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Mary’s Love Offering to the Lord

“A woman came to Him, having an alabaster flask of ointment of great value, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste?” (Matt. 26:7-8)

“Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her.” (Matt. 26:13)

The disciples considered Mary’s love offering to the Lord a waste. Throughout the past twenty centuries, thousands of precious lives, heart treasures, high positions, and golden futures have been wasted upon the Lord Jesus. To such lovers He is altogether lovely and worthy of their offering. What they have poured upon Him is not a waste, but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness….This indicates that we must love the Lord and grasp the opportunity to express our love to Him….To love the Lord with our best requires a revelation concerning Him.

Along with Simon, Mary also probably thought that this was her last chance to do something over the Lord’s body to anoint Him for burial. In a very real sense, Mary buried the Lord Jesus before He was crucified. What a contrast there is between the religionists who hated the Lord and wanted to kill Him and His lovers who took the opportunity to express their love for Him!…

The story of the gospel is that the Lord loved us, and the story of Mary is that she loved the Lord. We must preach both, the Lord loving us and us loving the Lord. One is for our salvation, and the other is for our consecration. The gospel tells us how the Lord loved us, but the loving story of Mary stirs us up to love the Lord. Thus, there needs to be a mutual love. This must accompany the preaching of the gospel. (Life-study of Matthew, msg. 68)

International Chinese-speaking Conference

The 2023 ICSC takes place this weekend, February 17 to 19. For saints who cannot attend in person at the Ministry Conference Center in Anaheim, the conference meetings will be streamed by live webcast (live.lsmwebcast.com) and delayed webcast (conf.lsmwebcast.com) across the whole earth according to the schedules displayed on the two websites. The live webcast schedule is as follows:

Meeting 1: Friday, February 17…………7:25 PM
Meeting 2: Saturday, February 18…….8:55 AM
Meeting 3: Saturday, February 18…..10:55 AM
Meeting 4: Saturday, February 18…….7:25 PM
Meeting 5: Lord’s Day, February 19….9:55 AM *in-person MCC table meeting 9:30 AM

The general subject of this conference is “Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming.” Please pray for the preparation of the speaking brothers and the saints. Pray earnestly that the Lord will speak to His entire recovery and that all the saints will give Him their full cooperation to make themselves ready for His coming.

FTTA Gospel Trips – Morgan Hill and Palo Alto

Gospel teams from FTTA and FTTA-XB visited churches in Canada and the United States, as well as 20 countries in Europe, from January 26 to February 11. The trainees are now preparing for their upcoming spring term (XB starts this week; FTTA starts next week) or are seeking the Lord for His will concerning their post-graduation future. Please pray that the Lord will use the gospel trips to gain the trainees and burden many of them for His move to spread and build up His testimony in Europe and North America.

In California, one of the gospel teams visited Stanford University in Palo Alto and gave out 25 Bibles; 14 students gave them their contact information. At Gavilan College in Morgan Hill, 7 students signed up for further contact. Please pray that all those who received the Bible, booklet, and tract would read, be supplied, and nourished by the word. Pray for the follow up contact, that all these ones would remain open vessels.

FTTL

The spring 2023 term of the Full-time Training in London began this week on February 13. Please pray for the perfecting of the young European saints in truth, life, and service for the advancement of the Lord’s move in Europe.

Ukraine

Please continue to pray that:

  • The Lord will keep all the saints in the involved countries open to Him for their experience of the divine dispensing in all the situations of their daily living.
  • The Lord will meet all the practical needs of the saints as the cold weather of winter settles in.
  • The brothers who are fighting in the war will be preserved by the Lord in their tripartite being.
  • The Lord will shepherd the refugees and establish them in the church life.
  • The local saints, serving ones, and trainees will be blended with the refugees by being through the cross and by the Spirit to minister Christ to one another for the building up of the Body.
  • The saints in the involved countries involved will be kept in the oneness of the Body and the reality of the new man.
  • The tripartite being of saints in besieged cities will be protected and preserved for the Lord’s interests.
  • The Lord will comfort and sustain those who have lost loved ones in the war.
  • The enemy will be bound in his attack on the Lord’s interests in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe.

Turkey

Pray for the saints who are taking shelter abroad and those whose relatives and friends are affected by the recent earthquake.

Announcements

  1. Morning Revival: Week 5 of our guided reading through the Gospel of Matthew. Next week, we start The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (Thanksgiving Conference).

  2. ICSC: The International Chinese-speaking Conference will be held February 17 to 19 in Anaheim. All saints welcome! Those needing translation into English, Korean or Spanish should bring their own FM radio headset or install the free Listen Everywhere app on their iPhone or Android phone.

  3. Free e-Booklets: Living Stream Ministry offers a series of free e-booklets to read and share at http://www.lsm.org/booklets, including “Life’s Setting Free—the Need of Those under the Bondage of Sin.”

  4. Bibles for America‘s latest post is available to read and share at http://blog.biblesforamerica.org.

  5. Living to Him has a podcast series particularly helpful to working saints, available on all major podcasting services at http://livingtohim.com/the-living-to-him-podcast.

  6. A Timely Speaking of Supply: Enjoy a free weekly video from messages given by Brother Lee at http://lsm.org/timely-speaking.html.

  7. Ways to Give: Information about the church’s online giving platform, Subsplash, and where to mail checks, are at http://www.churchinlosangeles.org/members/offerings.