Due to COVID-19 and disruption to international mail service
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
In the light of this situation we are not able to mail you the books at this time.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 6-3] Let Us Serve God Bearing One Another’s Burden (Galatians 6:1-10)
“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Today’s Scripture passage says that if a brother’s trespass is revealed, we should restore such people in a spirit of gentleness, and examine ourselves. We must first examine our own faith.
In the Christian churches without the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there usually is a set of rules called “Church Discipline.” At such churches, when a member or an officer commits a sin, a tribunal is opened and disciplinary reprimands are issued. So according to the gravity of the offense, in the case of church officers, reprimands such as suspension from office, dismissal, deposition, and expulsion are issued, and in the case of laymen, such censures as admonition, rebuke, suspension from Communion, and expulsion are issued.
While these reprimands may seem appropriate, that is not actually the case. Then, what is the biblical way to deal with the offending brothers? Today’s Scripture passage says that we should “restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” In God’s Church, the gathering of the born-again saints, this is made possible through the faith that the Lord has blotted out all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to restore offenders through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, wish the best for their souls, and also examine ourselves, lest we fall into sin as well.
The Apostle Paul said, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). You and I serve the Lord through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, seek the will of God by this faith, and follow it by faith also. That’s how we serve the Lord by the power given by the Lord. In fact, the burden that we bear for the sake of God’s work is a righteous burden. Although it is not easy for us to serve the Lord and preach the gospel, we must still work hard sharing our burdens, and only then can we fulfill the law of Christ.
The Lord said that each of us should bear his burden. The burden that we should bear here refers to the work of serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In Christ, all of us have certain tasks that each of us must take up and carry out. Since you have received the remission of your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and you have once come into the field of serving this gospel, God is trying to make you into His workers. That’s because whoever is righteous must be God’s worker carrying out His work.
The righteous have a tremendous amount of work to do in serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That’s why the Lord said, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” There indeed are many things that we need to do to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So rather than bearing the whole burden alone, we should share one another’s burden of the gospel, and we should also serve the gospel faithfully from each of our positions.
Our work has now increased even more to serve the gospel of God. When our faith is young, we sometimes wish to live only for ourselves. But once we continue to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we realize that this is not right. When we grow spiritually little by little, we eventually realize that there are many burdens of the gospel that we need to bear. To preach the gospel to other souls, first of all, we need to arm ourselves with faith, to pray, and to pay attention to the works of the gospel carried out in God’s Church. These are the burdens we the born-again have to bear in His Church. Only when we share such burdens with one another can we preach the gospel all over the world.
Like this, unless we live by faith, we cannot preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is why we must bear such burdens assigned to each of us. You must bear the burden of the gospel ministry that God has assigned to you, not release yourselves from your burden. As the Apostle Paul told us to bear one another’s burden, we know that this is what we must do for the spreading of the gospel. We should reflect on the question, “What are the works that God has entrusted to me?” We should each bear our burden willingly; and we should be faithful to our entrusted duties even to the point of death.
God told us to bear one another’s burden, and we must faithfully complete the work assigned to each of us. Unless we do so, all the works that God has entrusted to us will be ruined. I am sure that if we unite our hearts to this evangelical mission, anyone of us, no matter who, will be able to carry out his assigned duties. Those who offered their lives to the Lord are filled with happiness and pride whenever they finish their entrusted works.
If you really know the will of God even just a little, then whether you are students, adults, housewives, or youths, you will not say, “I have nothing assigned to me.” So I am sure that in our Church, there is no one who can say, “I have nothing to do, since there is nothing entrusted to me.” Why would there be no work for you to take up and carry out, if you have indeed received the remission of sin and are leading your lives of faith in God’s Church? As a matter of fact, there is so much work in God’s Church that is waiting to be carried out by those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We need to examine ourselves to see if we are now living for God’s gospel. As the Bible says here to us to bear one another’s burdens, each of us must examine God’s work. We must reflect on what it is that God has assigned to us, and we each must examine ourselves to see whether or not we are indeed faithful to our entrusted work. When we do God’s work, rather than carrying it reluctantly only because we have to, we should willingly and by faith carry out the duties that God has assigned to us.
