کورونا وائرس تے عالمگیر ڈاک سروس وچ رکاوٹ دے سببوں، اَسیں اپنی ’مُلوں بغیر چھاپی ہوئی کتاب دی سروس‘ نوں تھوڑے چِر لئی بند کر دے پئے آں۔
ایس صورتحال دے چانن وچ اسیں ایس ویلے تہانوں کتاباں گھلن دے قابل نئیں ہیگے آں۔
دُعا ہے پئی ایہہ وبائی بیماری چھیتی ای مُک جاوے تے ڈاک سروس کُھل جاوے۔
دُعا ہے پئی ایہہ وبائی بیماری چھیتی ای مُک جاوے تے ڈاک سروس کُھل جاوے۔
Subject 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 2-6] How Did God Make Us? (Genesis 2:1-3)
(Genesis 2:1-3)
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
After making us all (you and me), creating the universe, and completing all His work of creation, God then rested on the seventh day. When God created us, did He make us as perfect human beings from the beginning? How did God form us? Genesis 2:7 says, “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” God made man out of dust. This means that God made him a weak being. We have to latch onto this. As a pile of dust before God, we are so weak, so worthless, so full of sinful nature, and therefore so prone to fall into sin and follow the flesh—we have to realize that God made us as beings like this, but has saved us to be glorified as His children.
It is therefore indispensable for us to know ourselves, knowing who we really are. Just a few minutes ago during the hour of testimony, we heard a young sister confessing how she discovered her true self before God. As a matter of fact, when we understand ourselves better and look at ourselves before God, we all have too many terrible things, some of which we would be ashamed of revealing to others. The problem, however is that many people do not actually know their true selves. Ignorance is the greatest problem. We don’t really know ourselves until we meet God. Moreover, even after meeting God, we still don’t know ourselves well enough until we come to fear God, acknowledge Him and address Him with the realization that we are His creatures and must obey His commandments by understanding the order He established in the Church.
So, it is when we revere God, fear Him, and obey Him that we finally come to see our true selves realizing, “I am such a useless person who cannot but commit such and such wrongdoings; I am so evil.” God rested on the seventh day after completing all His work of creation, but we have to realize that when God first made us, He did not make us completely perfect, but as weak beings.
It is written in Romans 11:31-33: “Even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” When God created us, He made us humankind imperfect beings. Even though we fear God in our hearts, because our bodies were formed out of dust, we are still weak and insufficient beings that are prone to be ruled by the flesh. That is precisely why God has saved us from sin.
It is therefore imperative for us to know ourselves well. When we follow the Lord, we come to discover more of our true existence hidden deep within us. When we face certain circumstances, our very being is fully exposed. On the third day of creation, the dry land was exposed as God commanded it to appear, and He saw that it was good. It is therefore the will of God to expose our very nature.
When water of a bog is drained the ground is exposed. On this exposed land there are all kinds of filthy things. As Mark chapter seven says, the very nature of mankind is evil, murderous, adulterous, thieving, blasphemous and proud. This is the very nature of human existence. God made us so weak that we could not but fall into sin, and then He saved the souls that fell into sin. He had planned to make us His own children and implemented His plan to perfection. That is how we are perfected into completed human beings in Christ, but anyways we have to know both things that God has done for us: We have to know that God made us as weak beings, and also that He has now made us His perfect people, that is, He completed all of our salvation.
To lead your life of faith properly, you need to know and admit yourself first. If you know yourself, then this will actually enable you to follow the Lord more steadfastly. If you know your insufficiencies you will be able to follow Him with a thankful heart. Because you know how worthless your existence is, whenever you admit your wickedness and insufficiencies, you will be so thankful that Jesus Christ has saved you, and therefore you will become stronger in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and be able to praise Jesus Christ always.
That is why you must know yourself well. “In what condition am I? Do I really believe in God and fear Him? Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3), but am I really poor in spirit? Isn’t my heart too arrogant because of all the things of the world I possess? Jesus also said that blessed are those who mourn, but do I really mourn over my worthless life? Is my heart really hurting? Am I really meek in spirit? Do I subject myself to the Word of God? Or do I disobey and stand against the Word? Do I hunger and thirst after righteousness? Is everything that I do in this world really of any use? Do I really desire to do God’s work? Does my heart hunger after righteousness and desire to do righteous work? Does my heart deserve to receive such blessings? Or do I only have a carnal mind?” You need to ask these questions and examine yourself carefully before God.
