A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
If we have a clear view and know the Bible, the condition of today’s Christianity, the truth, and the mercy given to us by God, we would spend our whole life being immersed and soaked in the truth. Then we would surely have the burden to propagate the truth as much as possible among the brothers and sisters in the churches. We would endeavor to create among the brothers and the sisters an atmosphere of desiring the truth and the Life-studies.1
“...our Savior God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.”
— 1 Timothy 2:3-4
“...our goal is to spread the divine truths for the accomplishment of God’s goal of establishing and building up churches in every place so that they may become the expression of Christ.”
In 1 Timothy 2:4 Paul says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.” Today most of the churches pay attention to the first half of this verse by preaching the gospel to bring people to salvation; however, we are not up to the standard of God’s goal in the matter of leading the saints to know the truth. The responsibility for filling up this lack and arriving at God’s goal lies with us.2
The most important burden of the book service is not to care for the inventory of books but to study and find a way to spread every book into all the homes of the saints in your locality and, once the books are in the homes, to find a way to deposit their contents into the saints’ hearts.2
Regardless of whether we are full-timers going out to work or those who serve with books, our goal is to spread the divine truths for the accomplishment of God’s goal of establishing and building up churches in every place so that they may become the expression of Christ.
I would like to make something clear from the start. If we think that the goal of the publication work is to make money, we are wrong. From the first day until now we have not had the slightest thought of making money or earning a profit. Our burden is to spread the truth and to serve the churches.3
Beginning with Luther the Lord has manifested His work of recovery. However, over the past five hundred years the Lord has never done as much related to the recovery of the truth as He has done among us…pointing out the crucial items concerning Christ, opening the minds of the saints, and bringing us into the depths of God’s economy so that we would advance toward His ultimate goal.3
What the Lord wants to accomplish in this age is to recover the truth…when you look at the publications among us, they are full of rich truth. This is not my boast; it is proof that the Lord has blessed us. Therefore, we should receive the burden and not worry that there are too many books piled up in the meeting halls; instead, we must find a way to distribute these books, and we must first get them into the homes of the saints.3
“What the Lord wants to accomplish in this age is to recover the truth…when you look at the publications among us, they are full of rich truth.”
“I hope we could have a jealous heart for the Lord and change the atmosphere so that everyone would have a desire to read the Bible and each household would make reading the spiritual publications a priority.”
Today the Lord has gained saints who have a heart to serve Him; some serve as elders, some serve as deacons, and some serve in book sales. We thank the Lord for this, but please forgive me for speaking honestly to you in love: I am afraid that even you are not clear about the truth. This is the matter that concerns me the most. If we are a group of believers who have only been saved but do not understand the truth, what will be the future of the Lord’s recovery? The present teaching in the homes is insufficient; we must get the truth into the saints’ homes.
I hope that in every church each household would teach and study the truth. The churches in one particular area of the United States are the best pattern in this particular matter; the homes of the saints are full of our publications. Whether you go to the study, the bathroom, the living room, the bedroom, the dining room, or even the kitchen you will find open ministry books. Wherever anyone goes in these homes, they can seize the time to read a paragraph of a message.4
I hope we could have a jealous heart for the Lord and change the atmosphere so that everyone would have a desire to read the Bible and each household would make reading the spiritual publications a priority.4
We must see that serving in the book sales is really to be the Lord’s co-worker, to promote His truth, and to spread the divine economy and divine speaking to the whole earth.3
The primary matter is not to promote the books but to stir up the saints’ interest in pursuing the truth and to encourage them to enjoy reading the spiritual publications. The Lord’s word will require that we bear the responsibility to labor willingly to zealously encourage and urge everyone in all the local churches to pursue the truth and read the spiritual publications.4
We need to spend the time to learn, practice, and equip ourselves with these rich truths [1 Tim. 4:15-16, 2 Tim. 3:16-17]. Speak the truth [Eph. 4:25, Zech. 8:16]. Living according to the truth [Eph. 4:20, Phil. 1:21]. We should read, study, discuss, and even write [1 Tim. 4:13, 2 Tim. 4:2].5
Since the truth among us is very rich, I especially hope that those who serve in the Book Room would develop the habit of studying, speaking, and using these riches to produce, uplift, and strengthen the spiritual atmosphere in the Lord’s recovery. If we do this, the future of the Lord’s recovery will be bright and full of hope.5
“The primary matter is not to promote the books but to stir up the saints’ interest in pursuing the truth and to encourage them to enjoy reading the spiritual publications.”
“We thank You for greatly blessing this publication work so that the riches of Your truth have been stored up in the publications.”
Lord, we worship You. We sincerely confess that we are a group of people who have received mercy. We are the offscouring of the world and the scum of all things. We are worth nothing, we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. But, Lord, You chose us and separated us, and You have made us useful vessels in Your hands. We thank You for the portion of usefulness that You have given us. We thank You for greatly blessing this publication work so that the riches of Your truth have been stored up in the publications. We believe that Your grace is sufficient for us. Every day we want to be overshadowed by Your grace to experience and enjoy the supply of this grace.5