Message Five
Questions and Answers  

Prayer: Lord, every time we are in Your presence, we always feel so short, so poor, so naked. Yet Lord how thankful we are for the blood that renders us the boldness to come again to Your presence. Lord, how we desire to live in Your presence in such a simple way. We are not trusting in our victory, rather we are trusting in Your blood. We are not trusting in excitement, rather we are trusting in life. Our spiritual life can be simple and single. There is no murmuring, no strife; just a full rest in the salvation You have accomplished for us. Even this morning Lord, anoint us. Grant us Your presence. Grant us spiritual utterance and spiritual understanding that we all can be so proper. Lord, we pray be with us in Your precious name. Amen.

Question: When I come to the Bible I'm not sure if I should try to read as much as my husband does each day or if I should be serving my family.

Answer: How often you touch the Lord will determine how you get into the word. Realistically, the Lord has not given the sisters the function of reading the Bible 52 times a year. Even many brothers would be ruined by this practice. Only a few have the mercy to do this. Your exercise of reading the Word depends on quality, not quantity.

Quality is very important. You should care more for quality than quantity in the time you spend with your husband, your children, or the Lord. Quality in this context relates to life. I may only read three verses a day. But if those three verses become alive to me, then reading those verses is more worthwhile than reading a whole chapter. If you practice this you will become rich in the Word. I am not implying that everyone from now on should read three verses a day. But whatever you read, whether one chapter or one phrase, should become life to you. In this way your spiritual life will be well-nourished.

Too often, even in spiritual things, we desire instant results. According to my realization and experience, I doubt many people can be used by the Lord before they reach the age of forty or fifty. Yet we still hope that in two to three years we can attain something significant. We aim too fast. How different things would be if the church could be so restful, caring just for quality in praying or reading the Word. Even if you only pray for thirty seconds but in that thirty seconds you touch the Lord, then that is quality time. Your spirit is made alive. You have solid enjoyment. Then your spiritual life will be very prevailing.

In coming to the Word do not feel pressured to read it once a year. Just come to the Word in a simple way. Starting from Genesis, read as much as the Lord leads you day by day, even if it is only five verses. Just concentrate on having a quality time with the Lord, whether in praying, calling on the Lord's name or reading the Bible.

I emphasize quality rather than quantity because we do not expect woman prophets. We do realize that woman prophets were mentioned in the Bible. But that was the Lord's special work. We should not try to reproduce it. Our hope is that you sisters would be good healthy sisters. Actually I would even tell the brothers the same thing. We do not expect apostles. If the Lord would raise up some apostles, that is His business. We just expect that all the brothers would know how to be so simple in loving the Lord, loving the church, enjoying the Lord, enjoying life, and enjoying the Word. Everybody will be properly fed and nourished. This will give us a very peaceful church life.

The Christian life is not a competition. You may read ten chapters but another sister may only read one verse. In reading that verse her quality can be so high. All day long she can enjoy that verse while she is cooking, cleaning or serving her husband. Then that one verse will become so real to her. This kind of testimony is more valuable than someone who reads ten chapters but never gets anything out of their reading. When one verse becomes living to us, this is high quality.

We need to pay attention to quality because Christ's quality is so high. When we have the reality of Christ, when we are living in His presence, we have high quality. When we use our human thought to evaluate the Christian life, we are so low. I cannot tell you how bothered I am that we are so low. If two new people come to the meeting we get excited. It seems that we only care to do or be something in the church life. This is so low. Yet we don't mean bad. We love the Lord and we love His recovery. But our person is so low. Therefore when we judge or evaluate things, our judgment of that situation is low.

A good illustration of this is how excited we get when we buy something on sale. Maybe the item was originally $5, but now it is marked down to $3.50. You are so happy that you saved $1.50. On the one hand, you may need to learn to save like this. But don't be so excited about it. That excitement is low. You can thank the Lord that He provided for your need; but there is no need to tell others how much you saved. This shows us how low we are in everything.