God did not make us perfect from the beginning. Although God originally made us in the likeness of His image, because our bodies were made of dust, we were still weak and imperfect creatures. This means that by sending Jesus Christ, God has perfected us the imperfect beings into His own people. That is what He had done until the end of sixth day of His creation.
“What kind of existence is our existence? Do we follow the Lord with the faith and hearts that deserve to be blessed by God? In doing God’s work, are we taking the Master’s work as our own? Are our hearts really thankful that God is our God, that His work is our work, and that we are used as His instruments for His righteous work? Are we following and serving the Lord with grateful hearts?” We have to examine ourselves with a magnifying glass. One thing clear is that although God made us imperfect at first, He has now made us His perfect children through Jesus Christ. The realm of God is truly unfolding in Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus Christ that God perfected us, and it is by believing in Jesus Christ that we are made whole.
You must answer truthfully and honestly: “Have I returned to God, knowing my fleshly shortcomings before Him? Do I have faith? Am I poor in spirit? Do I realize that I am nothing and a useless being without the Lord? Have I become someone who is hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness? Or am I still unable to discern the work of the Spirit from the things of the world so that I think the prosperity of my flesh is the only thing that matters, with my heart still not hungering nor thirsting after His righteousness, but wanting to be filled with the things of the world? Do we really have mourning hearts? We have to ask ourselves these questions. Our old selves must be broken knowing that we have nothing good in our nature. And we have to also realize that we are new creatures in Christ and that we can live a blessed life if God permits. By realizing this, we must be made new by faith.
Because we were made out of dust at first, we were not perfect. However, when God made us the second time, He made us with the Truth of the water and blood of Jesus Christ. If you still have not been made like this, you should be made new by believing in this Truth. Only then can your spirit rest. Just as God rested after making us, we must also rest by faith in His perfect providence. We must be transformed in God. Everything must be changed by a renewed heart and renewed faith. That is why the Apostle Paul defined the born-again as those who “have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
After being born again, some people don’t like to see their outward selves broken, and so they sometimes fall into temptation. They were not under anyone else’s control before they were born again, but now they are not free to do whatever they want to do, and so their pride is hurt and they resent this. They discover that they put up fierce resistance. They will not allow anyone to lead them. All this really means that they don’t actually want to break down their fleshly egos. We often get very defensive of ourselves. However, everyone must be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and once they are born again, they must be made new by faith. Only then does real rest come into their hearts. This process of remaking or re-molding is not achieved for nothing, but it is done inside the Church, where one is pounded and ground in the mortar to shed its bran and eventually turn into fine flour. The Lord will then use them anywhere.
We have to cast aside all our old thoughts, faith and even value systems. Before, we were happy when we helped the poor. But now that we have come into the Lord, we are thankful that God is using us to spread His holy gospel. The hearts and faith of the born-again are made new by God. “If God were not to use me, my life would be worthless, and I would inevitably have to live my entire life only to eat and drink, and join everyone else in the world. But God is using me for His worthy work, and I am so thankful for this. If it’s the Word of the Lord, then it is all true. My only regret is that I had lived on this earth in vain all this time. But now, I will submit all my thoughts to the Truth and I will follow only the Word of Truth. Although I was satisfied by my own work before, now I am satisfied by the Lord’s work.” When you believe in the Word like this, follow it, admit that you are nothing, acknowledge that God is right, and have your spirit renewed you will find rest in Christ. You will rest in peace.
The work to which you are now devoting yourself is not your work, but God’s work and so you should be thankful that God is using you as His instrument, that He is making use out of someone useless, that He has enabled you to live a purposeful life and that you can now find satisfaction from the Lord. You must be re-molded into a saint and a servant with a blessed heart and blessed faith, grateful beyond all words if only God would allow you to carry out His righteous work. You must be remade. Only then can you rest in peace. Just as God rested after implementing all of His will, for us also, it is when we accept into our hearts what God has done for us, and cast aside our mistaken faith and thoughts, that true rest comes into our hearts. If our past lives before being born again were restless, but now that we have been born again, should we believe in and follow the Word of God, change our value system, and change our faith then rest will come. We will be at peace. But for this to come about, you must first know yourself well.
If you cannot live properly even after being born again, then this means that you are still a lump of flesh. The very first thing that arises after being born again is the desire to live according to the lust of the flesh. Before when you were oppressed by your sins, you were too timid, but now that your sins have disappeared, you may desire to do everything that you could not do. So those who were born again not long ago find themselves itching with carnal desires. You therefore cannot think about spiritual work.
