«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　Eph. 3:17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

　　4:15 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.

　　Whenever we come together, regardless of the kind of meeting we have, we should come with the Christ experienced by us. Sometimes we offer Him to God as the burnt offering. At other times we may offer Him as the meal offering. In the Lord’s table meeting, we can offer Him as the peace offering for our fellowship with God and man in peace. At the same time, we cannot forget that we are still in the old, sinful nature and that we are sinful in our deeds. Then we can apply Him as our sin offering and trespass offering. In this way the surplus of Christ is offered to God and exhibited to the whole universe. Then our meetings will be enriched and strengthened because they are full of Christ. Such a church life is an exhibition of Christ, an expression of Christ…. If we daily labor on Christ, we will have something of Christ to bring to our church meetings to contribute to others and offer to God so that we can enjoy Christ with God for the exhibition and exaltation of Christ. Then Christ will be expressed as the rich content of the church life. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 2, “Christ as the Content of the Church and the Church as the Expression of Christ,” p. 379)

　　To have proper Christian meetings, we must contact the Lord daily in our private life so that we will be living Christians. Then we must come to the meetings with the realization and understanding that we are coming to exhibit Christ and to share Christ with others. When some hear this word, they may feel that since their Christian life is marked by failure, they have nothing to bring to the meetings…. Even if this is your condition, you must realize that you can still function in the meetings. You can come to the meeting and pray, “Lord, I am so poor. I have failed You many times this week. Please forgive me and have mercy upon me….” If you come to the meeting and pray in this way, many of the saints may be deeply touched, and tears may come to their eyes. Moreover, you can also pray, “Lord, since I have nothing of You, I come to contact You in Your Body and through Your Body. I believe that You have something for me in this meeting.” You can pray in such a way, and you can also open yourself to the saints in the meeting and say, “Brothers and sisters, please pray for me. I have been trying to live the Christian life, but I have failed the Lord again and again. Please pray for me.” If you bring your failures to the meeting and open yourself to the Lord and to the Body, your failures will disappear…. If we experience Christ during the week, we can share our Christ during the meeting, and if we fail during the week, we can share our weaknesses with the saints. We must learn to allow others to bear our weaknesses. If we practice in this way, our meetings will be living, rich, edifying, strengthening, and enlightening.

　　There are two requirements to having a proper Christian meeting. The first requirement is that all the attendants seek and contact the Lord in their daily lives….The second requirement is that when we come together, we must forget about all regulations, forms, rituals, routines, and programs. If we have a program for our meetings, we will quench the Spirit and kill the spiritual life within us. When we come together, we must abandon all things of religion and do one thing—exhibit Christ. We do this by expressing, sharing, exalting, testifying, and preaching Christ in a living way to one another. (CWWL, 1963, vol. 4, “Contacting the Lord, Being Filled in Spirit, and Having Proper Christian Meetings for the Accomplishment of God’s Eternal Purpose,” pp. 38-40)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1987, vol. 2, “The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy,” chs. 4, 6; CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Living Needed for Building Up the Small Group Meetings,” ch. 6