BASIC WORD

THE HEART AND CENTRAL REVELATION OF THE BIBLE LIVING CHRIST

                          The Heart of the Bible and the Central Revelation of the Bible

                                                         Living Christ in Every Situation

We should be people who live Christ in every situation. Often when we receive a report concerning certain persons or circumstances, we may be quick to respond according to our natural life. However, in such circumstances, when we sense that we are not in Christ, we need to stop and turn to the Lord. We may pray, “Lord, forgive me for expressing my natural man. Lord, cover me. I want You to be my person and my life.” Many times when I am stirred up in my temper, after praying such a short prayer, my temper vanishes.

Living Christ is very practical in the family life. While the husband is at work, the wife may be occupied the entire day and even exhausted from caring for the children. Then in the evening, when the husband returns home from work, he too may be exhausted from his work day. Both the husband and the wife may be exhausted. This situation, in which the exhausted wife meets and receives the exhausted husband, is a difficult situation that often results in friction. If the husband attempts to be careful and decides to say nothing when he returns home, his wife may be offended at his silence. She may say, “Why are you so quiet? What is wrong with you? The house is not a law court where you need to be afraid of what you say. Why do you shut yourself up?” In contrast, if the brother is happy and greets his wife by saying, “Hello dear. Praise the Lord,” she may be offended in that case also. She may respond, “The entire day you have been enjoying the Lord. You have no idea how much I have been suffering.” Thus, whether the husband is calm and quiet or rejoicing may make no difference. The situation remains a difficult one that is full of friction. What the husband needs to do is not merely to change his behavior when he returns home but to live Christ.

While he is driving from work, he may pray, “Lord, You are with me. Thank You, Lord, I am going home, but it is not I who am going home to meet my wife; it is You. Lord, You must be the One who meets her.” It is exceedingly difficult for a husband to be a good husband practically, because he often does not know the “climate” of his wife. The same is true with the wives; some husbands are difficult to “read.” A wife does not know whether her husband will return from work happy. Thus, when he comes home, the wife may not know what to say. She may consider that if she says something, he will be offended, but if she does not say anything, he may be offended because of her silence. This is a common problem, and it is human.

However, we Christians do not live by our natural human life; instead, we live by Christ. It is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. He is our life, and we are His living. He and we are one; we are two persons who have one life with one living. We live Him, and He is expressed in our living. Thus, we do not need to strive in order to handle the situation with our spouse; instead, we should practice to live Christ. Of course, it is easy to speak regarding living Christ, but it is difficult to practice this because we all are “buried in a tomb” with several layers of covering, including culture, religion, philosophy, ethics, human virtues, and spiritual seeking. Instead of allowing other things to distract us, we should care only for Christ.

Today we need to read the Bible, pray, fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, attend the meetings of the church, and have a proper church life so that we can prepare a good environment, situation, and condition for us to live Christ. However, these things in themselves are not the living of Christ. The living itself is to remain in our mingled spirit all the time to contact the Lord, converse with Him, and remain one with Him. Only when we are in our mingled spirit are we ready, open, prepared, and available to the Lord so that He can express Himself through us. At such a time it is not we who are living but He who is living in us and through us. He is our life, and we are His living.

When Christ is our life within and we are His living without, we and Christ are two persons who have one life and one living. This is the proper Christian life, a life that is not occasional but regular, day after day and hour after hour. All the time we should remain in our spirit beholding and conversing with Christ, not caring for religion, philosophy, or any other distraction, so that Christ may live in us and be lived out of us.

Such a living is what the Lord’s recovery needs today. Without this living there is no testimony. Our living such a life is the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:2, 9; 19:10) that will shame the enemy Satan. This is what God is seeking today.