However, if we abide in the Church, then we will come to think more about spiritual work. As you follow the example of the predecessors of faith who are running ahead spiritually in the Church, hungering for righteousness and yearning to do the work of God, you will learn many things from them. You learn from their example; you can never learn with the Word of God alone. When you abide in the Church, you will see how your predecessors of faith carry out God’s work as if it was their own work, and how they are always thankful even in hard times; and you will then realize, “Oh, they are different from me.” From all this, you will come to emulate your predecessors, and God also will change your heart.
The fact of the matter is that when you are first born again, you want to follow only your own flesh. You want to earn your own living and live only for yourself, and you come to stand against your Church leaders saying, “I have been saved, and so who are you to interfere with even my own private life? Is it not too extreme?” The Bible says that to be carnally minded is death (Romans 8:6). Carnal thoughts stand against the Holy Spirit, while the thoughts of the Spirit stand against the flesh. These two thoughts stand directly opposed to each other and struggle with one another so that we cannot follow God. That is why the predecessors of faith must lead those who are following them. Those who are spiritually young can learn what is the proper life from their predecessors when they actually serve the gospel and run forward by faith. The spiritual youngsters see this and learn from everyday life what kind of life is a righteous life. They realize that their predecessors truly desire to do what is right. They realize, “Oh, my predecessors of faith are truly poor in spirit. They cannot be satisfied by the things of the world. Their hearts are mournful. They get hurt when I go astray. Even though they and I have received the same salvation, their very hearts are far different from mine.” Realizing thus, they learn from the predecessors of faith and emulate their example, and thereby achieve the progress of faith. Their hearts will then be recreated as the hearts that have the eight blessings by faith and their souls will rest in peace.
After I was born again, at first, I tried to make a living by opening a business selling pots. My plan was to occupy myself with the business for only two hours a day, and then spend the rest of the time on serving the Lord and preaching the gospel. I would spend the remaining time managing the youth group and the Sunday school, and preaching the gospel. But does the very fact that I tried to open a business mean that I was trying to ensure the prosperity of my own flesh first? Of course, while I told myself that it was all to serve the gospel; I was actually thinking of the things of the flesh first for the prosperity of my own flesh. Even though the Lord had told me to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first, to serve the gospel before everything else, I was thinking about the welfare of my own flesh first. But at that time, I did not realize that it was wrong.
Although this is how I had planned in my mind, my lips would not leave me alone, and so I shared the gospel to everyone I met, and if I went by even a day without preaching the gospel, I felt as if there were sores in my mouth. Every day, I preached the gospel to countless people, and many of them were born again. Some days, I would visit people’s homes, plow their hearts by preaching the Word from lunch time, preach the gospel afterwards, be treated to dinner, and return home at 10 PM. I did not stop sharing the gospel unless people gave up their stubbornness and admit the gospel Truth. Many people received the remission of sins as a result. Even as I was preaching the gospel, I was not grateful for serving the gospel. I preached the gospel only because the Holy Spirit stirred up my heart and my lips could not stay still, and yet I did not thank God for using me back then. Anyway, I served the gospel faithfully.
Even so I still worried often, “How will I make a living?” I did not know that this was a carnal worry. However, God still continued to work in me, and that is why I have preached the gospel to this day. Even on the day when my second son lost his footing and fell to his death out of a window, I still preached the gospel to others, and their souls received the remission of sins. Yet, even as I was preaching like this, my heart did not really hunger and thirst for righteousness.
After a while, I went through a certain period of hardship, and came to live in a small city called Sokcho. As I found myself unable to preach the gospel due to my circumstances, I thought to myself, “What a wretched life mine is! I’d rather die than live like this.” I wanted to live righteously for the gospel. Even if I were no longer a minister but just a layman, I was still willing to do anything and everything if only I could live for the Lord. Yet I had no place to work. Since God works through His Church, souls could be saved and I could gather them together and nurture them only if there was a Church. Yet because there was no Church, even as everyday there were born again people, they were being abandoned like illegitimate children.
At that time, God gave me the heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness. God gave me the heart that is poor in spirit, that mourns, that is meek, and that is persecuted for righteousness, and once He gave me this heart of eight blessings (Matthew 5:3-12), I found peace in my heart. Rest came to me. My life was changed. In other words, while my old life had been lived for myself, now my life is committed to the Lord. Grateful God was using me as His instrument; I changed my heart to believe that the Lord’s work was my work. I am not telling you this story just because I am a pastor, but to explain that my heart itself was fundamentally transformed. I had rest and felt new strength in my heart.
