Fullness in God's Heart — Hoseah Wu

I'd just like to say a few words from my heart regarding this conference. Every year when I come to this conference, I feel like I'm just like Ruth discovering the field of Boaz. Gleaning upon the reaches of our Lord Jesus.

The unsearchable reaches as in him. The amazing thing is the Lord told Ruth, Boaz told Ruth, don't go to another field, but remain here and glean. And not only that, he told his workers, he said, don't bother her, let her gather as much as she can.

But occasionally, throw some ears of corn on the ground and make it easier for her to gather. Now brothers and sisters, I've been to this conference for many years. I have confessed I'm a very lazy gleaner.

Not diligent, but thank God for his servants. From time to time they throw down some of those ears of corn, so easy for me just to pick them up. So what I have to share this out is not really of myself, it's what I have received from the Lord himself.

And from many brothers and sisters right here in this room. I owe a great deal to them. And thank God for those servants of the Lord, faithfully ministering God's word to us from time to time, year after year, through this conference here in Richmond.

Discovering the Fullness of Christ

I recall a series of messages to my children some years ago called the Arctic of Redemption. The first message began with his first coming and he ends his last message with his second coming. And all the events in between.

Now to me, anything that touches the Lord Jesus, that we touch him, we touch fullness. We cannot measure God's fullness in terms of quality or quantity. It's a person. God's fullness dwells in his son, the Lord Jesus, bodily.

It's in him. Apart from him, outside of him, there is nothing. Well, Brother Sproul says, discovering the richest pride is just playing a musical scale. You begin with Do, first note. And you go up the scale.

When you come to a certain note, you thought that is the end of the scale, but it's not quite the end. The scale is not complete until you hit that octave note. You know, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti. Well that's not complete until you hit the next note, Do.

Well, when you touch that note, when you play that last note, you thought you have a complete scale. Well, you're wrong. Because the end is just the beginning of another set of scales. And you go on and go on forever.

There's no end. Now, Brother and Sister, what we can hear is very limited. The scale of God is infinity. There's no way we can really take it in. All we can get is only a small fragment, a fraction, of that huge musical scale God has for us in the creation, in the Lord Jesus.

So the exciting thing about discovering the fullest crop of pride is that when we thought we have arrived at something, that we think we know something, and the Holy Spirit whispers to us, that is just the beginning.

And we start all over again. That is the beauty of our Christian adventure. There's no end. God has no end. And we have this exciting life to live. It's a life of continuing discovering the riches of Christ together as his people.

Well, this afternoon the Lord has laid a few things in my heart. And I hope it will be profitable to all of us. Shall we turn to a portion in the Bible? Let's turn to Psalm 25. Psalm 25. I'm reading from the NIV version.

Psalm 25, verse 14. The Lord confides in those who fear him. He makes his covenant known to them. Now, if you do have the, some of you do have the Derby Bible. It goes this way. The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear him.

That he may make known his covenant to them. I look into the strong concordance and I discover that this original Hebrew word has many shares of meaning. It can be translated as counsel, c-o-u-n-c-i-l.

As in Psalm 111, verse 1. In the NIV it's translated as counsel, c-o-u-n-c-i-l. It can also be translated into counsel, c-o-u-n-s-e-l. All came from that same root. It can also be translated sweet counsel or confidence.

It can also be translated as something that's covered, secret that's covered. And it can only be uncovered when the one who possesses it is secret. When you find a trustworthy person, he will uncover a little bit and he will cover it again.

In other words, he will take in those who he considers as trustworthy, faithful, and he will allow them to have a peek of the secret. The fullness of God lies in his heart. There is a saying, where his secret is, that's where his heart is.

Where his heart is, that's where he himself is. So, God is a God who has something in him that he wants to convey, to share, and to make known to us. Well, this I will consider some aspects of some of these precious things that God wants to convey and to share with us.

God's Sovereign Good Pleasure in Creation

If I may divert just a little bit, actually God has no obligation really. He is not obligated to share anything with us. He does not owe us anything. The reason why he wants to share is because it is his delight, his good pleasure.

So, I will just quote a few things from a book I read recently. It's by Arthur Pink and the book is entitled, The Attributes of God. And chapter one of this book is entitled, The Solitariness of God. And I think it's very significant.

