Material Offerings and Full-time Service
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1)
“For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; for whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom. 14:7-8)
Today, when we speak of handing ourselves over, we are not talking about what we have to do to take care of our money. Rather, we are saying that a person has to offer himself up for the Lord and for the gospel.
First He wants us; then He wants what is ours. We ourselves have to come to Him first before we can bring what we have to Him. If we do not come, God will not accept what we have. All the brothers and sisters have to see that everything is for the Lord and that everything has to center around the Lord…Although some function in their money-making ministry while others function in their ministry of the word, the center for both must be the same. (The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, vol. 1, pp. 310-311)
To be full-time does not mean that you need to give up your job. To be a full-timer means that whatever you do, you do to the Lord; whatever you are, you are to the Lord; and whatever you have, you have to the Lord. If you remain in a job, you remain there to the Lord. If you leave your job, you leave it to the Lord. As long as you are to the Lord you are a full-timer.
Let us rise up to go full-time, either by dropping our jobs to go out or by remaining in our jobs to make more money and give every cent to the Lord’s move…The wise way is that we all take the full-time way…This is what the Lord needs! (Elders’ Training, Book 8: The Life-pulse of the Lord’s Present Move, pp. 121-123, 126-127)
More Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ in 2025
The December Semiannual Training was held last week in Anaheim and by video in LA. The general subject was “Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2).” Video trainings will continue to take place in the coming weeks and months around the world.
Please pray:
- For the Lord to advance His move on the whole earth through the operation of His word for the building up of His Body and the preparation of His bride.
- For the saints to digest and assimilate the rich content through their spending time with the Lord and applying what they heard in prayer, until all the points become their experience and enjoyment.
- For the saints and the churches to advance in 2025 in the experience and enjoyment of Christ, so that Christ would be formed in us by our allowing Him as the all-inclusive Spirit to occupy, possess, and saturate our mind, emotion, and will, until every part of our inner being bears the image of Christ for Him to gain a fuller expression of Himself on the earth.
Bibles for America
The past year has been full of challenges and upheaval. The world situation continues to be volatile, and people everywhere are full of anxiety. Bibles for America has also faced difficulties, including shipping delays, increasing costs, and changes to marketing platforms. Despite everything, we praise God that we have His Word as a sure foundation on which to stand.
In 2024, we began exploring different ways of reaching people with God’s Word, such as social media and audio streaming advertising. We are also happy to share that the video studio has been completed, enabling us to produce more videos on the truth and the Christian experience. Please continue to stand with us in prayer as we seek the Lord’s blessing on this labor.
Atlanta Meeting Hall
The church in Atlanta is burdened to rebuild their meeting hall after a fire in June 2020 caused extensive damage to the hall. Currently, an additional $3 million is needed to meet the estimated total cost of $12 million. Saints in LA who are burdened may participate financially through the church in Los Angeles and designate their offerings for ‘Atlanta Meeting Hall.’
Further details, including proposed architectural renderings, are at hall.churchinatlanta.org.
French-speaking Europe
A number of gospel trips will be taking place from late January to early February. Please pray for the Lord to open the hearts of the people and to bring His seekers in contact with us.
Let us also continue to ask the Lord to supply all the saints who live in French-speaking Europe, and all who are there on “shepherding trips” for weeks or months, to labor diligent in ministering Christ to the seeking contacts so that these ones may grow in truth and life and be added to the church. Beseech the Lord to thrust out more workers into this harvest and to release the long-term visas.
For all the latest reports of the gospel and shepherding trips, click here.
The Lord’s Move in Europe
Please pray for the migration of burdened saints to strengthen the Lord’s testimony in nine critical European cities in 2025—Paris, Geneva, Brussels, Belfast, Dublin, Vienna, Prague, Rome, and Athens.
Announcements
- Morning Revival: Week 3 of Material Offerings and the Lord’s Move Today. Next week, we will cover Week 5 from this book. After that, we will get into Galatians with recommended resources.
- Winter SCYP Blending Conference: January 11 to 12 in Anaheim. Please contact serving ones for event and registration details.
- SoCal Spanish-speaking Conference: January 17 to 19 at the Ministry Conference Center, Anaheim. Pray for the Lord’s abundant blessing during this time. The sessions are open to all the saints. All relevant information is posted at conf.socalspanish.org.
- FTTA: A video of the graduation meeting on December 21 is available for a limited time at ftta.org.
- LSM Conferences & Trainings: Information on upcoming Living Stream Ministry “feasts” can be found at lsm.org/announcements/events.html.
- Ways to Give: Information about the church’s online giving platform, Subsplash, and where to mail checks, are at www.churchinlosangeles.org/members/offerings.