People often want to be praised, but faith means to let go of oneself, give up oneself, and live out the Christian faith.
Having been engaged in the ministry for many years, Pastor L shared how he went from caring about himself so much to only caring about Jesus Christ in a recent interview with the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper.
Many years ago, when Pastor L was pastoring in a certain place, his dream at that time was to build the largest church in China there. Pastor L admitted that this was actually his personal ambition at that time that in the name of doing a great job for God, it was himself who wanted to accomplish something. God was just a tool to help him achieve his goals. Although he didn't realize it at the beginning, he believed that his thoughts were in line with God's will, so God would definitely help him accomplish his goals.
At that time, Pastor L told his congregation, "In a few years, many people will see the name of our church on the Internet, and they will also see the name of the pastor of our church on the Internet.
He added, “When things are finished, I will say ‘thank God’ by mouth, all was done by God. But because it is done, I am complacent in my heart, my personal righteousness is revealed-It is I who finishes the job, who can compare with me? As you cannot do it, am I holier than you? Am I more mature than you?"
"Man cannot go before God. When God is doing His job, we just follow His steps. The Lord Jesus also said, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Rather than saying we don't want to do something, we can actually do nothing on our own, and we often say to the Lord, Lord, take a rest for a while and let me do it, which is the case."
Over the past few years, Pastor L's church has grown significantly, and the number of the congregation has slowly increased to more than 500 people. However, he was not satisfied with this,. “What kind of megachurch do you think it is, a church of only 500 to 600 people?” Because he wasn't looking at a few hundred people, he had in mind tens of thousands of believers, just like some megachurches abroad. Since there were only over 500 believers, so it certainly could not be called a "megachurch".
Later, for some reason, Pastor L left the church, but he found himself in a worsening situation.“No matter how hard and diligent I tried, the church could never reach 500 people, much less,” he revealed.
Pastor L was confronted with such a situation and began to reflect deeply on what went wrong.
He said, "Then I found a problem: once the church gets bigger, I want both my co-workers and other people who know me to be able to say that I am a big vessel and can build a megachurch. To some extent, I would like people to make such positive comments about me.”
"I definitely don't want to hear anything negative or passive in front of me, I only want to hear words that praise me, which is a weakness of human nature."
“The reason why we deteriorate after serving for some time is that we do not rely on Christ who is our rock. Therefore, the strength in our hearts is gone, so we can only fill our inner deficiency, weakness, and ego with external things, then we can only seek satisfaction from the outside. It is natural to begin to credit ourselves with fame, power, or whatever else from the outside.”
"My own personal experience is that I hope people comment on me as a good person. ‘Look at Pastor L. He graduated from a famous university and has built megachurches, has a great impact, has great credit, has a great role.’" Pastor L. said, "To be honest, I used to enjoy hearing this and liked to be affirmed and praised by others. But now I've put it down, what is man? What am I? That's all I am. If the Lord wants to use me, He can use me, if He doesn't want to use me, He can put me aside. My performance is good or bad, I have my own weakness, but I don't care. I don't care what people think of me.”
“I think the difference from before is that now I have Christ in me, and that's the real treasure, and what are the things other than those? What is reputation? Some people slander me, some people attack me, and some people defend me, but what's the point? It doesn't matter to me. This is a mystery, a mystery that has been hidden from all generations before the ages. Now, this mystery has been revealed to us, and this mystery is to see Christ in us, not the Christ who sits on the throne of heaven, nor the Christ who reigns on earth, but the Christ who is in us, in our hearts,” he concluded.
