We are limited by time because we are not full-time workers in the gospel. However, if we practice to find the proper way, we can improve our way. I hope we all would learn the best way, not to be too heavily burdened with the work, but to do our work as a duty. We all must learn. We are living here for the gospel. Even if we do not have the time every day, we can separate some time at least once a week for the work of the gospel. If you do a little, I do a little, and every member of the church does a little, we can put all these little portions together into something significant. Moreover, we must do this for the long run, not just once for all or even once a year, but as a regular duty.
If this responsibility is too much for a few brothers, then in fellowship more brothers can be brought in to help. All things can be very flexible. If there are thirty-five new ones, the brothers and sisters can divide into two groups; one can work on seventeen, and the other will work on the other eighteen. The Lord’s yoke is not hard, and His burden is not heavy. The Lord has no intention to overwork us. Still, we must look to the Lord for the patience to learn these things.
The proper church life is just like a family life. We cannot build up a family in a miraculous or special way. We have to build up a family in a very normal and ordinary way. This requires our time. It takes at least twenty years for our children to grow up as mature men. The church life is the same way. Even if today we have some miracles in the gospel, I would like to quench them a little. The brothers who were with me in Taiwan can testify that several times after I returned there, I poured cold water on their work if it was done in a miraculous or extraordinary way. This is because I know the danger. If you drive a car eighty miles an hour, I will ask you to slow down a little. It is better to drive thirty or forty miles an hour in a normal way. Recently the son of a co-worker in Taiwan wrote to tell us about the many miracles and healings there. He even laid hands on others, and people were healed. After I read that, I felt to write something to quench his fire a little. I want to help people to take proper food in a normal daily way. Do not eat strange and special foods. Simply eat the normal food; then your family will be healthy.
Dear brothers, I ask you in the Lord’s mercy and by His grace to learn a little patience and go on in a proper way. Do not expect too much; simply go on little by little. Then in the long run you will see what the result will be. I have no intention to ask you to overwork. I simply have the desire to see that you all learn how to serve the Lord in a proper, normal way, in the way of life. We are living here for the gospel. As to what we have, we simply spend what we can, and as to what we are, we are willing to be spent for the gospel’s sake. Please do your best to work, pray, coordinate, and cooperate. Then this “machine” will keep going on and on. In the long run we will baptize many new ones. This is not too much. Monthly we can have a preaching meeting to help us, and we can all live for the gospel and work in a proper way for the long run. This is a lifelong matter. Gradually, monthly, some new ones will be added into the church. This is just a part of our training. After people are baptized, there is another section of the work that we must care for. Bringing people in is just the beginning, the first part, of gospel preaching.
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