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Brought Into Life and Truth, Into Christ and the Church – Mark Lupo topTop

I grew up in the pleasant little town of Northport, New York on the Long Island Sound. I had caring parents and a sister just one year younger than I was, so my home life was the best one could hope for. I attended an excellent public school system, got high grades and participated in numerous extracurricular activities, especially in the area of music. One reason for my academic success was that I was always interested in learning about the world around me, including nature, the universe, and the history and culture of other countries. My mother was a godly woman who led me to believe in God, to revere the name of Jesus Christ, and to diligently practice the religion that our family had been in for generations.

It seemed like I had everything. However, something was missing and I could not place my finger on it. I rarely would dwell on that lack. I was too busy anyway, with all of the activity in school and in the family. The bus ride to Boston to attend MIT in 1975 was a time in which I gave much consideration as to where I had been and where I was going. My first full day on campus I met an upperclassman who impressed me. He said he was a Christian, and he carried a copy of the New Testament in his pocket. He spoke about the Lord Jesus in an experiential way and I realized that he had what I was missing. He shared the gospel with me, but I could not understand his message. It was too different from my religious background, and I was veiled to his words.

A few days later I saw him again and he shared with me from John 4 concerning the woman at the well and how Jesus is thirsty. I was amazed to see that something I could do (receive the Lord) could satisfy His thirst. Later that day, the upperclassman helped me to open to the Lord and pray. I really touched the Lord with that simple prayer and I felt a real liberation within. My whole life changed on that Labor Day in 1975. Later I realized that I had received the Lord Jesus and that He now dwelled in me as the Life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In the ensuing weeks, the upperclassman and some other believers visited me in my dorm room. We would get into the gospel of John, sing some hymns and fellowship concerning this wonderful Christ who was no longer like a historical figure, but was now so real to me. The brothers bought me a paperback Bible, the first I had ever owned, and I began to read it.

The following January, I came to my first meeting of the church in Boston. That meeting contained a message from Genesis concerning Noah and how what he built was God’s building, God’s testimony at that time. I saw that the local churches are God’s testimony and His building today. After struggling with the matter of my background and the religion I had grown up in, I followed the Lord as He led me into the church life. Week after week, I went to the old meeting hall in Brookline and heard one rich Life Study message after another on Genesis. I had the peace deep within that the local churches were God’s desire and that I was home there. I began to tell my friends, and by the time I graduated four years later, there were six others in my dorm meeting with the church in Boston.

Eventually, I found out that the messages on Genesis I was hearing were from the ministry of Witness Lee. I also discovered that Witness Lee had given a training on John in the summer of 1975 and that the upperclassman that led me to the Lord had attended. The word that finally helped me to understand the message of the gospel was actually from Witness Lee. I began to save my spending money in order to buy the books by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. I also began to attend the semiannual trainings on the Life Study of the Old and New Testaments. Over the years, I have been enjoying the church life. I also enjoy knowing my human spirit and being able to contact Christ all day long. The ministry of Witness Lee has been a big blessing to me, bringing me in touch with the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit, bringing me into the proper church life on the ground of oneness, and bringing me into life and truth.

Home at Last – Jenny Farmer topTop

I touched the church when I was attending the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill my junior year in nursing school. Twenty-five dear believers that year had moved from Massachusetts to Raleigh, North Carolina, to meet as the local church in Raleigh. One of the sisters was in the nursing program at UNC and had begun to have fellowship with me. I had a strong touch with the Lord two years prior to our meeting and felt led to become a nurse, study Hebrew, then go to Israel to preach the gospel to the Jews. However, the Lord had something else in mind. He opened the door for me to go to nursing school, then, in His timing; He introduced me to this sister in the local church. It took several months for me to accept His direction as I had my own concepts about how I was to serve the Lord.

After going to a gospel meeting with her and reading a Life Study by Witness Lee on Exodus, I had the realization that these people were seeking Christians. I had never read anything so impressive. Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, which typifies the world. Their crossing the Red Sea, burying all their past and worldliness, and going into the wilderness to follow the Lord reminded me of what I had gone through. I had answered an “altar call” when I was nine years old. I can remember the Lord being very near to me. But, because there was no way to go on, I became rebellious in my teenage years, defying authority and anyone that tried to discipline me. At age 18 the Lord took my mother away. I never got over it. My life was a series of failures after that. Because of my mistakes, eventually the Lord allowed my ex-husband to have custody of our two children. Loosing all self esteem, I hit bottom that year. But the Lord’s great mercy reached me two years later. I didn’t know the Lord’s Spirit came in to indwell my human spirit; (I was to learn this later when I touched the local church), but I experienced the Lord within me. I began seeking to find others who had similar experiences. I used to ask the Lord, “Where can I find a group of people who live as if You were here now.” Well, those believers in Raleigh were the people, and the church was the home I had sought for so long.