I will just share a little bit of that and maybe I will paraphrase a little bit. When there was nothing, no one was there but only God. God alone was there. God was self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied, and in need of nothing.

Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to him in any way, they also had been called into existence before all eternity. The creating of him, when they did, added nothing to God essentially.

He changes now, that's Malachi 3 .6. Therefore, his essential glory can neither be augmented nor diminished. So in creating us, we add nothing to him. Because he is already quite so complete in himself.

Let me just go on a bit further. He was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That he chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on his part. Caused by nothing outside himself. Determined by nothing but his own mere good pleasure.

For he worked this whole thing out of the counsel of his will. That's Ephesians 1. Brothers and sisters, it's just his delight. He owes nothing. It's just his delight to create us human beings. And somehow in creating us, he deposits something in us.

This capacity to fellowship with him. God's very nature is fellowship. He put this in us. So that we have this potential to grow in him. And this capacity for fellowship may increase. Now, even on a human level, this instinct is in all of us.

You know, Paul said, no one lived unto himself. You need someone to share. Loneliness is the deadliest disease. The way they torture a person, beat you up, it's not really that agonizing. But when they isolate you into a solitary confinement, that is the most unbearable.

Loneliness. Well, even on this human level, we need someone to share. We all have dreams, hopes, aspirations. And we like to share those with someone. We have joys, happy times. We want to share with people.

And also human beings, as you know, life is not all a bed of roses. We encounter many disappointments in life. Life is a series of disappointments. Conflict, problems, sorrow, and the threat of death is always there.

And we need to confine our problems with people to seek their sympathy, to seek someone that can bear and share our burdens. Therefore, we pour our hearts to some of our friends and some of our intimates.

Now, this matter of sharing, there are two ways. One is very general, something very superficial. But there's something sharing that's in-depth. There's something you can share with most people. But there are things in your life you can only share with a select group of people.

Not everyone. Because that is very deep down here. You're looking for someone who understands down here. Not for someone who understands up here. And there are very few people that can share heart to heart.

And today, God is looking for His people that will share with Him, not just the superficial things, but the deep things that concern His Son, the Lord Jesus. Things that are dear to God's heart. And therefore, if we go back to the history, You know, when Adam sinned, and the fellowship between Adam, Eve, and God was completely cut off.

And Adam, Eve, you recall, they hid themselves among the trees. God was God who moved first. God came and asked Adam, where are you? So when Adam sinned, of course it was Adam's loss. But compared to God's loss, Adam's loss is a very small one.

God's loss is a real loss. And God wants to restore that. So, brothers and sisters, God lost something when man failed. And the Lord Jesus came back to recover that. And that's why, of course, we are called back into the fellowship now.

In His Son, the Lord Jesus. Now, let's come back on a human level again. When you fellowship something that is down deep in your heart, you are very selective. If someone can confide some of the secret in his heart to you, you are an honored person.

If someone in authority, in power, and calls you and says, I have something I want to share with you, you are a pernicious person. Brothers and sisters, you are not an ordinary person anymore. You are marked out for a secret.

Conditions for Receiving God's Hidden Counsel

Now, imagine the Creator, God Himself, that in His heart He has something He wants to share. But I believe He is looking, always looking, in all of us, the right condition by which He can share what is in His heart.

The problem with many of us, our conditions were not right. Therefore, we cannot receive anything from Him. We hinder Him from revealing what is in His heart to all of us. So, God is forever looking for that condition in all of us.

Therefore, the operation of the Holy Spirit is for that purpose. Bring us to the right condition where God can unveil the secret of His heart to us. That is the work of the cross. To remove all the obstacles that is in the way so that God can reveal what He wants to reveal in our hearts.

Well, where the secret of God is, there is His heart and there is Himself. In the Old Testament, we do have a few examples of the Old Testament saints that God did allow them to have a glimpse of some of His secrets.

But remember, whatever they saw in the Old Testament, they come in fragments. That is what Hebrews 1 we are told. Everything we find in the Old Testament, all in fragments. But the writes of the Hebrews say, now is complete because everything now is in the Son.

God speaks now not in fragments anymore, but in the Son. So, when it comes to the Son, we come to the full revelation of all that is in God's heart. While in the Old Testament, there are a few who already walked with the Lord and knew something of the secrets of God.