Today’s Scripture passage explains how God made you, and how He finished His work on the seventh day. You must look into your heart to examine its status. You must examine yourself to see if you are indeed someone who hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of God, or someone who hungers and thirsts only to fill the desires of the flesh—whether you are running toward the flesh or the Spirit. Your heart must be upright.
Your heart and my heart must be made new even in knowledge by the Lord. There is no discrimination in God’s work; nothing is higher or lower than anything else. The Church is indispensable. It exists because you cannot cast off your flesh, and it’s because the Holy Spirit speaks to you through the Church, convicts your heart, and makes you learn and understand, that you come to follow the guidance of the Church. That is how you eventually become a man of faith. You turn into someone who lives entirely for the Lord. God makes us into people like this who commit all their lives to the Lord. How grateful should we be, that we mere human beings are used as His instruments for His righteous work? If we were used to rob someone, we would feel bad about it. But since we are used for the Lord’s work, we are glad. Isn’t it a wonderful blessing that God is using us as His instruments? A servant of God must be someone who hungers and thirsts after His work, someone who is poor in spirit, who mourns and who can be persecuted for righteousness. He must be someone who is dedicated to the Lord. You and I must become people like this.
When you follow the Lord after being born again, you will finally discover your basic nature, realizing how you follow your flesh far more than God. In times like this, you must ponder what would happen to you if you were to follow your flesh, and you must admit your mistakes to God. If you follow the flesh, you will do nothing more than just eat and sleep, only to die meaninglessly. Your body can live only if your soul is first saved. It is your soul that must prosper first. To achieve this, you must work tirelessly in the Church and follow its guidance. It is when you are ordered to work and submerge yourself in God’s work that the dross of the flesh is removed and you are changed into pure gold that is usable. While serving God like this, you grow up to be a man of faith. You must become a person like this while you are still far away from becoming the man of faith. No time is as comfortable as when you are in the Mission School. It’s heavenly here. I too feel very much at rest whenever I come here. All that I have to do here is just preach the Word, but once I leave here, I face all kinds of headaches, from editing my books to answering the phone and making decisions.
You must be made new. You have not been completed yet. Although God has made us born again, He is still making us into His servants and instruments worthy of His use. Even though the born-again sometimes pour out all their wickedness as they are hammered, blown by the bellows, quenched in water, and tempered, where else could they go? In the end they come to admit their insufficiencies, trust in the Lord and stand firmly on their faith. They will then be thankful. You have to admit your wickedness. A saint lives everyday denying himself. After all, who can follow God without denying one’s ego? We would all be disqualified from following God if we qualified ourselves with our own aptitude. We would certainly fail this hopelessly, if it were up to our aptitude.
When we stand before God, we admit our insufficiencies, acknowledge that our Lord has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, praise God and come before Him by faith and thank Him for using us. We mourn over ourselves when our wrongdoings are revealed, and therefore admit that we are useless beings without the Lord. We then are grateful to be persecuted for righteousness and to live under the rule of the Lord. When you follow the Lord like this, you will eventually become a thankful person. You need to go through such a process. If we were to look at ourselves from a carnal point of view, we may wonder what on earth we are doing now. We may think that if we were to go out into the world to make money, we would have quit serving the gospel long time ago. But through such a process of discovering our fundamental selves, you and I come to thank God for saving us and for using us as His instruments, and we attain blessed faith and blessed hearts from God.
Your spirit and mine are made into that of the people of faith, but are we really whole? Are you not whole yet? Have you had a blessed heart until now? Has your heart been changed like this? Or are you still carnally minded? Even if this is the case, you must still admit it to God, and examine to see if your heart and your faith are indeed blessed. If not, then you must learn from your predecessors who live by faith. It is not by listening to their sermons especially that you learn, but you learn by seeing their lives.
For you and I alike, if we have a blessed heart we will have rest. We will rest in peace. As the hymn goes, “♪There’s a deep, settled peace in my soul, ♬ Tho’ the billows of sin near me roll, ♬He abides, Christ abides,” even though we may seem to be facing many difficulties, we are still at rest. Even though we are insufficient before God, we are still at peace, for we follow the Lord admitting our shortcomings. Only if we are made by God, will rest come into our hearts. We should first seek the Lord and serve Him. Even though we had been completely incapable of following the Lord, God has made us new creatures so that we could follow Him by faith. He has solved away the problem of our sins and condemnation, and He has enabled us to do His work. Only when we have faith can we follow the Lord, and carry out His work being united with His mind. Unless our hearts are united with the Lord, how would it be possible to follow the Lord? By our deeds? No, we must admit that our deeds always fall short. We must also believe and acknowledge that it is the Lord who has saved us perfectly.