Long ago, while reading Matthew 3:13-17, I met the Lord of Truth by the grace of God. I realized at that time, “The Lord has saved me like this by being baptized and taking upon the sins of the world once and for all. But, what about all these Christians? None of them knows this gospel Truth!” So, at that very moment, I prayed to God, “Father, give me the strength to preach the gospel all over the world.” There was no turning back from then on; I never gave up serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Of course, there were many crises that hindered me in serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but I have preached this gospel ceaselessly time after time. The reason why I have done so is because I knew that God had burdened me with the duty to proclaim this genuine gospel to the end.
I knew that if I were to free myself from the burden of preaching and serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit, countless people behind me would all be destroyed. So even though I was heavily persecuted, I could still preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit unshaken. Sometimes I was slapped, and other times I was heaped with insults for no reason, but despite all this, I could never give up preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s precisely because God has entrusted me with this burden that I have been bearing the burden of preaching the gospel. Whether in good times or bad times, I have never been able to bring myself to abandon this work of serving the gospel. That is why I still continue to preach this true gospel even now.
Sometimes, I also was tempted in my mind to compromise with Christians who were not born again. When my born-again faith was very young, I even thought I should just give up, asking myself, “Couldn’t I mingle with the worldly Christians and still preach this genuine gospel by myself?” But this was nothing more than a brief, passing carnal thought. The Holy Spirit did not leave me alone in my former denomination. My friends and acquaintances of my former denomination made a great fuss about my secession. No matter how they extended their tempting hands, I did not reunite with them.
In fact, there is no reason why we the born-again can’t succeed in the world. Since we have been born again of water and the Spirit, and God is therefore now really our Father, what is there to prevent us from becoming the best in the world? I thought I could become the head of my former denomination and even the head of all Christian communities, if I returned to the community of Christian sinners. However, even if I could become a first-rate elite in the world, I could not give up serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I could never do that. Even though we may be carrying out the smallest of all works in God’s Church, we are still happier than the powerful, the wealthy, and the famous in the world.
Just as I have a burden entrusted by God, so is there God’s burden entrusted to each of you. We must bear each of our burdens. If we take up the burden of Christ, He will help us and bless us. However, if we instead take off our burdens, the Lord will neither help us nor accept us. If we don’t serve the gospel, God will take away our wisdom and understanding to grasp His Word. He will take away all our blessings.
Rather than saying, “I can’t do God’s work because of so and so,” we should examine God’s work and find a service that we can do and carry it out. If you are a student, this is what you should do: you should obviously study hard, but whenever there is an opportunity, you should preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to your friends. There are many students who feel life is empty. Adolescents are old enough to be contemplative, and so some teenagers reflect on the meaning of life seriously. I am not too sure about today’s teens, but in my time, I felt the emptiness of life when I entered puberty at around 15. “Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why must I live?” Such questions begin to be contemplated deeply when kids are in junior high or high school. Of course, some kids don’t contemplate that deeply, but most kids usually come to think about such questions once they reach 12.
If there is anyone who doesn’t consider these questions, he is a rather peculiar person. We might as well consider him to belong to the pig species. Those who do not want to turn into such pigs that are only too happy to oink when fed, but are all of a sudden dragged to the slaughter house one day, must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by the born-again. There is a time when people come to seriously wonder about their next world and think about their souls, and in times like this, if only the righteous lead them just a bit, their souls can receive the remission of their sins. That is why the born-again students should also preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their friends.
Don’t say in God’s Church, “I don’t have anything to do.” When there is so much to do in God’s Church, how can you say that you alone have nothing to do? As we listen to the Word of God, lend our ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit, believe in the Word, and grow in faith, we come to realize God’s purpose in calling us. And once we understand this will, we willingly take up and carry out the work of the gospel. This is how we bear our burdens. There is no one among us who doesn’t have such burdens.
