Based upon this, I feel that for the long range for the Lord’s recovery in such a top country as the United States, which is full of culture, education, scientific knowledge, and biblical knowledge, the greatest need we must meet is to bring the saints in the Lord’s recovery into the truth to carry the Lord’s recovery on. For a country to be strong there is the need to bring its people into the proper education. If the people are behind in education, that country is also behind. The reason why the United States is a top country is because of its highest education. When President Nixon was in office, he encouraged the young people to study at the universities because many young Americans at that time did not want to study further after high school. The trend in the United States has changed, however. Such a big country needs many more people to receive the highest, up-to-date education. Otherwise, there is no way for a country to be among the top countries in today’s world.
Today we are here for the Lord’s recovery. For the long run, we surely have to help the saints in the Lord’s recovery to get into the top spiritual education. You must remember that we still uplift the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, life itself and its riches, and the church in a living way. To promote these things, to carry these things out, and to bring people into these things so that they remain there, we need the Word and we need the truth. The standard of the Lord’s recovery depends upon the standard of the truth we put out. The truths will be the measure and the standard.
Some may think that I am “selling my cargo.” They may also think that I am controlling so that no other teaching would come into the Lord’s recovery. I want to make the real situation clear to all of you. After four or five years, some better things may come out. I cannot predict and only the Lord knows. If that would happen, we had better go to take these better things. I would take the lead to take them. While I am writing the notes and putting out the messages, I am always on the alert to see if anything new has come out. Many Christian publications are produced in the United States; in other countries, however, there has nearly been nothing produced. What spiritual publications have come out in the past twenty years in France or Russia? What spiritual publications have come out of Britain in recent times? Britain was used by the Lord greatly in the last century. The saints there really saw something, and groups of great Bible teachers were produced in Britain up to the first third of this century. After the first third of this century, however, Britain has produced nearly nothing in the way of top spiritual publications. From my observation, nearly nothing has come out of Germany in recent years. In the past twenty years since the Lord’s recovery came to the United States, the only things that I can see which have been produced by Christians of some worth and value have been from the United States. In the past twenty years the Christians in the United States have put out a number of books, such as lexicons, Greek concordances, and word-studies of the Scriptures. These books are very good and I encourage you all to buy them. However, there has been nothing published in the way of exposition that is worthwhile. It is good for us to purchase the books on the Greek and Hebrew languages since these are very useful. The best choice for exposition, however, is to use our publications.
We need to find a way to bring all the saints in the Lord’s recovery into a proper education of the truth concerning God’s New Testament economy. We need to consider this matter in two aspects—the personal aspect and the meeting aspect. We must have a personal way laid as a foundation for us to stand on and then go on to take care of the meeting way.
The Lord’s recovery has been in the United States for over twenty years. During this time, all those who left the church and who caused trouble and became a failure never received a solid foundation in the Word. Everyone in the past twenty years who has passed through all kinds of tests and who was not only never shaken but also never affected are a real benefit to the Lord’s recovery. Whatever the storm was they remained steadfast and they went on with the Lord and are still here. They have not been a damage or a problem. Everyone like this is one that loves the Word and has a sound foundation in the truth. There is not an exception to this either on the positive side or on the negative side. All those who became a problem never had a solid foundation in the Word.
Over the last ten years we have published approximately twelve hundred Life-studies. I have the assurance to say that whoever has read through five hundred Life-study messages properly has been an excellent believer. You elders who are shepherding the local churches know the real situation of most of the saints. If a saint in your locality is not that “proper” and he would begin from tomorrow morning to read the Life-study messages until he reaches five hundred, he will become another person. Medicine, nourishment, and all kinds of vitamins are included in these messages. This is why I said earlier that I had some realization that some of the saints who contacted me had not read many of the Life-studies. I realized that they had not taken the “medicine and nourishment.” In their talk there were symptoms and signs of sickness. For example, a doctor may prescribe certain drugs for his patient. When the patient comes back to him after two months, the doctor can tell whether or not the patient took the drugs. The patient’s breathing, color, and entire being tells the doctor that the patient did not take the prescription. If you would begin to study the Life-studies every day starting tomorrow morning, you will become a different person even after fifty days.
By the Lord’s mercy, I am quite healthy. I am doing much more than what I did in the past. When I was in Shanghai, I never spoke twice a day. I only spoke once a day at the most, and I did not do as much writing work as I do today. My wife always reminds me that I am eighty years old now and that sixty-five is the age of retirement. She tells me I am doubling my work instead of retiring. My point is this—the reason that I am quite healthy is because I eat the healthy food. After speaking for two sessions in one of the morning meetings of this training, I was tired. I went back home, ate lunch, and laid down. I then rested until five and became refreshed. Then I ate another meal and came to the evening meeting to minister the Word. In the evening I spoke until nine-thirty. After the evening meeting I went home, ate a snack, and slept well. After eating in the morning I was refreshed and invigorated. The reason for this is a good diet full of the proper nourishment.
I have the assurance that if you would get into the Life-study messages continually, you will be different after fifty days. Any message from any book, such as Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, or Revelation, is good for your study. Just go to the Life-study messages. I hope that the Lord would really have mercy upon us that we do not hold any kind of personal feeling or individualistic opinion. We must be those who solely take care of the interest of the Lord’s recovery and the benefit of all the dear saints who have come into the Lord’s recovery. We only care for this.
We must do our best to get ourselves into these truths and to get these truths constituted into our being. This cannot be done within a short time, but this must be our practice. I also am burdened that all the leading ones, either the elders or the serving ones taking some kind of lead, should have a real burden to pray for the saints in your locality that the Lord may stir up their interest, their seeking heart, and their spirit to seek after the Lord in His truth. The truth is nowhere but in the Bible, yet the Bible needs an opener. We need to lead the saints into the real, right, and proper realization of the need of the Bible and also of the help of the Life-study messages and the Recovery Version.