The practice of writing spiritual things down

---By CK Jen, 2020/07/30

I started to develop the habit of writing letters after graduating from university. At the age of 26, I came to McGill University from the Far East for graduate school, often writing to classmates and friends. In McGill, graduate students used a common mailbox in the department. There was no e-mail at the time, and all the letters received were placed in that box. Graduate students often saw me receiving letters and asked me, "Why do you receive so many letters?" My answer was generally that on average I wrote 10 letters to my classmates and received one reply. Of course, my girlfriend (my current wife) was an exception. During the three years between September 1975 and September 1978, I wrote more than 360 letters to her. In this way, I developed the habit of writing things down.

In the church life, this habit is of great help to the growth of Christ in me and the fellowship with and mutual support of the saints. Yes, it takes time to write, and naturally we must calm down and think before starting to write. I found that when I prayed, read the scriptures and sang, the Lord touched me concerning some verses and gave me some feelings, and during the church gatherings including conferences and trainings, all the servants of the Lord and saints touched me in their prophecies/testimonies. I wrote them down and such spiritual gains made a deeper impact on me and remained with me for a longer time.

Many of what we know about Christ and the church are a little bit this, a little bit that, and after a period of time these little bits may be connected to be something broader and higher. After reading Romans 8:6b, I suddenly felt a little enlightened. I realized that to write down what the Lord has touched me is an exercise of setting my mind on the spirit. I also realized through Romans 12:2b that a mind set on the spirit in such a way would be renewed, and that I would be transformed to have more Christ constituted in me. My trust in the Lord would be firmer.

Rom. 8:6b but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Rom. 12:2b but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

After reading the Bible more often and becoming familiar with it, I discovered that there are many verses (Exo. 17:14, Exo. 24:4, Exo. 24:12, Rev. 1:19, Rev. 2:1a, etc) which were clearly written to encourage the saints or churches to have fellowship in written form. The apostles Paul, Peter and John also wrote many epistles to the churches. Therefore, I began to exercise in written fellowship among the saints and churches.

Exo. 17:14 Then Jehovah said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

Exo. 24:4And Moses wrote down all the words of Jehovah. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Exo. 24:12Jehovah said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

Rev. 1:19Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

Rev. 2:1a To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

In my mind, in the beginning I indeed considered that it would take so much time to engage in a written fellowship with the saints. Since there are so many saints in the church life, I might not be able to have extra time to carry out such an exercise. When I started the fellowship with the first saint in written form, I felt that it indeed took a lot more time than verbal fellowship, but I found that I could maintain a record of such a fellowship. After considering the matter for a while, I realized it was possible to know the content of my fellowship with this saint after a period of time had elapsed and clearly remember what had been fellowshipped so that during the next fellowship with this particular saint our fellowship could be more effective. In addition, when fellowshipping with another saint concerning the same thing, due to some degree of growth of the life of Christ in me, I could improve the fellowship record which I had written before, and it just took a little longer to revise and send it out. When more saints had similar fellowship points, I realized that after a period of time, the written fellowship actually saved time. Also, due to the written records, I knew exactly the contents of my fellowship with each saint. The most crucial understanding was that long-term written fellowship with all the saints is "much more effective" than oral fellowship. In addition, after having sometimes necessarily verbal fellowship with the saints, I would try to write down the summary of the fellowship in detail and send it to the saints with whom I had oral fellowship, which would render mutual help to one another.

Toward the service teams of the church, almost all of my fellowship concerning the services in the church was written carefully, and then I would use the email cc or bcc to send to the saints who needed to fellowship. In this way, it was more transparent to all the saints. For example, during a church prayer and fellowship meeting, when fellowshipping verbally with the saints who were in attendance, not only was time saved, but the one accord was facilitated, and unnecessary misunderstandings could also be avoided, due to a prior written preliminary fellowship.

At present, among the Chinese speaking saints, there are many written fellowship records using WeiXin which are helpful to the growth of life in the saints. Furthermore, since 2020, many saints have also begun to practice writing down their testimonies or prophecies to be given on Sundays, and sometimes these testimonies or prophecies are also posted on the church website. I have seen these testimonies/ prophecies (you can read them several times), and have then gained a clearer understanding and insight that have led me to cherish the growth and testimony of Christ in them to a greater degree than if I had just listened to their speaking. Praise the Lord! May He guide us to write down how He has touched us and to exercise in the practice of fellowship with all the saints carefully.

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