Everyone has his own burden. The Apostles also had burdens. Our ministers all have burdens as well. Each and every one of us has a burden, from the young to the old, men and women alike, teens and kids in the Sunday school. The only difference is the amount of the work with which each has been entrusted, and each born-again person has his burden.
When your faith is young, it can be a burden for you to even come to God’s Church and listen to the Word of God. But you must bear this burden. Listening to the Word of God is an extremely important work that we all have to do. The Lord said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).
There is so much to do in God’s gospel. When we are carrying out a certain work of God, we always think, “When this work is done, let’s take a break and rest a bit.” But once we finish this work, there is more work waiting for us, and so we have to work even more than before. My fellow believers, while we are serving the Lord, the burden of service actually increases more and more. However, when we bear the Lord’s burden, the Lord bears the burden with us, and so our burden is light. Because the Lord helps us, our burdens are sufficiently bearable even as they keep increasing.
Recently we did a complete upgrade of our website in order to accommodate more visitors to our site. Many workers worked day and night for months at this project. That’s because not only the English site had to be upgraded, but everything had to be translated and upgraded into more than 20 languages. As a result, we now have more visitors coming to our website and surfing our materials. All our labor to this day has not been done in vain.
Because each of us has born his burden like this, we have seen many spiritual fruits. As we each have born one another’s burdens and fulfilled our roles from each of our positions, we have published many gospel books, and we are now sharing them all over the world. Because we have translated the gospel books of the water and the Spirit into many different languages of the world and put them up on our website in paper books and e-books, people all over the world can download our e-books and request paper versions as well.
It’s precisely because we work united together that the gospel is spreading with such a tremendous success. Lately we’ve had many Germans coming to our site. If twenty of our workers personally went to Germany to minister there, could we have accomplished even one-tenth of what we have accomplished through the Internet in spreading the gospel? No, we could never have accomplished there as much as what we have accomplished here in Korea through the Internet.
There still are too many countries where the gospel of the water and the Spirit has not yet entered. Even though the amount of our work is different for each of us, all of us have so much work to do. We can’t even afford to rest on the Lord’s Day, although we all wish we could rest even for just one day a week, and the reason for this is because we cannot fail to fulfill each of our tasks and allow the spreading of the gospel slow down. If we fulfill each of our tasks from whatever position we have been assigned, we will be able to swiftly fulfill the will of God to proclaim the gospel all over the world. If only we have enough financial resources, we can translate our books into every language, and if only we are diligent, we can spread the gospel faster to every nation throughout the whole world.
God said that anyone who assigns God’s work to His laborer should be diligent himself. Someone who is lazy himself can never inspire other workers to do God’s work. He who assigns God’s work must himself be even more diligent to inspire other workers. When those who work under him are asleep, he has to prepare their work beforehand and then assign it. Since he who delegates God’s work to others must assign things to do, he has so much to do. Anyone who has received the remission of sin has so many tasks to carry out.
We also need people who pray for us. During today’s hour of worship, a deacon prayed on our behalf. He prayed for all our workers laboring in each nation, from the United States to China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia, for our coworkers all over the world, and for the lost souls in every nook and cranny of the world. Like this, if we were to pray for each and every nation, there is indeed so much to pray. I know and believe that it is never in vain when our saints thus pray and ask God’s help for our ministers, for the lost souls, and for each and every nation. I believe that God will infallibly answer their prayers to work and help us.
There must be the saints who are praying for the spreading of this genuine gospel. So if you think you have nothing else you can do, all that you have to do is pray. Prayers are tremendously important. It’s also because of this that we must continue to hold Morning Prayer Meetings in the Church.
To be honest, I am so busy with the actual ministry that I don’t have enough time to pray to God that much. Even when I pray, it’s usually when I am together with our workers, and my prayers are in a broad context, rather than being more specific and detailed. It’s precisely because I myself am unable to pray a lot that I need those who would pray for me. The Apostle Paul also asked such prayers saying, “Pray for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). Those who pray should pray faithfully, and those who actually go out to work should faithfully carry out their assigned works. This is how we can each bear our own burdens.
