Returning, Teaching, Constituting
Honoring Only the Lord's Will, Obeying Only the Lord's Will
After the memorial meeting, a brother came to see me, mentioning that in Brother Wu he saw the enterprising spirit of Nehemiah. This stirred my curiosity. To tell the truth, my apprehension of why Brother Lee spoke of Nehemiah in this way was not enough. At the same time, I also pondered how the brothers and sisters, in testifying for Brother Wu, used biblical figures to describe Brother Wu's manner of life and his living and work. In order to understand more accurately why the brother had such an apprehension, how to apprehend Nehemiah's "enterprising spirit," and what else, besides being "enterprising," can be learned from Nehemiah, these past two days I went back and read the text of Nehemiah together with the notes and the Life-study.
Ezra and Nehemiah describe the captives returning from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple for God's house and God's kingdom, and to repair the wall. For God to gain a temple and a kingdom on earth, three sections of work are needed. First, some captives needed to return from Babylon to Jerusalem to lay the foundation to form the kingdom. This requires a strong government, a strong administration. Second, teaching and education are needed, to bring God's people into a culture according to God. Such a culture is not of the Egyptian kind, nor the Babylonian kind, nor the Canaanite kind, but of God's kind, expressing God's culture. Such a culture needs much education. Third, an organic constituting of the kingdom is needed. This section of work is related to the constituting of God's people.
The word "constitution" has multiple meanings. According to the common concept, this word refers to a kind of document concerning the constitution of a nation, such as the Constitution of the United States. This apprehension of constitution is too narrow. In our usage, constitution refers to an organism of many elements. If a nation's government has not only an organizational constitution but also an organic constitution, that government will not be without life but rather will be living and organic. (Life-study of Nehemiah, Message Two, "The Enterprising Spirit of Nehemiah")
The fourth message of the Life-study of Nehemiah speaks of the reconstitution of the nation of God's elect. The fifth message speaks of Nehemiah's leadership for the reconstitution of the nation of God's elect. In the conclusion of the fifth message, Brother Lee says that the books of recovery end with Nehemiah, and the central, important point is the proper, fitting leadership.
I hope the above also stirs up a response in your heart.
Nehemiah had many characteristics, one of which was prayer. Did Brother Wu pray or not? Recently a brother fellowshipped that prayer has three layers: first, looking to the Lord for personal needs; second, communion and intimate talk with the Lord; third, praying for God's will. The first two layers are more on the personal side, while the third layer is more connected with corporate experience. As for the first layer, I think he did not pray much. Many times the Lord even worked ahead, often exceeding what was asked or thought. As for the second layer, regarding what the Lord did in him, he often could not figure it out. But concerning the Lord and the church, his response was always positive. As for the third layer, I feel he felt lonely. On the one hand, his concerns and his considerations were always ahead of everyone's; on the other hand, the matters he cared for were too many and too broad in scope. No one could keep up with him in every aspect. Sometimes when he asked about certain matters, he seemed to be seeking a partner of one heart.
Below I cite the testimonies of two brothers; let us see how we apprehend:
For the right things, he dared to go ahead and do them. ~Julius Liu (see p. 149)
In the past twenty years of full-time service, every year there were several opportunities to meet Brother Wu, and each time I seized the opportunity to find Brother Wu to fellowship, inquire, and seek instruction—sometimes even fellowshipping until deep into the night. Each time I came to fellowship with many problems and difficulties, and after the fellowship, all the problems seemed to disappear, and none of the problems was a problem anymore. Whether the difficulties in service, the need to purchase a meeting hall, the need for the gospel propagation, or the need for perfecting the saints—as soon as I fellowshipped with Brother Wu, everything was "no problem." "No problem" almost became Brother Wu's registered trademark; even quite a few English-speaking and Spanish-speaking brothers in North America, when they saw Brother Wu, called him "Brother No Problem." From the brother we also learn, and have gradually come to realize, that as long as we, like the brother, simply love the Lord and love the church and are willing to be broken, none of the problems is a problem anymore. ~Bai Xinlai (see p. 82)
Honoring Only the Lord's Will, Obeying Only the Lord's Will
On the morning of March 4 (Wednesday), a little after ten o'clock, Brother Li Jinke (李金科) called and asked me to go to the fifth floor of the Xinji Building to urge Brother Wu to go to the Veterans General Hospital for examination; Brother Lin Zhiqing (林志慶) had already arranged a ward for him. I explained my purpose and asked how he was. He told me: "Not too good." "Low blood pressure, irregular heartbeat. I couldn't sleep peacefully at night." But he was unwilling to go to the hospital, saying, "I can still hold up." "During the epidemic-prevention period, everyone is busy, and going in and out of the hospital is quite inconvenient." "No need to trouble the brothers." Then he called the sisters to handle some matters; he spoke urgently, but in an orderly way. Hadn't he just told me he slept poorly last night? He looked quite energetic.
I stayed to chat with him. We talked about the situation in Germany; we discussed the arrangements for the elders' hospitality in the spring. He also said he wanted to go to Anaheim to fellowship with the brothers, to arrange the itinerary for the second-year trainees to attend the summer training in the United States, and to send twenty full-timers to the United States to learn English in preparation for overseas propagation. I told him that the brothers in Hsinchu hoped to fellowship with him around Friday morning. He replied to me, change it to Thursday afternoon; on Friday he had other arrangements. A little after four in the afternoon, I dialed an internal line to tell him, no problem—the brothers in Hsinchu would arrive at 2:30 Thursday afternoon.
At 7:15 in the evening, Brother Li Jinke called: they were now getting ready to go to the Veterans General Hospital. The brothers had finally persuaded him. At 9:50, I asked, "Is his spirit good? Are there any restrictions on visiting after admission?" Brother Li replied: "He's holding up in good spirits; visiting hours are eleven to twelve and eighteen to nineteen o'clock." Peijun and I discussed going over near noon the next day to see him, and she would bring some documents for him to stamp, to keep him from being bored.
At 3:19 in the early morning of March 5, the phone rang. From the other end came: "The elder brother has gone." For a moment I could not react. I paced a few rounds in the living room. In my heart I thought: rush to the hospital? When I reached the intensive care unit, I could not bear to see Brother Wu, nor could I bear to hear Sister Wu explain to me the course of the resuscitation. In the days that followed, I kept being distressed that I did not even have the chance to pray. It was not until I read Brother Chen Zhenhuan's (陳震寰) testimony that I was somewhat relieved.
On March 4, 2020, after Brother Wu finished his dialysis, he went to serve in the Xinji Building; toward evening, because of low blood pressure and fatigue, the brothers strongly urged him to be admitted that night to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The result was that the electrocardiogram and blood tests suggested another heart attack had occurred, and just as he was about to be transferred to the intensive care unit, his heart suddenly stopped; after three resuscitations, at 3:54 in the early morning of March 5 he rested in the Lord's bosom!
Brother Wu was an overcomer, taken quickly by the Lord without suffering, resting from his work; he was God's witness, our cloud. May the Lord strengthen us! ~Chen Zhenhuan (see p. 116)
Every brother and sister, even his classmates and friends, regarded Brother Wu as a dear one, a family member, and wanted to see him off on his way. It was not for the sake of appearances, but because they knew he loved the liveliness of dear ones gathering together. All these arrangements honored only the Lord's will and obeyed only the Lord's will.
How should I "apprehend"? How long should it continue? To borrow Brother Wu's words, "The lesson is not yet finished, not yet learned well."