" 4. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,. I Corinthians 13:4

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In this famous passage of I Corinthians 13(the one often read at weddings) the first mention of what Love is, makes the point that it suffers long. Some translations start by saying Love is Patient, Love is Kind, the actual literal Greek translation is Love suffers long. Does suffering bring us closer to God? Why is it that the most loving Christians I have known were also ones that had suffered much in this life. Could they actually have gotten closer to God’s divine nature through their own suffering? Were they able to relate more to His suffering that He experienced and still experiences because of ours and mankind’s sins? Sometimes I find myself wondering why He has put up with my sins and mankinds history of wickedness. He then reminds me that He loves me and He is willing to suffer long, until we come to Him with a repentant heart filled with true Love that can only come from God.

" As for me(John), I baptize you with water for repentance, but He(Jesus) who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. -Matthew 3:11


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The Holy Spirit is of vital importance to our spiritual well being. It is something that Christ gives us after we put our faith in Him(Ephesians 1:13). In our flesh we can grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) or we can be filled with Him like the Apostle Paul(Acts 13:9). Jesus said how much more would the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask(Luke 11:13). When the Holy Spirit came upon the early church they became bold witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (see Acts 1:8 and Acts 4:31)

The early church was full of the Holy Spirit, and it was evident by their zeal to share the gospel and they shared it with power. When there is a lack of witnessing with power, could we say that we have probably grieved the Holy Spirit? A.W. Tozer put it this way: "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference." ?

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

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Michael Reitz has a great article in Relevant Magazine titled "Is the Church Doing Anything Right". Here is a sample.

Jesus “did not stake the “success” of the Church on programs, attendance, good preaching, warm fuzzies or even the ability to adapt with the shifting culture. The evidence that the Church was accomplishing her purpose was a completely different concept: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”
“Check out the full article here”

Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. - Isaiah 55:1 - 3

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God’s offer of the Word of Life, cost Him everything(death on a cross)however He gives it freely and it is everlasting. Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13&14

" 11 "Who else among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is glorious in holiness like you – so awesome in splendor, performing such wonders? 12 You raised up your hand, and the earth swallowed our enemies. 13 "With unfailing love you will lead this people whom you have ransomed. You will guide them in your strength to the place where your holiness dwells. Exodus 15:11-13
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If we are a Christian, God will one day take us home to be with Him, “where Holiness Dwells”. I have been very encouraged by my brothers and sisters who are living in physical poverty, but who have much spiritual wealth. There is sometimes a lack of hunger in America for spiritual things. In other countries such as Mexico, India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, there is a growing spiritual hunger among the Christians. Please Pray for them to keep their first love and let them be an encouragement to those of us who have taken the cross for granted.

" 19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19& 207KJ
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We have the means to evangelize our country; but they are slumbering
in the pews of our churches." --John R. W. Stott”

“What if reaching the world were completely up to you. How would you do it? Does the above verse still apply to Christians. I think it does. What do you think?

" But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherimi, and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:5-6
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This verse applies to the nation of Israel; however if you read all of Deuteronomy 7, it could have applications for America and all those countries and peoples who wish to rid themselves of terrorists. Read the verses and let me know what you think. Also check out the Interesting articles at “ The New Christendom”

“Culturally understood, an antithesis is the watershed that divides two exact opposites. The issue of conflict is not particular, but universal - the two sides of an antithesis oppose each other at every point. You could use the military image of a never-ending front line. There is an eternal war raging between the adversaries, one which is total and unconditional. There is no quarter for the vanquished. Battle imagery, in fact, is crucial to any worldview, for it is in this metaphor that we find our antithesis - the very foundation of our world and life-view. Unless we adopt this metaphor of a true holy war into our worldview, any lasting victory will never be attained. We bring the message of peace; however, the Promised Land can only be entered after the spiritual Canaanites have been driven out.

" 1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.“ Romans 7:1-4 NKJ
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The more I read of Watchman Nee the more I become convinced that he walked as close to the Lord as anyone since the Apostle Paul or John.

Watchman Nee stated the following in the “Normal Christian Life”

“Notice first that in the picture in Romans 7:1-4 by which Paul illustrates our deliverance from the Law there is only one woman, while there are two husbands. The woman is in a very difficult position, for she can only be wife of one of the two, and unfortunately she is married to the less desirable one. Let us make no mistake, the man to whom she is married is a good man; but the trouble lies here, that the husband and wife are totally unsuited to one another. He is a most particular man, accurate to a degree; she on the other hand is decidedly easy-going. With him all is definite and precise; with her all is vague and haphazard. He wants everything just so, while she accepts things as they come. How could there be happiness in such a home?

