Following is my sharing about NACT 2023 – Love Prevails & Holding to Truth. Just too enjoyable the college training!
Love prevails & holding to truth – Enjoyment from the 2023 NACT
Two parallel lines: Love and Truth
- Love = God;
- Truth = God;
- Love = God = Truth
Love
Importance of love:
It is impossible for us to love nothing. We will always love something, whether it is pleasure, money, or ourselves (or other things). Yet, we need to realize that everything in the world is a vanity of vanities, just like bubbles: empty inside.
Only God can fill us and satisfy us: we were created as vessels to contain God and express Him.
We really need to take care of our love: what we love and what we do not love determines our future and our life.
The climax of love:
Climax:
1. Personal love >> 2. Corporate love >> 3. Universal love.
1. Love the Lord >> 2. Love the Church (Brotherly Love)** >> 3. Love all mankind
Illustration 1:
1. Root >> 2. Trunk >> 3. Branches and leaves.
Illustration 2:
1. You and the Lord alone >> 2. You with the Church (Body) and the Lord – close cycle >> 3. You with all mankind and the Lord – open the gate to bear fruit.
Source of love: God Himself
No “like” Him (no makeup):
If one is sick, one should not cover your paleness with makeup, rather he should take the right medication (= God Himself)
We might be able to pretend to love everyone, including our enemies. But for how long can we pretend? Maybe for a couple of hours or a few days, or perhaps even some weeks, …; yet, we might end up hating them even more after a month.
Rather “even as He”, with His Love (eat Him first):
John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”.
Hence, we need to be constituted by Him: we need to spend time with him, behold Him, eat Him and enjoy Him daily. Receive His word as truth. Only in this way, we can spontaneously love everyone with His love.
Truth:
Definition of truth:
What is truth? The question should be, who is truth? Truth is a living person, Jesus Christ Himself.
Truth = immovable pillar: we cannot change it into a chair so that it is more convenient for us to move.
Application of truth:
Wash with the water of the word. You need the water to wash others’ feet: no water, no way to wash; water = word.
Come to the word, but also to Him: the word itself = doctrine, but with Him = reality. We need both.
Singing time:
Singing hymns with 3.000 fellow companions was simply awesome! So enjoyable (that I even lost my voice after the NACT)
- “Now no longer strangers on the road, being built together into God’s abode, …”
– Such a sweet and heartwarming time in FTTL! And in NACT, in the blending trips, in-home meetings, …in the church life! I was literally in tears!
– Think about it, it is incredible that until days/weeks before we were just strangers on the road, but now we are built together in ONE Body. - “Just one touch of You dear Lord, just one look into Your eyes, …”
- “Lord, we receive the love of the truth, in an age of deep confusion, ….”
- “We know (we know), that we have passed, out of death, and into life. Because we love (we love) the brothers. We know we’ve passed from death to life because we love the brothers” – 1 John 3:14
Take away:
- Come to Him, as truth, and express/magnify Him, as love.
- Take the Lord in as the Living Person (Truth and Love), and you will live Him out;
- By eating His word, be constituted by His being; consequently, spontaneously love all mankind with His love.
Let us all take Him as truth and express Him as love in our daily life!
