established, the saints began to preach the gospel and to meet from house to house. Verses 46 and 47 of chapter 2 speak of the saints’ breaking bread from “house to house” and having grace with all the people, and the Lord adding together day by day those who were being saved. Verse 42 of chapter 5 says that every day, “from house to house, they [the saints] did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” As we follow their pattern to open our houses, we do not need to find those who are far away. We only have to invite the ones in our neighborhood to come to our house. Do not say that you cannot do it. You cannot because you will not. As soon as you will, the gospel can spontaneously go out.
When the faucet is turned on, more water will come; if you do not let the water go out, no more water will come. Therefore, coming is the effect of going. As long as the water keeps flowing out, the water from the source will keep flowing in. You came because of the Lord’s grace, but if you do not flow out, grace also will stop flowing. Therefore, do not think that you cannot speak; even if you truly do not know how to speak, do not worry. Simply open your doors to invite three or five, or eight or ten, of your neighbors to come for a meal, tea, or a brief conversation. Just tell them that you are a Christian and that you would like to share grace with them. Then you can give them your testimony and lead them to sing a hymn. Once you open your doors and invite people in, once you open your mouth to release what is within you, the Lord will bless and add some saved ones to the church.
To do this will easily bring in people. It is easier than dragging people to the meetings. It is hard not to have a form in a meeting, and once there is a form, people become uncomfortable and uneasy. But if you invite people into your homes to have tea and to talk, they will spontaneously be open. If we do this often, the blessing will pour in like great waters. I believe that after half a year you will see sprouts everywhere. Soon there will be a harvest, and the number of people will more than double.
By observing the situation, you can all see the work of the Lord. When the Chinese come to this country, they feel that they are foreigners. They see Americans all around them, and it is hard for them not to feel alienated. Since you are also Chinese, if you go and pay them a visit to sit in their homes and to warm their hearts, they will be touched. Then you can invite them to your homes and have some association with them. In this way you will surely touch their hearts. Human beings are neither wood nor stones. It takes only a few contacts to move a person. Once he is moved, it is easy to preach the gospel to him.
At the same time we need to be bold. We are not leading others to go downhill; rather, we are leading them to go upward—to fear God, to worship God, and to believe in the Lord. This is truly the right path. Moreover, our Lord is living. As the Spirit, He is with us and works with us. He blesses and works along with us. Therefore, all that is needed is that we take action. This action is what the Bible refers to as “going.” You need to go!
According to history, America is really the “uttermost part of the earth.” Whether we came as immigrants or refugees, we have all come to the “uttermost part of the earth.” We do not need to exert much energy. We simply need to open the door of our houses to welcome people and sit down with them to talk, sing hymns, and preach the gospel. I believe that many will be reaped in. This will be our glory and our crown. Paul says that he was a debtor to all men (Rom. 1:14). I hope that we will have the same spirit to see that we are those who owe the debt of the gospel. Paul also says that it would be woe to him if he did not preach the gospel, but if he preached the gospel, he would be rewarded (1 Cor. 9:16-17). I hope that we will all rise up to be the Lord’s witnesses so that we may be rewarded for the gospel.
