Rooted in the All-inclusive Christ and Made Full in Him
“Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” (Col. 1:12)
“As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith…abounding in thanksgiving.” (Col. 2:6-7)
The purpose of God’s calling is to bring God’s chosen people into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, typified by the good land flowing with milk and honey.
We can walk in Christ as our living land and absorb Christ as our rich soil…so that we may grow with the elements that we absorb from the soil. When we are rooted in Christ as the soil, we are made full in Him; we are filled up with all the divine riches to become His expression. In Christ as the soil we are filled, completed, perfected, satisfied, and thoroughly supplied; we do not lack anything.
If we would absorb the riches of Christ as the soil, we need to have tender, new roots. We need to forget our situation, our condition, our failures, and our weaknesses and simply take time to absorb the Lord; as we take time to absorb Him, we grow with the growth of God in us for the building up of the Body of Christ. (Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ, msg. 2, II, III, A.1.b-c, B.1-2)
May the Lord grant us fresh, new roots that we would absorb the riches of Christ and become His full expression!
Households Loving, Pursuing, and Serving the Lord
Joshua, near the end of his life said, “As for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.” (Josh. 24:15)
“Now there was in Caesarea a certain man named Cornelius…devout and one who feared God with all his household” (Acts 10:1-2)
Let us beseech the Lord to bring our whole households to loving Him, pursuing Him, and serving Him. Through us may He care for our children, young people, and young adults in ways best suited to each age, and erase any separation between home life and church life.
GTCA
Teams from FTTA will join local saints at the end of this week for 15-18 day long GTCA activities in 21 cities in North America; activities in two other cities began last week. This week a team will also go to Ethiopia and the team in Switzerland will return. Ask the Lord to use these trips to:
- strengthen all the local saints and churches receiving and coordinating with the trainees;
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encourage the trainees with a rich view and experience of church life outside the training center;
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bless the distribution of NTs, gospel tracts, and other literature;
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bring people to initial salvation and baptism;
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bring seeking believers into homes these weeks and into long-term fellowship with the churches.
Nordic-Baltic Blending Conference
The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The Baltic states include Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All of the countries, except for Iceland, have lampstands, including in the capital cities. The churches in this region have two blending conferences each year for all the saints to gather to enjoy the ministry. The next such conference will be held this weekend, January 24 to 26, in Tallinn, Estonia.
Vietnam
Pray for the literature work to translate 800 hymns and prepare to translate the Old Testament.
Announcements
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Morning Revival: Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ, week 2.
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The International Chinese-speaking Conference is February 14 to 16 in Anaheim. Information is at http://www.2020icsc.org and at https://churchinlosangeles.org/prayer. All saints are welcome, and there will be translation via FM radio. Advanced registration by January 31 is required only for childcare, and for special Saturday fellowship sessions (one for Chinese-speaking saints presently in school, and one for Chinese-speaking working saints).
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GTCA—Gospelize, Truthize, Churchize America: a fresh expression of this burden is presented at http://www.gtca.us. We encourage all to read the home page, where you may sign up for GTCA email updates.