All of us must be faithful at the task that has been assigned to each of us. We can’t just do a half-hearted job and say that’s enough, for we are working before God by faith. God’s work is something that must be done with the dedication of all our lives. If we cannot achieve something even when we mobilize everything and every means, then we must ask for God’s help and still carry it out.
Are there those among you who say, “I was very busy when I was in my former church, but now that I entered in God’s Church after being saved from my sins, there is nothing to do.” If you feel as though there is nothing for you to do after coming into God’s Church, then this is what you should do: First of all, you must attend worship service and listen closely to the Word; and secondly, you should participate in whatever the Church is doing, even if it’s just running errands. All of us must carry out the task entrusted to each of us. Only when we are all faithful to each of our tasks can God’s work be fulfilled successfully. Once we personally start doing God’s work, we will realize how there is so much to do.
While some people in God’s Church have too much to do, others, on the other hand, have too little to do. Therefore, as your faith grows, you must follow your predecessor of faith; whatever they do, you must unite with them. And you must do everything out of your own volition. This is how you come to learn about God’s work, learn about faith in the Lord, and serve the Lord. And to those who faithfully carry out their tasks, another task is entrusted to them to continue to carry out God’s work.
That Is Why We Must Bear Each Other’s Burdens of Serving the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
You and I must remember the Word that we should bear one another’s burdens. Today’s Scripture passage says, “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load” (Galatians 6:3-5).
God said that he who is taught the Word should share in all good things with he who teaches. And God also said that if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself. “Is my faith really proper? Do I really believe in God and rely on Him, and have I set my whole heart for the Lord? Am I following wherever the Lord leads me, separated from the world? Am I by any chance trying to live only for myself, with my heart still not separated? Is my faith really upright? Am I really a worker before God? Have I really become God’s servant?” You must examine yourselves to answer such questions.
The Bible said that if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, then he is deceiving himself. Although we are leading a life of faith, when we examine ourselves before God, we see that there really are many aspects that still remain unchanged. When we contemplate on ourselves to see if we wholly believe in the Lord, if we are indeed living with Him, and if we have indeed been glorified with Him, we see that this is not actually the case in many ways. Before God, we must learn the Truth that leads us to the knowledge of His righteousness. To do so, we must remove dross from our hearts, and we must follow the Lord by faith, step by step. When we reflect ourselves on the Word before God, we need to examine ourselves to see whether or not our faith is proper. And we must become men and women of faith to teach many more people.
Paul said, “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches” (Galatians 6:6). This is only too proper. Those who teach the Word of God must themselves also believe in God’s Word and follow it, precisely because they are in charge of this very important duty of teaching the Word. Those who are taught should also believe in everything God said, and follow it uniting their hearts with those who teach them.
The Apostle Paul then went on to say here, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). God told us that He is not mocked. This means that we shouldn’t think we are able to somehow deceive God. If we pretend as if our faith is all grown up, when in fact it is not, God knows it all.
God says, “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). It is said that he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. In other words, even after being born again, we the born-again continue to do both the work of the flesh and the work of the Spirit, and we will reap whatever we sow. Sometimes, out of the insufficiencies of our flesh, we sow the things of the flesh. However, if we continue to serve the Lord by faith and labor for the Lord, then this is sowing to the Spirit. When we continue to serve the gospel in various ways, the gospel will continue to be proclaimed all over the world, and there will be many more people receiving the remission of their sins. So while there may be perishable things in our lives, there also are nonperishable things that last forever. Saving the souls of people through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this is the spiritual work that reaps the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is by carrying out such spiritual works that we reap the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
We know that the Lord spoke what is patently obvious and self-evident. If we serve this gospel now, we will infallibly bear spiritual fruits, but if we do not serve the gospel now, then we will only bear the fruits of the flesh that will perish away. In other words, the type of fruit that we bear is determined depending upon what it is that we serve after receiving the remission of our sins.
We Are Now Carrying Out a World Mission
There are now many people in this world who believe in and follow the true gospel of the water and the Spirit. We know that there also are many from whom we haven’t heard yet, but nonetheless still believe in this the gospel of the water and the Spirit with their hearts. There also are those who, although unsure for now, will eventually join us in the line of martyrs on the last day, make the same confession of faith as ours, and embrace martyrdom with us.