It is written, “On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Is God making us even now? Or is He not? God never rests unless He completes what He is making. He cares for us until we are made according to His intentions. For anyone and everyone, the more one knows his insufficiencies, the more he realizes that God has saved him, and if he admits his shortcomings, then he can be used as God’s precious and blessed vessel.
We have to drink dirty water, sleep in the streets, and get beaten up for us to realize just how truly precious God’s Church is and how blessed His work is. Once we know and admit our insufficiencies, we have to believe that the Lord has blotted out all our sins, thank and pray to the Lord our King to bestow His mercy upon us, and ask Him to use us for God’s righteous work. And if He does indeed use us, then we must serve Him with thanksgiving and live a righteous life in the Lord. I am happy beyond all words to live such a life.
If I had not been born again, and instead turned into a pastor ministering at a certain worldly church, then I would have fought with its elders all the time and been fired a long time ago, since I am too impatient and uncompromising. I would have been defrocked and driven out, only to make a living as a vegetable vendor. I would be cursing even while selling vegetables. I would say, “Don’t listen to them! They are all thieves! Don’t believe them! They are spending $10 million just to build a church building. They are insane, putting a bronze roof on every church building! They spend all their money on this useless decoration.” I would not be able to stay quiet. And I would have lived my life full of regret.
You have to appreciate how blessed it is to be used by God. No matter how hard the ministers at the worldly churches are toiling away, they are just being used by the Devil, but we are used for God’s righteous work. What a blessed life is this? It is such a blessed life. Even though I might seem to be so trifling, I do not envy any other person because I am serving the Lord and am in His hands. I do not envy them because I know their destination. I am happy. What about you? Are you happy also? Or are you struggling with hardship? Even so, if you follow the Lord all your problems will be solved. Unless you plow the field of your heart, how could you farm? You have to turn your heart’s stony, thorny field into a rich field. In other words, you must become someone who is used by the Lord. Although many people cannot follow the Lord to the end, if one or two follows faithfully, then the other one will also stand upright. To be a man of faith, everyone needs time and the predecessors who can lead the spiritual youngsters with love.
You and I are now preaching the gospel all over the world through the literature ministries. It costs over US $10 just to send a single book of ours by airmail. But still, we are God’s servants preaching the gospel to every tribe in the whole world. So how happy are we then? Just how much does God love us? You must cast aside your carnal thoughts, set your mind, and unite with God by faith. You will then come to live by faith.
We are truly happy people. Though we are insufficient in human terms, we are standing on the righteous ground where we can serve the Lord. To save us, our Lord was baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and ascended to Heaven, thus saving everyone. The Lord has completed all of our salvation. What we are doing is just harvesting what the Lord has done for us. Even though all that I am doing is just preaching what God has done for us and harvesting the fruit of the Lord’s labor, He will still reward me. I am so thankful that I am being used for these works.
Once I invited the pastor of the church who was sharing the same building where I was staying to a restaurant, and talked to him for a while. I felt it was necessary to preach the gospel to him, and so I treated him to a dinner to his delight. When I told him that, “I am actually a pastor. Despite my nasty personality, I am still a pastor,” he told me that he had at first belonged to the Assembly of God, but as one of his friends attended seminary at the Berea Mission, he followed him there. These people are so pitiful. No matter how much they toil and how hard they struggle, they have no spiritual fruit. They cannot save even one person, for they themselves have not been saved.
In contrast, by the grace of God, I am working on something that is truly worthwhile, I am loved by God, and I am approved and blessed by Him as His servant. I am truly happy. I believe that if you serve the gospel, your life will also turn into a happy life. All that you have to do is just preach what the Lord has done. What is more clearly worthwhile than this work? I am so thankful to God.
Soon one of our gospel books will be published in Hebrew. I was told that they just finished editing it today. Think about how many countless Jews would come to receive the remission of their sins. They know the Word of the Old Testament very well. Their faith is exact. So when they read our books, they will understand them easily, and they will come to believe in the Truth that Jesus has indeed become their Savior by coming to this earth, being actually baptized, and being crucified according to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. When these people begin to believe, all our labor will be over soon. I am very happy. This ministry is not a difficult ministry. As I preach the gospel all over the world through our books step by step, many people will come to receive the remission of their sins, and when they clamor asking for me to come to their nations, I will go there and preach the gospel.
