Life Lessons volumes one and two contain a total of eighteen topics, ten in volume one and eight in volume two. These two volumes have their own lines of thought. The first speaks from “Knowing That You Are Saved” to “Knowing the Church,” while the second speaks from “Knowing the Sects” to “The Offering of Material Riches.” Volume one begins with “Knowing that You are Saved” and “The Need of Your Whole Family to Be Saved,” and continues with “Clearance of the Old Living,” “Prayer,” “Reading the Bible,” and five kinds of knowing: “Knowing the True God,” “Knowing Christ,” “Knowing the Holy Spirit,” “Knowing the Cross of Christ,” and “Knowing the Church.” The first three “knowings” are concerning the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; the other two are regarding the cross and the church. The line of thought here is that by knowing the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and adding the cross, we have the church. Without the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, there is no church. Moreover, we may have the Triune God, yet without the cross there is still no church. If we have the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the cross, the church will come forth.
Do not recite these topics in order to memorize them. It is only by grasping the line of thought that we can remember them. Life Lessons helps a new believer first to know that he himself is saved and second to see the need for his whole family to be saved. Then it helps him to clear his old living and leads him to pray and read the Bible. Then it helps him to begin to know the true God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and also the cross of Christ, and even to know the church. We need to be familiar with all these topics. Do not wait until you go to take care of a home meeting to start reading the lessons and decide which topic is suitable. To do this is to sell ourselves cheaply. If a professor is still flipping through his books when he stands in front of the blackboard, he should be dismissed. When we go to take care of the home meetings, all these riches should already have been constituted in us in order to meet the instant and realistic needs.
Volume two begins with “Knowing the Sects,” “Meetings,” and “The Bread Breaking Meeting.” Then it continues with “Consecrating Ourselves,” “Being Filled Inwardly and Outwardly with the Holy Spirit,” “Preaching the Gospel,” and “Serving the Lord,” and it concludes with “The Offering of Material Riches.” What volume one talks about are all positive things, but because of the fall and the desolation of the church, some negative things were brought in, and sects and denominations were produced. Therefore, we must lead the new ones to know the sects. Then we should help them to know that among the church meetings, the most important is the bread-breaking meeting. After having home meetings for a period of time, we must lead them to break the bread, so it is a necessity for them to know about the bread-breaking meeting. At the same time, the new ones have probably touched the Lord’s love in the meetings and are willing to consecrate themselves to the Lord. Therefore, we need to go on to speak about consecrating ourselves. After consecrating themselves to the Lord, they will wish to do something for the Lord, so they must exercise their spirit. The Spirit has two aspects; they must be filled with the Spirit both inwardly and outwardly. Then they have to preach the gospel for the Lord, serve the Lord, and offer their material riches.
Among the eight topics of volume two there are two items concerning offering. One is consecrating ourselves, and the other is offering material riches. Consecrating ourselves comes first, and offering our material riches follows. We must let the Lord gain our being first and then our material riches. The scriptural basis for this is 2 Corinthians 8:5, where Paul said that the Macedonian believers “gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.” The Macedonians had received much grace in the matter of material riches. The apostle Paul testified for them that before offering their material riches, they had already let the Lord gain them. They first subjected themselves to the Lord, and not only to the Lord, but also to the apostles who took the lead to serve the Lord. They first let the Lord and the apostles, who took the lead to serve the Lord, gain them.
Here we see that the Lord wants to first gain our being. He does not want to gain our material riches first. Robbers throughout the world are all covetous for other people’s money. They do not want your being, but to be sure, they want your money. The Lord is much wiser. He comes not for our money; He comes to gain our being. Once a person is gained by the Lord, his money will also follow. As long as we first let the Lord gain us, we will spontaneously take the step of offering material riches. Therefore, we should first consecrate ourselves and then offer our material riches.
Consecrating ourselves and offering our material riches are out of the same source. The source and motivation for consecration is the Lord’s love. One passage in the Old Testament says, “I love my master,...I will not go out free” (Exo. 21:5). We can be free. No one is binding us and forcing us to serve the Lord. However, because we love Him, we do not want to be free. Therefore, love is the motive of our consecration.
What exactly is the motive for our offering of material riches? If we study the eight topics in volume two in great detail, we will be able to see that the motivation is the inward filling and the outward filling with the Holy Spirit. Once a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, three things will result: preaching the gospel, serving the Lord, and offering material riches. Consecrating ourselves comes out of the Lord’s love to us, while offering material riches comes out of the filling of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills us, not only will sins and the world leave, but our money will also go out. If someone says that he is filled with the Holy Spirit, but his money still stays in his pocket, then he has only half a filling, a filling only on the surface. If he is filled completely, his material riches will surely go out. Therefore, consecrating ourselves comes out of the Lord’s love to us, while offering material riches comes out of the filling of the Spirit in us. Once we are filled, our material riches are “flushed” away. One is filling, and the other is flushing. The filling of the Holy Spirit will flush out our material riches.
As we lead the home meetings, we should never recite these topics in a rigid way. We should be very familiar with these topics inwardly, and our line of thought should be very clear. Then when we speak to others, we will be able to speak spontaneously. For this reason, before we go to labor on the home meetings, we must prepare ourselves well by first preparing the topic and then, if we have time, by reading through the content thoroughly.