If we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them now, then we will reap the true fruit of the Holy Spirit, but if we otherwise do not preach the gospel to them, then there will be no fruit of salvation to reap. How can a farmer expect to harvest any crop in the fall, without first sowing the seed in the spring? The same principle applies to spiritual affairs. It’s absolutely indispensable for us to live by faith, trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, praying for this gospel, and actually practicing our faith in our everyday life. Even though we are insufficient, God still wants to spread the gospel all over the world through us.
Whenever I travel overseas, I come across many missionaries sent from Korea working at local communities. But whenever they approach us, who have come there to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they give us such a hard time. It’s all too clear that they only pretend to be friendly, hiding their ulterior motive to drive us out from their territories. They should be rejoiced when we tell them that we’ve come there to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they are so suspicious and distrustful toward us. They have so many questions for us, asking when we came, why we came, and what’s our denomination, that it’s as if they were interrogating a criminal. These people do not serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are busy only to spread the names of their own denominations and their own religious founders. They have no interest in preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people and actually saving them. In short, they don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and have nothing to do with it.
Among those renowned for their missionary work overseas, there are many who only spread their own names or their own righteousness. For instance, Livingston, who is often considered as the Saint of Africa, is one of them. He went to the remotest corners in Africa, providing medical services to the sick and taking care of the ill. This is why Africans praised him as a saint. But his ministry had nothing to do with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Bible says, “He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:6). I believe that those who labor today for the gospel of the water and the Spirit will reap the fruits of everlasting life. We must labor for these works and share God’s burden with one another. We really need to offer ourselves to God’s work. If we become God’s kernels of wheat and wholly dedicate ourselves to the Lord, then countless people will be saved through what we do. Unless we preach the gospel, people all over the world will die without being born again.
Although we are not actually present everywhere in the world, we will still preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world through our literature. Even though it’s very hard and difficult, we will fulfill everything that God has now entrusted to us. Then, the days of trouble will come soon. When the world really turns too hard and we are no longer able to preach the gospel, on that day we will dance, feast, and jump in joy. And when the hour of martyrdom comes, we will be martyred willingly, hoping for the Kingdom of God and filled with the Spirit. We will shout out, “Kill me sooner than later. I want the Lord’s Kingdom to come sooner!”
My fellow believers, those who have actually dedicated all their hearts to the Lord in their lives do not fear martyrdom. Do you think I’m lying? Death, my fellow believers, is of course a terrifying prospect when viewed in carnal terms. But when we look at it from a spiritual point of view, it is nothing to be feared. We do not fear death precisely because we have hope for the next world.
At this time, when we are still able to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, let us live diligently for this gospel. And let us sow many seeds for the gospel. We cannot stop now at this point. Our finish line is still far away. There still are some countries where people do not even know what Christianity is. Such places are so underdeveloped as well. And the people there are too ignorant of God.
When I visited Mongolia a few years ago, I asked someone about God, and he told me that God was Buddha. In other words, Mongolians have the concept of God as Buddha. Their concept of deity is not defined by the word God, but by Buddha, and they believe that Buddha is the almighty deity. We have to let them hear about the real God, Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to restore the name of God, His position and place, and His power back to God from this Buddha that has replaced Him. We should teach them that while Buddha is just a man, God is the real God who made the entire universe and everything in it. That’s why there is so much that we must do.
Just as a farmer does not harvest his crop with a moment’s labor, so must we also cultivate the fields of the human mind to harvest their salvation step by step. A farmer plows the field, sows the seed, fertilizes the land and when sprouts grow, weeds the field, and removes the pests—only then can he harvest in the fall. Likewise, we also sow the seed of the gospel according to the times, remove the weeds of fallacious doctrines, give the fertilizer of the Word in due time, and in doing so, we nurture the born-again to grow into God’s children and His workers. That is why we must preach the gospel and nurture the saints as well. We must preach the gospel even to obscure countries, and to do so, we must pray for them, put our financial resources toward this ministry and labor for it, and also send our workers there to minister.
