[Indiana]

OBW,

It was a sidenote you commented on. In considering this past weekend on the phone the undealt-with sins in Anaheim and Texas and the picture of suffering and mental and emotional bondage in Jane's book, I wondered how much the sin in her locality attributed to the condition of the church there. As she sought care for sisters and couples in a time with the elders, and one of the elders breaks down and actually is sobbing, I wondered how long he had been in need of care. He had a tremendous amount of emotion built up in him, even offering that the lack of blessing in that locality was because of him.

I know what it is like to be in an overly-spiritual church life where needs with a couple and family are not being met and I spoke and wrote to the elders in Seattle to address serious needs that I observed and had myself.

It is as Jane says in her book, the continual looking to the divine dispensing of the Triune God to be the cure-all makes Christ something of a product we take rather than a Person we love and are in intimate fellowship with. Thus, we have so many leaders and saints so rich in a ministry yet so poor in Christ, although they receive “the ministry” daily for the divine dispensing.

Her point on God’s economy in 1 Timothy is that the end of the charge by Paul is love. The scenes in Anaheim, Seattle, and Houston all show the fruit of being under Witness Lee’s ministry as sadly deficient of Christ, the Person, in elders, in other members, for the building up of the Body in love.

It is not that Brother Lee didn’t realize the lack, he spoke much about this need in his last years. But looking away to the divine dispensing keeps leaders from actually dealing with their conscience, sins, unrighteous matters, and caring for hurting members in the church.