Question: How should we take care of the Christians whom we contact?
Answer: Many times you will go to visit people and find out that they are Christians. You have to discern what kind of Christians they are. If they are settled with their denominations and they are saved, it is better not to waste your time. If you realize that they are real Christians, but they are not settled in any denomination, it is worthwhile for you to work on them. In the United States, people move very often. Out of so many Christians in the United States, many are moving to new places every year, and they are looking for a new church. I heard that some brothers called people’s homes by getting numbers out of the telephone book. One who answered said, “Who told you that we were waiting for someone to call us? We have recently been considering that we would join a church, but we did not have a way. It is so good that you called.” You should work on this kind of person. There are many Christians in this country, but if you focus your labor on the Christians, you will gain very little. That would not be so profitable.
Question: There is a family that was baptized through some whom we had baptized in the summer of 1987. We had home meetings with this family for a long time and were training them in the four crucial practices that were shared in this message. The home meetings seemed very good, but eventually the husband said that he did not want us to come back anymore. He said that his heart was too hard and that he could not live up to what was in the Bible. We shared many things with him, and he is still open to fellowship with us, but we do not know how to go on. I feel that this is a good family. What can we do to help this one?
Answer: You probably have taught this man too much in the way of legality. You have pointed out to him what the Bible says and implied that he has to do it. This is legality. Some people will not listen to this kind of legal teaching. What you should do is simply open the Bible to certain verses and help them to read it. They may feel that what they read is hard to keep. Then right away you can say, “The Lord is gracious. The Lord loves us. If we want to do it, He will help us. If we are not willing to do it, He will still be patient with us.” This is the way to present something from the Bible in a loving way that would not burden them too much. If you teach in a legal way, every requirement in the Bible is a demand that no one can meet. We have to lead them by telling them, “This is what the Lord wants, yet the Lord knows that we cannot do it, so He will be our help.”
This man you have met is honest. After listening to your kind of teaching, he says, “I cannot come up to that.” Do not be legal in teaching anything. It is better to take the way of grace, the way of love. This will work.
Question: We have shared these basic practices of the Christian life with many new ones, yet most of them do not pick them up very quickly. Some of them do not seem to have any desire to practice them. What can we do to help these ones?
Answer: First, when we go to labor on people, we always expect to see the result. However, the result will never come quickly. Therefore, we must continue to work, and eventually we will get some results. However, here is a principle: today’s good result may not remain forever, and today’s poor result may become the best. No matter how good one may seem to be, we cannot be certain that he will still be here in twenty years. After twenty years, he may become the worst result. Another result may seem too poor. He may not react. He may not accept anything, yet he likes to listen. He always invites us to come to his home, yet there is no progress, no result. However, after five years he may become the top result. I can tell you that many who were good results in my eyes are gone. Also many whom I considered to be bad results years ago, became very good. It is hard to say who is a good result and who is not. We must simply go to work; the result is in the hands of the Lord. We should never be disappointed; to work is much better than doing nothing. If we consider that the result is too poor and just stay home, nothing will ever come out.
Second, if you try to help one to read the Bible, to pray, to keep morning watch, and to attend the meetings, and there is no result, you should not continue to push these matters in the same way. That would not be wise. As long as this one would receive you, you should keep working on him. You should realize that he will not take these four practices at this time, so you must approach him from another angle. If you cannot do anything by one way, you have to change your way. You may not stress the reading of the Bible, yet you can take the lead to read the Bible when you are with him to set up a pattern so that he can see something. You should never be legal, insisting that anyone follow certain practices. When we go to visit people in one way and cannot get through, we should try another way. We all have to learn to be flexible.
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