Offering Christ to God through the cross keeps the curse away. As a result of man's first fall, man was put under the curse (3:17). What is the curse? Ultimately, the curse is death. Death, including all other sufferings, is the consummation of the curse. Our offering of Christ to God through the cross keeps the curse away. This means that it keeps death away. All murmurings, gossipings, criticisms, complainings, etc. are signs of the curse of death. All these are done away by the experience of Christ through the cross. Without the experience of Christ through the cross, we would be under the curse of death, murmuring, gossiping, criticizing, and complaining. Then, if we come to the church meeting, we shall be under the curse of death. Whenever we come to a meeting and have the sensation that the meeting is under death, it means that the meeting is more or less under some curse. But when we come to a meeting and it is filled with life and we have the sensation that something is living, glowing, and shining, there is no curse there. The curse is kept away. Instead of the curse of death, we have the blessing of life. In the Bible, the consummate curse is death, and the greatest blessing is life. Life is the commanded blessing of God (Psa. 133:3). In a good meeting of the church, death is swallowed up and the curse is kept away.
Offering Christ to God through the cross brings blessing to the earth (8:22). Eight items are mentioned in Genesis 8:22. The first is the seedtime, the time of sowing the seed. In the church life, we must sow Christ into others. We must preach the gospel and minister Christ as the seed of life to others. When we sow Him, then we have the seedtime. After this, we have the harvest. The seedtime is the beginning, and the harvest is the consummation, the time of reaping. Not only do we minister Christ to others, but we also bring in the harvest. Bringing in a new convert with Christ in him is our harvest.
The third and fourth items are the cold and the heat. If you are going to be healthy, the best place to be is where it is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. We should not be lukewarm. On the one hand, the church must be cold—cold to Satan, sin, and the world. To Satan, sin, and the world, we are like a huge mountain of ice. We must also be cold to the self, the flesh, the soul-life, and to all other negative things. We can say, "Satan, come here. We will freeze you to death." On the other hand, we need to be so warm, heating others. Genesis 8:22 also speaks of summer and winter, day and night. This is the blessing of life.
In the proper church life, there must be cold and winter for Satan and nighttime for our sleep. We also need to have the heat, the summer, and the day for our God. This is the blessing. Look at today's society. There is no cold, heat, summer, winter, day, or night. The people who attend the night clubs make the night day and the day night. Because they do not have the proper life, they are under the curse. In the church, we must have the proper life under God's blessing. Unlike us, people are not used to the church life. We who are used to the church life are truly under God's blessing, not only spiritually and mentally, but even physically. All of the church people are so healthy because they are under God's blessing through the church life. Many of the church people can testify that before they came into the church life they were weak and sickly. Many were sick mentally, but after being in the church life they became sober and healthy. This is the blessing. This blessing comes as a result of offering Christ to God through the cross. Sisters, if you want to be healthy, you need to experience Christ and to offer Him to God through the cross. If you live this way for awhile, you will see how strong you will be and how mentally sober you will become. Every young sister who lives this way will be healthy both mentally and emotionally. Most young women are sick either emotionally or mentally. No psychiatrist can help them. However, if you live the church life, the very Christ whom you offer to God will heal you. He is better than any psychiatrist. Do not go to a psychiatrist—come to Christ and offer Him to God. Then you will be healthy, sober, and emotionally balanced. Since the church life is the proper life, it brings in God's blessing. Peace, joy, love, sympathy, kindness, normal living—all are signs of such a blessing of life which comes by the experience of Christ through the cross.