So, we all know that walking with God is the best way to know God. Just like friends, when they walk together, naturally they share their intimate things. The longer they walk together, thick and thin they are together, the more they become intimate and they can share heart to heart.

Well, maybe just a few examples in the Old Testament. The first one is Abel. When Adam fell, the way back to God was out. There is no way for mankind to approach God anymore because of sin. And Abel, by God's grace, was allowed to discover the way back to God.

You know, the way back to God is a secret. We know, but half of the people of the world, do they know? They don't know. It is a mystery to them. But now we know, after we accept the Lord Jesus, after our sins forgiven, now we know the way, we discover the way.

But before that, it is a mystery. It is only through faith this mystery was solved. Well, Abel was given this opportunity by God to discover that the way back to Him is through a sacrifice. A light lay down and blood shed.

Now, just an example. And then we move on to Noah. Noah was given the secret. I think it is safe for me to use it, top secret. You know, about the judgment to come. The secret of what is to come, the judgment.

At the same time, God also revealed to Noah the way of escape. It is a revelation, God revealing His secret to Noah. And not only that, God gave Noah the blueprint how to build that ark. And it took him 120 years.

And while he was doing that, people mystified, as though he was secretly doing something. He was unknown to them. You remember, in those days there was no such thing as rain, no flood. So what he was doing mystified that generation.

They could not figure out what he was doing. But Noah, down deep, he had a secret of God. Brothers and sisters, those who know something of the Lord, we are mystified persons. They could never figure us out.

Well, it took him 120 years. And he faithfully did, and he preached during those 120 years. Well, I'll move on to a couple more persons in the Old Testament. It's Enoch. I love that story, even though it's very brief, only a few verses.

But it's just so beautiful. He walked with God, and that's all he says. We have to take it by faith. We have to take it as a fact that he did walk with God. What amazes me is that it says, God took him, for he was not God to him.

And I told you, what does it mean? Well, because their walk was so intimate. The fellowship was so sweet. The communion was so wonderful. At least my thinking. If I'm wrong, I'm willing to be corrected.

That God himself tried impossible to walk with him. His fellowship was so precious to him that God would not walk with him. And God took him. Brothers and sisters, that is some walk. That is the walk that God is looking for among his people.

Not occasional walk with the Lord, but for 300 years. Together, day and night, constantly. And the Lord was so moved, so touched. He valued that friendship, that companionship so much. The Lord cannot part it.

Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes it's easy for us to part with the Lord, but not easy for the Lord to part with us. When he commits to us, he commits to us utterly. Eternally. That's all God. Well, the next person is Evelyn.

This phrase, to me, is just unbelievable. You know the story. And God said to himself, he said, Shall I hide from this man the thing I'm about to do? God's saying it. God was going to do something. He can do it without telling Abraham.

He's God. He doesn't need anyone to assist him. He doesn't need anyone to approve what he's going to do. And yet, God said to him, he said, Now, shall I hide anything from this man that I was about to do?

You see the friendship there. How intimate. How real. And no wonder this friend of Abraham was mentioned three times in the Bible. In Jehoshaphat's prayer, when he was in desperate need, he said, God, O Jehovah, you'll find Abraham.

They knew that Abraham was God's friend. And Isaiah, we are told that God said, call him my friend. In James, the record says there, he was God's friend. You know, in John 15, we are told about the Lord Jesus.

He said, I don't call you slaves anymore. I call you friends. And he clarified that. He said, because everything I learned, I want. Everything I learned from the Father, I'll tell you. And that's friendship.

And God is looking for a friend that will walk with him intimately. That can share heart to heart. You know, as I read from Arthur King, God is not obligated to do anything. But he's delighted. Somehow he's pleased to do it.

For instance, to be honest, it is grace and grace. All right, now let us dwell a few moments on what this word secret means. The secret, the first, one of the translations is council, c-o-u-n-c-i-l.

Secret Counsel as Fellowship Without Words

Now, if you look into Young's literal translation, it means a secret meeting. You know, if there's a secret meeting, that means there's what? There's an opening. There's a meeting that's for everybody.

And there's a meeting for a select few. So in Young's literal translation, that is a secret meeting. This council in Hebrew, it means a company of people sitting together. That's all. Where there's no controversy, where there is one accord, where there is one purpose, where there is real agreement one with another.

