In Phil. 3:10 Paul spoke of being conformed to Christ’s death – he desired to take Christ’s death as the mold of his life; we need to take the death of Christ as the mold in which the power of Christ’s resurrection leads us and keeps us. Such a small verse, v. 10 in […]
Taking the Death of Christ as the Mold of our Life to be Conformed to Christ’s Death
Sufferings that are for our Transformation vs Sufferings of Christ for His Body
There is a difference between the sufferings that are for our transformation or as a result of our mistakes and the sufferings that are for the Body; we need to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection to share in Christ’s sufferings for His Body, that is, for us to suffer for the Body. The […]
Lose the Soul-Life and Live in Resurrection to Share in Christ’s Sufferings for His Body
We believers in Christ can never participate in Christ’s sufferings for accomplishing redemption, but we must lose our soul-life through death to participate in His sufferings for the producing and building of the church, so that we may enjoy eternal life in resurrection. Amen! On the positive side, we have been captured and captivated […]
Being the Warring Church in the Midst of Sufferings one with Christ as His Bride
David typifies the warring Christ in the midst of sufferings and Abigail typifies the warring church in the midst of sufferings (1 Sam. 25:2-42); if we desire to share in the stewardship of God, we must be prepared to suffer. On one hand, David typifies the warring Christ who suffered so much; on the […]
God pays more attention to what we are than to what we do or can do for Him
In Christianity and in the world alike people pay more attention to great works than to the person of the worker. With the Lord Jesus, His work was His living – there was no difference between His life and His work. He didn’t work for a while and then “took a break to live His […]
turning our tears of weeping into springs of blessings by setting our eyes on Zion
The highways to Zion is not superficial or cheap; the way of the church life demands a price that we need to pay. It is not external, superficial, or cheap. If we wouldn’t care for Christ and the church that much, we wouldn’t suffer; but as we care for the church life, we will partake of the sufferings needed for the building up of the Body of Christ. We will have sufferings related to the church, related to God’s economy, some misunderstandings from your family because you stand for the church, etc – and you may shed tears…. But the Lord turns those tears to be the Spirit! You will be all the more filled with the Spirit and released in your spirit that you may flow! [read more online]
we can share in Christ’s sufferings for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ
For the building up of the church we need the ministry – our experience of the riches of Christ in a subjective way, having Christ wrought into our being through all kinds of sufferings and consuming pressures…. This kind of experiences produces and constitutes the ministry for God’s new covenant, and these experiences are for the building up of the Body of Christ today! We love the ministry – we don’t “hate the gifts”, but we value more being a minister of the new covenant than desiring to be a gifted one…