A sister, who is a teacher, thought that the principal of the school, who is also a brother, was an amiable person, so she gave him a copy of the Recovery Version and a copy of Truth Lessons. He brought them home, but by coincidence, just before he read them, his parents came to visit him. His father, who was in his sixties and already retired, was then meeting with the Baptist Church and had been invited to teach a Sunday school class. He felt hard-pressed, not knowing what to teach, so he collected materials everywhere. That day when he came to his son’s house and saw the English version of Truth Lessons, he took it and read it. As soon as he read it, he treasured it very much and decided to teach from this book in the Sunday school class. When the principal saw that his father valued and appreciated this book very much, he told the sister who gave him the book. This sister then gave him two more books for him and his wife. One morning at school, the principal asked the sister to come and in tears told her, “I have believed in Jesus for thirty years, but I never knew how the Bible came about. It is by reading Truth Lessons that I now know.” This shows us that Truth Lessons is truly a powerful book for teaching the truth.
May the brothers and sisters understand that the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the truth. The Lord’s recovery has been among us for sixty-four years. We are not novices. The practice of the new way and the leading in this move today did not come from our imagination but through our experience, our seeking, and our research into history. Therefore, we must receive this new leading. Many elderly saints in Taiwan are accustomed to a big meeting on the Lord’s Day morning with the hope of hearing a good message. When the system changed, we did sympathize with them, letting everyone either register freely for the class on Truth Lessons or otherwise join the big meeting. At first, the big meeting had almost one hundred people, but as the weeks went by, the number of people became fewer and fewer. It was not that they had quit coming, but they had received a taste of the Truth Lessons class, and by that one taste they were caught. Hence, the number in the big meeting decreased, and the number in the Truth Lessons class increased. This proves that Truth Lessons is able to release the truth and build up the brothers and sisters.
I was the first one to speak in Hall One of the church in Taipei. From 1949 until today has been thirty-seven years. The year before last when I went back to Taipei, I said that some of you have been listening to my speaking for thirty-seven years. Back then you were still young brothers and sisters, and most of you were not yet married. Today even your sons and daughters have graduated from universities and many of them have become elders. Before they were born, you were already listening to my preaching here, but until today you have not graduated from “elementary school.” Why do I say this? The human educational research has worked out a system of six years of elementary school, six years of high school, and four years of college, with a set curriculum every year. A person proceeding through this curriculum in a sequential way will definitely graduate from college after sixteen years and will have systematically assimilated the general knowledge prevalent in the human race. However, we have been speaking to you under this roof for these thirty-seven years, mostly according to inspiration and not in a systematic way. Therefore, although you have been listening to this day, you still cannot utter one sentence if I were to ask you to speak on justification by faith. This may be compared to listening to mathematics for thirty-seven years and, even though you know that three plus two is five, when you are asked to go teach others, you do not know how.
We all have to admit that the Lord has given us truths in abundance, and all these truths are pearls and gems. However, we have placed them as “decorations” in our homes, not knowing how to make use of them. If others were to pick up one precious stone, they would treasure it to the uttermost. We, however, have precious stones in abundance like the sand, yet we do not use them nor do we know how to use them. God has said that He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Not only have we not carried this out accordingly, but we ourselves do not have the full knowledge of the truth. Paul also said to Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, cutting straight the word of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). To cut straight implies to unfold the various parts of the Word of God rightly and straightly without any distortion, just as a carpenter cuts wood straightly. We have not practiced this in our midst. This is our great debt to the saints.
Therefore, we are doing our utmost to change the system. There are three parts to the change. The first change is in “begetting,” in giving birth to new believers—from the traditional way of waiting for people to come to hear the gospel to the way of visiting people’s homes by knocking on their doors to get them saved. The second change is in “nourishing”—from previously going to others’ homes simply to talk lightly to using our spirit to speak the word, sing, and pray in order to nourish and cherish the new ones. The third change is in “teaching”—from the old way of preaching in big meetings according to inspiration to the use of proper instructional materials and teaching in a sequential way. We hope that the brothers and sisters understand these three points and accept them completely. Not only must the co-workers and elders do this, but also all the saints must do it.
Due to the new leading that the Lord has given us, we must have an increased number of saints to shoulder the burden to meet the need. The brothers and sisters must all participate and be willing. However, almost everyone is encumbered, some by their businesses and others by the need to work and also to take care of household matters. Their time is consumed, and not much of it can be freed up. Nevertheless, as long as you have the heart, no matter how busy you are, I believe that you can take two to three hours a week to go door-knocking, to nourish the new ones, and to teach them. This is also acceptable. Once on a mountain I met a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who is in the real estate business. Normally he is extremely busy, but he made the decision to spend two days a week to go door-knocking. We do not expect that every saint will be like him, but we hope that those who have the heart will go to visit not only the familiar ones but also those whom they have never contacted before.
A brother from Cleveland said that in only a few days they knocked on more than one thousand doors. As door-knocking requires a great deal of manpower, many full-timers need to be raised up. I believe that this is the leading of the Lord and absolutely the best practice after years of consideration. For every local church, there should be one full-timer for every twenty saints. There are over five hundred full-timers now in Taiwan, and the number of applicants exceeds eleven hundred. According to the number meeting in the United States, there also should be five hundred full-timers. Presently there are already two hundred, so there is still a shortage of three hundred. Thus, the need is very great.