Reading is inheriting the knowledge of others,
Inheriting the experience of others,
Inheriting the learning of others,
Inheriting the character of others, this is very important!

Hangzhou is a place blessed with outstanding individuals and talents, and the people here love to read. A poet of the Song Dynasty named Huang Tingjian, who studied under Su Shi, the then prefect of Hangzhou, was the head of the Four Scholars of Su's School, and also served as the supervisor of the Imperial College. He said: A day without reading, dust grows within; two days without reading, speech becomes insipid; three days without reading, the face becomes detestable. This means that reading has a profound impact on a person. Chairman Mao also once said that if you don't study for three days, you can't catch up with Liu Shaoqi.

Someone once asked me, Pastor, I can't speak well, what should I do? This can't speak well doesn't mean that he can't speak Chinese, but that his words are uninteresting and dull. Many people can talk a lot about this and that, about playing and having fun, but when it comes to serious matters, they have nothing to say. In other words, why is his speech so dull? Because he doesn't read. A person can't speak well because he doesn't read; he doesn't know how to conduct himself because he doesn't read; he doesn't know how to do things because he doesn't read.

The Christian Faith Emphasizes Reading

Reading began with our God. The Pentateuch of Moses in the Bible (Note: The Pentateuch of Moses refers to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) was written three thousand five hundred years ago, much earlier than the written records in China. At that time, Moses conducted a literacy campaign among the Israelites, eliminating illiteracy. In fact, even today, Israel is a very unique nation. The uniqueness lies in the fact that there is no illiteracy in this country, and everyone reads, at least the Pentateuch of Moses. In other words, reading began with the Bible and the God in the Bible through Moses. Reading began with Moses, and education also began at that time. In fact, some very famous universities today, like Harvard University, were initially founded by pastors. That is to say, as a pastor, I value education very much. This also includes Tsinghua University in China, which was established with the Boxer Indemnity. That was a war indemnity from the Qing government. After the indemnity was paid, the United States proactively returned what it had received to China and used the money to establish Tsinghua University. The United States is a country founded on the Christian faith.

We must know today that the Christian faith highly values learning and education. It is unacceptable for a Christian not to read. So today, brothers and sisters, can we put a little effort into reading? This is not for anyone else, but for the will of our God. A person's ignorance is fatal, and a person's foolishness is closely related to his ignorance. In other words, if you don't know, you don't know, and that is not a path to prosperity.

Reading is Inheritance

Why do we read? Because reading is inheritance. For example, when you read the books that God wrote through Moses, you will know the laws that God revealed to mankind. If we don't read, and we just sit at home and try to think hard, we can't figure it out no matter what, right? For example, Newton invented Newton's three laws of motion. If you sit at home and try to think hard, you can't figure out Newton's three laws. Wouldn't it be over if you just read it? Newton worked so hard to figure it out at home, and we can just read it. Like today's calculus, it was all created in Newton's era. Because he needed to calculate, he invented many mathematical tools, and today we just need to learn them.

Human knowledge needs to be inherited. I have found that it is already very impressive to understand the existing knowledge. It is already very impressive to understand the knowledge in a certain existing industry; or to understand a small part of that industry. So today, we brothers and sisters must begin to learn to read. Reading is inheriting the knowledge of others, inheriting the experience of others, inheriting the learning of others, inheriting the character of others, this is very important! To this day, I still have a reading habit. I don't read fast enough. It's good if I can read dozens of books a year, but I should actually read more.

Knowledge can never be learned in a lifetime. Once, Mao Zedong led his army on a march, and they had to rest in the middle of the march when they were tired. When resting, Mao Zedong sat under a tree and opened a book to read. A soldier asked him, Chairman, you are already so knowledgeable, why do you still need to read? Then Chairman Mao said, There is too much knowledge, and I only know a little bit. Chairman Mao only knew so little and he managed to settle China, how amazing! He was so knowledgeable, yet he admitted that he only knew a little bit and needed to keep reading, so we are even less qualified to say that we don't need to read.

Recently, I read The Game of Capital written by Fang Xiyuan. This book was recommended to me by a friend who is an investment professional, a very capable person. He recommended that this book was good, so I quickly bought a copy. In the book, I read a very interesting sentence: When Beijingers are all riding bicycles, you have to sell everything you own to buy a car so that you can run ahead of the masses; but when all Beijingers are driving cars, you should buy a bicycle so that you can still run ahead of the masses. In other words, he has a logical system of being above rather than below, being the head rather than the tail. After reading it, I felt that the author was speaking very realistically and vividly. If you let me sit at home and think about it myself, but I haven't done any investment before, then read this book and you will feel that it is written very well.