The secret meeting of the Lord is for those no words are spoken. Words are not necessary. They are silent. Because there's mutual trust. There's mutual. It's a real test of friendship. Words are not needed because there is what?

There's an inward understanding. You know, Robert Schumann wrote a serious piano piece called Music Without Words. Is such thing as understanding and friendship without words? Yes. A good example is between husband and wife.

Of course their husband and wife, they are also good friends, you know. They can be together in the house and yet not saying one word to another. Just because she's there and he's there, they feel very good about each other.

Perfect. No words need to be spoken. And yet there's such sweetness in that family. Doubt is gone, questions are gone, controversy is gone. It is a love relationship. It's an understanding, not mental, but it's down deep here.

And there's a trust. There's a difference between friends and acquaintance. So G. Campbell Morgan said, we have many acquaintances but we all have very, very few. He said, when new acquaintances come to visit, you have to entertain them.

You keep them occupied all the time. Talk to them, show them this and show them that. Entertain them, take them out here. He said, but with a friend, you don't need to do all that. Because your home is what?

And brothers and sisters, that is true. Are we God's friends or are we His acquaintances? If we are just His acquaintances, we'll never get to know the deep things of God. In other words, we miss out on His fullness.

So God is looking for a friend. Now the second meaning of this word secret is counsel. C-O-U-N-S-E-L. In some translations, it's a sweet fellowship, embodies a sweet intercourse. It's a heart-to-heart communion.

And now here, silence is broken. Words now spoken. We have words now. Words are not just ordinary words. Words are from the heart. They are not ordinary words. They are words with substance. Words coming out of here are chaff.

The words coming down here are grains solid with substance. That comes when friends understand each other well enough to be silent. That's a beautiful statement. Speech that comes when friends understand each other well enough to be silent.

When friendship can afford to be silent, the speech is the speech of friendship. Of course, there has to be an openness. You cannot hide anything. The heart has to be transparent. So even when friends do fellowship, sometimes we are more likely to be careless because we know each other so well.

And if you don't know a person so well, you'd be very careful what you say. But if you know that person very well, sometimes we tend to be a little bit on the careless side. So the beautiful thing in our fellowship with Lord Jesus is that he knows all about us.

He knows that what we say to him is mostly chaff and not much substance. But because he loves us so much, he is seeking fellowship with us. One person said he blows away the chaff and he retains the grain.

That is our Lord Jesus. That requires honesty of heart. I'm reminded of the home in Bethany. Before the Lord Jesus came to Bethany, there's no record in the scripture that they had any family problems.

But once the Lord came into the picture, they seemed to have a lot of problems. But because it's a home where the Lord loves to be, where he is at home, they are free to open their heart to one another.

And so Martha, being the vocal one, she complained. Do you remember she complained? What was the Lord's reaction to her complaint? The Lord did not recommend her, did he? No. In a sense, when Martha complained to the Lord, she honoured him as Lord.

You have to know the person well enough to complain to that person in order to get results. If you do not know that person well, you don't want to complain too much. That's when you know that person very well, you dare to say something from your heart.

And Martha did. And the Lord did not say what she did was wrong. But the Lord brought something very precious. You remember she told Martha, you say, you're busy, busy about many things, but there's only one thing that you need.

And Mary has chosen that first part, the best part, and no one can take it away. So in our careless speaking, in our complaint, the Lord comes through with words that has real substance to teach us, to adjust us.

Practicing Intimate Fellowship With Christ

So I learned a few lessons these past years, because to live among saints is not the most pleasant thing. You know? I mean, we think how pleasant and how good it is for the saints to dwell together in unity.

Well, it's true, and sometimes it's not quite true. And we all have complaints. But I discovered one thing in recent years, no use to complain to anyone. The best way to complain is go to the Lord. And He understands.

So there has to be that heart-to-heart fellowship. So you are talking, and He's listening, and He's listening, and we are talking. That is the kind of fellowship the Lord is looking for. And that is the way we can touch something of the person.

You can never know a person until you come intimately, until you can fellowship intimately with that person. And many of our fellowship, for instance, may be more or less on the superficial ground. You do not know that person too well.

And oftentimes we fellowship with the Lord the same way, at a distance, never together. When He talks, we are there to listen. And when we talk, He's there to listen. If I have secret from Him, then He cannot have secret with me.

