Full-Time Training - Testimonies

Tasting the Good Word of God , Billy Lin

In the spring of 2001, after I graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, I came to the Full-Time Training in Anaheim (FTTA). Now in my third term of the Training, I can testify that the FTTA has helped foster in me a constant appetite for the Bible, which I didn’t have prior to college graduation.

While I was growing up among the Christians who met with the various local churches, the older brothers and sisters would always encourage us to read the Bible daily. Following their advice, I had tried numerous times to start and keep a reading schedule by myself and with my peers, but my efforts had always resulted in failure. I tried to stick to these programs intermittently until my senior year in college, and by that time I was satisfied simply with going to the various gatherings and listening to others’ speaking on what they benefited from their reading of the Bible. Although I was always edified by these gatherings and attended them faithfully, I lacked a personal enjoyment of the Bible. During my final quarter in college, in the fall of 2001, the Lord convicted me about my lack of a Bible reading habit. So, I started another reading schedule in September. Sometimes I would read something inspiring, but most days I would just race through a chapter at two o’clock in the morning (the hour I routinely went to bed). When I entered the Training about five months later, I already had the realization that I needed to read the Bible, though I still doubted its benefit.

Right from the beginning of my first term of the Training, the instructors reiterated all the virtues of reading the Bible and even memorizing verses. As the term wore on, they continued to emphasize our need to know the Bible thoroughly. They said that knowing the Bible not only helps us in gospel preaching to others, but also even allows us to know God and His eternal purpose personally and concretely. So I was encouraged to make note cards and write down the verses that I came across in the classes, in my Bible reading, and in the books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Then every day after finishing all my daily assignments, I walked around the parking lot of the training facility flipping through the note cards and trying to commit each verse to memory. Not long after I started this practice I realized the benefit of memorizing the Word of God. As I began to discover the goodness in God’s Word, the time that I spent reading the Bible increased day after day. From time to time I would be so excited by verses or ministry that I “overflowed” on my peers, relating everything to them. We would then enjoy one another’s portion in mutual fellowship.

In my second and third terms, because of added responsibilities, I no longer had the relaxed schedule like in my first term, so I had to discontinue my practice of verse memorization. Often I’ve had to scratch and claw only to get a minute here and there to read the Bible. Nevertheless, I now understand what it means to “thirst” for God’s Word. As the end of the term nears, through the encouragement of all the instructors and my peers in the Training, and from times of chewing on the wholesome goodness of the words in the Bible, I have gained a taste and a persistent hunger for the Bible that I most definitely did not possess before. I’m indebted to the FTTA for all the help it has rendered me in this respect and many other respects which I cannot enumerate here. “Thy words were found and I did eat them. And they became the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

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