In the church life we may get excited because we are put in charge of a certain service. We may begin to order the saints around. Or we may tell them how many chapters we have read today. This is so low. You may never realize how high Christ is. This is why the church has problems. The problems come in because our mind has not been transformed and our person is so low. Our low person causes us to be easily bothered or excited by things which have no value. Neither your excitement nor your frustration is necessary. If you know the Lord and the quality found in living in His presence you won't be bothered by these outward circumstances at all.

Coming back to the question, we do not need to strive with our husbands to see how many chapters we can read. Among the brothers, to read more of the Bible is not a sin. There is nothing wrong with this. It is good for them to read more. But even the brothers, if they neglect the quality and only care for the quantity won't gain much. They may be able to say, I have read the Bible many, many times. But what is most meaningful is the quality. In the time you spend with your husband, pay attention to the quality. In the time you spend with your children, pay attention to the quality. In the time you spend with the Lord, pay attention to the quality. In everything you do, the quality of that time must be high. In other words, in all your activities you should have a strong realization of the Lord's presence.

Recently I have been encouraged by the church meetings. Why? Because the quality of the church meetings has been very high. All the meetings are high. In every meeting a lot of riches come out, either through the ministry or the fellowship. It is quite wonderful. But I do know that the quality of the love feasts has not been so high. In fact, it has been rather common. There is no burden for the love feasts. People bring food, pick out what food they like, and sit and eat and talk. After eating, they rush to the meeting to sing some songs. This shows we are very common.

Also, the quality of the testimonies after the gospel message has not been very high. Whether people receive the Lord or not, you always testify the same way: "20 years ago before I was saved I was so bad, but now I am so good." All this is a performance. It is not high nor is it genuine. Why is it not genuine? Maybe it is because we eat too much at supper and don't have time to pray.

In the church life you must try to be high. Whether it is related to your reading of the Word, or to your prayer, don't rush for quantity. Quantity cannot compare with quality. There is no comparison with something that is of high quality. For example, when you look at precious stones you know they have quality. Because they are all high quality, they all are very attractive. Even in the New Jerusalem, with its twelve foundations of precious stones, you will not be able to say which one is better. They are all wonderful because they are all precious stones. There is no way to say which one is better because they are all of the highest quality.

Sisters, if we realize how important quality is in our church life, we will be relieved from a lot of pressure in our daily affairs. A restful time with the Lord lasting 30 seconds is better than rushing through 30 minutes. When I say "rush" I believe you know what I mean. You sit down to read the Bible. Then you get up to turn on the stove. Then you come back to the Bible again. Then you forgot to put the water pot onto the stove. Then you come back to read the Bible again. Then the kids come home for lunch. Then back to the Bible. You say that you have spent thirty minutes with the Lord but there is no quality. Just in and out, in and out, from kitchen to bedroom, changing diapers, yelling at the kids, then back to the Bible. No quality.

But if you would be so restful in your coming to the Lord for thirty seconds, you would not care whether or not your work is done during that time. Whether the stove is turned on or not, for this thirty seconds I am resting. You can turn to any verse and pray over that verse. For example, you may pray over 2 Corinthians 5:1-3, "Lord, I'm so thankful that the earthly house is going to be dissolved. Lord, I'm groaning to be clothed upon so that I won't be naked. Lord, I'm burdened..." In that thirty seconds you are brought into a peacefulness, a restfulness. You realize that the Lord is with you. Now, when you go to turn on the stove, you can begin to enjoy what you touched in your thirty seconds with the Lord. So that thirty seconds continues, maybe for half an hour, maybe for three hours, maybe for the rest of the day. That thirty seconds of quality time will carry you through your daily life. If you only pay attention to quantity you lose this. We thank the Lord for the practical church life.

Maybe some days you will read three verses. Maybe some days you will read three chapters. Maybe you will skip your reading two days in a row. Don't be condemned. Just come back on the third day and continue where you left off. Insist on one thing, reading the Bible from beginning to end. Don't keep starting over again and again. If you stopped at Exodus two years ago, begin again with Exodus. Determine to finish the Bible. You may go slowly, one verse at a time, one chapter at a time, according to what the Lord has measured to you. Many of the verses you read can become real nourishment to you. Out of three or four verses, one verse may be good. Out of a chapter, one phrase may be good. You may spend five minutes reading the chapter. In that five minutes you can have so much enjoyment. This makes the quality of your time high. Then after this, as you carry out your daily responsibilities, your enjoyment from the morning will still be with you. As you cook, that verse is with you. When your husband comes home, that verse is with you. In caring for your kids, your morning prayer is still with you. A quality time with the Lord will bring you into a prevailing life. Every one of us needs this kind of understanding of our Christian life.