And then that husband is so exacting! He is always making demands on his wife. And yet one cannot find fault with him, for as a husband he has a right to expect something of her; and besides, all his demands are perfectly legitimate. There is nothing wrong with the man and nothing wrong with his demands; the trouble is that he has the wrong kind of wife to carry them out. The two cannot get on at all; theirs are utterly incompatible natures. Thus the poor woman is in great distress. She is fully aware that she often makes mistakes, but living with such a husband it seems as though everything she says and does is wrong! What hope is there for her? If only she were married to that other Man all would be well. He is no less exacting than her husband, but He also helps much. She would fain marry Him, but her husband is still alive. What can she do? She is "bound by law to the husband" and unless he dies she cannot legitimately marry that other Man.

This picture is not drawn by me but by the apostle Paul. The first husband is the Law; the second husband is Christ; and you are the woman. The Law requires much, but offers no help in the carrying out of its requirements. The Lord Jesus requires just as much, yea more (Matt. 5:21-48) but what He requires from us He Himself carries out in us. The Law makes demands and leaves us helpless to fulfill them; Christ makes demands, but He Himself fulfills in us the very demands He makes. Little wonder that the woman desires to be freed from the first husband that she may marry that other Man! But her only hope of release is through the death of her first husband, and he holds on to life most tenaciously. Indeed there is not the least prospect of his passing away. "Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished (Matt. 5:18).”

" In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise“ Ephesians 1:13 NKJ

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Watchman Nee stated in the “Normal Christian Life”

“If we are `in Adam' all that is in Adam necessarily devolves upon us; it becomes ours involuntarily, for we have to do nothing to get it. There is no need to make up our minds to lose our temper or to commit some other sin; it comes to us freely and despite ourselves. In a similar way, if we are `in Christ' all that is in Christ comes to us by free grace, without effort on our part but on the ground of simple faith”

He also states “Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which He places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means that He no longer requires that from me, but Himself provides it. Law implies that God requires me to do something for Him; deliverance from law implies that He exempts me from doing it, and that in grace He does it Himself. I (where `I' is the `carnal' man of ch. 7:14) need do nothing for God: that is deliverance from law. The trouble in Romans 7 is that man in the flesh tried to do something for God. As soon as you try to please God in that way, then you place yourself under law, and the experience of Romans 7 begins to be yours.”

"37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38. This is the first and great commandment.39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
-Matthew 22:37-39 KJV
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Everything under the sun can be justified in our own eyes, most of it even by scripture. Only one thing under the Son can be justified, love God which is practically accomplished by loving people like we do our self.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35 ----- “If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. “ John 8:31 ----- “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33---- Also see Luke 14:26

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- A well-known Christian researcher says the church in America today is composed of many converts, but shockingly few disciples. When you read the above verses you see why there are so few disciples in America today. For the most part we want more of the best in this life than the next. Barna also states “when Christian adults were asked to identify the most important goal for their life, not a single person said it was to be a committed follower of Christ, or to make disciples of Christ.

Other findings included that the vast majority of born-again Christians do not believe absolute truth exists. And less than 1% thought there was a connection between their efforts to worship God and their development as a disciple of Jesus.

In addition, when given 13 basic teachings from the Bible, only one percent of adult believers firmly embraced all 13 as being Biblical principles.”

I believe the best way we can change this situation is prayer. Revive me oh Lord according to Your Righteousness and Word.

"1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. 2 God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen." Hebrews 11:1-3

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George MacDonald was influenced by the German romantic poet Novalis, who wrote, "We are closer to things invisible than to things visible." His belief was that Christian men and women were on a journey Homeward.

20 Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully. 21 Don't lose sight of my words. Let them penetrate deep within your heart, 22 for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning. 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. Proverbs 4:20-27

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"The man who thoroughly loves God and his neighbor is the only man who will love a woman ideally - who can love her with the love God thought of between them when he made man male and female. The man, I repeat, who loves God with his very life, and his neighbour, as Christ loves him, is the man who alone is capable of grand, perfect, glorious love to any woman. George MacDonald

"2 Kings 6:17
Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

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When John Bunyan was in prison for preaching the gospel, he wrote a document on prayer and finished it with these lines.

“I shall conclude this discourse with this word of advice to all God's people. 1. Believe that as sure as you are in the way of God you must meet with temptations. 2. The first day therefore that thou dost enter into Christ's congregation, look for them. 3. When they do come, beg of God to carry thee through them. 4. Be jealous of thine own heart, that it deceive thee not in thy evidences for heaven, nor in thy walking with God in this world. 5. Take heed of the flatteries of false brethren. 6. Keep in the life and power of truth. 7. Look most at the things which are not seen. 8. Take heed of little sins. 9. Keep the promise warm upon thy heart. 10. Renew thy acts of faith in the blood of Christ. 11. Consider the work of thy generation. 12. Count to run with the foremost therein.

