Further Guarding Against a Deformed Daily Life


	Confronting Crisis in the Full-time Serving Life Message Four: Further Guarding Against a Deformed Daily Life 1. Be Aware of the Operation of Your Soul-Life The first reason a Christian's daily life becomes deformed is the lack of realization of how the soul-life operates. Everyone considers himself bright and competent, and this is why people allow their soul-life to operate unwatched. Eventually our soul-life may even utilize spiritual matters, causing our daily life to become even more deformed. This is why we need to be alerted concerning how the soul-life operates. It is the means by which our life becomes invaded by so many things other than Christ. 2. Be Aware of Compromise Besides dealing with the soul-life's operation, we also need to be careful not to compromise. We should not compromise concerning any spiritual principle, concerning the Lord's testimony, or concerning our daily walk. Some view the ability to compromise as a virtue, but if we allow compromise in any of these three areas we will experience a deformed daily life. As we grow older the temptation to compromise in these three areas increases. a. concerning spiritual principles We especially need to guard against compromising over any spiritual principles related to our stand. For example, originally you may have been very firm concerning Christmas. Then someone may come to you and say, "I hear that you are in a cult." You may answer, "No! I am a Christian and I believe in the Bible." They may then say, "But I hear that you don't celebrate Christmas." How would you answer? I am afraid you may say, "That is not a regulation among us. Some among us do celebrate Christmas!" The reason you say this is to avoid being identified as a cult, but in doing so you have compromised a spiritual standard. Furthermore, by your speaking in this way your thinking itself begins to change. You begin to feel that perhaps we shouldn't be so narrow; maybe to celebrate Christmas is wrong, but we should be able to give presents to our children. This is to compromise a spiritual standard or principle. About fifteen years ago I had the opportunity to visit many different churches. I witnessed a trend that left me very concerned. Because the young people in the churches were "the flow" at that time, some elders were hesitant to hold to the spiritual principles in raising them up for fear of offending them or losing them. Instead, they did things to keep the young people happy. Because of this many young people were spiritually ruined. These elders didn't realize that even if they were able to keep the young people by such means, those young people would be rendered useless to the Lord for His testimony. Any good leader has to learn how to accommodate others, just as any good parent has to learn to accommodate his or her children. We should also learn how to encourage others. However, parents eventually must also confront their children with real issues. This is a lesson we must learn as we are serving in the church life. On the one hand we should learn not to be harsh with others. On the other hand we must learn that we cannot sacrifice spiritual principles for the sake of accommodating those we care for. This kind of compromising will only damage them. b. concerning the Lord's testimony The second form of compromise results from the first. By sacrificing spiritual principles or standards we inevitably compromise the testimony we are seeking to uphold. For example, as a church becomes older, it often becomes more settled. At one period it may have been healthier, with the saints involved with many aspects of service and a healthy meeting life. After a period of time, perhaps after passing through some storms, the saints may become somewhat dead. It is easy during such a stage for those serving the church to compromise the standard of the Lord's testimony. The elders may decide that the number of meetings per week should be reduced, since the saints are unable to carry the present schedule. If you were an elder, what would you decide to do? I believe that if I were in such a situation, I would agree that there could be fewer church meetings. But I would not stop there. Just because the saints are weak does not mean that the standard of the church should be sacrificed. I would urge that all of us elders should visit the saints and find ways to help them rise up. We could find a way to help the saints practice morning revival. We could offer to provide a special training for those who had some desire. We should labor to find a way to help the saints according to where they are, with a view to the standard of the Lord's testimony. Regardless of whether you are successful or not, you cannot allow the standard of the testimony to be compromised. Even if there is not much result, you should still be able to testify that you have labored with this in view. Perhaps out of one hundred saints in this church, ten are still on fire. If you compromise the standard of the Lord's testimony in your handling of the church, even those who are healthy will lose their healthiness. Since the view of the testimony is not clear, they will lose direction in their exercise and became discouraged. If, on the other hand, you provide these saints with more opportunity to exercise by helping them with a view to the Lord's testimony, the condition of the whole church could possibly improve. c. concerning our daily life The reason we compromise spiritual principles or allow the standard of the Lord's testimony to be sacrificed is that compromise creeps into our daily life. When we are healthy in our daily life, there is no room for compromise to come into the church life. The more serious forms of compromise have their root in a compromising daily life. When we are on fire for Christ, we speak Christ. When our spiritual condition declines, we open our mouth to gossip or talk about sports or politics. When you are unable to keep other things from coming in to your daily life, your daily life becomes defective. It is the same with the church life. When the church life is healthy, people are caught up with Christ. One mark of true revival is the absence of gossip. But when the spiritual standard drops, gossip appears. Human reasoning comes in to replace Christ. In such a situation it is certain that everyone involved has a deformed daily life. Thus it works in both directions: compromise in our daily life produces a compromised corporate testimony, and sacrificing spiritual principles and the Lord's testimony produces a compromised daily walk. We may not go so far as to yield to sin. We may just compromise in minor matters, such as picking up an extra news magazine or granting ourselves more relaxation time. We may even get involved with something "spiritual" that fits our taste. All these