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Love
Of
Vietnam
Expressed
By
Helping the poor and
needy
Web page:
www.loveofvietnamexpressed.org |
(1 John 3:16-18 NKJV) By
this we know love,
because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
lay down our
lives for the brethren.
But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his
brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the
love of God abide
in him? My
little children, let us not
love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
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Search the Scriptures
by Watchman Nee p26-30
To have our
body full of light we are told by the Lord of one condition,
which is, that our eye must be single. What is meant by
singleness of eye? Though we have two eyes, the focus is one;
for both eyes look at the same thing simultaneously. Suppose a
person has eye trouble. Instead of being single, the two eyes
produce two foci, thus seeing two things concurrently though
seeing neither clearly. For the eyes to see anything accurately
there can be but one focus, never two. Now in order to receive
light, the matter of whether the eyes can see or not is as much
a problem as whether there is light. There will be no light if
we have not received grace and mercy; but light is already in us
if we have received grace and mercy. So our difficulty now is
not concerned with light but with the eyes. If the eyes be evil,
light will not be manifested. Unfortunately the eyes of many are
not single; they see two things instead of one thing or see one
thing as two things. As a consequence light is either dim in
their lives or else they are totally in darkness. "No man can
serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other"
(v.24). The reason many cannot see light is because of their
eyes being evil, which in turn is due to their lack of
consecration before God. What is consecration? Consecration
means: I will serve the Lord alone. A man cannot serve two
masters. If he respects the one he will despise the other. If he
hates the one he will love the other. It is absolutely
impossible to serve two masters well. There is no way to strike
a balance. No one can serve the Lord on the one hand and serve
mammon on the other. Sooner or later he who serves two masters
will encounter this dilemma. And he will finally come to love
the one and hate the other. If a person does not consecrate
himself' fully to the Lord he will be serving mammon wholly. The
Lord insists that the eyes need to be single, which means that
our service and our consecration must be single. The singleness
of a man's eyes expresses itself in the singleness of his
service.
May God enable us to see this basic principle: that if we wish
to study the Bible, to understand its teaching and to acquire
the revelation therein, we have a responsibility before the
Lord, which is, that we must consecrate ourselves absolutely and
entirely to the Lord. Then shall we be able to see the light in
the Scriptures. Whenever our consecration becomes doubtful, our
vision becomes unclear. If our seeing becomes clouded our
consecration must be faulty. Let us thoroughly learn that a man
cannot serve two masters. The other master is called mammon.
What this term represents is riches or wealth. How the light of
the Bible is impaired by mammon! Owing to the veil that is put
on by mammon, many are not able to see the light in the Bible.
They do not see the truth of
the Word because they have this problem of mammon in them.
They will not deny themselves
the pursuit of wealth when they find the truth in conflict with
their personal gain. If people could lay aside their
personal gain or loss and pursue after the truth at whatever
cost, they would quite naturally come to know the Bible. But due
to the problem of mammon remaining unsolved, many have
compromised the teaching of the
Bible. Were
Christians to have mammon fully dealt with, the number of those
obeying God would be greatly increased. For this reason, then,
we need to take this warning to heart, for whenever we become
careless and care somewhat for our own se1fish gain, the light
of God will immediate1y be veiled. In order to see light we must
not serve mammon. We cannot
have two interests – our own as wel1 as God’s. We can
only consider one interest, which is God's. If we intrude our
own interest we will instantly have two masters, and our eyes
will not be single. The
double-minded is unable to know the Bible; he who wishes
to preserve his own interest is automatically disqualified. Only
the single-eyed can truly study the Bible. How can our eyes be
single? "Where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also"
(v.21). This is quite singular: that if we are able to control
mammon, we shall be helped instead of harmed by it. Our heart
naturally loves mammon. It is quite difficult for us to incline
our heart towards God and not towards gain. Yet if we could
control our wealth, we would also control our heart. We should
therefore learn to send out our treasure. For the Lord says here
that "where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also."
When one dispatches his
treasure to the Lord's side, his heart will just naturally
gravitate to the Lord. By sending his treasure to heaven
the believer sends his heart to heaven as well. Where our
treasure is, there will be our heart. So by surrendering all to
God our heart will spontaneously be all towards Him. And thus
shall our eyes be single.
For us to understand the Bible we need to have a perfect
consecration. How can our heart be inclined towards God if there
is no consecration? Consecration produces a special action; that
is, it sends our heart to God. When we consecrate our all to Him
our heart cannot help but go to Him, because our treasure has
already been dispatched there. Two different situations may
happen at consecration: one person's heart may go first, whereas
another
person's heart may follow afterwards. Some are moved in their
heart before they
consecrate, while others consecrate and are then moved in their
heart. Regardless what our heart condition may be, let us
consecrate ... Let us send
forth the thing we are most reluctant
to part with. In the
name of the Lord, let it be dispatched to the needy. As
we send it off, our heart will go to the Lord's side. When all
things are sent to His side, our eyes spontaneously turn single.
As the eyes become single they begin to see clearly and are then
able to be enlightened. "Thy whole body", says the Lord, "shall
be full of light" (v.22). What is meant by having the whole body
full of light? It means having sufficient light to teach our
feet to walk, our hands to work, and our mind to think. In other
words, we have light on all sides. Light will flood our emotion,
our will, our mind, our love, our walk, and our way. No area
about us remains unseen if our eyes are single. We have already
stated that only the spiritual can study the Bible. We will now
add that only the consecrated can know the Bible. Except a
person is consecrated, he will never be able to study the Word
well. When he reads the Scriptures he will encounter this or
that area where he has not yet consecrated, and darkness will be
upon him. As he reads on, he will be confronted with more
unconsecrated areas and more darkness. With darkness upon him,
he is incapable of obtaining anything from God. And hence it
behooves him to be absolute before God. He cannot serve the Lord
on the one hand and expect to go his own way on the other.
Someone may say: I really want to know the will of God, but I
just do not know what the Bible teaches on this matter. That is
his excuse; it is not true. He knows not because he has no
desire to go the Lord's way. If he truly-wishes to walk in the
way of the Lord he shall see the path clearly marked out ahead
of him. Only one kind of people is unclear—those whose eyes are
not single.
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