Grace be with thee.”

"It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. John 6:63 NAS

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Watchman Nee stated in “The Spiritual Man”. “If believers would habitually maintain the attitude of the flesh being crucified Satan could have no chance; for the flesh is Satan’s workshop.”

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, “ Romans 6:5 NKJ

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What does this verse really mean. Watchman Nee had a great word picture to explain it in the“Normal Christian Life”

Now with resurrection the figure is different because something new is introduced. I am "baptized into his death", but I do not enter in quite the same way into His resurrection, for, Praise the Lord! His resurrection enters into me, imparting to me a new life. In the death of the Lord the emphasis is solely upon `I in Christ'. With the resurrection, while the same thing is true, there is now a new emphasis upon `Christ in me'. How is it possible for Christ to communicate His resurrection life to me? How do I receive this new life? Paul suggests, I think, a very good illustration with these very same words: "united with him". For the word `united' (A.V. `planted together') may carry in the Greek the sense of ‘grafted’ and it gives us a very beautiful picture of the life of Christ which is imparted to us through resurrection.

In Fukien I once visited a man who owned an orchard of long-ien trees. He had three or four acres of land and about three hundred fruit trees. I inquired if his trees had been grafted or if they were of the original native stock. `Do you think', he replied, `that I would waste my land growing ungrafted trees? What value could I ever expect from the old stock?

So I asked him to explain the process of grafting, which he gladly did. `When a tree has grown to a certain height', he said, `I lop off the top and graft on to it.' Pointing to a special tree he asked, `Do you see that tree? I call it the father tree, because all the grafts for the other trees are taken from that one. If the other trees were just left to follow the course of nature, their fruit would be only about the size of a raspberry, and would consist mainly of thick skin and seeds. This tree, from which the grafts for all the others are taken, bears a luscious fruit the size of a plum, with very thin skin and a tiny seed; and of course all the grafted trees bear fruit like it.' `How does it happen?' I asked. `I simply take a little of the nature of the one tree and transfer it to the other', he explained. `I make a cleavage in the poor tree and insert a slip from the good one. Then I bind it up and leave it to grow.' `But how can it grow?' I asked. `I don't know', he said, `but it does grow.'

Then he showed me a tree bearing miserably poor fruit from the old stock below the graft, and rich juicy fruit from the new stock above the graft. `I have left the old shoots with their useless fruit on them to show the difference', he said. `From it you can understand the value of grafting. You can appreciate, can you not, why I grow only grafted trees?'

How can one tree bear the fruit of another? How can a poor tree bear good fruit? Only by grafting. Only by our implanting into it the life of a good tree. But if a man can graft a branch of one tree into another, cannot God take of the life of His Son and, so to speak, graft it into us?

"knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin“ - - -Romans 6:6 NKJ

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We need to do more “knowing” and less trying when it comes to our own spiritual well being. It is good to pray that we have the power to understand and to know, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. The scripture tells us to pray "deliver us from evil", to "know Him" to "acknowledge our weakness" rather than to pray for more strength to overcome sin. It is all Jesus Christ and only through His Holy Spirit that we have life and life abundantantly. Watchman Nee stated in the“Normal Christian Life”

"How do you know your sins are forgiven?..It comes from the Lord Himself. Of course the fact of forgiveness of sins is in the Bible, but for the written Word of God to become a living Word from God to you He had to give you "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Eph. 1:17).

So our first step is to seek from God a knowledge that comes by revelation -- a revelation, that is to say, not of ourselves but of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. When Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, entered into the normal Christian life it was thus that he did so. You remember how he tells of his long-standing problem of how to live `in Christ', how to draw the sap out of the Vine into himself. For he knew that he must have the life of Christ flowing out through him and yet felt that he had not got it, and he saw clearly enough that his need was to be found in Christ. `I knew', he said, writing to his sister from Chinkiang in 1869, `that if only I could abide in Christ, all would be well, but I could not.'

The more he tried to get in the more he found himself slipping out, so to speak, until one day light dawned, revelation came and he saw.
`Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I am to get sap out of the Vine into myself, but remembering that Jesus is the Vine -- the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed.'

Then, in words of a friend that had helped him:`I have not got to make myself a branch. The Lord Jesus tells me I am a branch. I am part of Him and I have just to believe it and act upon it. I have seen it long enough in the Bible, but I believe it now as a living reality.' It was as though something which had indeed been true all the time had now suddenly become true in a new way to him personally, and he writes to his sister again:

`I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful -- and yet, all is new! In a word, "whereas once I was blind, now I see"....I am dead and buried with Christ -- aye, and risen too and ascended....God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so. He knows best....Oh, the joy of seeing this truth -- I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.'

