In the past we learned that preaching the gospel in the church is a very good means for us to be brought together, to be fitly framed and mingled one with another. Therefore, there is the real need for some brothers and sisters to bear the responsibility for the mingling. They have to be the “blenders.” If we coordinate well in the gospel, all the brothers and sisters will be blended together. We are too independent, and we like too much to be private. To be Christians, however, we cannot always keep our privacy. We have to be blended with others. If we are all blended, this will give a very strong impression to the unbelievers and new converts.
A brother may pray for a friend, a relative, a neighbor, or a classmate, preach the gospel to him, and have a certain amount of contact with him. Even in material matters, though, it is not prevailing for someone to do something by himself. It is more prevailing for him to ask one, two, or even five brothers to help him to deal with this person. If in the church there are certain ones who bear some responsibility, the brother can submit the name of his friend or relative to them with particular details. Then these responsible ones can consider this person, and they may realize what his need is. They may realize that this person needs a certain other brother to help take care of him, and they can pass this name on to that brother. Then that brother should take this as a responsibility from the Lord. Spontaneously he will contact the first brother to fellowship about the new one, and then they will find out what they must do. Then after one or two weeks the responsible ones may look into the situation again and feel that this person can be cared for further by a third brother, and they will pass the burden to him. This is simply an illustration of the principle of blending.
If we take this way, our friends and neighbors will realize that Christians are wonderful people-old and young, high and low, American and Chinese, all working together as one for one goal. This will be a strong testimony to them, and it will be very easy to bring them to the Lord. Then after they are saved, it will be easy to bring them into the church life. From this we can foresee and anticipate that the building of the Body will be realized through this kind of preaching.
The whole church, all the members, must be prevailing to function in preaching the gospel. This is the main part of the church life. The church lives here for the testimony of Jesus, to win people from the usurping hand of the enemy. We are living here day by day for this, and we fight for this. To live for the gospel is the proper way to have the church life. Monthly and yearly, we live for the gospel to win people for Christ. We are not seeking merely to be spiritual. Rather, we are living for Christ to expand and enlarge His kingdom.
We must realize the proper way to carry out the gospel preaching, and we must realize that our purpose as the living Body is to defeat the enemy and to release, to win, the souls who are under his usurping hand. This is carried out simply by the living of the church, by the church life. We do expect that one day the church here would not have any outward preaching meetings, yet each month a certain number of people will still be brought into the church. This is the normal way. A good number of people will be able to stand up to give testimonies telling how they were saved simply through the living testimony of the dear brothers and sisters. We all must agree to learn this way, to abide in the Lord, to live with Him, and to be built up together.
We should submit the names of those we contact to others for fellowship. These persons will then become the material with which we work. When we receive the names of people to care for, we should never do it by ourselves. We should do things in a cooperating way, contacting related brothers or sisters to pray and fellowship with them. It is in this way that we all will be built up together more and more. We will have much fellowship in this matter. How wonderful that will be! This is the flow of the lifeblood in the Body; if we have this flow, the Body will be healthy.
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