In this message we will continue to fellowship concerning the home meetings. I am burdened that we would all have a proper understanding of what we mean by the term “the home meetings.” When we say “the home meetings,” we are referring to our meetings with the newly baptized ones in their own homes. When we baptize new believers, we should immediately begin to visit them in their homes to have meetings with them. This is what we call the home meetings.
By reading church history and biographies, we can see that a number of outstanding believers were saved in homes. For instance, when George Muller was about twenty, he was brought to the home of a Christian brother to attend a small meeting. Although he was not a religious or ethical person, through that meeting he was deeply touched by the Lord and was saved. Eventually, he became one of the outstanding believers of the past century.
There are many examples in history of unbelievers having good salvation experiences in the saints’ homes. However, when we speak of the home meetings in the context of the new way, the God-ordained way, we are not referring to this kind of meeting in the homes of the saints. We are referring specifically to having home meetings with the newly saved and baptized ones in their own homes. Sometimes we confuse the home meetings with the small group meetings. The home meeting is a meeting with the newly baptized ones in their homes. Occasionally, some others may attend a home meeting, yet the intention is not to have a group meeting, but only to meet with that family in their home because they have recently been saved. The small group meetings are different from the home meetings. After we have helped a number of new ones in their homes for several months, we should gather them together to form a group meeting. We may consider the home meeting as a kind of spiritual kindergarten and the small group meeting as the elementary, junior high, and even high school. To understand the home meetings and the small group meetings in this way will be very helpful in the future because we will share more messages concerning these two kinds of meetings.
The title of this message-feeding the newborn babes with baby food-may seem somewhat childish, but it is based upon much experience. We must realize that it is not easy to carry out the home meetings. After we have baptized some new ones, we must go back to meet with them within one or two days. The first requirement for us to have a proper home meeting with these newly baptized ones is that regardless of how old they are in the physical life, how high a position they may hold, or how high an education they may have received, we have to consider them as babes.
If you bring an older man to the Lord and baptize him, you must go back in a few days to meet with him. If he is over seventy years old and well-educated, yet you are only twenty-nine, you may feel uncomfortable in dealing with him. You should respect his age because this is the proper humanity, but you must realize that because he has been saved for only a few days, he is very young in the Lord. Your purpose in meeting with him should be to feed him, not to teach him. You must have the realization that he is a newborn babe and feed him with baby food.
You must consider whatever he might say to you as babyish talk. He may be a retired college professor and talk to you about science or computers, but you should not forget that he is a babe in Christ. This does not mean that you should despise him. You still have to respect him, but within, you must realize that he is a babe. You should not be carried away by his talking because, spiritually speaking, he is a babe and knows nearly nothing about the Lord.
You must try to treat these newly baptized ones as nursing mothers treat their babes. This is one of the secrets of how to practice the God-ordained way, but it is a hard lesson to learn. You must learn to always have a subjective realization concerning every new believer, considering that they are babes. If you teach kindergarten, you realize that these students are little children, and you treat them accordingly. If you teach graduate school, you realize that these students are all college graduates. To treat them like little children would be wrong. You must have a proper psychological understanding.
The primary point, the prerequisite, is that you consider a newly baptized one as a babe in Christ. A new one may ask, “What is the Bible?” This may not sound like a babyish question, but you must answer as you would answer a baby; you must have this kind of concept. You must say the right words, and your attitude and tone must also be right. A new one may ask many questions, yet you must always have the concept that you are dealing with a babe in Christ. If you can learn this secret, you will be welcomed by every new one. They would like to hear your talk. In this way you can open the way to feed them. Sometimes after a meeting, I went over to see how the saints were talking to the newcomers. Many times the saints’ expression and tone were wrong in talking with these ones. You must speak something that will help a new one to open to you. He will open by saying something. Right away, you may realize that he has been newly saved. Then you have to talk to him by considering him as a babe. If you have learned this secret, after only two or three sentences, you will be warmly welcomed by him. He will open himself up to you, listen to you, and take your word. He will become very interested in whatever you say.
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