Let us think about how much knowledge we have invented ourselves? In fact, almost none. Your original knowledge is almost a very, very small point, and most of it is what you have learned. The knowledge of a person's life is actually learned, and the knowledge created by oneself is almost zero, insignificant.

Reading is Key to Living an Abundant Life

Reading can allow a lot of other people's knowledge and experience to enter you. After you read the book, you can put it into practice, and that's it. In fact, I used to struggle with whether I should read other things besides the Bible. I struggled for a while and I got the answer. The answer is still to read. The reason is very simple, for example, I am in IT, and I must learn IT management knowledge, otherwise I can't do this job. The Bible must also be learned, but learning the Bible cannot replace IT knowledge. If you are a programmer, you still have to learn programming knowledge after learning the Bible; if you are a website developer, you still have to learn website development knowledge.

We cannot only read one Bible in our lifetime. If we only read one Bible in our lifetime, even if he is a pastor, he is a very dangerous pastor. Because it violates God's principles and God's teachings. God's teaching is very clear, you need to learn. Take Jacob for example, Jacob was very careful when he was herding sheep, and he observed and understood carefully. Joseph was even more amazing, Joseph stored all the grain from the seven years of harvest. Doesn't storing require learning? Doesn't he need to understand the knowledge of storage? How to build the granary, how to ventilate it? It is very impressive to be able to store grain for seven years. So today, brothers and sisters, we cannot be rigid. For example, if Daniel wants to be the prime minister of Babylon, he must learn to govern the country.

Of course, we still need to know that trusting God is key, that is the foundation. But after having a foundation, we still need to learn. If you want to live an abundant life, you must know one thing. After we lay a good foundation, we still need to build a house on it. After building the house, we also need to decorate it and install electrical appliances, and all these functions are done well before people can move in. If these are not done well, then people will not be able to move in. Not to mention anything else, just the fact that there is no heating in winter is enough to be fatal.

Develop the Habit of Reading and Constantly Inherit the Experiences of Others

Once I went to an interview, and people asked me how many years of experience I had. I made a joke and said that I had five thousand years of experience. I meant that I had read books from five thousand years ago, and I had also read books from four thousand years ago and three thousand years ago, and I could do the work that those people could do. Developing a reading habit is very important. If you go to a place to investigate, you should go to that place and see what books the people there like to read. People in Hangzhou like to read, and their thirst for new knowledge exceeds that of ordinary people. For example, those real estate sellers in Hangzhou like to listen to us talk about living an abundant life. But when you go to other places, you find that they don't read, they only watch the news, and many places are like this. The books read in Hong Kong are different from the books read in Hangzhou. Hong Kong is full of gossip magazines and messy things. In Hangzhou, there are many books on the Internet, high technology, and investment. What books a place reads represents the culture of that place.

Why do I encourage everyone to read? One of the reasons is because you can only inherit by reading. I may not have the opportunity to meet Fang Xiyuan in this lifetime, but I can read his books. Like Investment Banking Notes and Uber Sharing Changes the World, I think these books are very well written. I want to encourage everyone to read, there are so many good things in this world.

We Chinese have an inheritance, which is called reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles. In fact, it doesn't matter whether you travel ten thousand miles or not. If you travel ten thousand miles, you will find that all the villages are the same, and all the cities are the same. When you enter a department store, you don't know whether it is a department store in Shanghai or a department store in Singapore. The brands are the same and the things sold are the same. It is not important whether you travel ten thousand miles or not. What is important is that you must learn to read, because this world is constantly moving forward, but if you read the books and understand them, you will be amazing.

Why do I not approve of today's education system? Because today's education system eats up all of the children's time. Children only learn to take the college entrance examination, and they don't learn anything else, and they don't read any books (of course, there are also very talented people who will read). They just plunge into the endless exams. But if a person is flexible, smart, and alert, then he must be a person who can learn to read. When I was young, my family didn't read much, but one of my classmates had a scholarly family, and I especially liked to go to their house because they had so many books. This classmate later became the boss of a listed company, and he was also very successful because he read a lot of books since he was a child.