Attending the meetings of the local church became the greatest joy of my life. I am not here as an individual Christian struggling through life. I have been brought into the experience of God’s family and the one new man, as well as being blessed with the riches of this ministry for twenty years.

Saved, Regenerated and Recovered – J.S. topTop

During my senior year in college two Christians told me how easy it was to be saved and saved I wanted to be. I called on the name of the Lord and asked him to be real to me, to be my personal Lord and Savior, and to live in my heart. Days later I was baptized.

After being saved He became real to me in a way I never knew before, and there was a difference in me that I couldn’t explain. Now I was someone who had a reason for existing, and all my sins were forgiven. Because of this, there were certain things in my life I no longer cared for. All I seemed to care for was to love Christ, to gain Christ, to share Christ. Also I cared for the Bible, the Lord’s table meeting (I Corinthians 10:21), the prayer meetings, the church meetings and the spreading of the gospel. I also enjoyed reading the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

Now, some twenty years later I’m still for Christ and endeavoring to build up the church while awaiting His return.

Christ and the Church – Joe Bruso Jr. topTop

My human life was a puzzle and a painful contradiction. I could see endless beauty in the creation, yet my own experience was mostly failure and disappointment. I sensed that there was pattern and purpose in everything, yet I couldn’t solve the puzzle—what is it all for? As a teenager I heard the gospel and received Christ with joy; but I was very dissatisfied with the social activities and the shallowness of traditional Christianity. I wondered if the church that I read about in the book of Acts existed anywhere on the earth. One day I shared the gospel with a coworker and he came to the Lord. A short time later he met a brother meeting with the local church and went to a meeting. The next day he insisted that I go to a meeting with him, and I did, but I didn’t enjoy it. A few months later, my outward circumstances had collapsed, and I found myself in need of a ride home one Friday night. My coworker offered me a ride and invited me to go to the church meeting with him that night. That night I was attracted to the enjoyment of the singing and calling on the name of the Lord. Soon I was fully involved in meeting with the local church, enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life. I was sure I had found God’s purpose for my life. But before too many months had passed I began to have problems with besetting sins that troubled my conscience and brought me under a cloud of self-condemnation. I was still a young college student, very immature, and I began to fall away from the Lord. Eventually I felt I had to leave the church rather than stay and feel condemned in my own conscience. Years passed in which I tried to forget the Lord and the church. But I couldn’t deny the longing in my being to find the truth. So I tried all sorts of “alternatives”—the world is full of people and things that claim to be “the answer”. But one day the Lord spoke to me inwardly and very clearly “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). I was convicted that I had to submit to Him, but I didn’t want to admit that I had wasted all those years. Then my circumstances collapsed again and I finally gave in and called on His name: “Lord Jesus, I need You”. That was all it took. He came into my life in a real way from that moment. I began to attend meetings of the church in Houston because I knew the Christians there were the most absolute for the Lord of any I had ever met. At first I wasn’t completely comfortable with Witness Lee’s ministry, but before long, through Witness Lee’s ministry, the Lord began to show me that the church is His heart’s desire, and that today He is in the midst of the golden lampstands, caring for the churches (Rev. 1:13). When I received this revelation it caused me to desire to give myself to Christ and the Church. I realized that Witness Lee and Watchman Nee were absolutely one with the New Testament teaching and fellowship of the Apostles (Acts 2:42). Later my eyes were opened to see that the local churches are one with each other not just doctrinally, but in reality, under the headship of Christ, and that together they are the practical expression of the one universal Body of Christ on the earth today (Eph. 1:22-23). This vision fully captured my inner being—I now saw what God was after. A corporate, living Body composed of the many members of Christ, each holding the Head, coordinated together in the Spirit to manifest God in the flesh on the earth for all to see.

