Cutting straight the word of the truth is like carpenters cutting wood. They cannot cut according to their own will. They must first draw straight lines on the wood; then they must cut accordingly. When we cut straight the word of the truth, we cannot make it skewed or crooked. The Bible we have in our hand is not an ordinary book. I exhort you young people to read it again and again. We need more Timothys to be raised up among us. In every place we should have some Timothys who can cut straight the truth. After they cut it, they should commit it to those who can teach others the same.
We must be very clear that the church is the pillar and the base of the truth. Hence, the church meeting is a place where we come to learn the truth. In Taiwan, the standard of education is very high; education is also becoming very widespread. This is a worldwide trend. But before God we also need to receive our spiritual education. The church is here to uphold the truth. All the saved ones must come here to receive the proper spiritual education. Even people in the world know that without education a man is wild and unlearned. Once a person has received some education, his behavior will be changed.
We, the saved ones, should always remember that not only do we need God, but we also need to have a clear knowledge of the Bible. You young sisters who are fourteen or fifteen years old will one day be mothers and wives. The best equipping to prepare yourselves to be mothers and wives is the spiritual education.
I always consider that there must have been some reason that God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. When Mary was found to be with child, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. In Luke chapter one Mary had a psalm of praise to God. That whole psalm was a quotation from the Old Testament. This proves that although Mary had never gone to a seminary, she was very familiar with the Old Testament. No wonder God chose her to be the mother of Jesus. Hence, we must see that Christians need to receive two kinds of education. Not only do they need to receive the worldly education; they must also receive the spiritual education. God’s education is a truth education. We must all learn the truth.
The Lord’s recovery has been on the earth for sixty years. Since October 1984, we began to turn our attention from the big meetings to the small meetings. To this day, we are still studying to find a way for all the brothers and sisters to receive spiritual education. Therefore, we made the decision to have classes on the Lord’s Day to teach the truth lessons beginning from January 1986. Now a few brothers and I are preparing twenty-four lessons for this kind of teaching. The topics and main points are all there. Our plan is to prepare forty-eight lessons. In each quarter we will cover twelve lessons. There are fifty-two weeks in a year. Besides the forty-eight weeks of proper lessons, we reserve one week at the end of every quarter for review.
The topics we have selected are as follows: The first lesson is on the Bible. The second lesson is on the Triune God. The third lesson is on God’s creation. Then we go on to Satan’s corruption, and then to God’s calling, His promise of redemption, and Abraham. We will cover the Old Testament from Adam to Noah, then from Abraham to Joseph, then from Moses to Samuel, and then from Samuel to David. After we cover all the kings, we will come to the prophets. What we cover will be not just some Bible knowledge and history. All the sections are full of light. You probably have never heard many of these things before. Hence, you must not only bring others to these meetings, but you yourselves must pay attention to all the points. If you do this, in half a year all the brothers and sisters will have gone through twenty-four lessons and will have received a very adequate spiritual education. When we finish forty-eight lessons, we will have covered a year’s course. In this way, year after year, in four year’s time this spiritual education will become very prevalent among us.
In addition, every Lord’s Day evening after the Lord’s table meeting, we will reserve half an hour for the release or reading of a message on life. Every Tuesday after our prayer meeting, we will also reserve half an hour. The points we cover at that time will not be mainly on life but will be mainly on service, on the spiritual principles of service in spirit. The Lord’s Day morning is on one line, covering the truth education. The Lord’s Day evening is on another line, on life. Tuesday evening is on the line of service. Then there is the line of the home meetings. In addition to this there is the line of the gospel. Altogether there are five lines.
If we go on in these five lines, we will find out that there are not many who can be faithful to teach others. We need brothers who can minister the word. For this reason we have made the decision to have the full-time co-workers go back to the different meeting halls to concentrate on the ministry of the word. They will take the lessons we wrote and distribute them to the various classes in the various meeting halls. Then they also have to find a message on life for the Lord’s Day evening meeting. They also have to find a message on service for the prayer meeting. They must also mark out the portions for the home meetings. Unfortunately, we cannot find twenty-one co-workers to labor full-time in the ministry of the word. This is why I encourage you elders to give up your jobs. The study of God’s word requires your whole being to be given. It requires your whole time and energy.
Thank the Lord. Fifty-three years ago I gave up my job to labor full-time in God’s word. If my last fifty-three years were spent in my job, not only would it be impossible to produce all the volumes of Life-study messages, but I do not think I would have been able to produce even ten books. During the last fifty-three years I spent all my time in the Bible. Over and over I dig, I read, I study, and I write. On the English side, there are at least three thousand messages that are already in print. On the Chinese side, we have even more. All these require time.
In conclusion, the key to the home meetings is prayer, reading, singing, and speaking. We cannot wait till the meeting time comes before we do all these four. All the brothers and sisters must exercise in their daily lives to pray, read, sing, and speak.
We must exercise much in prayer. The more we pray, the more we will be freed from all earthly affairs and will be brought into the word of God. When we pray-read, we will also spontaneously sing. The brothers and sisters should buy some song tapes and play them every day at home. While the brothers are driving, they should play them. While the sisters are doing housework, they should also play them. Everyone should learn to sing hymns. In this way it will be easy for us to sing hymns in the meetings.
If we combine our praying, reading, and singing together, the result will be our speaking. The husbands will speak to the wives. The wives will speak to the children. Everyone will speak to his colleagues, and everyone will speak to his neighbors. Whenever we come together, we will simply speak to one another. May the Lord raise up some people in every home meeting to give a strong and weighty ten-minute word at the end of every meeting. I hope that after a period of time, this will be fully realized among us. I believe that this is possible. If a church is rich in truth and strong in the ministry of life, it will surely grow, and the number will surely increase.