Corporate Reading

Our living on the earth is entirely for the Lord. We should not be thinking about trying to significantly raise the quality and standard of our living. Rather, we should live a normal and proper life, being regulated in our daily activities at home, including our eating. When we need to spend, we would spend wisely; when we need to eat, we would eat properly. On the one hand, we should never sacrifice our health for the sake of saving money, for this would be an offense to the Lord. On the other hand, we should not waste even one penny. For the necessities of living, we should spend on the crucial things we need according to the rules of health, eating nutritious food and using suitable things, but we should not spend money for any unnecessary things. Using myself as an example, I still have a suit that I have had for eighteen years and a pair of shoes that I bought in England in 1958, both of which I am still wearing today. We must learn to spend within the appropriate bounds.

What I have said is not a small thing. Rather, this is for the building up of our proper living. Please remember that one day we all will stand before the judgment seat of the Lord to give an account of everything. We will have to explain to Him concerning how we spoke, how we spent our money, and how we dealt with others. This should serve as a reminder to us that if we really intend to be His witnesses, we should not just speak in a vain way. Rather, we should exercise our conscience so that we will be able to testify for ourselves that we are absolutely walking according to the spirit and doing everything before the Lord.

Therefore, I hope that we would all remember these few matters and apply them in our daily life, practicing every single item. We should not just talk and then not practice. We are different from Christianity. Not only do we acknowledge the truth and endeavor to [464] be built up in the truth so that we have both depth and height, but we should also be right and proper in our practical living. I am convinced that if we practice all these things, we will be those whom the Lord desires and who can be used by Him to send His truth to the whole world so that the gospel of the kingdom might be spread to the whole inhabited earth (Matt. 24:14) for the discipling of all the nations (28:19).

Finally, for the sake of our physical health, we should not quarrel with people. More cells in your body are killed when you quarrel, argue, or get angry than when you catch a cold. Therefore, remember that you should not get angry about anything or with anyone; in particular, husbands and wives should not be angry with each other. By the Lord’s grace you should receive this kind of exhortation so that you might prolong your days on earth and be more useful in the Lord’s hand.

LEARNING TO SPEND MONEY PROPERLY

Finally, we have to learn how to spend our money properly. When I was young, I read an article written by Benjamin Franklin of the United States in which he said that making money is easy and that spending money is hard. At first I did not agree with what he said because I believed that it is very hard to make money but not very hard to spend money. However, after reading through the article, I was deeply touched and greatly benefited. The article says that if a person does not spend his money properly, he will buy himself disaster. Very few people, however, know how to spend their money rightly.

Concerning the matter of financial support for the carrying out of the entire move of the Lord here, the need is extremely great. For example, the needs include the producing of one thousand full-timers, the propagation to the towns and villages, and the building of a big meeting hall. I have told all of you that we are all in the same boat. We must be in one accord and offer as much as we can. Although the full-timers are the object of church support, they should still try their best to be frugal. I have exhorted the elders to do their [461] best to provide adequate care to the full-timers by finding out clearly about their family background, their personal situation, and their health condition. In the same way I exhort all of you who are full-timers to open up and have fellowship with the elders if you have received too little; on the other hand, if you have received too much, you should learn to give some away to care for the need of the churches and the saints.

Let me give you a little personal testimony. We all know that the Lord is our riches, yet we also love money. In January of 1937, together with some co-workers from the northern part of China, I went to Shanghai to attend Brother Nee’s conference in which he released the messages, Concerning Our Missions (later republished as The Normal Christian Church Life). After the conference I was invited to visit Hangchow and Nanching. While I was holding a conference in Nanching, a brother from Hankow who was attending the conference received a telegram asking him to go home immediately because his wife was seriously ill. Upon hearing the news I was burdened in my spirit to give him some money. However, inwardly I was unwilling to do it. I said to myself as well as to the Lord, “Before I return to Tientsin, I still have to go to Tsinan, Tsingtao, and Chefoo. The money that I have is just enough to cover my traveling expenses. Thus, if I give away some of my money, I will have a lack. Then what shall I do?” Furthermore, I considered the fact that I had neglected the care for my wife and my three children since I had been away from home for several months. I was really in a dilemma.

The Lord, however, would not let me go. Finally, when that brother was about to board the car for departure, I gave him three-quarters of the money that I had with me. As soon as I gave away the money, I was relaxed and happy, feeling relieved in my spirit. However, I was still concerned about my own immediate expenditures. Then something wonderful happened; right after I saw that brother off, I went back to my lodging place and locked the door. As I was about to retire for the night, suddenly there was a brother knocking on my door. Right away I knew within that it was the Lord’s provision. After opening the door, I received an amount that was five or six times more than what I had given away. At that moment I had a real sense of shame and felt that I had really offended the Lord.