This is one of the keys that we need to learn to use when we fellowship. Nothing we can have from Him, so that He can fellowship and speak to us freely. Friendship with God is so that we are able to pour everything from our heart to Him.

At the same time, allow Him to speak all that is in His heart to us. Many of us, we have the problem we want to pour everything to Him, but we are not ready to listen from Him. We want Him to listen to us, but we are not ready to listen from Him.

So a real friendship, a real fellowship, a real intimate friendship though, is that we can pour everything before Him, but at the same time be prepared for Him to speak us freely. The next meaning of this word secret has to do with advice, to receive guidance from the Lord.

It's when we fellowship with Him, communion with Him, knowing Him, then we discover we are so unlike Him. And that's where the next thing comes in. We need correction, we need adjustment, we need instruction.

And the next has to do with this advice, this instruction that He will give to us. And it often comes in a small voice. Why? Because the fellowship, the friendship is the one so intimate. There is no need to shout.

A whisper is enough. A look upon His face. So the only way we can be transformed, we can be corrected, we can be adjusted into His likeness is through our fellowship, close fellowship. Because when we fellowship with His Father, we are so unlike Him.

And then there is a longing created in us to be like Him. Then He can begin to do the adjustment. If that is the case, the transformation or the confirmation will be unto His likeness, not into anything else but Christ.

God's Deepest Secrets and the Call to Listen

Well, at last, this is the most precious one. As we move step from sitting together, and now we can speak, and now we can receive advice from Him, and this next is to take us into His competence. The secret of secrets.

Friend among friends. Now, we all have many friends, but we all have some very special friends. They are not just ordinary friends, they are very special friends. We have secrets we can share, but there are some secrets we can only share to certain friends.

God can tell His secret to Abraham that Lot knew nothing about it. And I believe there are still men and women today that God still can confide what is inside to them. Just to give an example, in the New Testament, Paul was one of those persons.

God confided to him something. He said, it is not even lawful to say. He was called into the third heaven. So, Young's first translation, he said, is a cover that conceals it. And when that incident comes, this person simply uncovers it.

And then says, look into it and uncovers it again. And says, now, have a good look now, but don't tell anybody. That's what it means. And so, Abraham was given the secret to look, to peek. But Lot was completely out of it.

Another person in the New Testament is Mary. The home, that home in Bethlehem. You remember, the scripture said that he sat at the Lord's feet and listened to Him. As I read the Gospels, I do not find any record in the Bible of what the Lord really actually spoke to Mary.

Was there anything there? I don't recall there was anything. It simply said that he sat at His feet, she sat at His feet and listened. And what the Lord communicated to him was not even recorded. Something that is not here for us to find out.

It must be something very precious. Maybe one day we will know when we go to glory. We say, Mary, just what did He say to you? We don't even know. But it was in the scripture that she sat at His feet and listened to Him.

But we do know one thing. Mary was the person who anointed the Lord before His burial. And the Lord said, wherever the Gospels preach, this story will be told as memorial. Now that is something. Mary did something which no one else can do.

And He did it to the Lord before His burial. So there are people that God is looking for that He can confide. Well, she experienced some of the fullness of the Lord Jesus. It is the way they learn to sit quietly.

When you sit in His presence, you will fall. You know why you will fall? Because you don't need to say any word. When you fall, you don't need to say any word. You are speechless. You are full. No words are necessary.

You can forget about yourself. You can forget your past. You just be holding His face. A secret meeting with the Lord. And then the second thing I share is this matter of Sweet Fellowship Communion. There is a telling, there is listening, both ways.

He wants to listen to us. Just as much as He wants to talk to us. He wants us to talk to Him. Just as He wants to listen to us. And thank God for such privilege. And of course, we need His advice, His help, His direction to take in all that the Lord wants to give to Him.

Now this word Jehovah is a very personal name of God. It is not the Almighty, power. It is very personal. It is the same word that we read all the time. That He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac.

He wants to be your fullness. But there is one condition. The fear of the Lord must come in. To be brought into this blessed condition, brothers and sisters, the one condition is the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now we can put it this way. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of entering into His fullness. Because God is our fullness. In Isaiah 33, verse 6, there is such a thing as God said, let me read it, you don't need to turn to it.