After reading Uber Sharing Changes the World and seeing how sharing changes the world, you will understand, oh, so that's how it is, that's how it came about. Maybe one day in the future you can also create such a company. Maybe you don't have the opportunity to write Dream of the Red Chamber or Journey to the West, but you can write your own. There is a book called Industry 4.0. It is writing about what is happening today. After reading it, you will be shocked. Because there are many industries in it that are 97% likely to be replaced by computers and high technology. If you know that you are engaged in these industries that are about to be replaced, then you will know that I must somehow jump out and enter those industries with potential.

For example, the Uber software has made these taxi drivers miserable. In the past, when you needed a taxi, there were no taxis, and when you didn't need a taxi, a bunch of them came. Now with Uber, taxi drivers are anxious. The previous job was pretty good, how could a software engineer turn my job into this? It's because they don't read and don't understand. If you often understand and often read, you will understand that this thing is amazing and that thing is amazing. After reading the Bible, you will know in advance what is going to happen in the future. Like The Game of Capital and Investment Banking Notes are all good books. There are many more books that I want to list, such as The Three Horse-Drawn Carriages of Learning Masters. There are many people in this world who have thoroughly understood the knowledge of each industry. You just need to inherit it and put it into practice in your life.

Reading Makes People Eloquent

What does reading bring? It can make you learn to speak. A person who reads has something to say. You ask me: Why can you always say useful things, Pastor? That's because I read a lot.

Reading Can Help You Seize Opportunities

Reading can change many things. A brother was looking for a job, and the job he was looking for had nothing to do with what he had done before or what he knew. Then he came to me: Pastor, I want to find a job in this area. I said, then you must read the book Marketing. Then he went to read it. He had only read two chapters out of more than twenty chapters when he got an interview opportunity. During the interview, he explained the content of these two chapters. How did he know that after his explanation, they hired him. How did he get this job? It was because he read that book. If you want to do customer service, read some customer service books; if you want to do marketing, read marketing books. After reading books, you will be reliable in what you do.

Reading Brings Innovation

You have to learn to speak. For example, in an interview, you have to see if you can speak well. If all you talk about is selling eggs or selling vegetables in the market, what's the use of that? What kind of job can that help you find? Or market gossip, that's something for tea after dinner. For example, in Hong Kong, when people have afternoon tea, they gossip about this family and that family, but that stuff is not very useful. But if you are a person who reads, you will have something to say, so today we continue to read.

Then some people ask me: Pastor, how can I innovate? I tell you, innovative people are not the kind who stay at home and keep innovating, innovating, innovating, God, give me an innovation, it doesn't come like that, no one does that. So how does innovation come about? It comes from reading. When reading, it will greatly stimulate your thinking. For example, sister YX is doing this outreach, she reads marketing books, she said: Pastor, reading this made me think of a way to do outreach. It will stimulate your brain, and you will think of many good ideas, and it will stimulate many thoughts. But if you don't read, where are you going to get it from? If you don't read, you really don't know, you don't know what you don't know. When you read, you know what you really don't know. If you really know what you don't know, you will be amazing, and you will go and absorb it. So learning innovation comes from reading, you have to constantly study and research.

Reading Opens Doors

Let me give you an example. There was a time when I was involved in IT, and there was a trendy topic called outsourcing. I found this outsourcing thing very interesting. One day, the Holy Spirit moved me to learn about outsourcing, even though it wasn't really related to me. So, I borrowed all the books about outsourcing, more than a dozen, and read them one by one. Later, I made a note of about twenty pages. Then I found that many things written in the books were incorrect, so I sorted out these correct and incorrect points. After sorting it out, I formed my own outsourcing management system. Two years later, there was a job interview that happened to ask about IT outsourcing, so I took out my research results and got the job immediately. What I mean is that this opportunity is closely related to your reading. If you are not a person who reads, I encourage you to read well. There are houses of gold in books, and beauties of jade in books.

A Person's Ability Lies in Self-Learning

We used to have a saying, If you study mathematics, physics, and chemistry well, you can travel all over the world. But that's not necessarily true. There are many other things you can learn. Learning doesn't come from listening to lectures, it comes from reading books. Many people think that to learn, I have to go to school. This is the most deadly lie. One time, I felt that Brother HF inherited the most from me. After listening to my lectures, he didn't go to class much, he went to read books. He read and read, and he passed all the exams, and finally got a university degree. He didn't learn any worse; he really wouldn't be worse off.