Question: I'm not sure how much I should encourage my children to have a spiritual seeking. I encourage them to sing hymns but I don't want to go too far. Should I give my children any encouragement to pray with me or anything like that?

Answer: No, I would never tell them to read the Bible or to pray. Even if they follow you to pray, I would tell them to stop if they are just imitating a way of praying that they learned in the meetings. Ask them to stop praying and just let you pray. But no one knows how to raise children. I don't say that I'm right in how I raise my kids. If we would know the right way, then there is no need of God. God is the One who knows. Every individual is different. Every child is different. I do warn my children against idol worship. I do tell them to praise the Lord that we have a God whom we believe. I tell them this mainly for them to realize a little bit of godliness. But I seldom touch the matter of salvation. But I don't know if this is right. Only the Lord knows. My expectation is that maybe when my children are 12 or 13 years old, the church will have some good meetings for young people so that they can touch the Lord by themselves.

So many families in the United States try so hard to raise up their children. Most couples never go to church until they have children. Then they start to attend church because they realize that their life is now for the second generation. By doing this they are trying to make a profit from the Lord. They don't care for the Lord; they just care for their kids. The parents have been corrupted enough to know they don't want their kids to be corrupted. The parents did many things before they had children but they stopped doing those things, thinking that their children will be different from them. But naturally the children will be like the parents. Through all the parents' trials you can see very little success.

I don't see many children testifying that they were trained so well by their father to love the Lord from a young age. If this happened, then at the age of twenty that child would be a spiritual man because he has loved the Lord for so many years already. But I haven't seen any twenty-year-old spiritual men yet, not even among the children raised in the church life. What I have seen in the church life is that almost all the second generation go away for two or three years. They all like to try something else. If your family's testimony is strong, do not be afraid of this. But if your family's testimony is weak and loose, then you surely cannot afford for them to leave. If your family is really walking in the Lord's presence and what you have is real gold, then you should not be afraid to let them try the world. In two or three years they will all come back. Of course we hope that they won't even go out to try the world because during the time they are gone it is so hard on the parents. The parents don't know when their kids are going to come back. The best is for us to pray that they all will be saved at the proper time.

The children know what is genuine. At the age of six they try to best their parents, to expose them by asking funny questions. Kids are smart. They like to expose their parents so they can feel important. And they know what is genuine. I have seen families in the church life that live a religious life, not fervent, just coming to meetings. Their life is very godly. They don't love the world or go to movies. But they are not fervent. In a sense they are the best of Christianity. They take the church life as the best Christianity. They go to all the meetings and live a nice family life. But when their children reach their late teens they have no interest in the church. They realize that this is just a style of living and they want to choose a style of living that suits them.

Some parents seem crazy in following the Lord. One couple moved from Dayton to Akron to Tampa to Akron to Berea to Cleveland, and now they are in Lakewood. They have moved six times in the last six years. This is crazy, right? And it is not that the parents never fight, that they always behave, but the kids are surprised by their parents' fervency. This kind of fervency touches people. They wonder what makes their parents crazy like this. Surely the kids complain when they have to switch schools again. It is not easy to always be making new friends. This may bother them and cause them to leave the church for awhile. But they will come back because they realize that something real is here.

You consider too much how to raise your children properly. As long as you are short of the power, the dynamo of the Spirit, the younger generation will just see your life as a certain style that they may or may not want to imitate. They may prefer a different style of living. Without that power they will feel free to choose whatever style they want, even though the local church life has more Christ. From this you can see that to love the Lord is not easy.

So all we can do in raising our kids is pray, and as Brother Lee said recently, do our best. Even Brother Lee realizes there is no formula. Otherwise, there would be no need of the living God. If there was a formula to make all our children apostles, we would surely all use the formula. But there is no formula.