A lot of time has passed since then; I’ve gotten married and had a family, bought a house and established my career. The Lord was definitely with me in all of these things. He gave me a dear sister in the Lord for my wife, and four lovely children who are growing in the Lord. But I was more and more occupied with the affairs and cares of this life, and gradually less and less involved in the things of the Lord. Recently I became very dissatisfied with my human life and my Christian life, and I realized that I had drifted away from the Lord and His heart’s desire. Thank the Lord for His great mercy! After much prayer by other Christians and my family, my situation changed again and I was set free from my job. Over the past year, as I have been trying to find work, the Lord has been gradually recovering me back to the knowledge and experience of Himself. I have struggled much with my outward situation, and the Lord has met my need for encouragement and comfort through the dear believers in the Body.

Recently a brother encouraged me to go to a church conference in Europe and there the Lord graciously unveiled to me a further revelation of His heart’s desire, the Church which is His Body. I saw that the lampstands in Revelation chapter one are the exact duplication of the lampstand in the tabernacle in Exodus 25. The Word is clear that in Revelation one the lampstands are the churches and the lampstand in Exodus 25 and Zechariah 4 is a clear type of Christ as the embodiment of God and the light of life. That means that the church today bears the testimony of Jesus. A proper church should only express Christ. The Lord also showed me that He loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her (Eph. 5:25) pouring out God’s own blood (Acts 20:28) to purchase Her (Matt. 13:45-46). This revelation touched me deeply and renewed my love for the Lord and His purpose.

Thank the Lord for His New Testament ministry which is so available through the teaching of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and their faithful coworkers in the Lord’s recovery. In retrospect, my experience is very clear now—the puzzle is solved! Our Father God loves me to such an extent that He has reserved for me His very best. He is unwilling for me to be occupied or satisfied with anything less than His beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So He has allowed me to be confounded in my human experience from time to time so that He can come in to redirect me to Himself. But He is also preparing a Bride for His Son—a corporate Bride, the Church composed of all the dear lovers of Christ. So He is not willing for me to remain just an individual Christian. Again He has allowed the environment to constrain me and bring me to Himself for His further revelation and direction. As one who loves Christ, I must love what He loves and do what He does. He loves the Church and is building His Church (Matt 16:18) for His return. So by His mercy I must forsake my own interests and be blended with the believers locally and universally, and labor in the spread of the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth and in the perfecting of the believers unto the building up of the Body of Christ to the full extent of my measure of the gift of Christ. Today I sense that He is calling His seekers to a new level of consecration, to be willing to give all, to pay a serious price gladly, lovingly, for His satisfaction and for His heart’s desire. And as He shows us more of His eternal purpose, that which is so precious to Him that He went and sold all that He had and bought it, spontaneously He is gaining our whole being. He is so lovely! Lord Jesus I love You! I give myself to You for the carrying out of Your heart’s desire!

Pursuing With Those – Evan Koch topTop

A little about my life as a Christian: I’ve spent most of my life in Texas, but I still tell everyone that I’m from Baton Rouge, LA—that’s where I went to junior and senior high school. Most of my friends in high school were Christians, and I was satisfied with my “Christian life”. I had received the Lord Jesus as my Savior at a much younger age, but as a teenager, I was not very interested in pursuing earnestly after the Lord.

I was very active in school activities and sports. I even graduated as valedictorian of my senior class and as a captain of my high school football team. I was living what I thought was the “American Dream”. I found out quickly, however, that I was really missing a lot in my life. In fact, I was missing the One thing that really matters—I was missing the real, daily experience of Christ Jesus.

I entered college as a freshman at The University of Texas, and I was immediately introduced to a group of believers on that campus who really loved and pursued after the Lord. After so many years of being passive in my relationship with Jesus Christ, I found that I was actually enjoying Him in reading the Bible, in prayer, and through meeting with other Christians. I have been helped—and I am still being helped—in my pursuing after Him “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22)