That was just the story on my side. Simultaneously, something wonderful happened in my home in Tientsin. During my absence [462] my wife and our three children were so impoverished that they were about to run out of food. Since we had learned not to reveal our need, my wife asked the three children to kneel down beside the bed with her, and they prayed to the Lord, telling Him that they would be running out of food the next day. The Lord is truly living and worthy of our trust. Just as she was rising up after she had finished praying and was going to put the children to bed, an elderly sister came. That elderly sister had not had any previous contact with my wife and had not been attending the meetings regularly. Furthermore, she was a Cantonese and spoke only Cantonese, of which my wife could not understand a word. Being very wealthy, she came to my home by car. Upon entering my home, she said a few sentences to my wife, which meant, “This is what the Lord has prepared for you.” Then she went away, leaving behind a large amount of money. My wife said to my children immediately, “Look at this. We just prayed, and the Lord sent an elderly sister to give us something right away.” Later that elderly sister told us that on that night she was reminded of my wife and our three children and suddenly felt so troubled within. Then the Lord said to her, “Send them some money quickly.” She asked, “Would it be all right if I go tomorrow?” The Lord said, “No! Go quickly right away.”

Brothers and sisters, this is truly my testimony. I was in one kind of situation while I was traveling, and my family was in another situation at home. The Lord took care of all of us. Therefore, we should not worry about our future. Rather, we should believe that we are in His hands and that He will take care of us and sustain us in a practical way. If the support you receive from the church is scanty, do not complain, but rather look to the Lord. If the support is plentiful, do not waste it all, but always save some for the Lord’s use. When I was in Shanghai, Sister Ruth Lee told me personally that when she and her co-workers were going to take the streetcar, they would count the cost and try to save as much as they could. Sometimes they would rather walk and save the few copper coins for the Lord. I also learned such a lesson. For example, whenever I wrote a letter, I would use an aerogram in order to save a dime or a few pennies. This was the kind of living that the co-workers at that time learned to live. We all need to learn such a lesson.

We should not fear that the Lord will neglect us. Until today I have been receiving more than ten thousand U.S. dollars from the [463] Lord yearly. However, I still try to be as frugal as possible in my living so that I can have more to give away. Sometimes I take care of some needy saints, especially the Chinese co-workers, and sometimes I take care of the needs of the churches for building meeting halls in different places. Therefore, we should not have the notion that since the Lord has given us so much, we are free to spend it all. No! Even if the Lord gives us much more than we need, it is still the Lord’s money. Even though the money is in our hands, still it is the Lord’s money. Therefore, we have to learn to spend it carefully, trying our best to save as much as possible for the Lord’s use.

We must see that God is one, the Lord is one, Christ is one, redemption is one, salvation is one, the church is one, the work is one, and the testimony is one. Wherever we go, all these items are one. Those who cause trouble are those who think that they are capable of doing something and who try to accomplish something. Here I want to exhort all of you solemnly that you should never do such a thing. We have to realize that there is only one recovery. If we want to do something different, we are finished. I am not here boasting of my age, but I have traveled throughout the six major continents of the earth and have established numerous churches through the ministry that the Lord has given to me. My secret is that I have never been detached from the church. I am not able to accomplish so much by myself. If I were to be separated from the church, I would not be able to establish even three churches, let alone three hundred churches. Therefore, we all have to learn to labor in the church and to work with others.

LIVING A HEALTHY LIFE

Seventh, we need to learn to live a healthy life. Let me give a brief testimony. In my youth I never received guidance on how to live a proper everyday life at home, or on how to eat properly. I never knew what health and nutrition meant. Moreover, due to my hard-working disposition, I frequently went beyond what I could bear. Eventually, in 1943 when I was almost forty years old, I already had a serious stomach ulcer due to my excessive labor. After that, I became seriously ill with tuberculosis. I had ruined my body to such an extent.

As soon as I was sick with tuberculosis, I knew that I needed an extended period of recuperation without disturbance, or else I would die very soon. At that time it was common in China for people to eventually die due to inadequate rest. Therefore, I made a painful decision to put aside all my work and responsibility. After two and a half years of quiet rest, I was fully restored in my body, and in 1946 I was able to stand up and minister again. From that time until now, [458] I have been laboring continually for over forty years without having had any serious illness again.

During the period of my recuperation, I was under the supervision and care of some of the saints from Chefoo who were nurses and doctors. It was through their teaching that I learned a great deal about health. Since then, I have been living according to the knowledge of personal health that I had learned. This is why until today I am still healthy and strong and able to minister here.

