"Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged." - Colossians 3:21
There is more instruction in the New Testament for parents than for children. This may be because the occupation of being a parent is harder than any other. It requires a God-given sensitivity. Authority must be used with restraint, because its excessive use may stiffen resistance. This verse warns us that insensitive parents can easily provoke their children to the point of discouragement.
In every way you are stronger than your child. You may subdue him by an overbearing will or simply by your physical strength. If you goad him to such an extent, then he will just wait for the day of liberation. When that day comes, he will throw off all restraint and claim freedom in everything. Ask yourselves, therefore, what kind of home it was that led the needy son to resolve, 'I will arise and go to my father.'
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Colossians 3
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Enduring Unfair Treatment
"For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully." - 1 Peter 2:19
The rest of a Christian lies not only in his not owing anything to anybody but also in enduring whatever he is owed. Many young Christians had defrauded others before they were saved. But afterwards they try to be fair with people. When Christians now experience any unfairness they feel angry. They do not know that believers must not only be fair to others but must also endure any unfairness meted out to them by others. What the Lord received from others was certainly not fairness. In all frankness and fairness, He had no need to come to this world to become a man in order to save us. But for our sakes He was willing to endure all unfair treatment.
The Lord My Portion (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 1 Peter 2
The rest of a Christian lies not only in his not owing anything to anybody but also in enduring whatever he is owed. Many young Christians had defrauded others before they were saved. But afterwards they try to be fair with people. When Christians now experience any unfairness they feel angry. They do not know that believers must not only be fair to others but must also endure any unfairness meted out to them by others. What the Lord received from others was certainly not fairness. In all frankness and fairness, He had no need to come to this world to become a man in order to save us. But for our sakes He was willing to endure all unfair treatment.
The Lord My Portion (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 1 Peter 2
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Power of Jesus' Name
"By what power, or in what name, have ye done this?" - Acts 4:7
Our eyes must be opened to see the mighty change wrought by the ascension. The name of Jesus certainly establishes the identity of the One in the throne with the Carpenter of Nazareth, but it goes further than that. It represents the power and dominion before which every knee in heaven and earth and beneath the earth must bow. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that there could be this kind of significance in a mere name, when they asked this question of the disciples concerning the lame man's healing.
Today the name tells us that God has committed all authority to His Son, so that in the very name itself there is power. But further, not only is it His, but it is "given among men". He has placed that authority in our hands for us to use. In three passages in His last discourse the Lord Jesus repeats the words "ask in My name". What confidence He must place in us to say, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do!"
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Acts 4
Our eyes must be opened to see the mighty change wrought by the ascension. The name of Jesus certainly establishes the identity of the One in the throne with the Carpenter of Nazareth, but it goes further than that. It represents the power and dominion before which every knee in heaven and earth and beneath the earth must bow. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that there could be this kind of significance in a mere name, when they asked this question of the disciples concerning the lame man's healing.
Today the name tells us that God has committed all authority to His Son, so that in the very name itself there is power. But further, not only is it His, but it is "given among men". He has placed that authority in our hands for us to use. In three passages in His last discourse the Lord Jesus repeats the words "ask in My name". What confidence He must place in us to say, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do!"
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Acts 4
Monday, October 08, 2007
One Talent Member
"Now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him." - 1 Corinthians 12:18
Tell me, which is the better member, the foot or the hand? There is, when you come to think of it, no way of comparing them. Their function in the human body is quite different, and each is equally needed there. And yet many minimize God's calling. Because they cannot be the special member they admire, they decline to take their place at all. This is exactly the situation described in Jesus' parable of the men with the talents in Matthew chapter 25. There was a servant with five talents, and another with two, but the whole emphasis of the parable is on the one-talent man. The danger is of the one-talent brother burying his talent. 'Since I cannot occupy a place of prominence,' he asks himself, 'does it matter therefore whether I occupy any place at all?' It most certainly does! For the parable teaches that if two can grow into four, one can grow into two. It is by functioning that we discover life. The Church's life is hampered and impoverished by the holding back of the one-talent members.
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12
Tell me, which is the better member, the foot or the hand? There is, when you come to think of it, no way of comparing them. Their function in the human body is quite different, and each is equally needed there. And yet many minimize God's calling. Because they cannot be the special member they admire, they decline to take their place at all. This is exactly the situation described in Jesus' parable of the men with the talents in Matthew chapter 25. There was a servant with five talents, and another with two, but the whole emphasis of the parable is on the one-talent man. The danger is of the one-talent brother burying his talent. 'Since I cannot occupy a place of prominence,' he asks himself, 'does it matter therefore whether I occupy any place at all?' It most certainly does! For the parable teaches that if two can grow into four, one can grow into two. It is by functioning that we discover life. The Church's life is hampered and impoverished by the holding back of the one-talent members.
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12
Monday, October 01, 2007
Walk by Faith, Not by Sight
"We walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7
Forgive me for saying here something rather elementary about how God delivers us from living by our feelings and leads us into the state of living by faith. When you first find the Savior, you cannot but be happy. Everything is so wonderful, and everything is so new! But this feeling passes, and then what do you think? Because you are not as joyful as when you were first saved, have you lost your spirituality? Certainly not! To think so is to display a serious misunderstanding of Christian experience.
A simple illustration will help us. I lose a watch. When I find it I am happy. When four or five days have elapsed, I am no longer as happy as I was. After a few more days, that happiness may have entirely gone. What has happened? My watch has not been lost again. All that I have lost is the feelings I had at the time of finding it. This is the Christian life.
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5
Forgive me for saying here something rather elementary about how God delivers us from living by our feelings and leads us into the state of living by faith. When you first find the Savior, you cannot but be happy. Everything is so wonderful, and everything is so new! But this feeling passes, and then what do you think? Because you are not as joyful as when you were first saved, have you lost your spirituality? Certainly not! To think so is to display a serious misunderstanding of Christian experience.
A simple illustration will help us. I lose a watch. When I find it I am happy. When four or five days have elapsed, I am no longer as happy as I was. After a few more days, that happiness may have entirely gone. What has happened? My watch has not been lost again. All that I have lost is the feelings I had at the time of finding it. This is the Christian life.
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5
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