The fear of the Lord is the key to your treasure. If you want to look at it. It is Isaiah 33, verse 6. Just the last phrase of that verse. The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. And some translation it says to His treasure or to your treasure.

And for the purpose this week, we can probably put it this way. The fear of the Lord shall be your fullness. Treasure, something of great value. The fear of the Lord is to unlock God's treasure. Of course there are two kinds of fear.

The fear that is the wrong kind. The thing, always think that God is cruel. You are afraid of Him. He is always looking at you and fighting with you. Condemns you and makes you miserable. Well that is the wrong kind of fear.

But there is the right kind of fear. It is out of faith. It is out of relationship. Out of a love relationship. That you dare not to hurt His feelings. That you dare not to make Him uncomfortable and uneasy about it.

And that is a good kind of fear. And that is the kind of fear the Lord is looking for. In Proverbs, we have some very practical instruction here. In Proverbs 8 we read there, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

And in Proverbs 16, we have that phrase there. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. We cannot share God's secret and yet we have a secret love with Him. It just will not work. To think with Him in the heavenlies means we are delivered from the earth.

To think the things that are above, where He is at the right hand of the Father, means we don't think about the things down here. So not just hating. In principle we know we should hate. But there is an action that always we depart.

But with many of us, we know how to hate. But we are very hesitant to make that move and to depart from evil. Because there is secret love for the things we deserve. And the Lord said that we are not to.

Those who sit in the counsel of the wicked, someone, they cannot sit in the counsel of the righteous. So brothers and sisters, that is one condition. Because He is holy, He is true. So there is no pretense when we come to His presence.

There will be a sign of His approval, we know. When heaven is abrast, God will not talk to His people. Then they are done. But thank God, in His presence, there is a silence of His approval. God looks at His Son to satisfy.

Sometimes words are necessary. Even though heaven opened three times, it doesn't mean God only satisfies Him three times. He satisfies Him all the time. Words were not spoken from heaven. Approval was not made known to us, but He was always approved of the Father.

Words were not spoken. But the most comforting thing, brothers and sisters, is the end of that verse. That He will make His covenant known to us. To me, that is the best part of that verse. God said, if you fear Me, then all that I want to do in you, I am obligated to do it.

That's it. How can we do it? How? We cannot do it. But the Lord said, the how, you leave it to Me. I am covenanted to do it. I have faith in Myself, and what I promised, I will do it. You cannot sit in My presence, but if you have the desire, I will make you sit in My presence.

You cannot fellowship with Me intimately, but if you want to, I will make it possible. You will not listen to My correction, but if you want to, I will make it possible. You say, how can I receive anything from you?

Intimate things, deep things. But if you want to, I will make it possible. That's what I mean. He covenanted Himself. Brothers and sisters, all God is full. He is full. He has so much to share, but He is looking for the right condition in all of us.

And brothers and sisters, the right condition is fear Him. Fear Him, believe in Him, and say yes to Him. And the Lord said, I will do the rest, and thank God. Always appreciate those few phrases I repeat all the time.

But God has faith in Himself. That's why He called you and called me. Because He has faith in Himself. Because we are impossible people. Not because we have faith in Him. No, He has faith in Himself. Therefore He can do what He wants to do.

And that's grace. And He has the power to do it. And He's doing it. So brothers and sisters, take heart. All we need to do is fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus. God says, I'm obligated to see to it that my eyes are on His covenant.

Words are very weak, very feeble. May the Lord continue to speak to you. And I appreciate this conference year after year. Because every time I come here, I'm not, I dare not say I experienced the four things, I say the fourth, you know.

The Lord took me into His conference. I'm there, I should say that. But experience, just sitting here. You don't need to say anything. Just sitting here. It's so full. Don't you experience that from time to time?

Just being here, brothers. Just sitting here. Oh, it's full. It's just full. And then sometimes, balance broken. And you have a little fellowship with the Lord. Oh my, what a sweet fellowship. Thank God for this time that we can be together.

And often time I say, Lord, thank you. Every time I come back here, just like Ruth, go back, discover the field for us. And the Lord said to His audience, throw some down there, throw some down there.

Prayer for Willing Hearts and Deeper Fellowship

Show you our heads. Our words are so inadequate. But you are the living Word. We pray that you continue to speak to us. And do draw us ever closer to you. Do make us willing to be friends with you. Real friends.