But another girl, she had to go to school and had to go to class. As a result, the teacher said in class that a resume should not exceed two pages. One day she came over and said, Pastor, a resume should not exceed two pages. I said, Who taught you that? She said, The teacher taught it in class. I said, You really learned the bad things without learning the good things. Whether it's two pages or not doesn't matter at all. If the content you write is very solid and passionate, it doesn't matter if you write a hundred pages. People are willing to read it. If what you write is dry, who wants to read it? This year I did this, this year I did that. What you did has nothing to do with the person reading the resume. But if you write your resume in a grand manner, writing so wonderfully, you are simply a talent that fell from the sky. After reading it, he thought, 'Oh, I won't be able to sleep for the rest of my life if I don't interview this person.' Then you will be interviewed, won't you?

Learning doesn't come from listening in class. Why do I say that? I once investigated: if a person goes to class every day and doesn't read books and then goes to take the exam, will they pass? It's impossible to pass. Another person doesn't go to class, but he reads the book himself. If you give him the materials, he reads the right materials, and then goes to take the exam, will he pass? He will pass. Where does a person's ability lie? It lies in the ability to self-learn. For example, when this person goes to work, how much time is there for classes to be given to you? There are not many opportunities to take classes. You learn by floundering around at work, right? Learning while watching, learning while doing. Where do many things come from? They are all self-taught. In other words, the ability to self-learn is your core competitiveness. The ability to read is your core competitiveness. Reading and learning are your core competitiveness; you must know this. If you read often, then you are powerful.

Reading Trains People to Grasp the Essence of Problems

Recently, Brother CW has been promoting mind maps. After reading something, he writes out a mind map. How do writers write books? Writers first write a mind map: first point, several small points; second point, several small points; third point, several small points. They write this thing first, and then write the book. They can't possibly do it all at once; they always have a logical system first. When you read, if you can read out that thing, you are powerful, you have grasped the essence. This is the benefit of learning and reading. So everyone should develop the habit of reading. If you don't read, you really don't know.

Many very powerful people have written books, and I like to read them. For example, The Game of Capital. The author also talked about many similar topics. I think what he did was very good. The book says that product operation is like climbing stairs, and capital operation is like taking an elevator. The former leads to wealth in one generation, and the latter leads to wealth overnight. After reading it, I thought, My God, there is such a thing! Where would I have known about it before? I didn't know about these things. So, brothers and sisters, start to develop the habit of learning, reading, learning, and understanding. He has organized the entire investment and everything very clearly, so he describes the operation of these enterprises, capital operation, and product operation quite well.

What to Read

I think reading involves what to read. Do you all want to know? You can't read those Hong Kong gossip magazines; they are useless. What books should you read?

1. Read Books Recommended by Experts

If you know an industry and this person is an expert, and they recommend that you read a book, then you should read it and implement it.

2. Read Classic Books

If you are engaged in outreach or marketing, you must read the most classic marketing books. Such books usually have reached more than a dozen or twenty editions because they have a new edition every two years, which means that the book has been on the market for thirty years. Thirty years, with a new edition every two or three years, means that it is a classic in that industry. If it is a classic in that industry, you must read it carefully.

3. Read Books with Good Reviews Online

4. Read Books on Emerging New Things

Everyone should understand some emerging new things. Although they are not classics, they are new things.

Everyone must carefully consider these four points. Let me tell you something. Once, a brother was engaged in a certain industry, and I asked him, Have you read the classics in your industry? Oh, it's useless, he said. I said, How do you know it's useless? I read it, he said. Today, everyone should understand one thing. Have you found the Bible useful after reading it? But after I explained it to you, did you find it useful? You reap what you sow. Classics are very representative books that highly summarize the development laws of that industry. You may not be able to use it after reading it, but it doesn't mean that if you can't use it, it's not a classic. But because it's a classic, you must read it. Later, this brother went to look for it, searched everywhere, and found two books. He came to tell me, Pastor, I found these two books. After I looked at them, I said, These are not industry classics; these are not good. He said, How did you find them? He said, I went to the library to find them. I said, Let me show you. I typed Amazon.com on my computer. After entering, I searched for that industry. Five stars, 4.5 stars, all were very classic books. Then I saw that it was published in the tenth edition, the twelfth edition, the sixteenth edition. It was obviously a book in his industry. Go read it. After reading it, I asked him to write the homework at the end of each chapter because it was a classic. So, read classics, read what experts recommend, read good reviews online, read new things. That is, read these books. Also, you don't read about every industry; you must read about the industry related to yourself.