Filled with Gratitude – A.C. topTop

I was born one of three children to a policeman’s family in Houston, Texas. Although having strong Southern Baptist ties on both sides of the family, we children were rarely encouraged to attend the neighborhood church at the end of the block. Speaking of and about the Lord had little place in our house. However, things changed when I was twelve when my mother was driven to the Lord by my father abandoning her and their subsequent divorce. Soon, night after night, she began having a personal time with the Lord. My seeing this and the difference in her life affected me. The following summer, as the Lord opened my heart at a tent revival, I followed my mother in faith to receive the Lord Jesus’ salvation. Although something truly transpired within me that day and I regularly “attended church” there was little noticeable change in the way I carried out my life. Pursuing the same interests in the same way increasingly bothered me. By my seventeenth year, the notion of the vanity of this brief life along with the continuing disappointment of particular, personal failures weighed heavily upon me. At this point my mother was given a book to bring home by the church librarian. I remember that with great interest I began to read The Breaking of the Outer Man for the Release of the Spirit by the Christian writer Watchman Nee. My inner registration as I read was: “this writer knows something of God’s work in man unlike any person I contacted before.” After an excited reading of this book, I found and read with increasing interest The Normal Christian Life and Sit, Walk, Stand. The following fall I believe the Lord sent a Christian teacher into my senior government class and into my life. This teacher was in the actual enjoyment of the matters I read about from Watchman Nee. In fellowship with this teacher, I found out about the continuing work on the earth initiated by Watchmen Nee and that it had reached the USA, and even Houston. So from that time, under the Lord’s arrangement, the care of this brother in the Lord and other believers’ care, I began meeting with the local church. Later, I found out that a co-laborer with Watchman Nee in China, Witness Lee, was laboring in this country. I began reading his materials and going to conferences where he was the speaker. Later I attended Bible trainings given by him. I benefited profoundly as a young person being able to hear him open up the word of truth. In all these activities I continued to experience this deep inner assurance that I was following those who were really following the Lord. Now after 26 years of exposure to Witness Lee and Watchman Nee’s ministry, I believe the word of truth in the Bible has, to some degree, penetrated my inner being. Over this time the Bible has become to me an unending, unsearchably rich feast as well as an open window displaying a panoramic view of God’s heart’s desire with man. I consider myself, a small brother whose pursuit of the Lord has been too meager, to have been so greatly privileged by the Lord to have been connected to this ministry. Watchman Nee and Witness Lee’s leading and shepherding through the word along with other believers has motivated me to want to seek, gain and follow the Lord Jesus at whatever cost in this age to fulfill His purpose on earth.

Enjoying the Riches of Christ in the Local Churches – Robert & Mary Rhea topTop

I have been enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ in the local church meetings in Houston, Texas since 1972. When my husband and I first came to a church meeting we felt that we were at home even though we did not know the other believers there. The fellowship of these believer, the oneness of the Spirit, and the reality of Christ’s living in the daily life of each one was so refreshing and real, like nothing we had experienced in the denomination which we had faithfully attended for eleven years. What we had seen spoken in the Word, the Bible, we saw lived out in their lives. This was so new and wonderful! I remember telling a friend, “this is so real it is unreal.” After 27 years I can say that I enjoy sweet Christian fellowship in the local churches because the oneness here is based upon the faith of the Lord Jesus Himself and every word of God as written in the Bible.

My husband and I have continued our schooling, gotten our Master’s degrees, and are both university professors. We have raised four children, and they all love the Lord and are living dedicated Christian lives. Two have their college degrees and two are still in college. Our two oldest are married and we have five wonderful grandchildren. We feel our children’s proper humanity is directly related to our rearing them in the local church. We have found that the Lord Jesus is a real, living Person, and He wants us to come to Him daily in an intimate way. Our children have been saved from the damage of this present age by having such an intimate, real walk with the Lord.

We must give a special thanks to two Christian authors, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, who were willing to sacrifice many things in their earthly lives to study God’s word, to research the truths which God has revealed in the spiritual writings of the church fathers of the past, and to dedicate their lives to the continuation of the fellowship of the gospel and the recovery of the practice of the church as revealed in the Bible. These brothers, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, have both gone to be with the Lord, but they have left us a rich heritage in the many spiritual books which they wrote for all Christians to enjoy.

Blessed to Be in the House of the Lord – Deborah Kendall topTop

I am a Physical Therapist who received the Lord in my early twenties. At the time, I was working in my hometown of Tipton, Indiana and saving money to attend a summer session at Indiana University. I came to a meeting of the local church in Indianapolis and for the first time saw individuals enjoying the Lord together by singing and testifying of their experiences of the Lord. I received the Lord at that meeting merely by calling on His name! (Rom. 10:9) Looking back, I am in awe that the Apostle Paul cried out in a similar manner while on the road to Damascus. He later wrote in Romans that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13).

