Both Andrew and I are from Hong Kong. He is two years older than me. The discovery of esophageal cancer was the first blow to him. Many saints did not know about that, and that was well over ten years ago. The radiation treatment that he had to receive was extremely difficult. He received treatment in Hong Kong. He was finally healed of that, but the radiation treatment permanently caused him damage in the throat area.
After that, in the following years, he had three strokes. The most serious one happened to him when he was serving in Korea. All of that added together caused him to be unable to function and live as he did before. Andrew was a very vital, industrious, diligent, energetic, and impactive person. All of this caused him not to be able to function as he did before. Not only so, but it also brought him a great deal of suffering. In these last years, all the physical pains and sufferings he experienced could be traced back to that cancer treatment, and the stroke complicated things.
I say this to tell you that at least for a decade, there was nothing but suffering for our brother physically, somewhat like Job. Our brother served so much: he was a personal attendant of brother Lee. He was the one who opened the door for the bibles and the ministries to go into China. He was the one who helped brother Lee to establish the FTT in Taipei, and all the other FTT trainings are offshoots of that original training. He was the one who completed the CWWN. Before he passed away, he completed the CWWL. He poured himself out to finish that work because he knew his time was limited.
I used to contact him periodically, and we would have breakfast together. In our fellowship, especially in the later years, very little of our conversation was on subjects of work, service, and things like that. Again and again, he would testify of his situation. I will tell you that when he described them to me, my listening to it was suffering. But he never complained. He just explained. So I know the amount of human and physical affliction he was going through was rare. I don’t know how many people will have that kind of suffering for that long period of time and still be able to carry out what he carried out.
In the last fellowship I had with him, he would always talk about his shortage, lack of living Christ, and not living the God-man life. That was all his regret, all his grief, that he had not done so. That is my testimony for him.
I think what our brother experienced in all these years was precisely an experience of Job. That was what God measured to him in His wisdom and His sovereignty, and even in His love for our brother, this magnitude and length of suffering.
If you don’t have the view of God’s economy, you would question Him. You would wonder why it had to happen to a man like this? He was one who poured out his being to anoint the Lord and live out His interest on this earth. Why did he go through such affliction?
We were made for God’s glory, in His image to express Him. That is God’s one-sentence purpose for the man that He created. But God does not stop there with an intention, He also has His way, which is higher than ours. His way, which is His wisdom, is that there is only one road on the journey to that expression, and that is the way of the cross, the same way the Lord Jesus took in His human life. Jesus said that He must suffer and enter into glory; through His resurrection, then in ascension, there is further glory. Eventually, He will enjoy that glory in the church, and then one day, as the God of glory, He will return. He is our hope of glory, and we, as the many sons of God, are being brought by Him to be the glory of God, to be God’s full expression.
Listening to the speaking on Job in this training, it should be clear that the way to that glory must be the way of the cross, the way of crucifixion, the way of suffering. So we do well to remember these three verses, 2 Co 4:16-18.
What is momentary and what is eternal, what is light and what is weighty, what is seen, and what is not seen, I will tell you, today we all must take this way. God’s wisdom and God’s plan in each one of our lives is a customized, particular way. We should go through these things measured to us for only one reason. With the soul being the person and our body being its faculties, our outer man has to decay. That means it must be consumed, and it must waste away, it must be worn out. There’s only one way for this to happen, and that is to live this life according to God’s ordination. As we pursue Him, as we are living this Christian life, this cross, through the arrangement of circumstances in our life, many of which are not pleasant, most of which are full of suffering, will dismantle, strip off the old man, destroy it in the way of decay (that means in a process), so that the inner man with Christ in our spirit as our person, and our soul being the faculties for His expression will be renewed day by day.
I can testify in my meetings with Andrew, I can see the renewing that is taking place. Not only is decaying happening, but there is also the glorious renewing which I sense in my spirit, and I praise the Lord for this. Our sense is an eternal sense; our eyes must be on eternity and not just on today. If our eyes are solely on today, we will not be able to pass through these things victoriously. The only way is that our eyes are not only on God, on Christ, but our eyes will be set on eternity, where the NJ will be.
These verses, Romans 8:28-30, clearly show that glorification is our destiny, but there would be something that God has designated in eternity past, that He would foreknow each one of us, that He must gain for His expression and His glory. He knew each one of us, selected, predestinated all of us to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son through a process of justification, sanctification, conformation, and ultimately glorification. The key operating verse is verse 28; we know that all things, especially the suffering the affliction, all things work together including Satan (he’s working for God), all the environment, all the situation that comes to us, all the sickness, all the challenging circumstances, all of these things would work together for us to love God. Only to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose, that together we will be built up to be the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, and ultimately the New Jerusalem to express the Triune God in all of eternity as the NJ.
We are bound for that destiny, or that destination today, and our eyes must be set on that. While we are on that way, today let us be joyful as Paul was, let us be encouraged, be hopeful as Paul was, and to endure as Paul did. While he was suffering, he remained joyful and did not complain because he understood what was happening and his destiny. The suffering He has measured to us is the incarnation of His grace to us.
Br. Minoru Chen
(based on the transcription of speaking without the speaker’s editing)
Andrew is a servant of the Lord, and a co-worker among us. I wanted to testify for him in light of this
word on Job, particularly the need for Job to go through unspeakable sufferings. Do not forget the question of all mankind, why am I created, and why do I suffer? This is one question in 2 aspects. If a human can answer that question, I would say you have gained wisdom. The training has vitally given us the
answer to that question.
