[kisstheson]

Amen, dear brother Roger. The scenario you presented definitely registers with me. Actually, it really, really, saddens me; but, I must admit that it definitely rings true. Oneness with Christ, obedience to Christ, following Christ wherever He might go – all that was gradually replaced by oneness with Lee and his ministry, obedience to Lee and his ministry, and “being absolute” in following Lee and his ministry. As this was happening, our God, who by His own Word is a jealous God, had to gradually withdraw His blessing.

The ones who had been with Watchman Nee would have been much less prone to over-exalting a minster of Christ. They knew that to have more and more of Christ, there needs to be less and less that is of men. Hence, as you say, they were a big factor in a portion of blessing remaining with the LC in the 1970’s. As these older ones gradually passed away and newer, spiritually-inexperienced, ones arose who never knew WN, the excellent teachings in the LC and the teacher who taught them became more and more our focus. All the while we ignored the many warning signs that surrounded us.

As you say, it took time for what was in WL’s heart to become fully manifest. Going through these marvelous messages spoken by TAS, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that the times TAS and WL had together in the late 1950’s were an attempt by God Himself to bring some honest, frank, faithful fellowship to WL in order to balance him. With WN in prison, it seems that TAS was the last one on the whole earth who could have been used by the Lord to balance WL. Sadly, WL refused this balance and after this it was not long before WL was also estranged from the three other co-workers of WN who had been sent out of Mainland China (Simon Meek, Faithful Luke, and Stephen Kaung). The rest of the story, of course, is history that all of us know too well.

How prone we all are to think so highly of ourselves! How very sobering this all should be to us! One of the great services that TAS’s ministry can perform for us, if we are open to it, is to show us how important it is for human beings to take their hands off the things of God.