Question: One Lord's Day after the meeting the children told us something happened during children's meeting that I didn't agree with. We didn't know what to say. How do you handle something like that?

Answer: In the church life one of the secrets of building is openness with no requirements. Right now we have a lot of requirements but little openness. Every time you require something from someone, that creates a standard. If we require that all the sisters have their heads covered, then we have a standard of head covering. Suppose I am a sister in the church life. One day my children come home from children's meeting where they listened to rock music and they begin to dance around. What I would do is find out who their teacher was and invite him over. Or approach him in a very nice way, saying, "You know, when my children came home they were singing a peculiar song. Did someone play that in the meeting while they were there?" When you ask in this way, even if he was wrong he can't blame you. And he would be able to explain. Maybe a child brought it in and played it a little bit before the teacher was able to stop him. By taking care of the matter in this way, the teacher would not be bothered even if he was wrong, but he may realize that what happened was improper.

All the brothers and sisters in the church life are even more close to you than your brothers and sisters in the flesh. With your brothers and sisters you can always be so open without requirements. Requirements kill the church. Any kind of requirement is the same. But everyone likes to have requirements. Human beings are fallen and full of requirements. The longer you are in the church life and the more messages you hear, the more demanding you become because now you have a standard, a "ruler" to measure things by. When you first come to the church life you have an empty pocket, no ruler, although you may try to measure things by your human concept. But the longer you meet with the church, the more you hear, now you can measure who has morning watch, who reads the Bible, who has growth in life, etc.

Someone could be criticized to death without ever hearing about it because no one would say a word to him directly. This is satanic. This means the church life is full of politicians, not real brothers and sisters. Everybody is demanding, requiring, murmuring, yet nobody is imparting life. No one has the honesty to open up the situation and fellowship. You don't know how willing the brothers and sisters are to receive fellowship. No one would rather be criticized behind his back. If I have done anything wrong I would not like the whole church to talk about what's wrong with me without my knowing about it. If you don't want this to happen to you then don't practice this with others. Always learn to be so frank and open with the saints. As long as you are in a good spirit, it is always good.

Now related to the young people, as a married sister they respect you, even if you just got married last month. If we have love for the young people, we can be very bold to help them. But don't be opinionated with them. No young person will tolerate thirty mothers all telling him what to do. Just care for their person. I have been sharing this for the past four years. We should care for their person, not for the work. In caring, we should have no thought of gain. As I raise my three kids I am not expecting much out of them. Especially in this corrupted culture, I am expecting that when they are eighteen years old they will leave home. If your parents would try to tell you to do something, you get so mad with them. In Chinese there is a saying, "Only when you have a baby do you know how to appreciate your parents." Before you have a child your parents just seem to bother you. But after you begin to raise a child you really love your parents. So with your children you are not expecting much, but you still give yourself to them because you are hoping that they can grow up properly. There is no self-interest involved. This is the way to care for young people.

Even the sisters with us may feel isolated because we are not related to one another. There is no building together and very little life-imparting. Some have paid a big price to be in the church life but they are not being properly cared for. And the young people have to invite the older couples over to their homes first before they get invited to your homes. Sisters, my suggestion to you is to be a little bit dynamic. Open up a little. Don't try to all become their mothers, telling them what to do. This will utterly frustrate them, causing them not to know how to go on. But if anyone renders them the care they need they will not be bothered.

My children get care from us. But if some of the other saints care for them, I don't think my wife and I would say they are getting too much care. Rather, the children would enjoy it. The care does not include requirements. It is just a care for the person. You need to know the difference. If you learn to care for the saints in this way, you won't have so much time to sit at home and think about your problems, complain about the church, or blame the ministering brothers. If you would drop all this you would be so happy. Right now you are limited because you are short of the care for the saints.

In caring for the saints you can always be open, not to tell them what to do, but with proper, healthy fellowship. Even if they don't listen to you, it's okay. Just make sure you are not demanding, not checking how many chapters they read in the Bible, whether they prayed today, or if they preached the gospel. Don't do this. Just invite them to your home. Care for them. Feed them well. Be their friend. If you have any suggestions for them just tell them; don't order them to do anything.

Question: I am happy to have the young people over but sometimes I feel that they are not that comfortable coming over to my house. What should I do?

