«　WEEK 7　DAY 1　»

　　Col. 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.

　　Deut. 12:6-7 And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes…; and there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you… shall rejoice in all your undertakings, in which Jehovah your God has blessed you.

　　Our need is to learn how to enjoy and experience Christ. God has placed us in Christ. The children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan and were each allotted a portion of the land. Whether or not they were willing to labor on the land was a serious matter. If an Israelite was lazy and did not rise early to diligently labor, his plot of land would be desolate, and he would not have a harvest at the end of the year. When it was time for the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Tabernacles, others would go to worship God with bundles of produce, but he would be empty-handed. Not only would he be without offerings to present to God, but he would also starve. What a pitiful sight that would be! Similarly, as believers, we each have a portion of Christ…. If we do not draw near to the Lord in the morning and we do not talk with Him, enjoy Him, or experience Him during the day, we will be very poor. However, if we are diligent to fellowship with the Lord by enjoying Him in the morning and experiencing Him during the day and especially during difficult times, we will have the element of Christ within us. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Being Delivered from Religious Rituals and Walking according to the Spirit,” p. 369)

　　We who are the Lord’s people living in the all-inclusive Christ should have one industry—Christ. Christ is our industry. We must labor on Him.

　　You who are students must realize and experience even while studying that you are working on Christ….You who are truck drivers must realize that truck driving is not your real occupation; your real business is Christ; you must be working on Him continually. You who are housewives must know that your real work is not caring for your home and your family but Christ. Are you working on Christ all the time? Are you seeking to enjoy Him and experience Him in every situation?

　　The life after the possession of the good land is a life of laboring on Christ….We are working for “Christ Incorporated,” and day by day we are producing Christ….We are Christ growers and Christ producers. We are working diligently day and night on the farm of Christ. Yet we are working happily, and our work is such a rest to us.

　　Consider the people of Israel after they occupied the good land and all their enemies were subdued. What did they do? They simply labored on the land. They tilled the ground, sowed the seed, watered the plants, nurtured the vines, and pruned the trees. These were all necessary tasks for the enjoyment of that piece of land. It is a picture of how we must work diligently on Christ that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches. This is our business. Christ is our industry. We must work on Christ to produce His riches. We have seen how rich that good land is in so many aspects, but without laboring on it, how could its riches be brought forth and abundantly produced? To have this rich Christ is one thing, but to continually labor on Him is another.

　　We must till our spiritual ground; we must sow the spiritual seed; we must water the spiritual plants—all the time…. Sisters, have you pray-read the Word this morning? Brothers, how many times have you contacted the Lord today? This is the situation. We do not cultivate Christ. We have a very rich land, but we do not work on it, so there is no produce. We are indeed rich in resource but poor in produce. (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 342-344)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Being Delivered from Religious Rituals and Walking according to the Spirit,” chs. 7, 13