A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
The life of a Christian is the life of the altar and the tent. The altar is toward God while the tent is toward the world. In His presence, God requires that His children have an altar and on the earth that they have a tent. An altar calls for a tent, and a tent in turn demands an altar. It is impossible to have an altar without a tent, and it is also impossible to have a tent without a return to the altar. The altar and the tent are interrelated; they cannot be separated.
Genesis 12:7 says, “The Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.” In this verse we see that the altar is based on God’s appearance. Where there is no divine appearance, there is no altar. No one can offer himself to God unless he has first met God. Unless God has appeared to a man, he cannot offer his all to God. Consecration is not the result of man’s exhortation or persuasion but of God’s revelation. No one can voluntarily offer up all he has on the altar if God has not first appeared to him. By nature, no one can offer himself to God. Even when a man does want to offer himself to God, he finds that he really has nothing to offer…However, when man meets God, consecration takes place spontaneously in his life. If you catch sight of God just once and touch God just once, you are no longer your own. God is Someone who cannot be touched lightly! Once a man touches God, he can no longer live for himself. (CWWN, vol. 37, p. 89)
Since we know that the Lord’s second coming is so precious, we should love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). The Bible concludes with “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). From the record in the New Testament, it is not difficult to discover that in their hearts the apostles firmly believed that the Lord would come quickly, and they also lived a life in preparation for the Lord’s second coming.
In the church’s history, I know that Miss M. E. Barber was one who lived such a life. On the last day of 1925, Brother Nee went to pray with her, and she prayed, “Lord, do You really mean to say that You will let 1925 pass by, that You will wait until 1926 before You come back? However, on this last day I still pray that You will come back today!” Not long afterward, Brother Nee met her on the street, and again she said to him, “It is really strange that up to this day He has not yet come back.”…We should believe that the Lord is to be feared. In Luke 12 the Lord gave a parable concerning a rich man who endeavored to lay up wealth for himself so that his soul might enjoy itself and be merry. But God said to him, “Foolish one, this night they are requiring your soul from you” (vv. 16-20). Every “today” that we have is truly the Lord’s grace. Therefore, as long as we have today, as long as we still have breath, we should love the Lord and His appearing, await the Lord’s coming (Phil. 3:20), and always take His coming as an encouragement. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “The Up-to-date Presentation of the God-ordained Way and the Signs concerning the Coming of Christ,” p. 587)
A schedule of the upcoming conferences and trainings is provided on lsm.org.