- Translated by Richard Zou
见证| 一华东牧师牧会中学会放下自己：在你的心里看见基督
人往往都很想要得着称赞，可是信仰却意味着要放下自己，舍弃自己，活出基督。
L牧师信仰并牧会多年。近日，一家中国网络基督教报纸基督时报采访了他，他分享了自己是如何从极度在乎自己到只在乎耶稣基督的。
多年以前，L牧师在某地牧会的时候，那个时候他的梦想就是能够在那里建立一个全中国规模最大的一所教会。L牧师说其实这都是当时他个人的一种野心罢了，打着为上帝做大事的旗号，想要成就却是自己，上帝只不过是帮助他成事的一件工具而已。当然当时一开始的时候看不到这些，觉得自己如此想法是完全符合上帝的旨意的，因此上帝一定会帮助自己，成就自己所想要成就的。
那时候，L牧师给教会的弟兄姊妹说，“再过几年很多人就会在网上看到我们教会的名字，也会在网上看到我们教会牧师的名字。”
L牧师说，“当事情行出来的时候，口里说着感谢上帝，这都是上帝做的。但是因为事情做出来了，我心里沾沾自喜，所以我个人的义就显明出来了——事情是我做的，所以我能够跟别人比。而你却没做到，那我岂不比你圣洁吗？我岂不比你成熟吗？”
“人不能够行到上帝的前面去，上帝做事的时候我们只管顺从就是。主耶稣也说，所以我在父里面，父在我里面；父在作事，所以我也作事；不借着父，子什么都不能做。其实不是不做，而是不能做。可是我们却能做，我们常常对主说，主你先休息一会，让我来做，往往都是这样。”
那几年，L牧师服事的这所教会确实有很大的发展，聚会人数逐渐增加到五百多人。可是，L牧师对此却很不以为然，他回答说“区区500个人、600个人算什么大型教会？” 因为他曾经想的可不是几百个人的事，他想的是能够有几万名信徒，就像国外的一些大型教会一样。现在才五百多个人，因此自然不能说是“大教会”。
再到后来，因为一些缘故，L牧师离开了这所教会，可是离开这所教会以后，L牧师却发现自己的境况每况愈下，“我发现无论我再怎么使劲，再怎么拼命的去干，始终达不到500个人，而且差的很远。”
面对这样的景况，L牧师终于开始深刻的反思，到底哪里出了问题。L牧师说，“那我就想到一个问题了，当我做大了以后，我希望无论是同工还是其他知情人都能够说我是一个大器皿，能做很大的教会。我多多少少希望得到这种来自于人的正面的评价。” “如果有人在我面前说一些否定的话，消极的话，我肯定不愿意听，我只愿意听称赞我的话，这是人性的软弱。”
为什么走着走着，服事着服事着人就开始变质了呢？那是因为我们没有依靠基督，没有让耶稣基督成为我们的磐石。因此，我们心里的力量没了，于是就只能用外在的东西来填补我们内在的不足、内在的软弱和内在的小我，所以只能从外面寻求满足。这样的话自然就会开始从名誉、权力或者其它的什么地方下手来给自己贴金。（==当summary）
“我自己的亲身经历、亲身体验就是这样，希望人家评论我的时候说我是一个很优秀的人。‘你看L牧师如何，L牧师人家是名牌大学毕业的，又做了很大的教会，影响很大，有很大的功劳，有很大的作用。’ ”L牧师说，“实话实说，以前我愿意听这个，喜欢得到别人的肯定和称赞。但是现在我已经放下来了，人算什么啊？我算什么？我就这样了，主想要用我就用，不想用就不用。我的表现好或者不好，我的样式这么软弱，但是我不在乎。人怎么看，我都不在乎。”
“我想跟以前的区别是因为现在有了基督在我里面，这才是真正的宝贝，其他的那些事情算什么？名誉算什么？有的人诋毁我，有的人攻击我，也有人在维护我，可是有什么用啊？我都无所谓了。我只认我里面的那位主基督，只认我里面的基督，这是奥秘，是万世之前历世历代一直被隐藏起来的奥秘。现在这个奥秘已经向我们显明了，这个奥秘就是看见在我们心里的基督，而不是坐在高天宝座上的基督，也不是在地上居首位掌王权的基督，基督是在我们里面，在我们心里。”
https://christiantimes.cn/news/37622/%E8%A7%81%E8%AF%81%7C%20%E4%B8%80%E5%8D%8E%E4%B8%9C%E7%89%A7%E5%B8%88%E7%89%A7%E4%BC%9A%E4%B8%AD%E5%AD%A6%E4%BC%9A%E6%94%BE%E4%B8%8B%E8%87%AA%E5%B7%B1%EF%BC%9A%E5%9C%A8%E4%BD%A0%E7%9A%84%E5%BF%83%E9%87%8C%E7%9C%8B%E8%A7%81%E5%9F%BA%E7%9D%A3
见证| 一华东牧师牧会中学会放下自己：在你的心里看见基督
People often want to be praised, but faith means to let go of oneself, give up oneself, and live out the Christian faith.
