https://pca.st/episode/8148432c-74ca-488c-8ec5-fdfc5d3b5dca
Listen to this testimony of a brother in the medical field who had finally experienced the real Sabbath rest, Christ.
“What else is there to give ourselves to but the Lord?” – B.S.
Bible
Check out ‘Life’s Principle—to Change Death into Life’
Notes: Metro Manila Year-end Conference 2020
Here are some of my notes from the Metro Manila Year-end Conference. I hope you could all find time to read them. 😊
*Conference duration: December 29-30, 2020; January 1-2, 2021
Preaching the Gospel: The Person
For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.
1 Corinthians 9:16-17
As a Christian, we all know what our Lord Jesus commissioned us to do, that is, to preach the gospel. In the above-mentioned verses, the apostle Paul uttered a strong clause, “For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Have we ever had this feeling? That it would be woe to us if we would not preach the gospel?
I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but to tell you honestly, if you grew up in the church, it would be a possiblity that you wouldn’t be burdened for the gospel.
Personally, I wasn’t that burdened for it simply because I couldn’t sympathize with the unbelievers. I do not know the feeling of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when the times that I wasn’t enjoying Him, I still believed in Him.
And through all that, I never felt what the apostle Paul felt. I never felt that it was my loss not preaching the gospel to my childhood friends or elementrlary classmates. It was the same until I got to college.
It was only in university years that I was exposed by the Lord. I got no choice. I was not a normal Christian all this time.
Paul said that if he would willingly preach the gospel, he would have a reward. But if he wasn’t willing, he still needed to preach the gospel because it is a stewardship given to him.
All of us Christians are given the same stewardship. When you start believing in the Lord, you also receive your stewardship.
Then what is stewardship? In the most basic sense, a steward is someone who serve something, commonly food, to someone else. In other words, a stewardship is a ministry. You serve, you minister, what you receive to others.
In this post, I am not to emphasize or share about the stewardship but about the person of the steward.
For though I am free from all, I have enslaved myself to all that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew in order that I might gain Jews; to those under law, as under law (though I myself am not under law), that I might gain those under law. To those without law, as without law (though I am not without law to God but within law to Christ), that I might gain those without law. To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak. To all men I have become all things that I might by all means save some.
1 Corinthians 9:19-22
Here, Paul set up an example. Even the Lord Jesus is an example. How do we carry out this commission, this stewardship?
In verse 19, Paul said that although he was free from all yet he enlaved himself to all. It wasn’t that they enslaved Paul. It was that Paul enslaved himself to them. Have we done this? Have we enslaved ourselves to our unbelieving family, to our unbelieving friends?
Because they do not believe in the Lord, of course, they would not obligate you to preach the gospel to them. But have we considered ourselves as slaves to them? Have we felt our responsibility to serve Christ to them?
In verses 20 and 21, Paul expounded what he became to all kinds of men so that he might gain some. You know, I like how Paul encourages us, charges us, but at the same time, he doesn’t leave false expectations. He didn’t say that if you became all things to all men, you would gain all of them.
No, what he said in verse 22 is he became all things to all men so that he might gain some. This shows that even if you could sympathize with every kind of human being on earth, there is no guarantee that all of them would believe and get saved.
So where do we get the guts to do less than what Paul did in preaching the gospel? We need to labor more for this stewardship. If we want to gain at least some, we need to be at least like the apostle Paul.
Does this mean that we have to copy him? Even if we try hard to, we simply cannot. Then how can we become such a steward? This may sound too spiritual but it is to pray and come to the Lord Jesus. We need to pray to the Lord that He would infuse His very humanity into our being. It is only His humanity that can reach every kind of person in every kind of situation. It is in this humanity that we can sympathize with others. It is in this humanity that we would be able to be anything to anyone.
Our humanity is too fallen, corrupted and damaged. We need the humanity of Jesus. We need to learn to spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. If we would learn to spend much time with Him, then we will become proper stewards of the gospel.
