CHERISHING PEOPLE IN THE HUMANITY OF JESUS (3)
The first way of the members of the vital group to contact people is by cherishing them. Because we live by our natural life, our visitation is fruitless.
To cherish people is to make them happy, to comfort them, to make them feel that you are pleasant to them, easy to be contacted in everything and in every way.
The model of Jesus in cherishing people in his humanity in the Gospel of Matthew
Cherishing People by Shining over Them
As the King of the kingdom of the heavens in His humanity, Christ came to cherish people by shining over them as the great light and by preaching the kingdom of the heavens as the gospel by charging them to repent ( 4:12-17 ). We should be such a shining light by cherishing people in the humanity of Jesus.
Cherishing the Kingdom-seekers by Blessing Them
As the human King of the kingdom of the heavens, Christ cherished the kingdom-seekers by blessing them with a ninefold blessing ( 5:1-12 ). Christ’s mouth was full of blessing, not cursing. When we visit people, our mouth must be filled up with the divine blessing. Our blessing people in this way is our cherishing them.
Moved with Compassion for the Crowd
When the disciples asked Him to dismiss the crowd to buy food for themselves, He, being moved with compassion for the crowd, told the disciples to give what they had to the people for them to eat that He might nourish the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, having a leftover of twelve baskets ( 14:14-21 ). The disciples are like us. When it became late in the day, they wanted the crowd to buy food for themselves, but the Lord was moved with compassion for them to cherish them, which resulted in their being nourished.
Moved with Compassion for the Crowd Again
The Lord did the same thing in 15:32-38 . This time He cherished and nourished four thousand.
Cherishing the Parents by Laying His Hands on Their Children
When His disciples rejected people bringing their children to Him, He stopped their preventing and asked them to bring the children to Him, and He cherished the parents by laying His hands on their children ( 19:13-15 ). The disciples’ preventing surely offended the parents. Quite often we are preventing people instead of cherishing people. The Lord stopped the disciples’ preventing. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 10, pp. 146-148)
The church in Zamboanga 