In the beginning, I could only come to meetings of the church on the weekend due to school. The meetings were so rich that eventually I moved to Indianapolis to be able to attend all of the meetings. As a new believer, it was so exciting that I could hardly sleep. The Christians I met were so strong in their consecration to the Lord. They had given up a lot to come to Indianapolis so that others could know the joy of meeting in the local churches. My heart was deeply touched by their love for the Lord and for one another. Later, I moved to Chicago and met with the local church there. Now I am meeting with the church in Houston. I can sincerely say as in Psalm 84:10 that I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

In the past I went to many conferences given by Witness Lee to learn more about many truths in the Bible. I have been blessed over and over by his ministry in the way of enlightenment, enrichment and edification.

No Title – Peggy Huang Payne topTop

I was born into a Buddhist family in Taiwan. I received Christ into me after hearing the gospel when I was 18 years old. When I was 29, I came to the U.S., and attended Scarritt College, where I received a masters in Christian education. My first job, which I believe to be God’s arrangement, was at a small orphanage in Louisiana. It was there that I started reading some books by Watchman Nee. His writings were very practical and they gave me much help. Also, while I was in Louisiana I heard about the church in Houston and after much prayer I was led by the Lord to meet there.

Since 1976 (when I moved to Houston), I have enjoyed the ministry of both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. God has unveiled through them many truths and mysteries in the Bible which were hidden matters to me.

For the past 23 years I have been enjoying Christ as my life supply, as the Tree of Life, as the Word being opened, as my everyday experience, as the listening and speaking One with whom I can fellowship and through whom I fellowship with other believers, and as the leading One in the church meetings where He speaks through all the members of His Body.

Also the Lord has revealed to me that the church is the gathering of the called out ones meeting in spirit as the living body of Christ, of which He is the head and I, through great love and mercy, am a functioning member of His Body.

Meeting with the local churches I have been received world wide into the homes of Christians—not only as an honored guest, but also as a member of their own families. Only the Lord could make such a thing happen.

I’ve come to understand through God’s word what His eternal purpose is: to impart His life into His believers until they express, not themselves, but God, and that through this expression the Bride of Christ will become ready for the wedding day with her Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regenerated and Being Saved – Glenn C. Payne topTop

I am 59 years old. When I was 30, I met a born again Christian who, along with some other believers, introduced me to Christ through the opening of His Holy Word. Although I came from a Christian family and knew the Christian teachings, this was the first time I heard the gospel, and that evening in prayer I met the Lord Jesus as the life giving Spirit. He entered into me, enlivened my deadened spirit, and made me a child of God, born again as a baby into God’s family.

After wandering in the world for so long wondering what life was for, I finally got a glimpse of God’s purpose for me. As I longed for and took in the Word, His eternal purpose became even clearer to me, and I enjoyed His constant presence and speaking within. I was no longer alone. I now had the Lord as a Person in me. After much enjoyment of the Lord and maturing by His life I’ll be able to say like the Apostle Paul that it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.

Through my 29 years with the Lord Jesus He has been faithful in all things, especially my spiritual nourishment. Soon after I was born again He fed me through the ministry of Watchman Nee, whose writings I found most helpful for the practical Christian daily walk. His writing not only testified to the truth of the Bible, but also revealed how the practice of the truths could be realized.

After being saved 3 years and having grown a little, I was introduced to the writings of a co-worker of Watchman Nee. This co-worker, Witness Lee, continued the ministry of Watchman Nee through much hardship and persecutions. He was also faithful to the Lord; hence, for so long God used him to make clear many things in the Bible—which I have been enjoying all these years.

Because of the faithful labor and love for the Lord by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, I can testify as one who has received mercy and much grace, that God has lovingly carried me in His arms, has set my feet upon solid ground, has picked me up when I’ve stumbled in the race, and has taught me how to enjoy Him in my spirit. He has shown me His Body-the church, unveiled His word to me, and has delivered me out of darkness into His glorious light. Here in the oneness of His Body, He is so enjoyable.

How I Tasted the Church Life – Samuel Ong topTop

I have been saved for seven years. Now I am working in Houston, Texas, and meeting with the local church here. I would like to testify how I began to taste the church life.

Having been a Catholic for many years in Indonesia, I went to Taiwan for my undergraduate studies. During the third year of my undergraduate study in Chungli, my classmate brought me to the local church. I was a perfect stranger at the time, yet felt comfortable and at home in the meetings.

