HOW TO CONTACT PEOPLE (1)
The Lord has shown us in this series of messages that we need to contact people by cherishing and nourishing them ( Eph. 5:29 ). In the early part of this century, R. A. Torrey published a book entitled How to Bring Men to Christ.The Lord has taken us on to see that we need to cherish people in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ. We cherish them with the goal of nourishing them with the unsearchable riches of Christ in His full ministry in three stages. In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning how to contact people.
In 1984 I realized that the recovery, both in Taiwan and in America, had become dormant. Actually, we had become somewhat like Laodicea. They said that they were rich, but they were poor in gold ( Rev. 3:17-18 ). Gold is God Himself. The church in Laodicea was proud of being rich in the vain knowledge of doctrine, but they were poor in the reality of God Himself. The Lord prayed that the Father would sanctify us with His word because His word is truth, reality ( John 17:17 ). Reality is the Triune God. Since the Triune God is contained in His word, His word is reality, and we are sanctified in the reality of this word.
The Brethren became like Laodicea because they were proud of their knowledge of many doctrines. Eventually, they were divided by their doctrinal teachings. They were raised up by the Lord at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but within a short period of time they became divided into about one thousand groups. Although they were rich in doctrine, their doctrine was not truth, because it lacked the divine element. The divine element, the reality of God, is the gold. The Lord counseled the Laodiceans to buy gold that they might be rich. He also charged them to buy eyesalve to anoint their eyes that they might see. This means that despite their doctrinal knowledge, they did not have the true spiritual sight. They had no light, life, or reality. We must be warned by the Lord’s word to Laodicea. We may be rich in the knowledge of the high peak of the divine revelation, but we should not think that we have the reality. The mere doctrine means nothing. My burden is to help us become vital and have the vitality to contact and gain people. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 15, pp. 179-182)
The church in Zamboanga 