Time with Serving Ones

Yesterday, I had a time with all the serving ones in the literature service in Chennai. It was after a couple of years that I came to this city and fellowship with my fellow serving ones. My burden was to simple pray together, fellowship whatever the Lord leads, listen to what the saints have to say, and enjoy lovefeast together with the burden of blending and building up one another. I did this whenever I visited Chennai.

As we came together at our office building, we enjoyed singing the hymn composed by Brother Benson Philips and his wife, hymn number 1212. Then I shared what I learned from Brother Benson Philips on the matter of "listening to the Body" as we pray-read Act 9:1-18. 

Ac 9:5And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute.

Ac 9:6But rise up and enter into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.

As we pray-read the above verses, I was enlightened and supplied by the words "Lord, Jesus, persecute, rise up" and the phrase, "it will be told to you."

I know the Lord in truth, but do I subjectively know Him as my Lord in my daily living? He should be the Lord over my whole being, over all my life, and all that I have. Often, I replaced Him with me as my "lord." When I replaced the Lord with me a lord, I am persecuting Him. What a serious offense! The Lord should be my Lord indeed, all the time. Therefore, I repented for this sin of usurping His lordship over me. This Lord is Jesus, Jehovah the Savior! Therefore, I prayed that the Lord would save me from not making Him my Lord. 

Inspite of my sins, failures, and weaknesses, I can always rise up from my fallen condition. Turn to Him, exercise my spirit to enjoy His resurrection and rise up. When I rise up to follow Him, He will tell me what I should do through the members of His Body.

What a sweet time of pray-reading and prayer together. After we all prayed for ourselves and the serving ones for our services in particular, and the service of to the Body in general, we had lunch together followed by some practical fellowship concerning our health, financial management, and the need for both life and health insurance. This matter of insurance was triggered by recent demise of one of our serving ones who did not seem to have any insurance. Had he been insured his family could have been relieved financially a little bit.

May the Lord preserve all the serving ones that He may grace us with longevity in our service and also in our human life that we can gain more Christ unto full maturity to be His overcomers.