The Sweet Flow of Life in a Local Church

On October 17, 1994 I came to the United States from Japan to get a masters degree in diplomacy, hoping that I would be a diplomat or worker in the UN. Three months after I came to the US, I met a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I met this believer I used to associate with Christians who were a sort of religious people who just keep many laws with many repentances. But the Christian I met on campus did not seem to be constrained by such things, rather my impression was that she was just enjoying the freedom in the Lord. Ten months later, she introduced me to several Christians who had meetings in their home every Tuesday and Friday. I was so impressed by their tenderness, meekness, loveliness, and lowliness. They were so genuine and human that their living and existence persuaded me to believe into the Lord. My parents in Japan were so dismayed that I who once was absorbed in philosophy and grew up in Buddism started to talk about Christ. As I observed their meetings, I saw that there were no “Do’s” and “Don’ts” among them. They just loved and enjoyed the Lord with praise, singing and speaking to each other about the Lord. In spite of my drinking and smoking habits, they always welcomed me and helped me to enjoy reading the Bible. As I met them week after week and month after month, deep inside of me a desire rose up to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. They often said that this is the wonderful and glorious church life- being with other believers in one accord and endeavoring to express the Lord. I did not experience any limitation or constraint, because, to me, these Christians were so acceptable, available, and reliable in everything. I am thankful to the Lord and to the Christians in the local church for bringing me into such a wonderful place. Now I am really enjoying getting to know the Lord in San Diego with lovely believers, and in Japan my mother and sister who were saved in January 1999, are enjoying and loving the Lord as well in the local church.



Enlightened Regarding the Author of Faith

By the Lord’s mercy and grace, the Lord has been bringing me into the enjoyment of all of His riches since I came to know the ministry of Witness Lee. Before I met this ministry of Witness Lee, I thought that a Christian is a person who loves the Lord to some extent, maintains good behavior, and eventually would go to heaven which is the place filled with flowers, pretty animals, smiling people and so on. But the ministry of Witness Lee penetrated my concept by the Word of God. Christ who is life wants to grow in my heart as seen in Matthew 13 which speaks about a parable of the seed of the kingdom. Witness Lee’s focus is just Christ. Christ is everything.

From the ministry I have been encouraged, enlightened, enlivened and vitalized in my Christian life. Here, I would like to quote a small portion of Witness Lee’s ministry that helped me. This is a footnote in the Recovery Version of the New Testament on Hebrews 12:2.

“…All the overcoming saints in the Old Testament are only witnesses of faith, whereas Jesus is the Author of faith. He is the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith. In our natural man we have no believing ability. We do not have faith by ourselves. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet.1:1). When we look unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element. Then, spontaneously, a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him. …”

T.T.

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