Read and Pray: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him;” (1 John 2:15)
The building up of the church does not depend on assuming that everything coming from the West is always good. Even if eighty percent of the things that come from the West are good, at least twenty percent of the things in the East are also good. We should not think that Western people are one hundred percent right. Otherwise, the churches in the East and the West will not be built up together.
Two days ago, a brother from the West said that several servants from the workers’ house attended a birthday party with his family. He had invited them to rejoice with them on his child’s birthday. We should not bring worldly habits into our midst. Since we took the way of the Lord’s recovery, we have not celebrated birthdays for the last thirty years.
We are not perfect, but some Western missionaries need to be rebuked. They came to the East to do the Lord’s work, yet they also damage this work. Celebrating children’s birthdays and even inviting the serving ones to join is a fleshly attitude that will harm the Lord’s work.
This may encourage those living in the workers’ house to celebrate their children’s birthdays. This is intolerable. We are letting the brothers from the West influence us instead of us influencing them. Those who labor for the Lord must be very careful.
Whenever we receive an invitation, we need to know who is involved and what the purpose of the gathering is. We preach the truth concerning not loving the world and want others not to love the world either. In the past thirty years, our coworkers have not celebrated the birthdays of their children or even of their parents.
We need to learn this lesson in order to build the church. Otherwise, our effort will be like a Chinese proverb that says "we grind soybeans but produce no tofu". Our efforts will be in vain. For this reason, we should not be overly proud or overly humbled when learning the origin of a matter.
Before inviting a certain brother from the West to speak, we considered the fact that he had publicly thanked those who sent him Christmas cards. Although I received spiritual help from that brother, in this matter he was the one who needed help. If Christmas is condemned by God, then even if people send us cards, we should not thank them. This example shows that not everything that comes from the West is correct. They need our help in many matters.
Even though they have no light concerning the ground of the church, they refuse to receive help on that subject. They even debate and argue repeatedly about the ground of the church. This reveals a sense of national superiority. In order for the churches in the East and West to be built up together, the brothers from the West need to be open concerning the matter of the ground of the church.
We have not been playing around these past thirty years. We gave our lives to follow this way. We should not consider any matter of the church lightly. Rather, we must be desperate about some matters and leave others aside. We respect the spiritual ministries in the West, but we do not agree that everything that comes from there is correct.
The churches are now before us. We accept the Western brothers who are with us and we must allow them to serve the Lord. However, we must learn to know people and discern matters. We also need to know what we can and cannot accept. We must even discern matters involving a young man or young woman. We should encourage what is appropriate and restrain what is not. Mere gospel preaching for the salvation of sinners and instruction for believers cannot build up the genuine church of the Lord. We must lead others to Christ and help them to be established and built up in the church.
Enjoy more: Hymn 222
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