When the Lord gives grace to people, He is broad and tolerant; however, in the Lord’s arrangement for our service to Him, He is strict and without leniency. Some saints may say, “In the last two days the messages concerning taking Christ as our person were so good and so sweet; they touched us deeply. However, today’s message is quite discouraging. We should all just go home and not serve the Lord.” If you can go home, please go, but even if I encourage you to go home, you will discover that you cannot leave, because you have been chosen by the Lord before the foundation of the world. Where can you flee? There is no place for you to flee. You should simply submit yourself and say to Him, “Lord, You are hard, so I will be diligent to work even harder. If You are not concerned about my arthritis, why should I be afraid? You are my person. If You are not afraid, I will not be afraid. I am afraid of nothing except being unfaithful to You. As long as You like something, it is fine with me. If You want me to go to Keelung, I will go.” The interesting thing is that the Lord truly can do wonderful things. Some actually were healed of arthritis after going to Keelung. It was as if the Lord said, “I do not like arthritis; therefore, you should not have it.”
This is not a joke. If you want to argue with the Lord, you will not win the case. It will be more beneficial if you are less hesitant. Look at how Peter, John, and the other disciples followed the Lord Jesus. In John 11, when Lazarus died, the Lord told the disciples that He was going to Judea to see him. The disciples said to Him, “The Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and You are going there again?” (v. 8). In spite of their words the Lord still wanted to go, and the disciples could do nothing but follow Him. It often is sweet to take the Lord as our person, but it is not always sweet. When the disciples followed the Lord Jesus to go and see Lazarus, they did not go in a sweet way. One of the disciples even said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (v. 16). Thank the Lord, they did not die; instead, they rescued someone out of death.
We should not calculate everything according to our thoughts. The Lord is the Lord, and His work is never easy. If a brother says, “Hallelujah! The Lord took me to a certain place. The work there is so easy, and the brothers and sisters all welcomed me,” we will all shake our heads in disbelief. The Lord’s work is never easy. The Lord’s work is difficult. We have to reap where nothing has been sown and gather where nothing has been winnowed.
If every brother and every sister in a church were like the angel Gabriel, there would be no need for elders. If every brother and sister in a district were like the apostle Paul, there would be no need for some to bear responsibility. There is a need for responsibilities to be borne because many brothers and sisters have needs. If people did not become sick, would there be a need for hospitals? There are so many doctors and hospitals because there are so many sick ones.
We should not look for an easy way in the service. I am speaking this word not only to co-workers but to every serving one. There is a small animal called a pangolin. Although a pangolin is not big, it has powerful front claws that can dig through many different kinds of surfaces in search for food, whether the surfaces are sandy or full of pebbles. Every serving one should be a “pangolin.” If others say that there is no way, you should find a way. Everything depends on how you respond to the situation. If the condition of a district is dead but becomes full of life after you go there and serve for three months, it would be so good. Others may say, “There is no way that you can preach the gospel there.” However, the Lord will say, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Why is the Lord so hard? He has to be hard because, by asking us to do the impossible, He forces us to experience Him. Hence, we should not say that it is impossible to preach the gospel in our locality. No matter what happens, we must preach the gospel.
My only burden today is to let you know that the Lord is a hard master. It does not matter whether the work in a particular place is difficult; we still must go and work. As long as we are willing to work, God’s miracles will be manifested. I dare not speak too much of my own experiences. However, I have been in this work for decades, and I have seen a great deal. Even if we do not include my years overseas, I worked for nearly twenty years in China, and I saw much there. Let me tell you this: Everyone who chooses his own work never has a good end. On the contrary, the simple ones, those who accepted whatever was assigned to them and went to wherever they were sent, received the Lord’s blessing. These were the ones with whom the Lord’s presence was manifest.
We should never judge things by the outward situation. If the Lord gives us one talent, we should utilize this one talent. Then in the end we will have at least two talents. If we do not use our talent, the Lord will say, “Evil and slothful slave, you know that I am a hard man and yet you would not work. That is enough! I will take away the one talent and give it to the one who has ten talents.” This is a principle: those who use their gift receive more gifts.
Some brothers and sisters with low self-esteem think that they are completely useless because they seemingly have no gift or ability. Consequently, they only come to the meetings. They love the Lord, pursue Him, and do not love the world or compete with others in the work, but they only come to the meetings and listen to messages. This attitude is wrong because they are not as limited as they think. If they would go to the streets and work hard, I absolutely believe that they would be able to save at least one person a month. Even if they did not gain someone who was genuinely saved, at least those who did not believe would have heard the gospel. The Lord may not give some the capacity to give a message, but He has given everyone a mouth with which to preach the gospel. If we would use our “talent” every day, I guarantee that at least one person a month would be saved.
Today is December 29, 1970. In two days it will be 1971. Should we not save at least one person in the coming year? We should all try. In 1971 each of us should bring at least one person to the Lord. If a co-worker cannot lead a person to salvation, he should not continue to be a co-worker. We should be desperate to lead someone to salvation. If an elder cannot bring a person to salvation, he should not continue to be an elder. He should not wait until he is asked to leave; he should resign on his own. This applies to all the responsible ones in the districts and the small groups and even to all the brothers and sisters in the church. Anyone who cannot save one person in a year should be ashamed to call himself a Christian. We do not have to wait to preach the gospel. If everyone who hears this word would rise up to preach the gospel, we would be able to lead one thousand people to salvation next year.
We need to be as hard as our Lord. We have been in Taiwan for more than twenty years, but the gospel has not reached the entire island. This is our responsibility, but we have not been hard enough. We have been too lenient on ourselves, too quick to offer excuses for ourselves. If we did not excuse ourselves, the situation of the church would change immediately. Since the Lord is hard, we should never excuse ourselves. We may excuse others, but we should never excuse ourselves. When we offer up ourselves, the Lord will have a way to go on.