How to Read

There are two ways to read. One is to read quickly. What is reading quickly? It's flipping through the pages quickly, sometimes even skipping three or five pages. The other is close reading. General readings should be fast; fast reading is to let you quickly collect information. Classics are for summarizing laws. But if you read quickly and find that something is a classic, you should read it carefully. So, brothers and sisters, all should learn to read. You must read carefully what is related to you.

What to Do When You Encounter a Book You Can't Understand?

Actually, I later discovered something: not all books are good books. Some books leave you confused after reading them. Let me give you an example. Even today, some people are still doing this. Some time ago, we had a brother communicating with a new person. After the new person came, he asked him, Do you know the Trinity God? He said, I don't know. You don't even know this? he said. Do you want to read about it? I don't want to read it. Then the new person left the group. Actually, I have read the book The Trinity God. After reading it, I was confused. It didn't explain it clearly. It's not because I couldn't read it clearly; it's because the author himself didn't write it clearly. If a person doesn't write clearly, then you certainly can't read it clearly. It would be strange if you could read it clearly. So, after reading something and not understanding it, don't be afraid. Most likely, that book is a bad book.

Some time ago, I was reading a book with Sister YX. I was flipping through it, and after reading it, I didn't know what it was talking about. I said, YX, this is not a good book. It's the same with the pastor's preaching. You listen below, and after listening, you applaud. I said, Why are you applauding? Because I didn't understand it, you say. Wow, this pastor is so great; he's talking about things I don't understand. That's not great. Great people make complex things simple, not make simple things complex. That's not called being great. So, brothers and sisters, whether you are reading or listening to something, learn to listen to things that you understand as soon as you hear them. Actually, this is about making choices. If a book is written badly, it has nothing to do with you. Then switch to a book you can read. If that book is an industry classic and you don't understand it, the problem is not with the book, it's with you. It's impossible for a book to be published in more than a dozen editions for no reason. Then you have to learn to slowly digest it.

When I first started in IT, I really didn't understand anything, but I knew how to read. My cleverness lies in this. As a result, I found a very classic network book, written in English. But my English wasn't very good, and my knowledge wasn't very good, so it was very difficult to read. I looked up words in the dictionary while reading, but I knew that thing was a classic. What did I read? I read about the OSI Seven Layer. It's called the OSSI 7-layer theory. How many times do you think I read it? The book was all black. I finally understood it. Later, I became a very powerful network engineer, starting from there because I grasped the essence of that thing. After that, many things were easily solved. Ordinary people couldn't compare because I laid a very solid foundation. So, choose to conquer the classics.

Develop the Habit of Reading Actively

What is another problem? That is, you feel sleepy as soon as you start reading. There are many people like this. There are two possibilities. The first possibility is that you have a yoke, which you can break through with prayer. The second is a bad habit. If you have a bad habit, I'm telling you, force yourself to establish a good habit. Even if you have a yoke, you can force yourself to establish a good habit because a habit becomes a yoke over time, and you can't get out of it yourself. So, why do you feel sleepy as soon as you start reading? Later, I studied this matter and understood it because when you read, your mind is empty, and you are reading passively. Can you read actively? What is this book talking about? What problem is it talking about now? Is this problem something I care about? How does it solve this problem? You certainly won't fall asleep.

Summary

Start establishing good habits of learning and reading. You must encounter problems in your life. If you encounter problems, start looking for answers. Where are the answers? In books or online. E-books are also okay. So today, let our brothers and sisters not be ignorant and uninformed. Start actively and proactively acquiring knowledge. If you have that kind of desire inside, if you start to have that kind of desire to solve a problem, for example, like the outreach team led by YX, that is a very challenging job. Our healing and deliverance team is also a very challenging job. The healing and deliverance team faces even greater challenges because the existing healing and deliverance books on the market are no longer effective for them. If this is the case, then you might as well write a book. I do Bible study on Genesis. I don't buy the existing Bible studies on the market; I'm not satisfied after reading them. I wrote one myself, right? Then you write one. You read Dream of the Red Chamber and you're not satisfied. You write a Dream of the Red Chamber 2 yourself, wouldn't you be great? So, establish a good habit of reading and learning, and constantly shape your learning ability, constantly shape your core competitiveness, and you will definitely be very powerful.