Having been engaged in the ministry for many years, Pastor L shared how he went from caring about himself so much to only caring about Jesus Christ in a recent interview with the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper.
Many years ago, when Pastor L was pastoring in a certain place, his dream at that time was to build the largest church in China there. Pastor L admitted that this was actually his personal ambition at that time that in the name of doing a great job for God, it was himself who wanted to accomplish something. God was just a tool to help him achieve his goals. Although he didn't realize it at the beginning, he believed that his thoughts were in line with God's will, so God would definitely help him accomplish his goals.
At that time, Pastor L told his congregation, "In a few years, many people will see the name of our church on the Internet, and they will also see the name of the pastor of our church on the Internet.
He added, “When things are finished, I will say ‘thank God’ by mouth, all was done by God. But because it is done, I am complacent in my heart, my personal righteousness is revealed-It is I who finishes the job, who can compare with me? As you cannot do it, am I holier than you? Am I more mature than you?"
"Man cannot go before God. When God is doing His job, we just follow His steps. The Lord Jesus also said, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Rather than saying we don't want to do something, we can actually do nothing on our own, and we often say to the Lord, Lord, take a rest for a while and let me do it, which is the case."
Over the past few years, Pastor L's church has grown significantly, and the number of the congregation has slowly increased to more than 500 people. However, he was not satisfied with this,. “What kind of megachurch do you think it is, a church of only 500 to 600 people?” Because he wasn't looking at a few hundred people, he had in mind tens of thousands of believers, just like some megachurches abroad. Since there were only over 500 believers, so it certainly could not be called a "megachurch".
Later, for some reason, Pastor L left the church, but he found himself in a worsening situation.“No matter how hard and diligent I tried, the church could never reach 500 people, much less,” he revealed.
Pastor L was confronted with such a situation and began to reflect deeply on what went wrong.
He said, "Then I found a problem: once the church gets bigger, I want both my co-workers and other people who know me to be able to say that I am a big vessel and can build a megachurch. To some extent, I would like people to make such positive comments about me.”
"I definitely don't want to hear anything negative or passive in front of me, I only want to hear words that praise me, which is a weakness of human nature."
“The reason why we deteriorate after serving for some time is that we do not rely on Christ who is our rock. Therefore, the strength in our hearts is gone, so we can only fill our inner deficiency, weakness, and ego with external things, then we can only seek satisfaction from the outside. It is natural to begin to credit ourselves with fame, power, or whatever else from the outside.”
"My own personal experience is that I hope people comment on me as a good person. ‘Look at Pastor L. He graduated from a famous university and has built megachurches, has a great impact, has great credit, has a great role.’" Pastor L. said, "To be honest, I used to enjoy hearing this and liked to be affirmed and praised by others. But now I've put it down, what is man? What am I? That's all I am. If the Lord wants to use me, He can use me, if He doesn't want to use me, He can put me aside. My performance is good or bad, I have my own weakness, but I don't care. I don't care what people think of me.”
“I think the difference from before is that now I have Christ in me, and that's the real treasure, and what are the things other than those? What is reputation? Some people slander me, some people attack me, and some people defend me, but what's the point? It doesn't matter to me. This is a mystery, a mystery that has been hidden from all generations before the ages. Now, this mystery has been revealed to us, and this mystery is to see Christ in us, not the Christ who sits on the throne of heaven, nor the Christ who reigns on earth, but the Christ who is in us, in our hearts,” he concluded.
- Translated by Richard Zou
Pastor in Eastern China: 'Christ in Me is the Real Treasure'
