Promise and companionship

Executive editor's acceptance speech

Photo courtesy/Li Wenping

▲Li Wenping in San Francisco Bay. In her heart, nature is the most beautiful church established by God Himself. Being immersed in it is also worship.

When one is on the road, all the bigger decisions have to do with the destination.

Spiritual journey "on the way"

In the middle of this year, I was "on the way" on such a spiritual journey when Pastor Su Wen'an, the editor-in-chief of this magazine, invited me to consider taking over the position of executive editor of "Kingdom of God". I have believed in the Lord for nearly twenty years, and as I have grown up and down, I feel that the greenness of life has faded slightly, and the weight of life has been greatly overturned. In the Lord’s promise, “I came to give life to the sheep. And you will have more abundantly" (John 10:10). It is closely related to our life full of joy, anger, sorrow and joy, and the hope and vitality it brings are deeply rooted in my heart. Therefore, how to understand His richness, experience His richness, enter His richness, internalize His richness, and live out His richness has become my deepest and most fervent desire. I feel that the meaning and purpose of life lies beyond this.

However, some of my spiritual journey plans have been interrupted due to various reasons. For example, the systematic theological study to better understand His richness can no longer be continued. It seems that God is more willing to use the environment to let me major in "life credits." The knowledge "about Him" requires self-study. I accept this without complaint.

The Lord said that the Bible bears witness to Him, but life must come to Him (refer to John 5:39-40). It would be a great blessing to be able to cut out the redundant and get straight to the subject - Himself. I would like to be a small vine branch in my daily life and learn to be directly connected by "blood" to Him, the true vine. , so that His life elements can also flow in my "veins". Therefore, the "prayer connection with God anytime and anywhere" practiced by Brother Lawrence is also the direction of my efforts and the way of practice - to conduct an inner pilgrimage in ordinary daily life. So I am a person “on the way”.

The feeling of "on the way" also pervades my linear sense of time. The Bible has long said that people are strangers in the world, and the ticking of the clock is always a reminder: life is a one-way journey, with no return and no stop. If we are not careful, the days God has numbered for us will change. Like water flowing away. So I have a sense of urgency to cherish the wonderful and priceless gift He has given me—every moment today.

So since life is a journey, travel companions are naturally important, because how travel companions can make the travel experience vastly different. The Lord is my best companion, and He will turn everything I encounter into gold. When I have the Lord, I have His richness; when I walk with Him, I walk in richness and meaning.

Even so, God’s intention in creating man is not only that we walk with Him, but also that we have companions. He will also accompany us through our companions, so that we can share joys and sorrows, work together, and support each other in flesh and blood. Built together. Therefore, on the spiritual journey, we also need such companions—walking on the same road, having the same destination, and willing to accompany each other.

Now the "Kingdom of God" team has sent me an invitation. I also like this team very much. Could it be that God wants us to use service as a medium, serve and be served, go on the road together, work together spiritually, and experience His abundant greatness together? Promise?

Meeting mentors and friends "on the road"

My understanding and love for KRC began with its founder, Sister Gao Lili. In addition to her obvious talents, God has also given Sister Li Li a pair of talented eyes and a talented heart. If she sees that brothers and sisters have gifts from God, she wants to bring these gifts into full play and serve God. Contributing bricks and mortar to the country. She will spend a lot of time proactively and regularly praying for and with you, and she will also give a lot of sincere and practical advice, encouragement, support and help.

This is how she "praised" me into the KRC team two years ago to be responsible for the new KRC website. Before that, in order to let me know about KRC, she paid for my own air ticket for me to attend the KRC retreat. She received me warmly and thoughtfully, demonstrating the mind and feelings of a spiritual elder sister. Although I am not a thousand-mile horse, but only a lamb in the Lord, I am very unwilling to let down such a sincere, willing to give, and extremely focused on prayer leader.

Later, because I had other literary services, I wanted to improve my professional skills, so I took the editing class of Mr. Su Wen'an from the KRC Cultural Practice Camp. I learned a lot, especially the "inner skills" of editing (see "God (Article "Vision and Heaven and Earth" in Issue 35 of "Guo").

Over the past two years, I have also had the opportunity to interact with other co-workers. I feel that KRC is both dynamic and real. It supports its service with prayer, unites co-workers with vision, and connects everyone with love. It has the courage to touch cutting-edge issues. Have a vision to transcend temporary chaos; co-workers have diverse talents and personalities, some are steady, gentle, humorous, some are warm and kind, candid and frank, etc., creating their own scenery. It would be a real blessing for me to have such a team that can travel together in the spiritual journey because of my service. They can be my mentor, my friend, my brother and my sister, and let us experience and enter the infinity and richness of the Lord Himself together!

twists and turns

But when I lowered my head and looked at the situation, I couldn't easily answer "OK". Although from a time point of view, the intensity of one ministry in my hand has been reduced, it has been freed up to take care of the needs of the "Kingdom of God" magazine; but the life credits that God wants me to major in have not yet come to an end, and there are some family responsibilities that are not mine. It also requires dedication and commitment.

I have been praying and thinking about it for about a week, but no decision has been made. Because I didn't want to delay "Kingdom of God"'s search for a more suitable executive director, I told the truth frankly. I think if God wants me to take over this position, no matter what confusions and difficulties I face, He will definitely remove the obstacles. If not, then it is inappropriate for me to accept it on my own. It is not in line with the "purpose" of the spiritual journey, and it is harmful to people and people. It is of no use to the ministry. At that time, "the end of August" was the time limit that appeared in my mind.

Thank you to the KRC team for their sincerity, trust and patience. They are not only willing to wait for me to get confirmation from God, but also pray for me earnestly every week. But as the date approaches, the obstacles remain. I thought: "Okay, Lord, since You are in charge of everything, then I will feel at ease in everything. I will reply in two days so that a more suitable candidate can take over. Don't miss the "Kingdom of God" ministry."

Unexpectedly, there are twists and turns, ebbs and flows; it is obviously a high wall, but walking past it is a path of dark willows and bright flowers. The specific details are extensive and I won’t go into details here. In short, my prayer suddenly came to fruition, which made me grateful to the Lord who guides people with grace and truth. So this issue started to go on the road with the KRC editorial team, which gave me the opportunity to be more closely immersed in the team atmosphere of humility, seriousness, humor, cooperation, mutual love and godliness. I am grateful to have you as my spiritual mentor. If the Lord allows, I would like to experience the Lord together through future ministries, share the spiritual journey, grow together, walk together and support each other, and walk together and encourage each other. May we become freer and richer as we go together.