A Young Man in God's Plan - Chapter 2

"The center of the universe is Christ in you and you in Christ. The real meaning of human life is Christ as your life with a view that you will be conformed to His image."

"I had Christianity, but I did not have Christ. I had the religious forms, but I did not have Christ. I had the doctrines, the teachings, but I did not have Christ."

I feel extremely thankful that God's purpose today is simply that Christ would be put into us so that we would be put into Christ. Nothing else. All the forms, practices, and doctrines are not even the center of God's plan. I have to testify that my experience was much the same as Brother Lee's early on in my Christian life. I feel like I argued for the sake of Christianity when I was in high school, but many times I did not have the reality of Christ Himself. As a church kid, I realize it's so easy for us just to have the meetings, the saints, and the outward practices, while the inward reality of Christ as our life is desperately lacking.

"Day by day you have Him within you, yet you need more and more vision and revelation concerning Him. You have to pursue Him. You have to know Him more and more and let Him have more ground within you...What you need is the inward knowledge of Christ, the inner experience of Christ."

This is really my prayer. It's not good enough to just go to meetings and read our Bible if we never come to know Christ. Last night, we prayread John 4:24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness." Anything without the exercise of our spirit becomes a form. I just pray that the Lord would continue to be real and living to me this coming year, and that I would come to know Him even more.

Grant me subjective experience, Lord! I don't want to be satisfied with just going to meetings just to fulfill my Christian duty. I pray I'd draw closer to You and I'd come to know You as a person. Save me from any deadness or rituals. I want to care supremely for Christ. May you have the preeminence in all my heart.