Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace

This morning, I would like you to see that our meetings, whether home meetings, small group meetings, or even large meetings, are a matter of speaking the Lord's word with the spirit. First Corinthians 14:26 says, "Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm...." In our mentality, once a psalm is mentioned, we think about singing. The New Testament, however, shows us that psalms are not primarily for singing, but for speaking. Ephesians 5:18-19 says, "Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord." From this you can see that psalms are primarily for speaking, and then for singing. Also, Colossians 3:16, the sister verse to Ephesians 5:19, says the same thing, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God." It says here that we should teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We have never properly practiced this matter. We have been influenced too deeply by Christianity. This time, regarding the matter of meeting, we have to come back absolutely to the word of the Bible—to teach and admonish one another in psalms. For example, Hymns, #499, says:

Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!
The Christ who's all within me lives.
With Him I have been crucified;
This glorious fact to me He gives.
Now it's no longer I that live,
But Christ the Lord within me lives.

If we had time, I would teach you how to open the meeting, that is, how to use the hymns or the life-study messages to start the meeting. For now I can only give you some principles. In order to open the meeting in a good way, you should be able to point out the crucial items of the truth that the saints are pursuing during the week. For example, suppose that this week we are pursuing Message Ten of the Life-study of Galatians, and the crucial point is that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. If you know this, then you can take the opportunity to lead everyone to sing Hymns, #499. Once the singing starts, the meeting will open up. Therefore, before you go to the small group meeting, you should familiarize yourself with the message being pursued that week and note the crucial points in it. At the small group meeting you should learn to share the crucial points with the saints. There is no need to read the whole message. Simply grasp the crucial points and feed the saints. You can also use the Bible to open the meeting by leading everyone to read the verses related to the content being pursued for the week. If no one knows how to read properly, and the reading is disorganized and disorderly, or if they do not know how to repeat-read, emphasize-read, or pray-read, then you must be the coach and think of a way to teach and perfect them so that they may learn how to read properly.

From that time until 1961, I picked up many points concerning this new culture, but I still saw only parts and not the full picture. At that time I had the burden to write hymns, because I felt that all the hymnals that I knew of were inadequate. I wrote eighty-five new hymns, such as "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" (Hymns, #499) and "o glorious Christ, Savior mine" (#501). When I came to the United States in 1962, I realized that we needed a hymnal that could meet our need, so I compiled the hymnal that we have today (see Hymns). In this hymnal there are two hundred forty-eight hymns composed by me, which are marked with an asterisk. These new hymns embody much of the new culture that I saw.

We all know this truth, but unfortunately, most of the time in our practical daily life it is not Christ who lives but we who are living. When our spouse stares at us angrily, we stare back at him or her. At these times, we forget that we are Christians. We are living instead of Christ. When this happens, we should not be surprised and ask how we could lose our temper so badly. Our "I" is no good; it is a gopher, a scorpion, and a serpent. This is why our living is so weak and feeble. Stanza 1 of Hymns, #499 says, "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who's all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it's no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives." A couple may sing this hymn with uplifted spirits and resounding voices in the meeting, but once they go home, they may quarrel about the matter of opening or closing the windows. One may say, "The air circulation is not good in the house, so it is better to open the windows." However, the other one may answer, "We should close the windows, or else I may catch a cold." While they are arguing, their eyes look fiercer and fiercer. They have both forgotten that Christ is their life. Thus, it is no longer Christ who lives but the "I" who lives.

When we attend a meeting in the new way, first, we must be a man filled with the Spirit and with singing. On our way to the small group meeting, we should sing, "Since Jesus came into my heart!" while we walk. Those brothers and sisters who hear us, respond by singing, "What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought..." Perhaps another one would sing, "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! The Christ who's all within me lives" (Hymns, #499). This kind of singing back and forth, each with his own song, will enliven our spirits. There is no need to say too much. We will touch one another's spirit.

In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me," This word is difficult to fully understand. In 3:27 he says, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ," First, the Christ in us becomes our life (Col. 3:4), and then we put Him on as our clothing. The full experience of Christ is beyond our comprehension, but in the Lord's recovery, we are beginning to understand what most Christians do not even speak about. Stanza 1 of Hymns, #499 says,

Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!
The Christ who's all within me lives.
With Him I have been crucified;
This glorious fact to me He gives.
Now it's no longer I that live,
But Christ the Lord within me lives.

The way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ as the Spirit is also by having Christ formed in us through travail. Galatians 4:19 says, "My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you." In Galatians 1:16 Christ is revealed in us; in 2:20 Christ lives in us; and in 3:27 Christ is upon us, clothing us like a garment. Now, in 4:19 Christ is formed in us.

The second stanza of Hymns, #499 says,
Oh, what a joy! Oh, what a rest!
Christ now is being formed in me.
His very nature and life divine
In my whole being inwrought shall be.
All that I am came to an end,
And all of Christ is all to me.

The experience of Christ is another crucial point of the contents of the hymns. Hymn #499—"Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!"—and #501—"O glorious Christ, Savior mine" are excellent hymns in this category. We also need to know the hymns on the crucial points of the inner life, the church, the assurance of salvation, consecration, and comfort in trials. Hymn #720 is a good hymn in this section. The first verse of this hymn and the chorus read:

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,

In his ministry Brother Nee emphasized Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). In the introduction to some of his books he expressed that his burden was not on other matters, not even on the normal practice of the church life. Instead, he strongly stated that all our co-workers must know Christ as life. When I began to minister in Taiwan, my stress was always on Christ and the church. After I came to the United States, we began to compile our hymnal. Previously, Brother Nee had selected one hundred eighty-five hymns for our use out of about ten thousand that he considered. I realized that we were short of proper hymns on Christ, the life-giving Spirit, life, and the church as the Body of Christ. In order to fill the gap, I wrote approximately two hundred hymns. Within two months in 1961 alone, I wrote eighty-five new hymns, many of which were translated into English. These include "Oh, what a life!" (Hymns, #499), "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501), and "Not the law of letters, / But the Christ of life" (Hymns, #541). These hymns stress Christ as life very much. In addition to those selected by Brother Nee, I selected six hundred more from the hymns of Christianity. Including the new hymns that I had written, the number of hymns in our new hymnal was one thousand eighty. At the beginning of the hymnal we added an introduction and a table of contents. By reading the table of contents of our hymnal, anyone can see that we have a proper knowledge of theology. Among the denominations there is not a hymnal with as complete a collection of hymns as ours, covering many items of truth and experience from the preaching of the Triune God to the consummation of the New Jerusalem. Thus far, no one has been able to criticize or condemn this collection.

In 1961, within a period of two months, I wrote eighty-five new hymns in Chinese. These hymns include "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" (Hymns, #499), "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501), and "What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit" (Hymns, #608). In the same year I studied Ezekiel thoroughly in order to see the revelation concerning the move of the Spirit. In my fellowship with the co-workers and elders I also emphasized the need to be filled with the Spirit. However, I still did not feel that the saints in the churches in Taiwan were filled with the Spirit to a sufficient degree.