One brother, whom I knew for about thirty years and who is now with the Lord, is a good example of this grace-ministering service. He did not speak much in the meetings because he was not assigned with that kind of grace. But whenever I went to his locality in Taiwan, I always saw him serving in some way in the meeting hall. He was a retired general from the army who lived on his pension and spent all his time to serve the church. Even though he did not speak much in the meetings, the church received the greatest service from him. He was respected by all the saints and highly valued by the co-workers because of his service. He served the saints in many ways to meet their needs.

Of course, we expect that all of the brothers and sisters would function by opening their mouths to speak in the meetings. But we do not like to force the saints to do this, because some do not have the particular portion of grace to be speakers. If you ask certain ones to function, it is like putting them into a coffin. We should not do this. To some extent, we have to make this clear publicly. We can say that we realize that some of the saints do not have a speaking portion, so we would not force them to speak. They have an eating and a breathing mouth but not a speaking mouth. But they should still serve the church according to the grace which has been given to them. They can serve practically in something like vacuuming the meeting hall. All the saints will receive the benefit of their vacuuming. That is the "vacuuming" grace. We should illustrate the practical service to the saints in this way.

Some of the saints may be bothered about not speaking to such an extent that they dare not come to the meeting. They may not feel happy about coming to the meeting and may even feel somewhat shameful. They do not have that particular aspect of grace, so it is difficult for them to speak. But on the other hand, we have to make it clear that no one who has a mouth should take an excuse. You may be able to deceive people, but you cannot deceive the Lord. The Lord knows you are very talkative. A brother may not speak in the meetings so much, but he may speak a lot to his wife.

We need to dwell upon this point to impress all the saints that all of them are stewards entrusted with some aspect of God's grace. God's grace is manifold. You cannot say that you have never been given grace. You have been given grace. You do not have the aspect of grace that Paul had or the aspect of grace that some of the elders have, but you surely have an aspect of grace. God has given you something.