07/31/2026
Divine Literature - Week 2
The Lampstand on the Hill
Dear church,
We have walked together through the recent speaking of Divine Literature.
We beheld the eternal Word who was with God and was God, the One through whom all things came into being. We saw that this Living Word now desires to live again in His people. We were brought to the central purpose: that Christ Himself might have the first place in all things, because in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell. We discovered that the same Word who created the universe still upholds and bears all things; including our fragile lives by the word of His power. Now, as we progress in our church-ing journey, the Spirit compels us to be a radiant beacon, a finite yet infinite local church on the earthly hill, with a global reach and limitless potential!
Why was the Word written?
Why did the Word become flesh?
Why does the fullness dwell in Him bodily?
Why are we being constituted with the mind of Christ and placed under His headship?
It is so that a lampstand may be raised on the hill; a clear, shining beacon in this dark age until He returns the second time.
The Word Still Tabernacling in Flesh and Blood
Johnβs words remain the foundation:
βAnd the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.β (John 1:14)
That tabernacling did not end when the Lord ascended. The same Word who once walked in a single human body now seeks to tabernacle through a corporate Bodyβthe local church. And He chooses to do so in vessels that are still in blood and flesh, still weak, still ordinary, still seemingly vulnerable.
Look at us here in Toledo, Ohio. We are not a large or impressive church by human measurement. We carry the same limitations, the same pressures, the same daily struggles that every group of believers has known. We are, as Hebrews 2:14 reminds us, those who have partaken of blood and flesh. Yet it is precisely through such a people that the Lord delights to write the next chapter of Divine Literature. The Lord has never needed the strong things of this age to be His lampstand. He deliberately chooses what is weak in the flesh so that the light shining from it can only be explained by the One who dwells within. When a local church in a place like Toledo gives Christ the first place in all things, that church becomes a living extension of the Word who became fleshβfull of grace and reality.
A Beacon in the Present Darkness
We are living in a dark age. Truth is contested. Confusion multiplies. Many grow weary. The love of the majority grows cold. Yet the light that shone in the darkness still shines, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
A local church that lives under the headship of Christ becomes a lampstand on the hill. Not because of natural strength, eloquent ministry, or abundant resources, but because the fullness that dwells in Christ bodily (Colossians 2:9) is being expressed through a people who are being upheld by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). From such a lampstand, divine publications begin to sound out. These publications are not merely printed pages. They are the overflow of a living testimonyβthe spoken word, the written ministry, the songs, the testimonies of ordinary saints who are learning to let the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) operate in them. What is released from a vulnerable local church can travel far beyond its city limits. A word that first burned in Toledo can strengthen a small gathering on another continent. A testimony of Christ having the first place in one locality can become bread for saints facing far greater darkness elsewhere. This is how the Head supplies the entire Body. This is how the Divine Literature continues to be publishedβnot only in books, but through living letters known and read by all men.
The Global Impact of a Local Lampstand
Never despise the day of small things. The Lord is not limited by the size or outward condition of a local church. When Christ is given the first place, when the saints allow themselves to be upheld by Him rather than by their own strength, when the mind of the One who emptied Himself governs their relationships and decisionsβthen that local church becomes a channel of supply to the global churches. The same One who is the Head of the Body in Toledo is the Head of the Body in every locality on earth. The light that shines here is part of the one light.
The publications that sound out from here join the one sounding out of the Word across the earth. In this way a seemingly weak local church participates in the Lordβs end-time move, preparing the Bride and hastening the day of His return.
Until His Second Coming
Hebrews tells us that after the Son made purification of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is waiting.We are waiting with Him. But while we wait, the Divine Literature is still being written in real timeβin the daily living of the local churches. Every time a brother or sister in Toledo chooses the mind of Christ over the natural mind, every time the church together gives Him the first place in practical affairs, every time we rest in the One who upholds all things rather than striving to uphold ourselves, another living sentence is added to the book. And this living book is being read.
The global churches are watching. The seeking ones are being drawn. The enemy is being put to shame. The Bride is being prepared.
The Final Call
Therefore, beloved saints in Toledo and every local church that stands in the same testimony; receive this concluding vision:
Do not measure yourselves by outward appearance. Do not shrink back because you still live in flesh and blood. The Word who became flesh has chosen to tabernacle again through us. Let Him have the first place in all things. Let His powerful word uphold us. Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be the mind that governs us. Then shine. Become the lampstand on the hill. Become a clear beacon in this dark age.
Let divine publications sound out from our midst not as the product of human ambition, but as the spontaneous overflow of a people who are full of the Word. And trust that what the Lord does in a vulnerable local church in Toledo can impact the global churches and hasten the return of the One we love.
The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Keep the light burning until the Morning Star arises. Come, Lord Jesus. To You who are the Head, the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, the One in whom all the fullness dwells, the One who upholds all things by the word of Your power be the first place in Toledo, in every local church, and in all things, now and until You come.
O dear Lord may You come, may You come quickly!
