LIVING MEETINGS
Along with an uplifted daily life we must have church meetings that are living. We do not want "services" like those in Christianity. Rather, we want living meetings, meetings that are rich, fresh, and high. Having such meetings depends upon all of us. We all, great and small, old and young, need to daily experience Christ. We must exercise our spirit to experience Him. In other words, we must continually exercise ourselves to godliness, to experience Christ in every respect. This is what we call laboring on Christ. Christ is the good land producing a variety of riches, but we need to labor on Him. If we labor on Christ, we shall eventually have a harvest of Christ. Then when we come to the meetings, we shall come with the surplus of Christ and offer this surplus to God. This is the exhibition of Christ. You exhibit a portion of Christ, and I offer another portion of Christ. If we all bring a surplus of Christ, our meetings will be an exhibition of the riches of Christ. Our spirit will be very living, the testimonies will be fresh, and the atmosphere will be uplifted to the heavens. Such a meeting is a shame to the enemy. In this kind of meeting all death is swallowed up, the Lord is expressed, the Father is glorified, and we are nourished. Eventually, through such meetings, the church is built up. Meetings of this kind are not only nourishing to us, but also very convincing to the newcomers. They are inspiring, unveiling, and enlightening. Those who attend such meetings will be thoroughly saturated with Christ, darkness and death will be swallowed up, weakness will vanish, the problems will be solved, all needs will be met, and the newcomers will receive benefit. This kind of meeting is the testimony of Jesus.
THE BEST COMMUNAL LIFE
In every locality the church must also take up the burden to care for the young people, especially for the unmarried brothers and sisters. It is necessary to have many brothers’ houses and sisters’ houses in order to have the best communal life. Even the families should have much contact, communication, and fellowship with each other. We must give a strong testimony to society that the church life is the best communal life. In His creation of man, God put in man the desire for a social life. Human beings simply cannot live without being social. We cannot bear to live without society. Suppose you lived in a large mansion on a mountaintop far removed from society, and you stayed there for a while without a telephone and without seeing anyone. You would soon realize that that mansion was in fact a terrible prison. This proves that everyone needs society. Due to the fall, sin has come in and Satan is now here to occupy human society and make it sinful. Therefore, today’s society is corrupt. The nightclubs and parties are filled with corruption. For this reason, the word "social" does not have a positive connotation. Nevertheless, human beings need to socialize, and we, the believers in Christ, need a pure society. The church life is the highest social life. This is why we can say that the church life is wonderful. Here we have not only God, but also other people. We enjoy God, and we enjoy the other people who are the members of Christ. The more fellowship, contact, and communication we have with one another, the better. This will become a testimony to the unbelievers, and our neighbors will say, "These people have the best communal life, the best social life."
(The Spirit and the Body, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
