Seeing a Vision of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life
“There He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen. 2:8b-9)
“To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:7b)
The tree of life typifies Christ who imparts life to man and who pleases and satisfies man. Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 141; Rev. 2:7, footnote 6)
To see that God wants us to enjoy Him and that He does not want us to do anything for Him is to see that the Christian life is a matter of enjoyment… If our concept is changed so that we see these two points, it will be easy for us to live a life of enjoying God. If we want to take the way of enjoying God, we must have a change of concept… If we want to enter into the reality of the enjoyment of God, we must see a controlling vision. (The Vision of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, pp. 60, 51)
May all the saints be desperate to see a vision of the tree of life and live a life of enjoying God!
USC
The University of Southern California begins classes this week. Please pray:
- For our existing students to have a new, fresh beginning in the Lord!
- For our students to be freshly burdened and coordinated together for the outreach and gospel at USC.
- For the Lord to prepare many new students’ hearts to be open to Him and to connect with us in the first two weeks of the semester via our club tabling and events. We have many students who are graduating this year and need the Lord to add in some freshmen and sophomores for His testimony!
Wednesday Night Ministry Meetings
The Wednesday Night Ministry Meeting resumes this week on August 24. Only FTTA trainees and staff are allowed to attend the live meetings in person; therefore, the saints and churches in Southern California are invited to watch the meeting free of charge via webcast starting at 7:25 pm at http://lsm.org/live. The meeting will be broadcast in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean.
Please pray for the ministry of the Lord’s word week by week and for as many saints as possible to take advantage of the live broadcast format to be nourished and edified. Pray for the Lord’s continued blessing of the Full-time Training in Anaheim and covering of all trainees and serving ones.
GTCA Cities – Cincinnati and Nashville
Please continue to pray for the migration of burdened saints and the strengthening of the Lord’s testimony in our target cities (Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Memphis and Nashville, TN; Normal, IL; Omaha, NE; St. Louis, MO; Tampa, FL; and Virginia Beach, VA) and campus teams (Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Lexington, KY; Pittsburgh, PA; Columbia SC; St. Louis, MO; and Tampa, FL).
This weekend there will be virtual tours of Cincinnati (Saturday, August 27, 2:00 pm PT) and Nashville (Lord’s Day, August 28, 3:00 pm PT). More information and links will be posted at http://gtca.us.
UK & Ireland Blending Conference
Blending is the reality of the Body of Christ. The subject of this year’s UK and Ireland blending conference, which takes place August 27 to 28 in Leeds, is “God’s Economy in Faith.”
Please pray for the Lord’s speaking and the saints’ response in joining themselves to His speaking for the carrying out of His move in Europe. Pray that the saints and churches in the UK and Ireland would be strengthened in their experience and enjoyment of the Triune God as their faith, and that they would be blended together for the further building of Christ’s Body and the preparation of His Bride.
Ukraine
Please continue to pray that:
- The 32 Ukrainian young people who attended the European Young People’s Conference will remain in the Lord’s word and be prepared as God’s overcomers.
- The Warsaw extension of FTT Moscow will be under the Lord’s blessing as the new semester begins.
- The Lord will use the fourth cycle of the gospel and shepherding trips, from September 8 to 25, to care for the Ukrainian refugees in Poland in Warsaw, Krakow, and Wrocław.
- The local saints and serving ones will be blended with the Ukrainian refugees for the strengthening and building up of the Lord’s testimony in key European cities.
- The saints in Russia and Ukraine will be kept in the oneness of the Body and the reality of the new man, where Christ is all the members and in all the members.
Germany – Stuttgart Meeting Hall
The church in Stuttgart has identified a suitable meeting facility close to where many saints live and to the university, with easy access to public transport. Next to the property is a public park with playgrounds and spacious green areas for picnics, recreation, and gospel outreach. The total project costs, including extensive renovation, are estimated to be 2,775,000 euros.
Please pray for timely approval from the city and for adequate giving. Saints in LA who are burdened to contribute may give through the Church in Los Angeles designated for ‘Stuttgart Meeting Hall’.
Togo
Togo is a West African, French-speaking country with over 8.5 million people, situated between Ghana and Benin. There are currently churches in six localities, including the capital Lomé, and they practice maintaining fellowship with one another; every two months all the saints in the country gather together for blending. For the spreading of the gospel, the saints distribute literature and conduct door-knocking. May the Lord continue to recover other localities in order to win all of Togo for His testimony!
To read more, as well as reports on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, see the July issue of the Lord’s Move to Africa newsletter in English or Chinese at http://www.lmafrica.org.
Sri Lanka
Pray for all the suffering saints during the current economic crisis, that they can receive God’s abounding grace through His secret care. Pray that the Lord would use the new government to recover the economic situation and that all the church activities would be intensified without any hindrance.
Announcements
- Morning Revival: Week 1 of Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life.
- Wednesday Night Ministry Meeting: Live broadcast this Wednesday 7:25 pm at http://lsm.org/live.
- Labor Day Conference: An online conference for the saints and churches in Southern California will be held from September 2 to 4 on “The Lord’s Coming.” More information to come.
- Thanksgiving Conference: All the churches and individuals are invited from November 24 to 27. Saints from LA planning to attend the in-person sessions in Washington, DC should RSVP no later than October 31 at http://tinyurl.com/thanksgivingconfla (adults) and http://tinyurl.com/thanksgivingchildrenla (children). More conference and hotel information is posted at http://www.churchinlosangeles.org/prayer.
- A Timely Speaking of Supply: Enjoy a free weekly video from messages given by Brother Lee at http://lsm.org/timely-speaking.html. The current series is The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—”the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit”.
- 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.