Full-Time Training - Testimonies

The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ, Julie Uskert

I still remember the summer before my tenth grade year. I went to a semi-annual ten-day training in Anaheim, California for the first time and that ten-day experience changed my life. It was a study on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. I chose to go because I was seeking to know Christ. I realized that although I grew up in a Christian home with parents who really loved the Lord, I was lacking in my experience of Christ. At this ten-day training, I was amazed at the application and interpretation of the Old Testament related to my experience of Christ. Witness Lee faithfully held these trainings twice a year, year after year, to expound the whole Bible in a way that would bring Christians into a deeper knowledge and experience of Christ as life. At that training in the summer of 1993, I found out about the Full-Time Training in Anaheim (FTTA) and I immediately consecrated myself to go one day. I saw so many young people reciting verses and points of truth with so much life. Their faces were beaming. When I saw them speaking God's word, there was a registration in my being that this was what we, as human beings, were made to do. I realized right then that I wanted to know the truth, not just in a doctrinal, mental way, but in an experiential way.

Almost ten years later I'm half way through my third term in the FTTA and I can testify that the more I learn about Christ, the more I want to experience Him and the more I love Him. My Christian life is deeper and the vision that I see is higher. I feel to some degree that my knowledge of Christ is becoming the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (Philippians 3:8). As I see more of the supreme preciousness and surpassing worth of this wonderful Person, I count more things to be loss on account of Him. I appreciate so much the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee because it has brought me to experience the all-inclusive Christ and has caused me to fall in love with Him over and over.

This is a most precious place! In the FTTA we are learning to experience, love, enjoy, pursue, and know Christ. What we gain of Christ is not just for ourselves but also for all men. As we learn, we must practice, and what we practice, we must speak. Just as I saw those young people speaking God's word at the summer training, so must I speak. I was made to be a channel--taking in the rich supply of God's life and flowing it out to others (John 7:38). This kind of experience is truly meaningful and full of satisfaction.

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