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The Normal Christian Life

Many people speak of the normal Christian life, but to be normal is not only to be freed from sin according to the experience of Romans 6. This is only part of being normal. The most normal Christian life is a life that bears fruit. It is absolutely not normal for a branch on a vine to bear no fruit for many years. As branches of the vine tree, we need to bear fruit.

If we mean business to have a proper Christian life, we must bear fruit in a normal way. This can never be done in a miraculous way. We should not expect to pray in an extraordinary way and then miraculously bring many people to the Lord. Branches bear fruit in a very normal way. To bring one person to the Lord every year is normal and easy.

We must all go to the Lord and say, “Lord, grant me to be normal in the matter of fruit-bearing.” (WL, The Normal Way of Fruit-bearing and Shepherding for the Building Up of the Church, pp. 48-49)

CSUN Blending Retreat

Later this week, the CSUN students will blend with the UCI students in Irvine from Thursday to
Lord’s Day before the new semester begins on January 25. Please pray that the students—both our own and the new ones—would be able to attend the blending time and that they would be encouraged to pursue the Lord in this new semester for His coming.

2016 GTCA Cities & North American Gospel Trips

At the end of the Winter Training, 17 cities were announced as places for particular labor in 2016 as part of the burden to gospelize, truthize, and churchize North America (GTCA). Beginning this Friday, January 22, more than 100 FTTA trainees will join saints in 14 of these cities and several other places for one- and two-week gospel trips to preach the gospel, shepherd young believers, and give away free Bibles for America materials. The teams will visit:

Canada
Abbotsford, BC
Laval, QC
Mississauga, ON

 Northwest
Salem, OR		 Mountain States
Missoula, MT
Salt Lake City, UT		 Northern California
Reno, NV
Santa Rosa, CA
Vallejo, CA
Southern California
Menifee, CA		 Midwest
Bloomington, IN
Peoria, IL		 Mid-Atlantic
Norfolk, VA		 Southeast
Columbia, SC
Huntsville, AL
Kennesaw, GA
Valdosta, GA

Please pray that the Spirit would go before the gospel teams to brood over these cities and sweep in the hearts of the Lord’s chosen vessels. Pray also for a blessed coordination and blending among the saints and favorable weather and other outward circumstances for the release of the Word.

To read more about the gospel trips and the GTCA burden, please visit http://www.gtca.us.

International Gospel Trips

The FTTA gospel trip to Ethiopia is January 23 through February 7.

The gospel trips to South Africa, Brazil, and Chile began last week and continue this week and next. Dates and locations for all North American and international gospel trips are in “FTTA Gospel Trips” at https://churchinlosangeles.org/prayer/.

Greece

Plans are being made to have continuous two-week distributions of gospel and ministry materials to sow the seed of the gospel among refugees before they reach Germany. This sowing will be done in Greece near the border with Macedonia in January and February. The current period is January 9 to 19. Please pray that the word of God will spread among the seeking ones and will bring them into the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God as the compound Spirit in the church life.

Germany Gospel Trip

The gospel trip to Germany is January 21 to February 4. 159 trainees and 38 serving saints will go from North America to join local saints plus those visiting from other European nations. The North American saints go first to London for orientation, then proceed in four groups to Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Berlin, and Stuttgart. Their time will include being nourished with the word and ministry, visiting refugee housing areas, distributing New Testaments, and blending with local saints.

Germany Report

A Farsi-speaking U.S. brother currently visiting Frankfurt reports that the saints are able to meet refugees right outside the doors of the temporary “camps” that the German government has set up. The goal is to befriend contacts and invite them to a cup of tea or coffee in a nearby coffee shop to speak with them more privately. Please pray for:

  • the visiting saints who can speak Arabic or Farsi (Persian); their function is absolutely crucial.
  • the local saints, many of whom have migrated to be there and serve full-time, to receive much grace in their continuing involvement with this present move.
  • the saints to find qualified and trustworthy translators, especially in Arabic, as soon as possible.

Singapore

The work of the Spirit in Singapore is increasingly intensified. The church set up a five-year goal to increase their Lord’s Day attendance from 700 to 2,020 by the end of 2020. Since November they have been practicing frequent prayer with companions for people and have seen many positive results already.

Ben and Tina Chang from Los Angeles Hall 4 are migrating to Singapore this week to participate in the church life there.

Announcements

  1. Morning revival: Week 22 in Crystallization-Study of Exodus, vol. 4.
    After week 24 of Exodus, we will use The Church as the Temple of God—the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (Thanksgiving Conference). Hold on to Material Offerings and the Lord’s Move Today. We will use it more later this year.
  2. The International Chinese-speaking Conference is February 12 to 14 in Anaheim. Information is at http://www.icsc2016.org (Chinese) and http://www.icsc2016.org/en (English). There will be translation to English, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.
  3. Two-week follow-up gospel trips to Germany will be February 14 until July 1. The main purposes of these trips are to shepherd the new contacts and to distribute Bibles. Further information is at http://germany2016.amanatrust.org.uk.
  4. Those who are burdened to give in support of the gospel work in Europe can download instructions at http://www.lordsmove.org/information.html. Click on the link “Giving for the Gospel Work in Europe.”
  5. Anyone can receive this prayer email weekly; sign up at https://churchinlosangeles.org/prayer/.