Vision and Witnessing
And for many days He appeared to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses to the people.
Acts 13:31
Here, the appearing of the Lord is a necessary requirement to be His witness. I was just enlightened with this verse during my Bible reading. To become a living witness of Christ, the Lord Jesus must first appear to you.
In a court room, you cannot summon someone as a witness unless that person actually saw the scene with his own eyes. Likewise, today, we cannot be witnesses of Someone who hasn’t appeared to us and we haven’t seen yet.
Every day, we need to learn to pray, “Lord, appear to me. This very moment as I come to Your word, appear to me.”
May be we would think, I already saw something of the Lord but why is it still hard for me to speak of Him? Well, in my experience, maybe we haven’t seen Him in a clear way. It’s like there’s some light but it’s kind of vague. So whenever you try to utter something concerning Him, it doesn’t come across to the person you’re sharing to.
Or maybe you have seen Him quite clearly but you haven’t had a good grasp of Him. You know what I mean? Like when you’re trying to know a person. Meeting that person once or talking once is not enough. You need to spend more time with that person to actually know him and tell people about him.
It’s also like that with the Lord Jesus. After His resurrection, He appeared and disappeared to the disciples a lot of times. Because of repeatedly seeing His appearance to them, they eventually got to be His witnesses. Same with us. We must not be contented with just seeing a vision of Christ once. Seeing the vision of His economy once. We need His appearing again and again. We need to see Him again and again!
The more we see Him, the more the vision gets clear to us. The more He appears to us, the more vivid the vision gets. The more we spend time with Him, the more His appearing becomes real and the vision gets impressed into our being. Then we will become His living witnesses today.
Drift
- Genesis 19:1
Lot was a righteous and godly man (2 Peter 2:6-9). Nevertheless, although he had come out of Ur of Chaldea and was dwelling as one of God’s people with Abraham in the land of Canaan (12:5), he became defeated because he separated himself from Abraham, with whom waa God’s witness and testimony, and drifted into the wicked city of Sodom (13:11-13; 14:12), which was condemned by God and was to be destroyed under His judgment.
Here we can see that no matter how good we are, as long as we are apart from the Lord and apart from the Body, the brothers and sisters, sooner or later, we will be defeated. There will come a time that we are just going along the tide of the current evil age.
Ur of Chaldea was a place of idols, Egypt waa a place of worldly riches and pleasures, and Sodom was a city of sin. These three places form a triangular boundary around the land of Canaan. God’s called ones live within this triangle and must be careful lest they fall back to the city of idols, go down to the place of worldly pleasures, or drift into the city of sin.
As God’s people today, we must be those who are watchful. The enemy works 24/7. Take care of our relationship with the Lord and with the Body. We must not belittle our fellowship with Him and with the church. Don’t be loose. Don’t even try to touch or taste what the world can offer. A frog that plays around the well will sooner or later fall down the well.
Quotes from Genesis 19:1 Footnote 1
Flowing and Growing Life
By the end of Exodus 15:27, we are told that the children of Israel “encamped there by the waters.” This means that at Elim, they were formed into an army.
The flowing and growing life supplies God’s people as His army…. At Elim that they were full of enjoyment of life that made them qualified for fighting. This enabled them to fight to carry out God’s purpose to build His habitation.
If we would be strengthened as God’s army today, we also must firstly experience the flowing of the twelve springs and the growing of the seventy palm trees…. Only then shall we be qualified and equipped as an army to fight for God’s purpose. In the Lord’s recovery we have the consciousness of being engaged in spiritual fighting…. In order to fight, it is not sufficient simply to eat the Passover lamb with the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. We also need to experience the cross and the resurrection; that is, we must pass through Marah and arrive at Elim.
In our experience we need not only the sweet water but also the flowing water. This means that we need the water that has been changed from bitter to sweet and also the water that flows from the twelve springs at Elim. In order to have the flowing water, we must go on from Marah, the experience of the cross, to Elim, the experience of resurrection.