Answer: I would suggest that you sisters take a little initiative. A new brother in Taiwan went to a certain university in another city. The first thing the leading one in that city did when the new brother got there was to invite him over. The leading one lived in the meeting hall. He showed the new brother the fridge and the couch and told him, "This fridge is yours and this couch is yours. Come over any time you want. This is your house." We need to learn from this. At first the new brother may not come over. But after a year or two he will drop in, open the fridge and make himself at home. Why will this happen? Because the initiation has been made already. You need to learn to initiate a little. You don't have to try too hard. There may be a few you are already burdened for, some young sisters or brothers. Of course, you should care for the young brothers only with your husband. But with the young sisters, feel free to act as the Lord has burdened you. Then, you must initiate. At first the young people may be bashful. They won't know where to sit down or what to say. Don't be bothered. Just keep inviting them every week or every other week.

After one or two months they will tell you everything. A young brother will tell you and your husband that he is in love with some sister but she is in love with some boy already, and he doesn't know what to do. This kind of thing is going on all the time. As all these things are going on, the young people will need some place where they can pour out their heart. And we need to learn how to be spiritual when we fellowship with them. We shouldn't gossip with them. Just bring them to Christ. Bring them to realize His Lordship; bring them to an enjoyment of the Lord and of the church life. As young people their hearts may change easily. But in the midst of their "passion" it is a very serious thing to them. So they need the proper help.

The young brothers and sisters that live with a family see how pressured a couple can be when someone comes over. They don't always see how much enjoyment the couple has from that visit. Since they are living with a husband and wife, they see the fights. There is no way for a husband and wife not to fight. If you tell me that you never fight with your husband, then I would say that you don't love him. Rather, you have given up on him. If you don't fight with a person, you have given him up. I bother the people I love. We are all human so it is natural that we are bothered by one another, especially by those we love.

For a young person living in your household it is just like being married. You see each other all the time. This can cause the young person to become sensitive. They may be afraid that they cause everyone to feel pressured by their presence. It is healthy for them to realize the "pressure" part because you live together all the time.

Even among you sisters, some of you may feel pressured, so you need to restore the fellowship. There is no need for any pressure. Through the fellowship gradually any problems can be resolved. Don't show any superiority. To show no superiority is the key among the sisters. Among the brothers it's okay to be blunt. But sisters are too fine. If you offend them, they will close up and you won't be able to help them. So don't show any superiority. Just be their friend, be with them. If you have a genuine concern for a certain sister she will know. She will also know if you are making her a target of your work. You need to produce a genuine concern for that sister, not work on her.

Question: When a young brother comes over but my husband is not there, how open should I be to him?

Answer: The best is not to let him in for very long. Although we do not doubt your integrity, it is very important to have a proper practice, especially as the church life grows. If it were a common practice for married sisters to care for single brothers alone that could lead to a serious problem in the church life. My practice, whenever I fellowship with a sister alone, is to always leave a window or door open so that anyone can walk in or hear what we are saying. I practice this way because I realize we all are fallen. So practice is very important.

If a young brother comes over and your husband is not home you shouldn't cast him out. Treat him politely, nicely. But don't prolong the fellowship. Make sure that the proper care for the young brothers goes through your husband. Your husband is the proper vessel to care for the brothers. You may have a burden for a young brother. So you should fellowship with your husband and help him to be burdened. Then you two together can help that young brother.

Fellowship: Because of some gossip I have seen that problems have been created in certain households between the young people and their host families. I would ask that we do not allow ourselves or the young people to criticize how other households operate.

Answer: If you hear from the young people that a certain household doesn't operate properly, tell the young people not to talk about it. They should go to the older ones to fellowship. As long as the young people are open they will receive the fellowship. They need to exercise not to have any requirements. The younger you are the more you require of people. The older you are, the less you require of people because you realize you are not somebody. When you are young you think you are somebody, so you are very critical. But you shouldn't have any requirements. If you can give the saints Christ as their life, then everything will be fine. If you can't give them life, then you are not qualified to require anything from anyone. If you can impart life there is no need of requirements. Your life-imparting will take care of all the problems.

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