Do I preach anything different when I go abroad? No, I do the same thing. If the crowd is large, I preach standing on a pulpit like this one; if the crowd is small, then I sit down and preach. All that I need is an interpreter who can interpret my sermons. I am not ashamed at all that I cannot speak English or some other foreign languages. Anyone who has self-esteem actually has a translator and speaks in his own language wherever he goes. Even now, I get many letters inviting me, but some of these invitations are probably sent by people who are trying to take advantage of us. Some people outrightly speak about money from the very opening of their invitation. But actually, we have no money to give away to people like this who only aim at the money. However, we must meet those who are truly devoted to the gospel and want to serve it with us. And our books should be printed in their countries as well. My fellow believers let us soon go to Brazil to preach the gospel. Let us approach women dancing Samba and share our books with them, saying, “Hold on, do you have sin or not? Take a look at this book. When you come out to dance Samba tomorrow, do so after having received the remission of your sins.”
Is there anyone who is happier than we are? Our ministers and saints have together made all our gospel books. It is because we are all in God’s Church that we abide together. When we are rewarded by the Lord, we will be rewarded together. Nowadays, sister Sangmin becomes extremely agitated whenever she goes to the printing house. Perhaps she learned this from me. She can’t help but get agitated because the people there often fail to meet the deadline, and have no respect for God’s work. If this were not the Lord’s precious work, then I am sure that sister Sangmin would have been meeker in facing them and wait for them with understanding. However, because God’s servants have dedicated their lives for the Master’s work, they may even say things in anger if necessary, even if this undermines their character. The people at the printing house were shocked to hear our sister Sangmin giving them a dressing down. They said to her, “How can you say such things to us, when you haven’t even got married yet? We are just a bunch of old geezers, but you are supposed to be a lady. How are you going to find a man and get married with that kind of attitude?” So she told them, “That’s fine; I will just get married to a man who has attitude.” Of course, we have no evil intention even when we get angry. However, to carry out the Lord’s work, we are willing to get angry and even fight if that becomes necessary.
People receive rest by believing in what the Lord has completed for us. For us too, it is when our faith is newly strengthened before the Lord, and when we stand upright before God by faith, that we find rest in our hearts. I give my thanks to God. This is how happy it is to live a life that’s been offered to the Lord. I thank God that I am now able to think about His work and pray for it all the time, from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I go to bed, at every and each waking moment. I am also grateful that you have entered the Mission School to live a blessed life.
I am so happy and pleased. I have true rest in my heart. God has blessed us and sanctified us. Is this true or not? Of course it is. In the Church there is nothing that is useless, nor anything that is ever in vain. Today, minister Jung, who is in charge of distribution, sent out 15,000 copies of our books to the United States in a container. Anyone who reads one of these books is sure to receive the remission of sins.
Who knew that we would be used by God as His instruments? No one even imagined it. Did you know that you would be used for such works? There are so many self-conceited false prophets, and even at this very moment, these scoundrels are pounding on the pulpit and shouting out, “Receive the fire! Receive the Holy Spirit!” Such people would not believe us when we tell them that we’ve published gospel books in English. They would probably accuse us of copying some famous preachers’ sermons. That is because they themselves rip off everyone else’s sermons.
I am at peace and happy. I did not reach such rest and gratefulness in a single day. I was half-dead to attain this kind of faith. God had disciplined me and refined me. Since there was not anyone in this world who had the same faith as mine, I could not have any fellowship even when I yearned for it. Alone in the world, I used to go to the seashore and shed far many more tears than I can recall. I also fought many spiritual battles. I shouted out at the seashore, I cried out loud to God and prayed to Him. And I walked around the entire city putting up posters that read, “I am looking for coworkers to serve the gospel with me.”
I shouted out and prayed earnestly to God to allow me to begin ministering His Church, to gather together coworkers and saints, to make me preach the gospel all over the world, and to permit me to live a life of righteousness. God answered all my prayers. God touched my heart, refined it, and removed all that was useless from it, so that I would never grovel to those who have not been born again, but carry out His work of righteousness.
The same goes for you as well; God will refine you without fail. If you are not disciplined while attending the Mission School, He will discipline you after you graduate. He will discipline you until you are disciplined enough. You must be well trained before God and follow Him by faith. Rest can come your way and you can labor entirely for God with a thankful heart only if your training is finished.
I give all my thanks to God. Hallelujah!
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