I remember one day in Shanghai I was talking with a brother who was very exercised concerning his spiritual state. He said, `So many are living beautiful, saintly lives. I am ashamed of myself. I call myself a Christian and yet when I compare myself with others I feel I am not one at all. I want to know this crucified life, this resurrection life, but I do not know it and see no way of getting there.' Another brother was with us, and the two of us had been talking for two hours or so, trying to get the man to see that he could not have anything apart from Christ, but without success.

The brother who was worried about his spiritual state said, `the best thing a man can do is to pray.' `But if God has already given you everything, what do you need to pray for?' we asked. `He hasn't', the man replied, `for I am still losing my temper, still failing constantly; so I must pray more.' `Well', we said, `do you get what you pray for?' `I am sorry to say that I do not get anything', he replied. We tried to point out that, just as he had done nothing for his justification, so he need do nothing for his sanctification.

Just then a third brother, much used of the Lord, came in and joined us. There was a thermos flask on the table, and this brother picked it up and said, `What is this?' `A thermos flask.' `Well, you just imagine for a moment that this thermos flask can pray, and that it starts praying something like this: "Lord, I want very much to be a thermos flask. Wilt Thou make me to be a thermos flask? Lord, give me grace to become a thermos flask. Do please make me one!" What will you say?' `I do not think even a thermos flask would be so silly,' our friend replied. `It would be nonsense to pray like that; it is a thermos flask!' Then my brother said, `You are doing the same thing. God in times past has already included you in Christ. When He died, you died; when He lived, you lived. Now today you cannot say, "I want to die; I want to be crucified; I want to have resurrection life." The Lord simply looks at you and says, "You are dead! You have new life!" All your praying is just as absurd as that of the thermos flask. You do not need to pray to the Lord for anything; you merely need your eyes opened to see that He has done it all.'

That is the point. We need not work to die, we need not wait to die, we are dead. We only need to recognize what the Lord has already done and to praise Him for it. Light dawned for that man. With tears in his eyes he said, `Lord, I praise Thee that Thou hast already included me in Christ. All that is His is mine!' Revelation had come and faith had something to lay hold of; and if you could have met that brother later on, what a change you would have found!

For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: Romans 8:6 KJV
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The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The flesh brings death, the Spirit is life and peace. Watchman Nee stated in the “The Spiritual Man” .”

“A worker must observe carefully which part of his labor the Holy Spirit anoints. Then he will be able to cooperate with Him and operate within the current of His power. The worker’s duty is to discern the current of the Spirit and to follow it. A task should be discontinued if it is no longer enjoys God’s anointing, is out of His current, and creates a sluggish languid feeling.”…

And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of spikenard very costly; and she brake the cruse, and poured it over his head ... Jesus said ... Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. (Mark 14:3,6,9)
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What lesson does the Lord want us to learn from this example, so important that it would end up in 3 of the Gospels. Watchmen Nee stated in “The Normal Christian Life”

"But there were some that had indignation among themselves, saying, To what purpose hath this waste of the ointment been made? For this ointment might have been sold for above three hundred pence and given to the poor. And they murmured against her" (Mark 14:4,5). These words bring us to what I believe the Lord would have us consider finally together, namely, that which is signified by the little word "waste".

What is waste? Waste means, among other things, giving more than is necessary. If a shilling will do and you give a point, it is a waste. If two ounces will do and you give a kilogram, it is a waste. If three days will suffice to finish a task well enough and you lavish five days or a week on it, it is a waste. Waste means that you give something too much for something too little. If someone is receiving more than he is considered to be worth, then that is waste.

But remember, we are dealing here with something which the Lord said had to go out with the Gospel, wherever that Gospel should be carried. Why? Because He intends that the preaching of the Gospel should issue in something along the very lines of the action of Mary here, namely, that people should come to Him and waste themselves on Him. This is the result that He is seeking."

I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. I Timothy 1:3 NAS
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To have a clear conscience is of great benefit to our spiritual walk. Watchman Nee stated in The Spiritual Man… “ This is the secret of Paul’s life. The conscience he refers to is not that of an unregenerated person but of a Holy Spirit-filled conscience. Bold in approaching God and perfect in his communion with Him, the Apostle’s regenerated conscience give him no reproach. He does everything according to it. Never does he do anything that his conscience objects to, nor does he ever permit one item to remain in his life which it condemns. He is therefore bold before God and man. We lose our confidence when our conscience is murky. The Apostle always took pains to have a clear conscience toward God and toward men (Acts 24:16), for if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him( I John 3:21-22)”