Every Friday we studied the Bible in our small group. The Lord felt so real to me. Hallelujah. We were enjoying the Word of God, and we were fully saturated with the Word. The Lord is not only sitting on the throne, but He is also inside of me, so I can experience Him every moment.

Shallow or Deep? – Matt Payne topTop

My name is Matt Payne. I would just like to use these few paragraphs to share with you a little bit about myself and how the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have helped me. I am a 24 year old seeking Christian who wants to know Jesus Christ more and more. I definitely received the Lord Jesus as my Savior and life when I was five years old and prayed with an older friend. As I got older through junior high and high school I made many friends and participated in varied activities in addition to my academics, that brought me into contact with a broad spectrum of people. Of course, I was always interested in what people had to say about God. Many of the Christian friends that I had throughout school, college, the military, and work were actively pursuing to know Christ better and to mature as Christian’s. As I said before, I had many friends and made new acquaintances easily. So, I’m pretty open and not trying to be vindictive. My point is this. I have been familiar with the literature of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee from my youth. I can testify of and share in detail the aspects of the Christian life, fellowship with God, and passages in scripture that I’ve been helped and impressed with through their ministries. Across the board the benefit I’ve received from this ministry has been more solid, profound, and accurate according to the entire Bible than any other author I’ve read and any other ministries I’ve come into contact with either in person or through my many Christian friends.

Two books I read by Watchman Nee were The Normal Christian Life and The Normal Christian Church Life. They helped me to realize how far reaching and effective Christ’s redemption is and the ongoing salvation that we can experience daily, which the Apostle Paul brings out in his epistle to the Romans. Also, I was helped to see more concerning the Body of Christ, which is all of God’s redeemed and regenerated people throughout the ages, and how it functions practically. Similarly, I’ve been edified by the ministry of Witness Lee, which is a continuation of Watchman Nee’s and every bit as deep and accurate. The ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have nourished me with a high and deep realization of God and His precious Word. I really enjoy reading the Bible, praying, and walking the Christian life with the help of the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee; it has made being a Christian practical, daily, personal, less self centered, and enjoyable.

My Answer – Eugenia Tsuei topTop

I grew up in a Christian home, but my Christian life did not begin until I was ten years old. I was in children’s meeting class (Sunday school) and one of my teachers was showing us how to praise the Lord. Being a friend of the family, she called me to the front of the classroom to help her demonstrate. I believe, in the course of that exercise, I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart. Two years later at a summer youth conference I was baptized. After this I began to have clear feelings within me that I could not participate with my friends in some of their activities. I told them it was because I was a Christian. Although this seemed a little odd to my friends, many of whom were from Christian families, they accepted my reasons, assuming that my parents were just more strict than theirs.

One thing that I noticed as a significant difference between my Christian life and the lives of my Christian friends is the way that our respective churches congregated. A good friend of mine in high school asked me several times if my church was mixed, meaning, did different nationalities go to the same service? I always answered “Yes” while thinking to myself , “Aren’t all churches like that?” There was also a question that I felt I couldn’t give a satisfactory answer to: “Which church do you go to?” All I knew was that I went to the church in Houston and there was no other name. The reason for this principle did not become clear to me until I was mid-way though my college years.

I went to the University of Texas at Austin for my undergraduate degree. My parents, the youth leaders from the church in Houston, and I were concerned that my Christian life would progress during my college years. I made a conscious effort to make strong connections with some other Christians in the church in Austin. The members of the church there took great care of me, giving me not only spiritual help but also practical help: homework, shopping, stress, and all other things that young college students face. As I grew both humanly and spiritually, I began to find the answers to the questions that I hadn’t been able to answer. I’d always been taught that the Church is not merely a physical building but the people, the congregation. Anyone who is a Christian should be received as a member of the Church. Furthermore, a principle we see in the Bible is that the churches didn’t take a name other than that of the city in which they were located. The importance of this point hit me when I read in the Bible about the children of Israel. They were ordained to worship in Jerusalem, and only there; outside of Jerusalem there was no blessing. Jerusalem was God’s choice. This realization is part of the reason that I continue to meet with the local churches. The blessings I see are the truth that is present in the meetings, the experiences of Christ, and a oneness among the members issuing in the kind of loving care I received while I was in college.

