PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

There is one thing left for God to do. Many Christians have never seen the central vision of the Apostle Paul's completing ministry. Their Bible seemingly omits this part. In the Far East the Chinese Christians like Proverbs; they are Proverbs people, not Christ people. The Western Christians like Psalms; they are Psalms people. Instead of singing the Psalms, why would they not rather sing Ephesians 3 "...That He would grant you ...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith ...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God" (vv. 16, 17, 19)? ...

What hinders our singing about Christ's making His home in our hearts? Why wouldn't we sing that the church is the house of the living God? It is our background and atmosphere. What we are used to is: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands ....Husbands, love your wives ....Love your neighbor as yourself ...." We lack the environment to realize that we should live Christ. Christ Himself is our living, our love, our submission! He is the content of the church. The mystery of godliness is great: God was manifested in the flesh! We need to build up an atmosphere where these things are real to us....

The whole world situation is under the Lord's sovereign maneuvering. Maneuvering is sometimes not a positive word, but it fits here. The Lord rules the world. He removes kings; He sets up kings (Daniel 2:21).... This is the age when the Lord will use the United States. If all these messages were given in the Chinese language, they would lie buried in that hard-to-understand language. As it is, they can be sent out all over the world as Life-studies, audio and video tapes, and books. With the word sent out in spoken and written form, I believe it will not be in vain. The Lord will follow His word to accomplish His purpose.

Brothers and sisters, open your eyes! Look at the entire globe, and get into the world situation. Look at the situation among Christians. Now you can understand the world situation in relation to His move. We should not be satisfied with only gospel preaching, Bible teaching, and scriptural meetings. We must be for the Apostle Paul's completing ministry, the central vision of God's economy. We must take Christ as our living. He must be the contents of the church life. Then He will gain His purpose. The churches will be golden lampstands, and the bride will be prepared.

It surely does not seem that there is time for God to raise up another country and take another step after this. I believe this is the last opportunity for God to prepare the bride. May we all see the seriousness of this time and realize our responsibility.

GOD'S ULTIMATE MOVE TO CARRY OUT HIS ETERNAL INTENTION

What is God's ultimate move to carry out His intention? God wants us to have Christ as life to us, flowing in us, saturating and permeating us, transforming us, conforming us, and making us fit to be built up into His Body for His expression. Today, at the end of the Twentieth Century, this is what our God is after. Here is where our focus also should be. Three items have already been recovered: the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of Bible truths, and the scriptural way of meeting. Now this final matter must be our concern.

GOD'S FINAL MOVE

Suppose these three things are fully recovered. Are they God's ultimate move? Is gospel preaching God's ultimate move? Is teaching the Bible God's ultimate move? Is meeting according to the Bible God's ultimate move? What is God's ultimate move? It is to gain a people who have Christ as their life. We must live Him. We must not have just a doctrine, but a real life in our daily living. It must be our experience that Christ is the flowing life within us. As He saturates and permeates us, He supplies us with all His elements. Incarnation, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection-all these are carried out within us in this permeation. While His life is saturating us, it kills the negative things within us and supplies us with the divine element. We need to know this, not just in a doctrinal way, but as a reality in our experience. Then we need to know how to be transformed and how to grow into maturity. Furthermore, we must know by experience what it is to be built up, in order that Christ may have a Body.

God is not primarily after gospel preaching, nor Bible teaching, nor scriptural meetings. He wants Christ as the embodiment of God to become your life, and you as a member of Christ to become a part of His Body. Then Christ will have His Body. Then in every locality the Body will be expressed as a golden lampstand. This is the preparation of the bride. Revelation 19:7 is yet to be fulfilled. It is when "His wife has made herself ready" that "the marriage of the Lamb is come."

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