Being Gracious to All Around Us Who Are to Receive Life
I had known him for about ten years before I was saved. He never preached the gospel to me; I would simply see him once every year. At that time the Shengxin Christian Building had not yet been built, and he would always be sitting in a corner of the book room. Seeing me from afar, he would call out, "Dai Ming, you must believe in Jesus!" I always let it go in one ear and out the other, and I never wanted to know who Jesus was. What impressed me most deeply was the first time I met him. It was about dusk, and I, together with my staff, had brought a printing demonstration machine and set it up by the roadside in front of the meeting hall to demonstrate it for him. He, too, came walking over with several brothers, weary and travel-worn, took a brief look, and said, "Good, come install it tomorrow." Without even haggling over the price? I thought to myself, what kind of person is this, so decisive? Looking back now, he truly cherished people. Actually, what made me admire Brother Wu was not even this matter; I mention it only to say that the fragrance of Christ is something to be smelled. The Gentiles may not understand the Bible, but they can surely smell the fragrance.
Once I asked the brothers a question: If the Lord Jesus came back today and stood face to face with you, what would your response be? Almost no one answered me; only Brother Wu answered. He said, "O Lord! What should I do now?" I laughed at him, saying, how can you be so humorous. Actually I was wrong; I did not comprehend the meaning of his words. The Lord Jesus also often told the disciples, "What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know after these things." Brother Wu's reply to me showed that Brother Wu was one who was always on standby. Are we always on standby in our daily living, waiting for the Lord Jesus to give us His command? Let me explain on a deeper level: the meaning is that in this life you are to be gracious to those around you who are to receive life. Brother Wu was just such a person; his whole life was being gracious to those who were to receive life.
In the beginning my heart was very hard, my business was very good, and I had no desire at all to be saved. But later I was saved precisely because the human virtues of Christ in him drew me, together with Brother Zhang's intercession for me and Brother Lin Dongsheng (林冬生) who kept serving me. I shed tears because I had so failed them; but I wiped away my tears and told myself that I would learn from them and make them my pattern. We too are ones always waiting for the command; we are to be gracious to all around us who are to receive life.