An Open Bible

Having grown up in a Christian home, I loved the Lord Jesus and reading the Bible from a young age. Many times I could not understand what I read, but I thought it was because of my age and I would understand it in the future. However, as I grew older and continued to read the Bible, I realized that understanding the Bible doesn’t come with age alone, but also with proper interpretation. That is why I really appreciate the footnotes written by Witness Lee in the Recovery Version of the New Testament. These footnotes open the Word of God to me and keep me focused on Christ and God’s eternal plan. Many times I open the Bible hoping there will be some solution to my present hoard of problems and anxieties. My problems aren’t necessarily solved and my anxieties don’t always disappear, yet I close the Bible filled with joy because with the help of the footnotes I get refocused on Christ and God’s eternal plan, the things that really matter.

A Life of Loving the Lord – Russel Cox topTop

I am twenty-three years old and a graduate of the University of Houston, in Texas. I am so thankful to the Lord that he gave me the blessing of growing up in the local church. Both my parents were pursuing the Lord in college when they contacted the church in Houston. By the Lord’s mercy I am benefiting from their seeking hearts. I received the Lord while I was in elementary school and I was baptized when I was ten years old.

Ever since then I have enjoyed a life of loving the Lord in the local church. Christ is so sweet and enjoyable when I pursue Him “with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). Growing up in the church in Houston strengthened my love for Jesus. The Lord’s love for me constrains me to love Him and to give my all to Him (2 Corinthians 5:14). He is the most wonderful and attractive One in the universe and it is in the church that He has become real to me.

My First Love – Maria Koch topTop

I was blessed by the Lord to have been born into a wonderful Christian family. My father and mother have always sought after the Lord. I was a “surprise” to my parents when I was born, my father being 41 and my mother almost 40 with two other daughters, 18 and 13 years old. My parents were living in Tennessee when they met some believers from Atlanta, Georgia. Those Christians really loved the Lord Jesus and their lives stood out as a testimony to my parents. My mother, father, and sisters moved to Atlanta later that year to meet with them in the church in Atlanta. That was the year I was born. So I grew up in Atlanta meeting with the church there.

I received the Lord into me at a very young age, but of course as many children I wasn’t that interested in Him. My world growing up was absorbed with sports. I spent every weekend of the spring and summer traveling with a softball team for about six years, and I often played on two to three basketball teams.

But as I was growing in high school I realized the Lord was also growing inside of me. From the time I was in eighth grade, I had a friend who would call me every morning to pray and read a little of the Bible with me before I would go to school. I believe this preserved me as a young girl involved in so much at school. When I was a junior in high school I attended a Christian conference hosted by some of the local churches in Texas. That summer weekend I began to see more than ever who my Lord was and that He really had a purpose here on earth with man (Isaiah 66:1-2). I went back to school a different person. Even though I still played sports and had a lot of friends, the Lord Jesus really became my first love. Gradually sports and friends and other things didn’t mean so much to me anymore because Jesus had won my heart.

Since that time I have graduated from college with a degree in Exercise Science, have gotten married, and have moved to Texas with my husband. I enjoy reading the Bible and also books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee because their ministry reveals more of Christ to me. The reason I love meeting with the local churches is that I’m always guided to the Lord and I’m helped to realize that I’m a member of the Body of Christ—one with every person who believes into Him.

I look forward to pursuing Jesus, my first love, with my husband and family in whatever I’m doing, wherever I am in the future. Jesus is the most wonderful One.

My Christian Experience – L.R. topTop

When I was born, my parents were meeting with the church in Houston. I was raised by my parents to love the Lord and His Word above all else. At 15, during a high school conference, I saw that the Lord has a heart desire, to have a bride, who matches Him, to satisfy Him, (Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 19:7; Revelation 21:2) and that when He gains this bride, this age will end. My prayer at this time was that the Lord would keep me living for this and that I would not give myself to anything other than satisfying His heart. The remainder of my high school years and years in college were full of high points and low points, but the Lord has been faithful to always bring me back to live with His goal in view by using the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and brothers and sisters in Christ. I love their ministry because it always simplifies me to just love the Lord. These past years my realization is that the Christian life is not an individual life, but a life full of enjoyment, pursuing our dear Lord with the Body of Christ, composed of all His believers, that His heart would be satisfied (2 Timothy 2:22; Ephesians 1:22-23).