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Elders’ Training Book 3
Chapter 9
We must first get into this ministry. After getting into it, we must have some proper way or the best way to help the saints in the recovery to get solidly educated in this New Testament ministry.
We have to consider or reconsider the way of our meeting. We must find the best way to turn our meetings into meetings of education. The saints who are meeting with us all the time need to be educated. Based upon our experience over the years, we must admit that in the matter of educating the saints we have not been very successful.
I recently discovered that at least some of you probably have never read over fifty Life-study messages. This is according to my observation and some information which came to me.
By 1974 I realized that merely to present the truth with subjects and certain topics would not be an adequate way. Therefore, I began to bear the burden to put out Life-study messages on the books of the Bible in a very good sequence.
THE PURPOSE OF THE RECOVERY VERSION
WITH THE NOTES
To Present the Truth
I do not believe you can find as many basic truths in other books as you have found in the Recovery Version.
To Minister the Life Supply
The first purpose of the notes is to present to you the truth, and the second purpose is to minister to you the life supply. Many of you can testify that you do not get as much nourishment from other expositions and commentaries as you can from the Recovery Version.
To Solve the Common and Hard Problems
in the New Testament
For instance, 2 Peter 2:4 refers to the gloomy pits to which the angels who sinned were delivered.
To Open Up the Books of the Bible
After a period of time I believe that many of you will be “good diggers.” The intention and the goal of our publishing of the Life-study messages is to open up the mine for you to go in and dig.
A TEXTBOOK FOR STUDY
ACQUIRING A SOLID KNOWLEDGE
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT MINISTRY
We have seen that to get ourselves into the New Testament ministry needs time. We must mean business with the Lord.
LABORING TO GET INTO THE MINISTRY
You must get into the New Testament ministry. Some of you may be concerned as to how you could do this. In spite of this, you must do it. Today all the people in
We should seek after the Lord’s leading in this matter. I do not like to make any kind of legal decision that from now on every local church has to take certain kinds of steps in a legal way. Maybe one local church has a sense to take a certain way and another local church takes a little different way. Only the Lord knows. We must, however, pick up the principles that govern us and we must have some basic points to work on. How to carry out the meetings depends on the environment of your location and the need of your congregation. In principle, we need thorough fellowship, and then the Lord may lead us to pick up a better way to take care of our meetings. This does not necessarily mean that we would revolutionize and completely change our meetings. My intention is not to belittle or lower down our meetings in the past but to uplift them. I believe the Lord has brought us to the highest plane and at the least the high place, but we still need some improvement. Pray about this.
Chap 10
THE LIFE-STUDIES AND RECOVERY VERSION
Through the past ten years up to the present time it has been fully proven among us that the most profitable writings and publications are the Life-study messages with the notes of the Recovery Version.
I feel that we have no choice but to use the Life-studies, because we realize that this is the best way to bring people into the holy Word.
BRINGING THE SAINTS INTO THE TRUTH
Based upon this, I feel that for the long range for the Lord’s recovery in such a top country as the
We need to find a way to bring all the saints in the Lord’s recovery into a proper education of the truth concerning God’s New Testament economy. We need to consider this matter in two aspects—the personal aspect and the meeting aspect. We must have a personal way laid as a foundation for us to stand on and then go on to take care of the meeting way.
I have the assurance that if you would get into the Life-study messages continually, you will be different after fifty days. Any message from any book, such as Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, or Revelation, is good for your study. Just go to the Life-study messages. I hope that the Lord would really have mercy upon us that we do not hold any kind of personal feeling or individualistic opinion. We must be those who solely take care of the interest of the Lord’s recovery and the benefit of all the dear saints who have come into the Lord’s recovery. We only care for this.
We must do our best to get ourselves into these truths and to get these truths constituted into our being. This cannot be done within a short time, but this must be our practice. I also am burdened that all the leading ones, either the elders or the serving ones taking some kind of lead, should have a real burden to pray for the saints in your locality that the Lord may stir up their interest, their seeking heart, and their spirit to seek after the Lord in His truth. The truth is nowhere but in the Bible, yet the Bible needs an opener. We need to lead the saints into the real, right, and proper realization of the need of the Bible and also of the help of the Life-study messages and the Recovery Version.
BUILDING UP A HABIT
OF SPENDING TIME IN THE WORD
We should help the saints to build up a practice or a habit that every day they would spend a least thirty minutes in the Word. This can be done by taking ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the evening, and another ten minutes before going to bed. We all need to build up such a practice to spend at least thirty minutes a day to get into God’s Word. The best way is to charge the saints to study a book of the New Testament according to their choice. They should get into this book continually and every day. Some saints may decide to study the book of Romans or the book of Hebrews. They should study every day either three times of ten minutes each or one time of thirty minutes. We should charge them to pray-read two or three verses of this book every day. Then they have to study the accompanying message. We have messages on all the verses. The saints do not need to pray-read the Life-study messages, but they have to pray-read the biblical verses in order to get the help to enter into the truth conveyed in these few verses. They also need the help of the notes and the Life-study messages to enter into the truth. The saints need to take this way every day to get into the truth. After one year of studying the Bible in this way, there will be a solid change in the saints’ home life, private life, and church life.
It is not a matter of quantity but a matter of endurance. You must endure this kind of Bible study. I think we need to remind them week after week, and sometimes the elders need to give the saints some direction, some encouragement, and some incentive.
