Taking Time to Absorb Christ
“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)
“Having been rooted and being built up in Him…” (Col. 2:7)
Colossians 2:6-7 reveals that Christ as the good land, a land in which we do not lack anything, is the rich soil in which we have been rooted so that we may grow with the elements that we absorb from the soil. Day by day we need to take time to absorb Christ, the One into whom we have been planted; we must take time to enjoy the Lord as the all-inclusive land so that all the elements of Christ as the rich soil may be absorbed into us for us to be made full in Him in our experience. 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. Our contact with the Lord should not be rushed; we must exercise our spirit to stay in the Lord’s presence to absorb Him; we must spend more time to absorb the Lord—to adore Him, to praise Him, to offer thanks to Him, and to speak to Him freely. The growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the increase of God, within us in a very subjective way; the growth of the Body is the growth of God’s building; the actual building of the church is by the believers’ growth in life. (Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified By the Good Land…, msg. 8, II, B, 2; C, D)
The Christian Life
The Christian life is a life of living Christ; our living should be Christ, and the way to live Christ is to love Christ. We can live Christ by loving Christ to the uttermost; if we do not love Christ, we cannot live Him, and loving Him is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him. The Christian life is a life of loving God and loving one another with God Himself as our love; Christ lived in this world a life of God as love, and He is now our life that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is in His lost-one-seeking and sinner-saving ministry journey.
In order to live the Christian life, we need to enjoy the flow of life out of the house of God. Our enjoyment of Christ as the flow of life is for us to be sowers, planters, waterers, begetters, feeders, and builders with the ministry of life for the marvelous organic building of God, the magnificent house of God. (Memorial Day Conference, msg. 1, I, A, E; msg. 5, I, II)
Please pray for the advance of the Lord’s recovery based on His speaking in the Memorial Day Conference, that the burden released in the messages would be worked into and worked out through the saints in all the churches. Praise the Lord for His rich speaking!
The conference messages may still be accessed at no charge until June 26 at www.lsmwebcast.com.
UCLA Celebration Meeting
This Friday, May 31, we are having a special celebration meeting for our students at UCLA and nearby colleges along with the Hall 5 saints. This will be a joyous opportunity for students to share their top experiences of Christ from this past academic year, including a particular emphasis and recognition of the graduating seniors. Please pray for:
- The Lord to gather our students together, including any ones who were new with us this past year.
- The loving, Spirit-filled atmosphere to cherish everyone there, especially the graduating seniors who will be finishing their undergraduate careers.
- The rich overflow of Christ through testimonies from all the students that would bring glory to the Lord for all that He has done.
FTTA
The deadline for Fall Term applications is this Friday, May 31. We are continuing to pray and trust in the Lord for His blessing on many young saints through the Full-time Training in Anaheim. In light of this week’s deadline, please pray that the Lord would touch and lead many more college graduates and young working saints, especially from the United States and Canada, to consecrate themselves and apply to the FTTA. We expect that the Lord will increase the number in the Training through such prayers.
2024 Olympics Torch Relay Gospel Trips
We thank the Lord for a strong beginning to these gospel trips. So far, we have been amazed at the unprecedented openness and hunger among the French people. Since the goal of these trips is eventually to raise up lampstands in more French-speaking cities, following up with all the new contacts will be critical.
This week, the fifth and sixth gospel trips are taking place, respectively, May 25 to 31 in Caen and May 31 to June 8 in Rennes and Nantes. May the Lord continue to cast “fire” on French-speaking Europe and have His way there for His testimony!
Please pray for:
- The fresh and detailed consecrations of all the saints going out, as well as their health and safety.
- Local French speakers and their families, as a result of meeting us and speaking with us, to have a powerful hunger and desire to seek after God in His Word and pursue Him with those who call on Him out of a pure heart.
- The follow-up shepherding of contacts from Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, including an ongoing series of Zoom seminars, through the coordination of both local and overseas saints.
- The Lord to thrust out the workers to labor with Him in France, not only during these gospel trips, but especially afterwards.
A compilation of reports and testimonies from the first four trips for the saints’ awareness and prayer is available at www.lordsmove.org/pdfs/FranceTorchRelayReports-27May2024.pdf. Application information is at www.amanatrust.org.uk/page/2024Paris. Saints in LA burdened to give for the distribution and associated expenses can do so through the Church in Los Angeles designated for “Paris Olympics.”
Cambodia
Pray for the new believers who were saved in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Battambang in April to be remaining fruits and building materials.
Announcements
- Morning Revival: Week 8 of Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land…
- Wednesday Night Ministry Meeting: The ministry meeting resumes this week starting at 7:25 pm.
- Semiannual Training: July 1 to 6 in Anaheim. For LA saints, registration for participation by video is still open until June 16 ($130) at tinyurl.com/summertrainingla.
- Bibles for America‘s most recent blog post, “Jesus Sympathizes with Us in All Things,” is available to read and share at blog.bfa.org.
- The LA Years: Chapter 5: Publications to Reach the Seekers is now available at www.layears.org, an oral history project documenting the early years of the church life in LA from 1958–1974, including written history, photos, and first-hand accounts.
- Free e-Booklets: Living Stream Ministry offers free e-booklets to read and share. The latest release is “A Life That Lives Christ” at www.lsm.org/life-study-philippians.
- Ways to Give: Information about the church’s online giving platform, Subsplash, and where to mail checks, are at www.churchinlosangeles.org/members/offerings.