In many respects the United States is a good place for the church life. Everything is here. It is quite easy to find a job working eight hours a day, five days a week. This gives us Saturday, the Lord's Day, and all of the evenings during the week for the practice of the church life. This is an excellent situation for the church life. However, if you are not for the church life, the American way of living is very dangerous. If you do not have the church life, what will occupy you? What will you do on the weekends and in the evenings? Where will you go? No doubt you will be attracted to various amusements, sports, and nightclubs. All of these things will become snares.
We are here for the church life! We praise the Lord that the United States exists for the church life. The United States is not only for the church life in this country, but for the spreading of the church life throughout the whole world. Have you ever noticed the strategic geographic location of the United States? The United States is located at the crossroads of the world with two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific, on two sides like the two wings of an eagle. It is easy to move in any direction from the United States: from the Pacific coast we can take care of Asia and the Far East; from the Atlantic coast we can take care of Europe and Africa. We can also take care of North and South America. This is wonderful! This is God's sovereignty. The Lord can never be wrong, and He has chosen the United States for the recovery of the church life.
All of the modern conveniences are likewise for the church life. In the last century it took several months to travel from New York to Los Angeles. Now a jet can fly this distance in less than six hours. We are not for the jets; the jets are for us. We are not for this age; this age is for us. We do not need to care for this age. The Lord cares for us, and this age is for us as long as we are for the Lord's recovery. "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt. 6:33). All of the things will be free if we buy the kingdom. The kingdom costs something; we must pay for it. If we pay the price of the kingdom, our livelihood will be free. The Lord will care for us if we do not care for this age. We should beware of the deceitfulness of riches. Of course, if you care for this age, money will mean much to you and will snare you. If we are free from the anxiety of this age, we will not care for money. We will make money for the sake of the Lord's recovery.
We are not a cursed field growing thorns; we are a blessed field growing Christ as the real wheat. Our source is not the serpent; our source is the God of life. So we are not cursed; we are blessed. It is the cursed earth whose source is the serpent that produces thorns. We, however, come from another source, from our Father, the God of life. Therefore, we are a field, a farm, much blessed by our Father. We grow Christ, the real wheat. We are not the wayside nor the rocky place nor the thorny earth. We are the good earth, growing Christ. As we have seen, the seeds are sown in Matthew and the development of the seeds takes place in the Epistles. If we remember this principle, we will discover much from our reading of the New Testament.