Both Andrew and I are from Hong Kong, he is 2 years older than me. Him discovering he had esophageal cancer was the first blow to him. Many saints did not know about that, and that was well over 10 years ago.
The radiation treatment he had to receive was extremely difficult, and he did it in Hong Kong. He was finally healed of that, but that treatment of radiation permanently damaged him in the throat area.
Subsequent to that, in the years after, he actually had 3 strokes, the most serious one happened to him when he was serving in Korea. All of that added together caused him to be unable to function and live
as he did before. Andrew is a very vital, industrious, diligent, energetic, and impactive person. All of this caused him to not be able to function as he did before. Not only so, it brought to him a great deal of suffering.
In these last years, all the physical pains and sufferings he experienced could be traced back to that cancer treatment, and the stroke complicated things.
I say this to tell you that at least for a decade of time there was nothing but suffering for our brother physically, somewhat like Job. Our brother served so much, he was a personal attendant of B. Lee. He was the one who opened the door for the bibles and the ministries to go into China. He was the one who helped B. Lee to establish the FTT in Taipei, and all the other trainings are offshoots of that original training. He was the one who completed the CWWN. Before he passed, he completed the CWWL. He poured himself out to finish that work because he knew his time was limited.
I contact him periodically, and we would have breakfast together. In our fellowship, especially in the later years, very little were on subjects of work,service, and things like that. Again and again he would testify of his situation. I will tell you that when he described them to me, me listening to it was as suffering. But he never complained, he just explained. So I know the amount of human and physical affliction he was going through was rare. I don’t know how any people will have that kind of suffering for that long period of time and still be able to carry out what he carried out.
In the last fellowships I had with him, he would always talk about his shortage, his lack in not living Christ, not living the God-man life. That was all his regret, all his grief, that he had not done so. That is my
testimony for him. I think what our brother experienced in all these years was exactly an experience of Job. That was what God measured to him in His wisdom and in His sovereignty, and even in His love for our brother, this magnitude and length of suffering.
If you don’t have the view of God’s economy you would question Him, to wonder why it had to happen
to a man like this? He was one who poured out his being to anoint the Lord and live out His interest on this earth. Why did he go through such affliction? We were made for God’s glory, in His image to express Him. That is God’s one sentence purpose for the man that He created. But God does not stop there with an intention, He also has His way, which is higher than ours. His way, that is His wisdom, is that there is only one road on the journey to that expression, and that is the way of the cross, the same way the Lord Jesus took in His human life. Jesus said that He must suffer and enter into glory, that was His resurrection, then in
ascension, there is further glory, and eventually He will enjoy that glory in the church, and then one day as the God of glory He will return. He is our hope of glory, and we as the many sons of God are being brought by
Him to be the glory of God, to be God’s full expression.
My point based on Job in this training, it should be clear that the way to that glory must be the way of the cross, the way of crucifixion, the way of suffering. So we do well to remember these 3 verses, 2 Co 4:16-18.
What is momentary and what is eternal, what is light and what is weighty, what is seen and what is not seen, I will tell you, today we all must take this way. It is God’s wisdom and God’s plan in each one of our lives is a customized, particular way. That we should go through these things measured to us for only one reason, that our outer man with the soul being the person and our body being its faculties, has to decay.
That means it must be consumed, it must waste away, it must be worn out. There’s only one way for this to happen, and that is to live this life according to God’s ordination. As we pursue Him, as we are living this
Christian life, this cross, through the arrangement of circumstances in our life, many of which are not pleasant, most of which are full of suffering, will dismantle, strip off the old man, destroy it in a way of
decay (that means in a process), so that the inner man with Christ in our spirit as our person, and our soul being the faculties for His expression will be renewed day by day.
I can testify in my meetings with Andrew, I can see the renewing that is taking place. Not only is decaying happening, but there is also the glorious renewing which I sense in my spirit, and I praise the Lord for
this. Our sense is an eternal sense, our eyes must be on eternity and not just on today. If our eyes are just on today, we will not be able to pass through these things in a victorious manner. The only way is that our eyes are not only on God, on Christ, but our eyes will be set on eternity, where the NJ will be.
Rm 8:28-30. These verses clearly show glorification is our destiny, but there would be something that God has designated in eternity past, that He would foreknow each one us, that He must gain for His expression and for His glory. He knew each one of us, selected, predestinated all of us to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son, through a process of justification, sanctification, conformation, and ultimately glorification. The key operating verse is verse 28, we know that all things, especially the suffering the affliction, all things work together including Satan (he’s working for God), all the environment, all the situation that comes to us, all the sickness, all the challenging circumstances, all of these things would work together for us to love God. Only to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose, that together we will be built up to be the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, and ultimately the NJ to express the TG in all of
eternity as the NJ.
We are bound for that destiny, or that destination today, and our eyes must be set on that. While we are on that way, today let us be joyful as Paul was, let us be encouraged, be hopeful as Paul was, and to endure
as Paul did. While he was suffering, he remained joyful, he did not complain because he understood, knew what was happening, and what was his destiny.
The suffering He has measured to us is the
incarnation of His grace to us.