All that Glitters, E.L.

Happiness. Isn't that what we all want? Yet, although it always seems so near, at the instant that we think we've finally got it, it eludes us so cruelly once more.

Growing up on New York's affluent Long Island, and attending college next door to Southern California's Beverly Hills, I've always been surrounded by the luxuries that this world has to offer. Travelling around the globe, going on countless shopping sprees, making money on Wall Street--and all before my 22^nd birthday. But the emptiness kept growing ....

By my senior year in college, I grew tired of being disillusioned by the vanity, by all the ephemeral “firecrackers” that this world has to offer. That's when I decided to come back to the local church. And let me tell you, there's no place like it in the entire world. Here, I've found contentment, peace, satisfaction, and fulfillment in the local church. I've found God Himself. In Him, I feel like the richest guy in the world.

And, oh yeah ... I'm finally happy.

Vision

Have you ever taken a class where you had absolutely no clue as to what was being taught? And worse yet, where everyone else in the class seemed so fascinated, so captured by the very same subject which left you dumbfounded?

This feeling has been my experience many times in the past not only in academia, but also in my Christian life. For years, before I began to study the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, I attended church meetings, but always found the Bible extremely confusing and discouraging and thus, never studied it with any kind of zeal . . . until I came across the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

After hearing so much about their writings, I decided to investigate. Upon reading some of their works, in particular the footnotes in the Recovery Version of the New Testament, I was deeply impressed and helped by how these brothers conveyed a revelation of the New Testament to me. From being in complete darkness regarding the Scriptures, I was now beginning to get some light and vision concerning what is on God's heart.

Today, that vision is slowly, but gradually, increasing as I dive into the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.