I will mention a few simple points here, hoping that all of us will be sure to remember them. While I have not been strictly abiding by all these points in all these forty years, I have been practicing them most of the time, so even until today I am still very healthy. First of all, you should pay attention to your diet. Do not eat or drink carelessly. You should absolutely avoid fatty meat and red meat. Do not say, “I love pork leg with all its fat, so I eat a lot.” If you indulge in eating unhealthy food, you are committing gradual suicide. According to my experience, among the different kinds of meat, fish is the best, chicken is next, and then lamb and beef; it is better to avoid pork because it does more harm than good. The Bible can never be wrong. Leviticus prohibits the eating of pork (11:7) because it has no profit. Moreover, try your best to avoid any food that is deep-fried. If you have to eat some, try your best to remove the skin and eat only the meat. Some people especially love to eat the skin of fried chicken. By so doing, they are cutting short their life expectancy. Third, do not eat too many sweet things. Fourth, avoid eating any heavily seasoned food. Salted food is the worst. While you are still young, learn to eat food without grease and heavy seasoning, and over a period of time you will be accustomed to it.

Furthermore, while you should avoid overeating, you should not allow your stomach to be empty. Do not think that because you are still young, you are strong enough to hold yourself up. Eventually, you will fall sick. I am really concerned for a certain brother who loves the Lord. He has been laboring for the Lord faithfully, but because he is overly fatigued, the level of his white blood cells has gone up too high. Now he is in the hospital getting emergency care. Of course, I believe that the Lord will heal him, and we should also pray for him. I mention this as a warning to all of you. Do not think that since you are still young and have inexhaustible energy, you can [459] use it excessively all the time. We must always remember that we are limited.

In addition, be sure to drink sufficient water—at least twelve big glasses every day. Water is for the cleansing of our whole system; taking plenty of fluid keeps our system cleansed all the time. A study that was done in America on the young soldiers who were killed in the Vietnam War found that more than one-third of them had blood vessels that were blocked. This indicates that they did not eat properly and had taken in too much fat so that even in their twenties and thirties they already had the problem of clogged blood vessels. American foods are very nutritious, yet the probability of Americans having high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes is also quite high. We should take this as a warning. Therefore, it is good to drink some water after each meal.

In addition, you must have at least half an hour of exercise every day. Any kind of exercise will do. You may practice shadowboxing, or you may jog or walk. Furthermore, there is no need to be so regimented; just let your body move around a little bit. After a meal, spend ten minutes to walk. Walking is in fact the best exercise. I spend at least half an hour walking every day. Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I stand up and take a walk, and after fifteen minutes of walking, I feel comfortable again.

In 1948 after Brother Nee resumed his ministry, he gave us some statistics. He said that due to the lack of knowledge about nutrition and due also to the poor living situation, out of the more than twenty co-workers who died at that time, only one was killed by the Communist Party, whereas ninety percent of the rest died of tuberculosis. Brother Nee said that it was for this reason that he went into the pharmaceutical business, for which he was condemned and opposed so much that he had to stop his ministry. He said that if it was wrong for him to go into business, he was forced to do so because he was just like a widow forced to remarry for the survival of her children. He went into business because he could not bear to see the co-workers dying one by one of malnutrition. As he spoke this word, everyone in the meeting, including himself, wept. Before that time I had never seen Brother Nee shedding tears. In fact, that was the only time I ever saw him weeping. At that time I was sitting beside him, and I also wept.

We do not have a financial problem in our present situation, [460] especially in Taiwan. However, we should not eat, drink, and enjoy anything as we like simply because we are wealthy. This is to commit gradual suicide. I hope that we could live to be eighty or ninety, even to over a hundred, so that we might be able to see the fulfillment of all that we have fellowshipped today. I wish to live on this earth and witness with my own eyes the truth of the Lord not only being printed into books through our hands but also being sent through us to every part of the world and prevailing in every place. I absolutely believe that this will hasten the Lord’s return because it is through this that the Lord will prepare His bride. I hope that we all can see the manifestation of such a situation.

LEARNING LANGUAGES

We may have growth in life, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with the Lord without any barrier, a good character, and constitution with truth; however, if we do not have a good command of language, this will be a shortcoming. When I say that we must have a good command of language, I am referring not only to foreign languages but also to our mother tongue. If we intend to speak for the Lord but do not have an adequate vocabulary, even if we have a great deal of knowledge within us, we will not be able to adequately express any of it. If this is the case, then everything that we have learned will be in vain. We often hear people say, “I know a lot, but I do not know how to say it. I really understand this matter, but I do not know how to explain it.” It is useless to say this. If you do not know how to say what you know, then whatever you say will be in vain, and even if you try to say something it will be as if you have not said anything. For this reason we must have much learning with regard to language. The first thing we have to learn is our mother tongue. The Chinese people constitute one-fourth of the world’s population, so we must have a good command of the Chinese language in order that we may be able to speak for the Lord.

