“Trainees should remain to be trained.”
This was Brother Jacinto Chua’s opening word
at the culminating meeting of the 39th term of the
Full-time Training in Malabon last April 1, 2006.
He said, “For us to be such we need five things:
our living must be restricted; the church life must
become our habit; our living must be simple; our
living must be for the Lord; and we must always
exercise our spirit.
The meeting showed the value of training through
the trainees’ overflow of enjoyment, trainers
and elders’ ex-pressed burden, trained ones’
shared experiences, and parents’ deep appreciation
for the training.
The elders fellowshipped first and gave crucial
points to consider: we must have Christ revealed
in us. Christ is our life and we must live in Christ
and be restricted in our living. We need to see
that we have been terminated on the cross and serve
not according to what we have or who we are. In
God’s eyes nothing else matters but Christ.
Hence, we must not dispense anything other than
Christ and must be filled only with Christ. The
end result will be the increase of Christ in every
member of the church.
Then, a word from the parents followed. One of
the parents testified of how thankful she is to
the Lord for having a son who joined the full-time
training and has the desire to serve the Lord. She
considers it as a tremendous blessing. She encouraged
other parents by saying, “If there are those
who want to be trained among our children, we must
have full understanding and consideration for them….
We need to see that this training is eternal. We
just simply give our children to the Lord and trust
in Him…”
Afterward, a co-worker couple pointed out that
if we really mean business with the Lord we need
to be faithful in every aspect that even in choosing
a partner in life, it is very important to do so
with view of God’s economy. The best test
of compatibility is if both have the same heart
for the Lord’s work.
There was also some exhortation from two former
trainees. They realized that to be trained is to
become more use-ful in the Lord’s hand. They
are hopeful that the graduates upon their return
to their respective localities will apply things
learned in the training. (For the details, please
see the section Life After the Training on page
6)
The trainees of the 39th term were then given opportunity
to share what they have enjoyed from their classes.
The Nazarites tackled our life of service. Our service
is not a matter of method or activity but of person
and character. It is not a responsibility but an
outflow of our enjoyment of the Lord. For our service
to be in line with God’s economy we need to
see and keep the vision of the Body, experience
a thorough breaking and killing of the cross, and
serve in coor-dination.
The FT1 class enjoyed the book of Hebrews. Our
God is a God of the Hebrews, the river-crossers.
We, like Noah, Abraham, and the children of Israel,
have crossed over and we are now on the other side
called God’s kingdom. And so, we are today’s
Hebrews. May we be constantly such—crossing
rivers after rivers, passing from oldness into newness,
from death into life, all the days of our lives
until the Lord’s return.
They also enjoyed their character class and mentioned
how our character is just like a bowl to contain
soup, the di-vine life. No matter how delicious
the soup is, we can never enjoy it if the bowl is
broken. This means that our useful-ness in the Lord
depends on how proper our character is. In ourselves
we are not proper that is why we need to turn to
our mingled spirit where our Lord Jesus is and take
Him as our person.
The FT2 class shared on Colossians 3:16 “Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly….”
Everyone must have a normal Christian life filled
with the riches of Christ found in His word. We
must allow His word to inhabit us richly. The training
allows us to see much light, much truth, and gain
much life.
The FTA class stressed on our need to serve the
Lord in a living way instead of in the traditional
way. The tradi-tional way favors man’s fallen
nature and results only in death. Hence, we must,
by the Spirit, overcome this old way and take the
new living way, which recovers the function of all
the members and builds the Body up.
Likewise, the FTA class shared on the book of Colossians.
Christ is the all-inclusive One, the allotted portion
of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the
Firstborn of all creation, the Firstborn from the
dead, the One in whom all the fullness was pleased
to dwell, the mystery of God’s economy, the
reality of all positive things, the life and the
con-stituent of the new man. Oh, what a Christ have
we! We must not let ourselves be distracted by anything
from this Christ.
As the training is for the entire Body of Christ,
there were also seven trainees from other countries
(Korea, Myan-mar, Vietnam, and Cambodia). Their
experiences have increased their love for Christ
and the church and have opened their eyes more to
see the one Body, the one New Man in Christ. They
pray that all would see a controlling vision of
the Body of Christ, that all would know the Body,
see the Body, and live in the Body. Indeed the built-up
Body of Christ is the goal of God’s economy
and as such it is the goal of the training as well.
Finally, the meeting concluded with a word on the
Lord’s charge in Matthew 28:19— “Go
therefore and disciple all the nations baptizing
them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit.” To be a disciple is to be
a learner. To learn something is to enjoy that thing.
