“How come Christians are so divided?” This question was frequently asked by many of the juvenile offenders when we preached the gospel at a Phoenix area detention center. I didn’t have the answer. It was 1978. I had been a Christian for 5 years and still didn’t even know the meaning of the term “born again”. Diligent reading of a book by the same name didn’t give me the answer; neither did my note-taking from 3 sessions of the basic youth conferences which the Lord initially used to attract my wife and me to Himself. I was also painfully aware that my human living did not match the standard set forth in the Bible.
Mercifully, the Lord caused us to seek answers to these questions. He answered our seeking by leading us to some books by Watchman Nee. I also read the series of messages on the Kernel of the Bible (which is Christ and the church) by Witness Lee. This was by far the richest thing I had ever read. I read it more than once, realizing that something deep within me was being touched. Then, my brother-in-law invited us to a local church conference on Ezra and Nehemiah in San Diego. This part of the Bible made it very clear that we could choose to come out of the divided situation in which we had been meeting. Both my wife and I saw this at the same time and we decided to move to a city where we could meet with the local church. A series of messages on the book of Ephesians further clarified our views. We were on the threshold of experiencing “the way” spoken of in the book of Acts.
It has taken the Lord many years to bring me out of all my religious concepts and superstitions that I had picked up in my youth. Initially, I understood the truths of the Bible in a warped and legalistic way, which caused me a lot of unnecessary suffering. I was very concerned that I might make a mistake, and at the same time I had a very strong German will that would attempt to “drive through” anything. Often in the meetings, my speaking and my emotions were up one week and down the next. The leading brothers were incredibly tolerant. I was gently shepherded over dinners with many other families after the meetings.
Eventually my questions began to be answered. I found out that it was my human spirit that had been “born again” (John 3:6 and Ezekiel 36). I also could begin to live by the Lord by eating the Word (Matthew 4:4b: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”). I could easily eat the Word by speaking, praying, and singing it. My longing for the sweet milk of the Word was satisfied again and again. In the Word I learned that the will of God was to receive Him whom He has sent (John 6:29)! I am able to receive Christ through my spiritual breathing and drinking, by calling upon the Name of the Lord (Psalm 116). This wonderful fellowship of eating and drinking the Person of the Lord through His Word deals with all my opinions and harboring of offenses that would cause division.
Today, I have the view that I am part of the corporate bride that is being prepared by God to marry Him. “And with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride Your God will rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5b). He is delivering me from the world, particularly from the love of money and all self-interests, including the fear of failure. “Oh to be saved from myself, dear Lord, oh to be lost in Thee.…Oh that it may be no more I, but Christ who lives in me” (Hymns 591). This is all possible by the wonderful supply of the divine life in His body, the church, something all Christians are qualified to participate in by their spiritual birth.
Michael Reymer
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