Second, since we have a desire to know the Bible, we must go back to the original language. Therefore, we have to study Greek, the language in which the New Testament was written. We should at least be able to recognize the Greek alphabet, learn some basic grammar, learn to use Greek dictionaries, and read the interlinear Greek-English Bible. In this way, once we read a Greek word, we will recognize it and know how to study it. This will help us in the study of the truth. This is not very difficult, so I hope that we all can learn Greek at least to this extent.

Third, we have to learn English well, since it is today’s international language. Wherever we go, it may be all right if we do not know other languages, but if we do not know English, it will be very difficult for us to get around. Even if we go to regions like India, Burma, and Africa, as long as we can speak a little English, we will be able to travel anywhere freely. Therefore, once we know English, [455] we will be able to travel throughout the world. We can be sure that in the future many will be sent to the various parts of the world. Moreover, since Taiwan is a center and base of the Lord’s recovery, many saints from different countries all over the world will come to visit. Therefore, we need to learn English all the more.

Furthermore, we have to seek the Lord’s leading to learn an extra language, such as Spanish, French, or German. Any additional equipping will give the Lord an additional way in us. Generally speaking, if we want to serve the Lord full time, we should be familiar with at least four languages.

I predict that in no more than six or seven years, many of our young full-timers will be sent forth, unless they do not have the burden, the environment does not allow it, or they do not have the leading in their spirit. I really hope that the Lord will enable us to carry out our plan so that within ten years all of Taiwan will be gospelized and will even more be saturated with the truth and the church. The degree of saturation, however, will depend on the number of people who labor. The more laborers, the greater the intensity of saturation will be. Not to mention other places, the communities in Taiwan alone will require the labor of several hundred people. Suppose that right now we had five hundred full-timers who were devoted to laboring in the communities in Taipei. I believe that they would be able to lead three or five thousand people to salvation in a month. If we have five hundred full-timers coordinating with approximately one thousand eight hundred working saints or elderly saints to knock on doors every day, just consider how great the impact would be!

If there is no longer the need to take care of the towns and villages, all the full-timers can stay in Taipei to labor in the communities. If we did this, I believe that within a year we might be able to bring in ten thousand people. However, we cannot do this, because it is against the principle of the Bible. The book of Acts shows us that when the number of saved ones in Jerusalem increased, they should have spread out for propagation. However, because they failed to do so, God had to raise up persecution to force them out. We should not wait until God drives us out; rather, we should take the initiative to cooperate with God. In five or six years, when a church has been raised up in every town and when almost every city or village has been evangelized, we should all go abroad. By that time, all [456] the full-time serving ones will have gained a thorough knowledge of the truth, will have become experienced in the work, and will be able to meet the need in the matter of language. Therefore, they will be able to go abroad immediately for the Lord’s work.

Today scattered throughout the six major continents there are more than six hundred churches who are waiting. Our going there will simply be a reaction or a response. These churches will welcome us very much. Do not think that there is not any need in America. This is not true. There is a need for us to go even to America. Once we go, we will bring in a kind of mutual flow between us. Then America will be stirred up. The circulation of blood is essential to the health of our body. This is the Lord’s ordination. At Paul’s time, people could communicate and fellowship with one another only through sailboats or the Roman highways. Today we are in the age of the “Global Village.” The whole world is just a big village. We can communicate conveniently through airplanes, telephones, telegrams, computers, television, and radio broadcasts. Thus, we must seize the opportunity to have more fellowship with one another.

Thank the Lord that He has given us three great resources: first, the rich truths; second, the churches scattered all over the globe; and third, a stable political situation, a prosperous economy, and an advanced educational system, which enables us to produce a group of young full-time serving ones. Today on this small island of Taiwan twenty million people are gathered here. They are all of high quality and are just like fish for us to catch. Recently, with only a few days of labor we were able to gain more than two hundred people. The educational foundation is the source of this. Moreover, the prosperity of Taiwan’s economy makes it possible to meet the needs of the full-timers. All these situations are the Lord’s doing. Hence, we all have to grasp the opportunity to equip ourselves.

LEARNING TO KNOW THE CHURCH

Sixth, we must learn to know the church. Everything we do should be for the church and by the church; we should never be detached from the church. Furthermore, we should be protected, restricted, and led by the church, which includes all the brothers and sisters. In other words, we must learn not to act independently but to coordinate with the brothers and sisters. Coordination is a matter of the church. Even if someone were an all-powerful “giant” [457] who was able to do everything, he still could not be separated from the church. I have been serving the Lord for many years, but to this day I have never been detached from the church. Instead, I always do everything with the church. I would not do anything apart from the church.