PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

In regeneration the Holy Spirit sowed God as a life seed into our being. The Lord Jesus likened the natural being of man to a field. He said that He came to sow Himself as a seed, through the word, into this field (Matt. 13:3, 19a; Mark 4:3, 14). The Lord Jesus came as a life seed to sow Himself into our being. From the day that the Lord sowed Himself into us, we have been growing not only physically but also divinely and spiritually. This is the growth of the believers. In today's Christianity divine matters like these are not taught very much. Instead, much of the teaching in today's Christianity focuses on matters such as how to have a good married life and family life. This is a tragedy.

GROWING TO BE THE FIRSTFRUITS AS THE OVERCOMERS AND THE HARVEST RIPENED FOR REAPING

The Bible teaches us that when we believed in Christ, the Spirit, the consummated Spirit who is the life-giving Spirit and who is the pneumatic Christ, came to sow God as a life seed into us. On that day this life seed began to grow. Eventually, this life seed will grow to be the firstfruits as the overcomers in Revelation 14:1-5, and then the harvest ripened for reaping in Revelation 14:14-16.... This is God's crop. God is the life seed sown into us, and we are the field. The seed and the field grow together. Without the seed, nothing can grow; but without the field, the earth, the seed cannot grow. Thus, in the growth of a seed two elements, the seed and the earth, meet together, mingle together, and grow together.

As believers in Christ, we should not be concerned about matters such as how to have a good marriage. If we want to have the best marriage, we must be regenerated, and we must grow in this divine seed. This divine seed is growing within us....

HAVING BEEN PLANTED AND WATERED FOR GOD TO CAUSE THE GROWTH

We need to be sowers and planters, sowing and planting Christ into many vacant sinners. Today there are many sinners who do not have Christ. They are empty, vacant, waiting for Christ to be either sown into them or planted into them. If we have some dear friends who are still not believers in Christ or are believers in Christ in name but not in reality, these kinds of friends may have a feeling of emptiness within them. They may feel that their living on this earth is empty and is vanity of vanities. If they would pray, "Lord Jesus, I do not want to be empty anymore. I want to take You; I want to receive You," immediately they would be filled by Christ.... This will cause them to feel that they are filled with Christ. They will be happy and will tell others that they are no longer empty, but they now have something within them, that is, Christ. Now Christ is growing in them....

When people have Christ, Christ will be their improvement. If they do not have Christ, they will have no improvement. I came to the United States in 1958. Since that time I have been observing how America has gone on. According to my observation, America is degrading. Today's America is different from the America of thirty-five years ago. America is degrading because it is short of Christ. What America needs today is not finance but Christ. America today is on the top in science, education, politics, and military strength. However, America is short of Christ. America needs to be on the top in Christ. We need to have more Christ. If every morning we will remain with Christ for fifteen minutes, we will receive the benefit. We will give Christ a way for His growth in us. The need of today's America is Christ-the practical Christ, the real Christ, the living Christ, the Christ either as the seed or the living plant sown or planted into us.

GROWING UNTO SALVATION BY DRINKING THE MILK OF THE WORD

First Peter 2:2 says, "As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation." For our physical growth, we need to drink milk. Likewise, for our spiritual growth, we need to drink the divine milk from the Word. Every morning we need to drink a cup of milk from the Word. If you will do this, you will see the blessing. You will be healthy and will be a tree of life growing. This tree will bear fruit, and all the fruit will nourish your wife, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your colleagues in your office, or your classmates in your school. You will become the tree of life to all the people in your community. Today, America needs this. America needs Christ to grow in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the offices, and among the families and the in-laws.

We should not merely attend the church meetings; we need to grow that we may be a tree of life to nourish today's communities in America. I am very grateful to the Lord that I live in America. Here I have the full liberty to speak what I want to speak for the Lord. I am grateful for this, but whenever I look at today's situation, I am saddened because of the shortage of Christ. Needless to say with the unbelievers, even with the believers there is the shortage of Christ, the lacking of the growth of Christ.

Peter said that if we drink the milk of the word, we will grow unto salvation. We should not think that we are fully saved and have no need of any further salvation. Such a concept is wrong. We still need to be saved every day, even every minute, from our temper, from our sorrows, and from our anxiety. We need to be saved from many things.... Drinking the milk of the word causes us to grow unto salvation from our anger, our temper, our anxiety, our worry, our fear, and our trembling. Every day we need a daily salvation. We need today's salvation in our daily walk.

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