THE NEED OF A PROPER DIET
Many of you leading ones have never encouraged the saints in the last five years to get into the truths in the way of using the Life-studies. You leave the matter of the saints’ getting into the Life-studies altogether up to them. You do not seem to care whether this is a dying matter or a living matter. This way of getting into the truth has become an orphan with no father and no mother, with no fostering.
as leading brothers try your best in your locality to stir up an atmosphere and to create a hunger and thirst in the saints after the Lord’s truth. Tell them that the truth is in the unique holy Word and that the best help to usher them into the Word is the Recovery Version with the notes and all the Life-studies. Of course, we should not practice anything legal. We should not make these things a legal matter that the saints are required to do. However, if the saints do love the Lord’s recovery, they must get themselves fed all the time with the healthy food that they may be strong. As a result of eating a proper, regular diet, the saints will be strong and the Lord will have a strong testimony.
Chap 11
THE NEED TO BE SATURATED WITH THE TRUTH
In principle I hope that you would take my word to help the saints in their personal time to get into the Word and also to bring the church meeting into such a living way and, even more, a rich way. The result will come out in many directions when the saints are saturated with the truth.
THE PROPER DIET
Therefore, it is basic to have the saints getting into the Word personally every day and to have the entire meeting entering into the truth.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ELDERS
AND THE SEEKING ONES
Based upon this principle, all the elders and the seeking ones who bear the real burden of the Lord’s testimony should be charged and encouraged to pray much.
LEAVING THE MEETING TO FORTUNE
If the elders and all the seeking ones come to the meeting without this kind of preparation beforehand, they are leaving the entire meeting to fortune.
According to our practice so far, we have the holy Word in our hand and by the Lord’s mercy He has given us a publication that always opens up the Word. Why would you not use this? We need to use these two things—the Word and the “opener” to get ourselves prepared.
GROWING GRADUALLY BY LIFE AND BY THE TRUTH
While the issue of nourishment is forever, the nourishment itself only remains temporarily. Once the truth has been constituted into someone, however, it will remain there forever and its remaining is its supply. Our need for the long run is this kind of education with the truth, which is really something solid, living, and existing. We need this. Do not expect to have an overnight success which is like a factory making artificial flowers. Overnight you can produce many flowers, but in a genuine nursery or garden it takes time to grow flowers. Do not pick up the thought that we could do a quick work. You may have the thought that within two years a great number of people will be added to the church. Most of these people, however, may be empty. This is mushrooming. We must take care of the church in a way of growing gradually by life and by truth.
BEARING THE
ARK
The elders and all the serving ones must come together to pray and to fellowship. Every one of these serving ones must be charged, including the elders, to bear the ark of the testimony on their shoulders. This group of faithful ones may be between ten and twenty-five saints.
HAVING A TIME WITH THE SERVING ONES
When you elders go back, you must have a time with the serving ones. If the elders make themselves a special, particular group, they are sectarian. They should not be a drop of oil in a bucket of water, but only drops of water….. It is better to have a time together with them. Get with them to reconsider how to take care of the church and the church meetings. If you do this, I believe you will see something positive.
Chap 12
USING THE LIFE-STUDY MESSAGES
IN THE CHURCH MEETINGS
Concerning the use of the Life-study messages in the church meetings, the elders in each locality need to seek the Lord’s leading as to which book of the New Testament is most helpful to the church at the present time. In making this decision the elders should fellowship with the serving ones in the church. This is a principle the elders need to follow. Instead of making this decision by themselves, the elders should fellowship with those who are interested in bearing responsibility, not only of the church in their locality but also of the Lord’s recovery. Such persons, whether brothers or sisters, should be included in the fellowship regarding which New Testament book would be most helpful to the church.
Once the decision has been made concerning which New Testament book to use, you should go on to consider how much time is needed to cover that book. Then you should set up a schedule. For example, suppose you decide to use the book of Ephesians. The Life-study of Ephesians has ninety-seven messages. If you take one message a week, you will need almost two years to cover all the messages on Ephesians. If you take two messages a week, you will finish the book in less than a year. I am quite certain that you cannot cover more than one message in a meeting.
The elders also need to consider which verses should be used with a particular message. If you are covering the book of Ephesians, you may want to use only three verses for a particular message. Once you have made a decision concerning verses, you should then assign a certain message with the accompanying verses for a particular meeting. The leading ones need a thorough knowledge of each message and of the basic verses related to the message. This knowledge will include the outline, the central thought, and the crucial points. As long as you have the knowledge of these three matters, it will be easy for you to cover a complete message in one meeting. As a result of having this knowledge, you will know which portions of the message should be emphasized and which portions do not need emphasis, but simply need to be read in order to maintain a good continuation.
I believe that most Life-study messages can be read in thirty minutes. Sometimes in reading messages in a church meeting you may skip over part of a paragraph, or even an entire paragraph, in order to save time. Along with reading the message, you should pray-read the basic verses.
The reading of a Life-study message in a meeting should be considered the same as the speaking of such a message. In other words, the reading of a message should be treated as if it were the actual speaking of that message.
The conducting of a meeting in which a Life-study message is read depends very much on the leading ones. These meetings should be living and uplifted, and the saints must have the opportunity to function. However, the time should not be wasted. Regarding this the leading ones need skill to support and enrich the meeting. Suppose after several minutes nothing living, real, solid, and rich comes forth in fellowship. If this is the situation the elders should minister a “dish” to enrich the “meal.”
Reading the Life-study messages in the meetings will be very profitable to the churches. I believe that this is more profitable than the elders using the Life-studies to make messages to give in the meetings. This does not mean that the elders should no longer give such messages. The point here is that reading the Life-study messages is profitable. Reading the message with the proper emphasis will ensure profit to the church. Yet it is also profitable for those who are saturated with the truth to give messages that use certain basic verses and crucial points from the Life-study messages. However, if one is not saturated with the truth, but simply makes a message based upon a Life-study, that will not be as profitable as reading a Life-study message and regarding that reading as the speaking of the message. Of course, you have the liberty to give messages according to your burden and even to call a conference for the purpose of giving such messages.