«　WEEK 5　DAY 2　»

　　1 Tim. 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

　　2 John 4 I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father.

　　Suppose that on this earth among the human race there had never been such a book as the Bible. If we had not had a Bible in our hands during the past two thousand years since the Lord Jesus resurrected and ascended to the heavens, everything would be in the air, and nothing could be solid. Even the things concerning the Spirit could not be solid. The Spirit depends upon the Word. This is why the Lord said that the words that He has spoken to us are spirit (John 6:63). The words that the Lord speaks are the solid spirit…. In innumerable instances we have seen that whenever people contact the holy Word, many times they get the Spirit, but it is hard to give an instance where people touch the Spirit and then get the Word. There are a great many instances, however, that show us that when you touch the Word, you get the Spirit. This is history. A principle has been set up through history that there is the desperate need of the living truth to produce the church, to help the church exist, and to build up the church. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” p. 320)

　　The most profitable writings and publications are the Life-study messages with the footnotes of the Recovery Version. I wrote these things not for scholarly study for people to get a degree but for life ministering, for truth releasing, and for opening up the books of the Bible….The Lord’s recovery is just for the processed Triune God to be dispensed into us, and the living Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church are the crucial contents of the Lord’s recovery. There is no other place to pick up other books that are so rich, so enlightening, and so nourishing concerning the recovery of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church.

　　The holy Word itself says in Psalm 119:130: “The opening of Your words gives light.” Millions of copies of the Bible have been distributed. They have been placed in hotels, in homes, and in many places. Nearly everywhere you go today, you find a Bible, but who has entered into the Bible? There has been nearly no entrance. Many have a copy of the Bible, but the Bible has been closed and nearly never opened. Now the Lord has given us a key, an opener. I consider our writings as the opener to open the holy Word. I believe that those of you who have read the Life-study messages can testify honestly that these messages with the footnotes of the Recovery Version have opened up a certain chapter or a certain book of the Bible to you. This is not to replace the Bible but to bring people into the Bible.

　　Based upon this, I feel that for the long run for the Lord’s recovery in such a top country as the United States, which is full of culture, education, scientific knowledge, and biblical knowledge, the greatest need we must meet is to bring the saints in the Lord’s recovery into the truth to carry on the Lord’s recovery. For a country to be strong, there is the need to bring its people into the proper education.

　　For the long run we [need] to help the saints in the Lord’s recovery to get into the top spiritual education….The standard of the Lord’s recovery depends upon the standard of the truth that we put out. The truths will be the measure and the standard.

　　We need to find a way to bring all the saints in the Lord’s recovery into a proper education of the truth concerning God’s New Testament economy. We need to consider this matter in two aspects—the personal aspect and the meeting aspect. We must have a personal way laid as a foundation for us to stand on and then go on to take care of the meeting way. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 320-323)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 8