We as the Lord’s disciples are the enjoyers
of the Triune God. As we preach the gospel and disciple
people, our goal is to get people to enjoy the Lord.
As we baptize them, our goal is not only to immerse
them into the water but more so into the Triune
God Himself. Such is our commission. As Brother.
Romeo Tolentino said, “Therefore, love, serve,
and gain the Lord continually.”
Arlenn May Redillas
Church in Dapitan
Puerto Princesa City, Palawan—About 251 saints
from 11 represented churches of Palawan were gathered
in a special provincial conference from April 14
to 16, 2006.
The first two days of the conference were filled
with much enjoyment as the elders from Palawan and
saints from Pasay and Quezon City echoed the eight
messages on Taking the Way of Shepherding to Preach
the Gospel and Revive the Church*, which were given
in the recent training for elders, responsible ones
and serving ones held in Baguio City from April
7 to 9, 2006. On the third and final day, Brothers
Ron Kangas (USA) and Robert Lim (Canada) gave an
unprece-dented message that brings together two
significant burdens in the Lord’s recovery
today—shepherding and building—placing
in all the saints one unique and glorious goal.
No other conclusion could have been more fitting.
The up-to-date ministry has released much word
concerning the need for shepherding. It has also
released much word on God’s building. Seemingly
we have two burdens; but we must see that these
are not two things. The shepherd-ing of Christ if
for the building of God. The way to God’s
goal is shepherding. Shepherding brings us from
our fallen condition into the building of God.
Psalms 23 is a familiar chapter that gives us a
new light. “Jehovah is my Shepherd; I will
lack nothing.” Because God is the One who
shepherds us, we do not lack anything. Rather, we
have everything. Our Shepherd makes us lie down
in green pastures, which is Christ in resurrection
as the life-giving Spirit. He leads us beside waters
of rest, making us drink of the Spirit as the living
water, restoring our wounded and weary souls. He
guides us on the paths of right-eousness, making
us right with all people and all things. And as
we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we
do not fear. In Christ we do not walk in death itself
but only in its shadow because in Him we are in
resurrection. In the pres-ence of our adversaries,
in the battlefield, He spreads a table for us. So
we might ask, “Are we fighting, or feasting?”
And the answer is, “We fight by feasting!”
And finally, we would dwell in the house of Jehovah
all the days of our lives. By this we see that every
experience of the Lord’s shepherding us would
lead to God’s house, God’s building.
Jacob in his old age was able to say, “God
has shepherded me all my life to this day”
(Gen. 48:15). He fully realized that everything
that had happened to him, both good and bad, was
God’s tender shepherding. Jacob was a man
to whom God revealed the vision of Bethel, the house
of God. Eventually we see that the Lord led Him
to experience the reality of Bethel as he began
to know God as El-bethel, the God of the house of
God. In the book of Exodus, we see that before God
gave the vision of the tabernacle (ch. 25), He first
had to bring the Israelites out of Egypt as a flock
(Ps. 77:20). After Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness
to learn how to shepherd, he received the pattern
for the taberna-cle as a sanctuary for God to dwell.
In John 10 we see the Lord as the Good Shepherd
for the building of the Father’s house in
John 14. The Apostle Peter referred to the saints
both as sheep of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 2:25,
5:4) and as living stones for the building of a
spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Therefore, we can
see clearly that building is accomplished through
shepherding.
But even in the time of the New Jerusalem, the
ultimate and consummated eternal dwelling place
of God and man, the Lord’s shepherding does
not stop. Shepherding not only leads to God’s
building; it also sustains and maintains the building
of God. In the New Jerusalem, the tree of life and
the river of life are still there for our nourishment.
The es-sence of shepherding is nourishing the flock.
Furthermore, verses 16 to 17 of Revelation 7 say,
“They will not hunger any more, neither will
they thirst any more, neither will the sun beat
upon them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in
the midst of the throne will shepherd them and guide
them to springs of waters of life; and God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.” In
eternity, there won’t be any lack, nor pain—only
enjoyment. The Lamb shepherds us into the springs
of waters of life, which is in the very being of
the Triune God.
We must be impressed that the organic shepherding
is for building. God shepherds people with the goal
of unveil-ing and accomplishing His divine building.
Also, just as in the case of Peter, God shepherds
people that they might re-ceive the commission to
shepherd others. May the Lord be merciful to us
and shepherd us, that we might be healthy and be
able to also shepherd someone to be as healthy as
we are, all for the building of God.
Ritchelle Escobin, FTA
Church in Los Baños
*
Full story on the Elders, Responsible Ones, and
Serving Ones’ Training on page 1
