The Local Church

Something Deeper

I was saved in junior high school. I was raised in a Korean missionary denomination and believed that Jesus was God. I often had informal conversations with the Lord during high school. But something deeper began to brew within me during college. I started seeking truth, beauty, and meaning in my life and some semblance of order in the universe. I began to read books pertaining to philosophy and religion during my freshman year. I would constantly buy different books about religion or philosophy that had a paragraph or even a concept that appealed to me; but ultimately they left me hollow.

The Lord sovereignly arranged that I would read the ministry books of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I lived in a dorm during college that was directly across from the Amana Christian Bookstore. During my freshman year, I had to constantly pass the bookstore with its window displaying different Witness Lee and Watchman Nee books. I began to read the books, being attracted to their deeper content and rich truths. I had the distinct sense within my heart that what I was reading expounded the Lord's desire and purpose.

There were several books that really affected me. One was called The Tree of Life by Witness Lee, and another The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by Watchman Nee. I remember reading sections of The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the passenger seat of my family car on an extended drive. I was impressed that someone like Jacob, who was naturally clever in his youth, had finally been broken inwardly by the environmental sufferings in his life.

Eventually, I warmed up to the believers in the local church. It was a slow going process, and for a time I divided my time between the local church and a denomination. However, I had the distinct sense within me that God had uniquely prepared my entire college career and even my entire youth to bring me to my knees in prayer and to meet in the local church. I eventually began meeting with the local church in a stronger way, and felt within me that no other church ministry in Christianity could show the deeper meanings of the Bible as in the local church.

The books of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee do not substitute, but rather enrich and open the hidden gems within the Bible. To me the local church is really a return to the church life revealed in the New Testament. I feel that my entire life, everything within it, has been divinely arranged detail by detail to bring me into the local church and for me to help build up the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-17). Praise the Lord for such a beautiful ministry full of grace and hope for me to experience and enjoy.

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