things can deform our daily life. Some brothers permit their jobs to degrade their stand. We who have been in the church life for some time possess virtues which employers value. Anyone trained by the church is sincere, loyal, sober, and able to bear some responsibility. However, when such a person becomes valued by the company, that person will be loaded with more responsibility. Then this saint must make a decision. Most brothers tend to accept the extra duties, apologizing to the saints for their "unavoidable" absences. Something has invaded their daily Christian life. We should make it clear to our employer from the beginning that we are willing to work overtime up to a point that still gives us time to make it to the church meeting. This guards our daily life against compromise. I am very concerned about the real situation among the full-timers. When I inquire as to their daily labor schedule, some eventually resort to claiming that they were led by the Lord, blocking further inquiry. They realize others must honor this, but they use this term to shield themselves. They may not even know what the Lord's leading is, but their reasoning allows them to compromise in serving the Lord in their daily life. They find justification to rest longer or to watch TV. They abuse the truth that the believer lives to the Lord, and thus they damage themselves. After you reason about something and give in to it, the next thing that will happen is that it will become habitual. Once a habit is formed, your ability to serve the Lord will become limited by that habit. Even a seemingly harmless habit can hurt your serving life. Suppose I become used to a cup of soup before going to bed. Will I be able to have that cup of soup everywhere I go? We should be careful. We need to build up proper habits such as being in the Word and prayer every day. You should not treat your habits lightly. Your habits will eventually cause your soul-life to become preoccupied. A person who is a tea drinker becomes interested in tea. As he drinks a cup he can tell you how many pots of hot water the tea leaves have been through, and about the qualities of all the different varieties of tea. If he appreciated Christ the way he appreciates tea, just think how wonderful that would be! Then when that brother goes to serve in a situation, he will have a more difficult time than the others if there is no tea for him to drink in that place. He will not be happy or satisfied. After something becomes a habit, it becomes a part of your person. Then you become numb to it. This is very serious, for something besides Christ now controls you. Something has crept in without your awareness. Finally, it becomes formed in your living, and the totality of all these formations becomes your disposition. The more proper your disposition is, the more useful you are to the Lord. When we look at Brother Lee, we should realize that the reason he is able to unveil the truth the way he does has much to do with his disposition being so free of improper things. We need to consider ourselves in this light. We do not have the realization of how much we have been invaded. Do you commit sin? No. Do you watch movies? No. Do you watch TV? Maybe the news. Then what is wrong? People look at you and just feel there is impurity. Why? Because you have allowed certain matters besides Christ to creep in and consume you. 3. Check With Your Motive: Are You Pure? The third reason that deformity can creep into our daily life has to do with impurity in our motive. In the Bible, "pure" is an extremely positive word, as is "peace." Being pure is related to God Himself. The pure in heart are those who are able to see God (Matthew 5). Purity of motive implies that whenever I make any decision, I only have the Lord in view. This is a simple matter: if we want to see the Lord, we need to make ourselves pure. Our purity is being tested all the time. We are always being tempted to run after something other than Christ. For instance, we may be tempted to seek others' praise or encouragement. Our seeking after this and our reaction to it reveals how pure we are. Some have even dropped the church life because older ones didn't give them enough encouragement. They are hurt because they think the brothers don't care about them. This indicates that they are after something other than Christ. Even if none of the brothers appears to love you, no one is preventing you from reading the Bible, praying, enjoying the ministry, or preaching the gospel. Why should you be so bothered? Isn't this an indication that there is some impurity in your motive? But often with our mouth we boast we are for Christ, but in our heart there is a hidden seeking after something else. From the beginning of your Christian life and service you should not care for your manifestation. Just love the Lord. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. It is your reaction in such situations that reveals how pure you are, not your declaration of love for the Lord. 4. Exercise Self-Discipline We also need to learn to exercise self-discipline. If we have not practiced self-discipline at a young age, as we grow older we can only cry out to the Lord for mercy. Paul said that he buffeted his body and led it about as a slave. He practiced strong self-discipline. One reason we may become deformed in our daily life is that we never learned to exercise self-discipline. We don't want others to discipline us, and neither do we want to discipline ourselves. When I was in the military, I learned something of discipline. I entered boot camp as a weak person, but after two months I was able to carry a heavy machine gun across miles of rugged terrain. Discipline eventually enables us to do things against our soul-life. By the Lord's mercy we should be able to learn to exercise a kind of discipline that would enable us to rise up to read the Bible or preach the gospel even when our body tells us that we are exhausted. Discipline always builds up something healthy. If you don't have the ability to discipline yourself, your daily life surely will become deformed. 5. Be Regulated By Truth Finally, whether our daily life becomes deformed or not is related to our exercise in the truth. Eventually it is the truth you possess that leads you. Your daily life should be regulated by truth. But often it is evident that we are lacking on this point. We may exercise our spirit in the meetings and tell others to do so, but when we get home the exercise of the spirit may disappear. This indicates that we lack the kind of truth that should control our daily life. Be careful regarding these five matters. First, know your soul-life. Second, don't compromise. Third, be pure. Fourth, be disciplined. Fifth, let the truth guide you in your daily life. These will protect you from developing a deformed daily life.