In our experience the waters that have been changed from bitter to sweet must become the flowing waters in which, by which, and with which we grow like palm trees to express God’s rich life and full victory.
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 31
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Exodus 15:27 – And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.
Revelation 7:9 – …I saw, and behold, there was a great multitude which no one could number, out of every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed i white robes and palm branches in their hands.
Gospel-preaching | Fruit-bearing
Real gospel preaching is fruit bearing out of the overflow of the inner life.
Preaching is one thing; fruit bearing is another thing. Genuine gospel preaching is not to convince people doctrinally, to subdue their thinking, and change their concept. Genuine gospel preaching is to minister life to others. Fruit bearing is the outflow of the riches of the inner life.
If a church wants to increase, the gospel certainly must be preached. However, if the preaching of the gospel is not under God’s blessing, nothing will be gained regardless of how much we endeavor.
We all must endeavor to preach the gospel, but consider what we are. If we are in the image of God and if we have the dominion of God, we will surely bring others into the image of God and dominion of God. All the local churches need the increase, but never use gimmicks, which may produce “Moabites” instead of the proper fruit.
It is easy to make artificial flowers. In one night we can fill this meeting room with flowers, but all will be artificial. However, to grow an orchard takes time. If you come to the orchard one morning, it will appear about the same as the day before. The same will occur the following day, and every day will appear as the preceding day. It may take several years to grow trees that bear fruit. But hallelujah! Once they grow up they will multiply. This is the church life. All the churches need the increase, but we don’t want the mushrooming increase, the overnight increase. We need the increase that comes from the image and dominion under God’s blessing. This takes time. – W. L.
(Life-Study of the Bible, Genesis Chapter 9)
Image
Although human beings are fallen, something wonderful still remains. That wonderful thing is the image of God. Every human being is lovable because every human being bears the image of God. Regardless of how much human beings have fallen, the earth is filled with men bearing the image of God.
Genesis 1:26a – And God said, Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness…
(Life-Study of the Bible, Genesis Chp. 9)
Unveiled
The face is the index of our whole being, the expression of our whole being. None of us here has a veil upon his outward face, but I am afraid that many of us still have some veils over our inner face. We need an unveiled face. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Religious things and holy things as well as sinful things and worldly things can be a veil to us. If you study the context of 2 Corinthians 3, you will see that the veil mentioned there is specifically the Old Testament in letters. Even the Bible can be a veil. Even the letters in the Bible can be a veil to cover us, keeping us from seeing the living Lord. If the letters of the Bible can be a veil to us, then everything can be a veil—your wife, your husband, your friends, your children, your self, your brothers and sisters, your good behavior, your bad behavior, your zealous activity, your work for God—everything. All things, provided they are not the Lord Himself, can be a veil. It doesn’t matter how holy a thing is, how heavenly it is, how spiritual it is, or how religious it is, as long as it is not the Lord Himself, it can be a veil. You may still be under this kind of veiling. That is why you sit here, but you cannot see the Lord.
We all need to forget everything bad, good, holy, unholy, religious, unreligious, spiritual, unspiritual. Regardless of what a thing may be, if it is not the Lord Himself, we must put it aside. We need to recognize the subtlety of the enemy. Satan can utilize anything to turn you away from beholding the Lord. The only thing that Satan cannot utilize is the Lord Himself.
Look away from the Bible unto Jesus Himself.
“Lord Jesus, I love You. I love the Bible because it reveals You, but I will never let the Bible become a veil. I love You, Lord Jesus. I love You personally, I love You directly, I love You most intimately. I love You by kissing You. I don’t like to see You far away. I like to see You face to face. Lord, I would even kiss You.” – W. L.
(Life-Study of the Bible, Genesis Chapter 8)
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2 Corinthians 3:18 – But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
In His Perfecting Hands 