This message is part of a larger series of fellowship by Titus Chu called “Fellowship for Full-Timers”. The exact date of these messages is not known.
WE SHOULD NOT
A. Do Things By Inspiration Without Thorough Planning. We Should Carry Out the Work With Planning And With The Lord’s Leading In Real Situations.
Our plans shouldn’t just be dreams. We should carry out our college labor with proper planning, but it should be according to both the Lord’s leading and the real situation.
B. Merely Make Decisions Without Laboring. We Should Learn to Invest Ourselves.
We should not do things on our campus by inspiration. We should realize that every decision we make will require hours of labor to back it up. We are not a bureaucracy coming together to make decisions yet without doing the real thing. If we want to labor on the campus we must learn to invest ourselves.
WE SHOULD CONSIDER OURSELVES AS FARMERS OR BUSINESSMEN. THEREFORE WE NEED:
A. Seed (As a Farmer) and Capital (As a Businessman).
If we were doing financial things, we would have to consider our capital. The Bible says that we are businessmen, and we are going out to do business. The Bible also says that we are like farmers. So we must ask ourselves, what is our capital that we are investing, and what is our seed that we are planting? If we don’t have these five items as our seed and capital, our labor is not going to work.
- Our person
- Our riches
- Our time – Time may be the hardest. Are we willing to consecrate our time to the Lord? If we do not invest our time, then nothing will work.
- Our wisdom
- Our humanity –
If we are too spiritual, we will not be fruitful. People cannot understand spirituality, but they can relate to our concern and our care. Are we ready to labor as a human being, or are we just a “God-man”? Our concept of a “God-man” never works. We ourselves must work. This is why we must properly invest our humanity, because if we are too spiritual we will not be fruitful. People are willing to be with us not because we are so spiritual, but because we are so human. When people are with us, they should experience peace, encouragement, and comfort. They should find someone who can understand them, who can sympathize with them, and who can stand with them in their situation. Then people will enjoy being with us.
B. A Field
Concerning our field, we have to be very specific and practical. We have to be burdened for the right field where we can invest ourselves. We should be practical with our time and location.
C. To Labor.
To labor means to sweat. We must labor diligently. When we labor on our field we must mean business. No matter how attractive our humanity is, if we do not labor nothing will result.
D. To Look unto the Lord for His Blessing.
WE SHOULD INVEST OURSELVES BOTH SPIRITUALLY AND HUMANLY. THIS MEANS WE NEED TO INVEST OURSELVES WITH OUR:
A. Time.
This will decide our success. We should invest a certain number of hours per week. We must have a specific amount of time each week for our labor on the campus. Our hours will decide our success. How fruitful we are is based on how many hours we invest ourselves to generate a harvest.
B. Companions.
In our labor, we must have companions. We must seek after companions, not colleagues. We cannot do anything by ourselves. If we have no companions we must find at least one. We must be able to come together with some companions to pray and fellowship concerning our work. If we do not have a companion, perhaps we can find one brother who has a little desire for the Lord. If we spend time with him to pray and read the Bible, then eventually he can become our companion. Then we can bear the burden of the university together. We cannot labor by ourselves.
C. Tender Care.
This is related to our humanity. If we get someone saved, we should take him out for ice cream. If we find something promising with him, we should spend time with him humanly. Every year we get many names of contacts from the campus. The problem is we don’ t care for them humanly; we only care for spiritual things. Can we take our new one to the bank to help him open a bank account? Can we walk him around the campus so that he knows his way around? Can we show him our refrigerator and tell him that everything in there belongs to him? This is against the American culture, which is a culture of privacy. In our care for our contacts we don’t need privacy. We should learn to be human, just like a father who cares for his son or daughter. A father has no reservation in taking care of his children’s need. A father quickly invests himself, without any thought of his privacy. This is how we should care for our new ones.
D. Spiritual Burden:
We have to be very burdened. Our work on the campus should not just be a thing to do. If we preach the gospel and no one gets saved, and then we have no more desire, then we are not laboring with a spiritual burden. If we are burdened for someone and they reject us, and then we just give up, this also means that we are not laboring with a spiritual burden. We are just laboring for a goal. A genuine spiritual burden will cause us to keep trying, even when we fail. After many of years laboring something valuable will be developed. Our realization should be, “I am burdened to preach the gospel. If I am rejected, I will still preach the gospel. I will eventually find someone who will be saved. My gospel will go out with my genuine human care for individuals.” We need to have tender care in our humanity, but we also must have the spiritual burden to carry such a work.
WE SHOULD WATCH THE LORD’S MOVE AND USE OUR RESOURCES.
In the process of our labor we need to watch how the Lord moves and use what the Lord has given us. Often when we work on the campus we consider how many we are going to get saved. That is not the Lord’s move. What we first need is to consider what is really the Lord’s move. Perhaps the Lord’s move is with a group of 15 brothers that are able to be together. Then we should realize that there is a desperate need to revive these 15 young brothers. We should then consider, how many of these can be our companions? How many can be under our care? How many can be infused with life? Instead of just wildly preaching the gospel on the campus, we should look for one or two that we can grow up with. That is the Lord’s move. If there is already a good crop on our campus, then we should be very burdened for the increase.
A. Different Kinds of Campus Situations:
1. If we are alone:
We should look for someone who can be our companion.
2. If we are among only a few:
We should not stir ourselves up for having many people saved. Instead, try to have 10-15 saints who are burdened. Be desperate to revive these 10-15 and consider how many can be our companions.
3. If there is a good crop already:
We should be burdened for increase.
B. Resources:
1. Church gatherings.
Our ability to bring in new ones is fully related to the condition of the church gatherings. If the church gatherings are weak, we will be able to do very little. In such a case we may decide to have a home meeting where the new ones can participate.
2. Families.
Nothing works without families. The best are working families. If there are families that open up their homes weekly, then we can feel very free to invite our friends to these homes. Our friends will enjoy this kind of atmosphere, which is different from a meeting atmosphere. The families’ homes do not just have to be for meetings.
3. Co-workers and older brothers.
We should consider which older brother or co-worker can meet a particular need at a particular time. This is to use the resources in the Lord’s recovery.
4. Special guests
In the Lord’s recovery we have many respected scholars. We have professors in all kinds of fields. We can utilize all of them. These are our resources. We can preach a good gospel message about the Lord and chemistry, or the Lord and engineering. For some reason we never use these resources. We should utilize these resources to do the Lord’s work.
WE SHOULD HAVE A PROPER GOAL, WITH FLEXIBILITY
We must have a goal, and we must also be extremely flexible. Everything has its time. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Eccl. 3:1). There is a time to sow and a time to reap. At certain times we must do certain things.
A. Always Labor To Save Some And To Raise Up Some. Also, We Need To Produce Consecrated Ones Who Give Their Lives To The Lord. This Requires A High Labor.
Among the ones we are with some must give their lives to the Lord. This demands that we be high persons with a high labor. When we are so common, no one we serve will be absolute.
B. Have Events According To Our Needs.
- Outing for a day
- Conferences
- Visiting churches
- Working with campuses close by
- Trainings – We can give our own trainings with what we have learned. We can hold these trainings quite regularly.
- Special events
WE SHOULD USE THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY.
A. Publications.
We can write our own tracts. With today’s technology publications are very easy. We don’t need to only use the Harvest gospel newspaper. We should develop our own tracts and write our own gospel messages, even if they are only one page. Then we will be very burdened to pass them out. We should make them look very decent so that people will want to collect them.
