We live in an age where God has opened up His word and recovered many truths that have been lost throughout the centuries. One of the many things recovered by the Lord is the matter of the church. "Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, cleaning her by the washing of the water in the word." (Ephesians 5:25-26). Because Christ loves the church, so we should love what He loves. The church is composed of all God's regenerated believers throughout the ages. They love God and love His Word. But how can all believers meet practically and have fellowship to gather as one Body? The Bible shows us a principle of having one church in one city in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, where 7 letters were written to 7 churches in 7 cities. They were addressed to the messengers of the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamos, the church in Thyatira, the church in Thyatira, the church in Sardis, the church in Philadelphia, and the church in Laodicea. So we see a principle of one church per city. This is how all the believers can meet practically as a "local church."
So in the church in our respective cities or localities, we can pursue the Lord with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2Tim. 2:22), we can be "fitted together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom we also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit." (Eph. 2:21-22). It is in this kind of living that we can bring our Lord back by being built with other believers. The Christian life is a normal, ordinary human living expressing God's divine attributes in our human virtues. We still go through life like any other human being, yet God becomes the reality, the content, and the purpose of our living. It is not a matter of "imitating" the life of Jesus, but a matter of His divine life working and operating in us, renewing and transforming us so we mature in the divine life and are built up with other members of Christ's Body to consummate the New Jerusalem, (Rev. 21:2), the bride of Christ, to bring Him back.
When I first started reading the Bible at nine years old, the Old Testament was mainly stories to me; and the New Testament was mainly stories of the life of Jesus, but I didn't understand the rest of it, especially the book of Revelation.
A few years later, I started reading some of my father's book on our bookshelves. I remember reading through and being impressed with the book Love Not the World by Watchman Nee.
Later, I began to read more of Watchman Nee's books as well as those of his co-worker Witness Lee. I found that their writings were always based on the Bible, with Bible references embedded within the sentences. Not only were their writings based on the Bible but they helped me to understand my Christian experience. Due to the help I have received from their ministry, the Bible makes sense to me and my Christian life is full of meaning and purpose. The pieces of this great Bible puzzle have been put together for me to see what God is doing today and for eternity.
-S.D.