Those in Korea should work diligently to secure financial resources and provide enough support to the gospel. Even in the military, there are different types of troops, from combat troops to supply troops. In times of war, the supply troops provide the combat troops with equipment provisions, while the combat troops use these supplies to go into battle and fight. Likewise, to spread the gospel all over the world, there must be workers who minister personally to preach the gospel, other workers who offer financial resources, and still other workers who pray for the spreading of the gospel.
There is so much work of God that we actually must do. We are facing a very critical juncture now, and if we just give up here and now, nothing will be accomplished. When we send our books to each nation in its own language, and nurture and foster our coworkers, many souls will be saved. There is no time for us to just sit around idle doing nothing. We each must take up our burdens and work while we are still able to carry out God’s work. There is so much to do.
We sought to preach the gospel to the countries of Indochina such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, but we were told that it’s still not possible to preach the gospel freely in these countries, as they all had been communist countries until only recently. How can we then preach the gospel to such countries? It would be a very effective way to seek out the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who have come to Korea as migrant laborers, teach them the gospel of the water and the Spirit, make them disciples, and send them back to their home countries. Like this, God will give us opportunities to serve the gospel in various ways as long as we want to serve this genuine gospel wholeheartedly.
I fully agree with what Paul said in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Paul told us that we should do good and labor diligently. If we serve this gospel diligently, pray, and do not grow weary, we will reap in due season. In other words, we will reap if we are diligent.
You’ve probably heard many times how people all over the world are sending us letters of gratitude to tell us of their salvation. Could we have harvested these people, if we had not preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit? It’s because we have published and sent our gospel books that we are able to reap such fruits of salvation in joy. Someone even confessed that while he had been studying theology all his life, one of our books alone had more influence on him than everything he had read until then.
Paul said, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). As promised in this passage, if we diligently carry out the work of the gospel, we will harvest abundant fruits of faith. We have to do God’s work diligently when there is still a chance.
Paul went on to say, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). And the born-again should be attentive to their fellow born-again brothers and sisters. We should teach them, “We the born-again must live by faith,” pray for them and lead them to live by faith, and if they need our help, we should help them. If it’s to preach the gospel, it’s okay for the born-again to be attentive to their family members. But it is not right for them to be so sacrificial just for their family members’ physical benefit.
We have to serve the gospel and preach it at every opportunity. Time passes by relentlessly, but what are we really doing? What have we done? And what should we continue to do in the days to come? We should consider ourselves lest we waste precious time in vain. We will put even more e-books on our website and work even harder, so that everyday over 10,000 people all over the world would download our books.
Unlike in the past, when people used to travel in ships and ride horses, we can go anywhere we want on this planet in a blink of the eye. The whole world has shrunk. This is the ideal time when we can spread the gospel dynamically. We are now able to work for the whole world. My fellow believers, I am not saying this to complain that you are not working hard enough. Rather, I am saying this because you and I need to share the burden of Christ, and I would like all of us to think about how we can do this.
To this very day, all of you have borne heavy burdens, but you should not lose heart. Instead, you should continue to carry the burden of the gospel and preach it throughout the whole world until the day our Lord returns. Soon, the day will come when we are unable to preach the gospel. So let us all bear each of our burdens now for the sake of the gospel, at this hour when we are able to still preach.
Do you feel that your present burden is already heavy enough, and yet you are now being asked to bear even more burdens? Do you find this too untenable and too hard to bear that you wish you could just take them all off? The burden of the Lord is a mysterious burden; the more we bear, the more we are strengthened, thus enabling us to bear it all. If the burden is too much for us to bear, the Lord will bear it in our place, and so even if the Lord’s burden increases, it does not get any heavier for us. The burden of the Lord is such that the more we bear it, the lighter it becomes; however, if we take it off, the burden of the world will weight us down heavily.
I give all my thanks to our Lord. We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have put on the glory that enables us to bear the Lord’s burden. Hallelujah!
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