You have to realize this plantation was the gathering and the habitation of God. During those days of the feasts, all the children of Israel stayed there on the mountain day and night. If their feast lasted seven days, they stayed on the mountain seven days. When God looked upon Mount Zion and saw all His chosen and redeemed people staying there, He was so happy! That gathering was God’s dwelling place on this earth. All His chosen and redeemed people stayed with Him on that mountain. That was a plantation, that was a gathering, and that was a habitation. And that was a mutual home to God and to His chosen people.
That was a picture in the Old Testament, and today our meetings are the fulfillment of that type. In the past we have had two slogans: Christ is our life, and the church is our living. We need to change the word church to the word meeting. Christ is my life, and the meeting is my living.
Don’t you realize that all the people today on this earth are miserable? Whether they are dancing, or surfing, or playing ball, or eating, or drinking, or gambling, or stealing, they are miserable. Whether they are strong or weak, they are miserable. Whether they are well or sick, they are miserable. How about us? Are we also miserable? If you don’t come to the meeting, are you miserable or pleasant? I can testify that I am happy every day in my home, but often I am not that happy. But I am guaranteed to be happy when I come to the meeting. In my fifty years in the church life I cannot remember a meeting in which I was miserable. I was miserable sometimes in my home, but I don’t remember even once being miserable in the meeting.
Why are we so pleasant in the meetings? Sometimes I have had the feeling that the meeting was too long. Recently our Lord’s table meeting lasted two hours and forty minutes. I was really tired out by sitting there for one hundred and sixty minutes. But I must tell you that I was not miserable. I was tired out, yet I was still pleasant. In a sense I wanted to go home, yet in another sense I wanted to stay there. I was hesitating to go back home. As long as I am in the meeting I know I will be pleasant, but when I get back home I might be miserable. I do have the assurance and the guarantee that I will be pleasant as long as I am in the meeting.
We need to spend some time to re-study our meeting life so that we could see something more. In a sense I am not encouraging you to come to the meeting, but I would like to tell you what is the difference between coming to the meeting or not coming to the meeting. You have a choice, life or death. It is up to you. If you like to die, you just remain there at home. If you like to live, come to the meeting. Outside the meeting you are about to die. But if you come to the meeting you are guaranteed to live. It is pleasant here. From my experience I can say that the most pleasant place on earth is the meeting.
Sometimes due to your subjective personal problems you brought your miserable situation from your home to the meetings. You shouldn’t blame the meeting. You should blame your foolishness. Sometimes I brought my miserable situation right to the front door of the meeting hall, but then I said, “Don’t follow me! go away!” Then I came into the meeting without my miserable situation.
According to the human life, the unique pleasant time and the unique pleasant place is the meeting. Some might say that the most happy time and the most happy place was their wedding. It might be. But even if it was really a happy time and place, that was only once for your whole life. But we can experience the meeting time and the meeting place again and again and again.
Comparatively speaking the most pleasant place and the most pleasant time is our meeting. The unbelievers don’t have this kind of meeting so they have never tasted such a pleasant place. But we have! If you were to ask me according to my human life experience what is the most pleasant time and what is the most pleasant place, I would say it is the meeting.
I love America, but I must tell you the truth that if there were no meeting, the U.S.A. would not be a pleasant place. What could I do here? Watch TV? That would be disgusting! Listen to the music? That would be terrible! What shall we do? We have to believe in the Lord Jesus that He will lead and guide us into His dwelling place. That is the meeting.