The way to be faithful is to scatter the Lord’s word, which is food to every hungry one. The Lord’s household is composed not only of believers but also of sinners. Who will go to feed the hungry, sinful people? We all have to say, “Me!” We have to go. It is good if we have many full-timers in the gospel, but many of us have to make a living by working in the world. If we all go full-time in the gospel, no one could support anyone. We should not put our burden upon the church or upon anyone else to support us. Paul went full-time and was supported by the churches, but quite often no church and no saints took care of him. He was forced to make tents (Acts 18:3; 20:34). When he was making tents, he was very busy in writing the Epistles and very busy in caring for the hungry ones. We have to follow his example. He was not a professional preacher. Because he made tents, he had a trade, the same trade as Aquila and Priscilla. This shows us that we need to do a job to sustain our family, to make a living, but this should not be something to occupy us and give us an excuse. We must do everything that we can to spread the Word of God.
Many Christians are nearly void of the truth; they have the Word of God, but they do not care for it nor do they realize how much is in it. In this age of apostasy the Lord, by His mercy, has opened up His Word to us. Many of the divine riches have been printed and published. The more the riches are put out, the more we should be condemned and burdened. Why do we not go out with these riches? Our edition of the Recovery Version is not as expensive as some other Bibles. It would be wonderful if we could distribute some copies of this version to the Lord’s seekers. We all should have the spirit and the burden to spare some money to get some copies of the Recovery Version into others’ hands. This is one of the ways to feed the Lord’s people.
Some of us may not be able to afford to purchase extra copies of the Recovery Version, but all of us can distribute the rainbow booklets. We have many thousands of these inexpensive booklets stored away and we are still publishing them. If we would practice this, this will be a base for us to stand before the Lord when He comes back. None of us will care for money when we are standing before His judgment seat. To save some money and spend it on the Lord’s work is to use the mammon of unrighteousness to make friends (Luke 16:9). When you feed others with these spiritual publications, you will surely make friends. The Lord will reward you, and those who get saved and edified will receive you into the eternal tabernacles. Furthermore, we can go to others with our Bible and read Matthew 24 and 25 to them. Many Christians need these chapters to wake them up from their stupor.
My burden is not merely for a particular area of the United States. My burden is for the whole earth. The entire island of Taiwan is ready to be fully evangelized. The church in Taipei recently sent out sixteen gospel teams to surrounding towns, and they baptized nineteen hundred seventy-five people within three weeks. A number of these towns are ready for established churches. Everywhere the saints went, there was absolutely no opposition to Christ. Nearly everyone is open, especially the educated ones. The island of Taiwan is full of highly educated people. All over this earth people are not content to remain in ignorance or blindness. The more knowledge and education that people get, the more they find out that human life is just vanity. They have a desire to know the truth, the reality, the “real philosophy.” The real truth, the real philosophy, no doubt is in the Word we have in our hands. We should go out. If we would not go out, who would? It is not adequate to raise up, fund, and establish seminaries to teach seminary students. This is not up to the standard of the Bible.
The Lord has given talents to all His slaves. To one He gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent. Everyone was required to trade, to do business, to make money for the Lord’s kingdom. In order to do this, we have to feed His people at the appointed time. Every day is an appointed time, a meal time. Every office hour is a meal time. There is somebody ready to eat everywhere, so we need to be those using the Lord’s talent in full. The five-talented slave made a profit of five talents and the two-talented slave made a profit of two talents. This indicates that they used the Lord’s talent in full, without any loss or waste, so they both received the same reward.
Also, by His mercy and through His grace we must do the best not to beat the fellow slaves, the fellow believers. Do not criticize or murmur about them. Do not speak anything negative about them because you do not have the time to do it. Your mouth was not made for criticizing but for speaking forth Christ. To criticize the brothers is to beat the fellow slaves. This will cause us to be punished. We should also not go into the world to enjoy ourselves with the stupefied, drugged, and worldly people. We have to be the sober ones. We should not dig into the earth to bury or hide our talent. We should have a job to maintain our living, but we should not dig into it. We are different from the worldly people. I encourage all my grandchildren to do their best to get the highest education, but I do not agree that any one of them would “dig into” their education just to become an expert. I also encouraged all the young people in the churches to get the highest education, but do not dig a hole that buries the talent the Lord gave you. We all need to be faithful in the Lord’s service.