House Church Talk - Re: House Church Talk Digest, Vol 3, Issue 25 -- The Cross

[Thomas Shou]

HI LLB Oliver!
GREETINGS!....Long time no chat and WELCOME to all my buddies at HC-Talk, graciously set up by brother David A in TN!
 
Look fwd to more spiritual encouragements from you in this brand new year!
LORD just added a new young brother in our midst, who has enriched our church life -- an answer to longtime prayer. also attending a 1-day HC seminar here next weekend!
 
Write more later!
Thomas & Lucy
 



Message: 6
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 23:52:29 -0600
From: "bro.oliverpeng" 

Subject: House Church Talk -  The Cross
To: 
Message-ID: <200401232352.AA394002602 at mail.ev1.net>
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Hi, I just registered for the House Church Talk , but I am not sure how to 
post my comment. So, here's my first try. Sorry about the messy 
attempt. I am trying to reply to Bruce's post on "The Cross." 


A.B. Simpson was so right to point out the wonderful "treasures 
of the hail" (job 38:22-23) as a "haven of rest and inspiration 
of unspeakable power". The Lord's way is always the way of the 
cross. His hail is but an agent teaching us to triumph in 
adversity in the mercy and love of Christ. Job declared in the 
end, "when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." So 
echoed Isaiah, "Grain for bread is crushed." Shall we pass off 
God's way as archaic? Shall we circumvent the cross? 
Scripturally, genuine spiritual awakening is always preceded by 
repentance. A broken spirit and contrite heart He has 
desired. Take the prodigal son. Take the prostitute who had 
seven demonic spirits cast out of her. 

Perhaps one of the biggest problems facing many students of the 
Word is their inability to understand the two-foldness of the 
Word. Many precious truths in the bible are impregnated with and 
operating under the principle of two-foldness. Failure to 
understand the two-foldness of the truth has pitted the 
Calvinists and the Armenians in centuries-old squabbles. 

For instance, John said "He who has the Son has life." And Paul 
said else-where "it is the Spirit that gives life." On surface, 
this seems to be an oxymoron; if we have the Son we have life 
already, then why would the Spirit give the life that we already 
have? Herein lies the two-foldness: ESSENTIALLY, we who have the 
Son have life--done deal, no need to struggle for more life. 
But, economically, there is a great need to have more and more 
life imparted into us. Take the golden lampstand – 
essentially, it is made out of gold. Gold becomes its essence. 
But ECONOMICALLY, it was beaten into the shape and form of a 
lampstand. 

Essentially, it is gold, economically, it's a lampstand. Essence 
without economy does not make it very functional, though valuable 
it is. All Christians have divine life as essence, but not all 
Christians can function and express that life adequately. Our 
desperate need is to grow and mature and attain the "measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ." It is in this process of 
growing and maturing, our life in the spirit starts to spread 
out, enlarge and invade into our soul life. This is where the 
Lord's dealing takes place and learning and submission to it 
yields its fruit of the Spirit. 

It is the same with the cross of Christ. Essentially, the cross 
represents the finished work of Christ. Done deal. No need to 
struggle and strive. We are dead in Him. We are alive in Him. 
We are complete in Him. Hallelujah! What a good news. 
Economically though, we need to let the finished work of Christ 
on the cross subjectively deal with our hidden pride (show me one 
who isn’t plagued by it), our lying tongue, our carnality, 
youthful lust, greed...you name it. The problem with most 
Christians is that their understanding of the Word is only a 
single-edged sword--long on essence but short on economy. 

Just a casual glance in the Word, and we easily get the sense of 
enlargement. God called out a single person and made him into a 
family; God took the family and made it into 12 tribes, then the 
12 tribes into a nation. And God's thought for this nation was 
for it to "become great." He wanted the nation to spread out and 
enlarge from sea to sea. The N.T. follows the same principle. 
He started with a single lowly Man from Nazareth and enlarged Him 
into a corporate man, the Church; and eventually, He will 
enlarge the corporate man into a kingdom. And the "increase of 
His kingdom" is said to be "without end." May I also submit that 
the increase and the enlargement that the bible speaks about is 
not merely a physical or numerical increase. It is the increase 
and enlargement of Christ. Oh, that Christ may fill up, sum up 
and head up all and in all! 

Paul's writings are full of charges to "run the race," "earnestly 
pursue," "press on," "gain Christ," etc.... The Hebrew writer 
three times charged us to "go forward" and "do not shrink 
back." "If you shrink back," says the Lord, "My soul is not 
pleased with you." We must ask, if we already have gotten 
all we'll ever need, then why do we need to run the race, pursue, 
press on, gain Christ, come forward and not shrink back? The 
answer is simple: we have received all the fullness of Christ in 
our spirit essentially. But we must have our capacity (in our 
soul) enlarged to gain more Christ economically. 

The “ten virgins” may give us some insight. All ten virgins have 
all the oil (Holy Spirit) they would ever need in their lamps--
the human spirit, for "the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord" 
(Prov.) This was given to them. They did not earn it. 
Likewise, we did not earn the Holy Spirit; we received the Holy 
Spirit when we were saved by grace. 

But the five wise virgins have extra oil in their VESSELS (soul 
life that has been dealt with). The five foolish ones are told 
to "BUY" the extra oil (for their vessels)! This is the "gaining 
Christ" that Paul talks about in Phil. 3; it starts to take place 
when our soul life is being dealt with through the subjective 
cross. The increased measure of Christ in us always comes with a 
price, for the cross is always involved in it. By the way, the 
price of “oil” is cheap now compared to later when our Bridegroom 
returns. Those who frown on the teaching of the cross, take 
heed. Buy now, or they may not be able to afford it. 
Simple "economics." No pun intended. 

Many Christians have no use for the Lord's dealings. When 
suffering comes, they ask the Lord to remove it. When afflicted 
with sickness, they ask for healing. When strapped financially, 
they ask for prosperity. When pressed, they ask for escape.... 
Not that they, or we, should not seek relief from adversities, 
but their single-minded treatment of all adversities as coming 
from the devil and therefore must be rebuked and stomped leaves 
no room for the Holy Spirit to bring about inward change through 
His chastening. They are quick to pray for outward changes, but 
no sustaining, transforming and deep inward change takes place. 
Small wonder that the soul power is rampant in the Charismatic 
circle. The power of the Holy Spirit is greatest only when the 
power of the soul is dealt with and broken! 

The president of my State university recently made a 
comment, “attaching a pair of wings to a caterpillar does not 
make it a butterfly; it is still a caterpillar.” Butterfly comes 
by transformation only. There is no instant spirituality. True 
spirituality must come through much dealings of the cross. 

I have observed as a youngster how silkworms weaved cocoons 
around themselves. When the process of transformation was 
complete, the moth would chew a hole in the cocoon and begin a 
long and tedious breakout. Unwilling to see the horrendous 
struggle, I’d take a pair of scissors to cut the hole to help the 
struggling moth. Alas, it always ended in tragedy! The moth 
came out deformed and weak. It was the horrendous struggle that 
made the moth strong and pumped its blood through its wings and 
legs. My “help” had robbed the poor little creature of its glory 
and doomed it to sickness and early death! 

Some dear brothers frown on any sharing on the cross, dealings, 
and brokenness; but dealings will come regardless whether they 
frown on them or not. Jesus said, "in the world you WILL have 
tribulations, in Me you may have peace." These dealings are 
divinely appointed and permitted to mature and perfect us. He 
chastens those whom He loves, and He scourges every son whom He 
receives. 

It's true that at regeneration we received a perfect and complete 

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