At the time for passing the bread and the cup, the brothers may be “sleeping” and not ready to function. The right hymn may be lacking, and there may not be the adequate prayers to bring the meeting into the sense that it is time for the bread and the cup to be passed. This forces the same one who started the meeting to function again. That person may be clear about which hymn to call, but he may not be the right person to do it. The right person must do it. It is even wonderful if a younger person would call the hymn. Again, we lack the proper sense and learning. If the members of a basketball team had the adequate learning, they would know how to play the game, and at a certain point they would know the right thing to do.
After someone calls a hymn on life, there may not be the adequate prayers to follow it. When we sing about the love of God or the greatness of God, we have much to say, although this concept of love may not be spiritual but natural. When we sing about life, however, our mouths may be shut. This is our shortage. Hymns, #12 begins, “O God, Thou art the source of life, / Divine, and rich, and free! / As living water flowing out / Unto eternity!” This is altogether against our natural concept. Twenty-five or thirty years ago this was a foreign language to me. I did not know what this meant. If we have no concept of what that hymn means, we will not be able to offer a prayer to follow it. Stanza 2 says, “In love Thou in the Son didst flow / Among the human race.” We may know a little bit about love, but we may not know what is meant by Thou in the Son didst flow. In this case, we will not be able to follow the hymn with prayer, because we do not have this kind of concept and understanding. From now on, however, we will learn more and more. Then when we announce and sing this kind of hymn, right away we will have many prayers to follow it and to analyze, enlarge, and develop its meaning.
While we are in the section of the remembrance of the Lord, for someone to direct a prayer to the Father is a disturbance to the flow. Such a use of the title Father is due to our habit of praying in the past. In the same way, in the section of worship to the Father, some use the title Lord in their prayer. To address the Father as the Lord is not a serious mistake, but if possible, it is better to say, “Father.” Generally speaking, when we mention the Lord, we mainly mean the Lord Jesus. Due to our habit in our prayer, it is easy to say “Lord”; it is not our custom to say, “Abba Father.” We have to learn more, and we have to practice more. Then we will have better meetings, and we will give more cooperation to the Holy Spirit.
How to practice and conduct ourselves in the meetings is a very important matter in the church life. Christians depend very much on the meetings to be edified, perfected, and built up. If we have a living meeting, a meeting that is rich, strengthening, reigning, and in the spirit, then when people come to the meeting, they will be enriched not merely by the message but by the meeting itself. It is in the meeting that there is something living, real, and strong. Therefore, because the church life relies very much on the church meetings, we have to pay our full attention to the meetings in order to practice the church life. A meeting that is poor, low, and weak damages the church life.
In the past two and a half years here in Los Angeles we have come to realize how much the meetings mean to the church life, and how much they help people and bring people into the church life. A meeting that is proper, living, reigning, and strengthening attracts people. Once they get into the meeting, they are caught. However, a meeting that is low, weak, dull, and poor will cause people to be despondent after the first time they come. Because the meeting has nothing for them, they will not see any reason to come again.
We may be very spiritual persons, but we still may not know how to handle the meeting. We may not know how to exercise the spirit and behave in the spirit in the meeting. If this is the case, then even if we are spiritual, the poor meeting will damage the church life. We must have the Lord’s table meeting in a proper, living, strengthening, edifying, and attractive way. Once people come into such a meeting, they will be attracted, caught, and edified. Therefore, we all have to learn this one thing. In order to practice the church life, we must learn how to meet together; otherwise, the church can never be built up. We all have to endeavor by the grace of the Lord to bear the responsibility for the meeting by exercising our spirit.
Home | First | Prev | Next