thechurchinFarmington

We have all been given a profound gift from the Lord in both the Recovery Version with footnotes and the Life Studies.  These open up the truth, the life and unlock the Bible to us book by book. There has been a growing burden and need for the churches to pick up an appetite to read, digest and assimilate the precious content found in the Life Studies.  We hope to cultivate an uplifted mindset that these publications would truly become our food to supply us for the long-run of our christian life and that we would indeed run as in a race.  We can all run.  In comparison, we want to run like the tortoise, not the hare.  The hare runs fast, but gets distracted.  The slow but steady tortoise wins the race.  Whether we have read only one, a few, or many life study messages, we hope we all can go to the Lord and ask Him about our progress in handling Him in His word.

The Lord has been speaking to us, His body, through the lead of the ministry from the co-workers in His recovery, numerous times in the past and again more recently.  This past fall, during our blending time with the saints in the churches in MI & IN, brothers shared along this line of pursuing truth in the ministry to gain a constitution. The sister's lessons, we received from our br. Minoru, have strengthened this line on studying the word and the ministry for a supply. This burden is not for a special class, it is for all believers.  During the crystallization study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther, message 5 stressed the significance of Ezra and the need to become Ezras, who is a priestly scribe.  A priestly scribe is a person who is:

• mingled, and saturated with the Lord, 

• trusts in the Lord, is one with God, 

• knows God's heart, desire and economy, 

• speaks nothing new but speaks the word of God, 

• is skilled in the word of God, 

• has insight into the word of God

• contacts the Lord continually,  

Such priestly scribes are needed to reconstitute the people of God from their Babylonian constitution. The Lord meets our needs, yet to meet His need, we need to be reconstituted. How we need to be reconstituted; helping one another and others become reconstituted to bear the testimony of God, both expressing and representing God.

Dear saints, we feel the Lord is encouraging us and imploring us to come forward for a long-term plan to become reconstituted with the truths of the Life Study messages.  May the Lord shine on us and strengthen us to pick up this burden to change our church-life culture into having a consistent pursuit of the truth

• 1. Pray to open to the Lord and turn your heart to the Lord. Pray briefly to be poor in spirit and pure in heart, with no covering veils (Matt. 5:3, 8; 2 Cor. 3:16)

• 2. Read and pray-read a few key verses. In this way you will taste the Lord in His word and receive spiritual nourishment in your study (Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Tim. 4:6)

• 3. Read the message title and the subtitles to get an overview of the message. Turn them into questions so you can look for the answers in your reading.

• 4. Locate the main points of the Bible passage.  Connect the title and subtitles with the Scripture verses.  By relating the verses to the points, you will see the points in the scriptures and also realize what are the crucial points in the passage (Acts 17:11)

• 5. Read the text of the Life Study message section by section and highlight or underline the crucial points as they relate to the title or corresponding subtitle.

• 6. Pause to pray over the crucial points as you read. Open to the Lord with these points in confession and in fellowship that He may make the essence of these points divine reality to you.

• 7. Write a few sentences summarizing the important point of each section. Writing down the important points will keep your mind focused on your reading and make sure you grasp and can recall the point of the section (2 Tim. 1:13)

• 8.  At the end of the message, compose a short summary of what has been revealed to you in the verses.

• 9. Pray with the burden of the message. This will help you assimilate the main points and make the message subjective to you.

• 10. Speak to others about what you have seen. Find a companion you can mutually speak the truth with in a regular way (Eph. 4:25). You can use your summary as a prophecy in the Lord’s Day meeting (1 Cor. 14:26, 31)

Level 1: 530 messages

• Matthew (72 messages)

• John (51)

• Romans (69)

• Galatians (46)

• Ephesians (97)

• Philippians (62)

• Colossians (65)

• Revelation (68)

Level 2: 502 messages

• Genesis (120)

• Exodus (185)

• 1 Corinthians (69)

• 2 Corinthians (59)

• Hebrews (69)

Level 3: 507 messages

• Leviticus (64)

• Numbers (53)

• Mark (70)

• Luke (79)

• Acts (72)

• 1 & 2 Thessalonians (31)

• 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon (28)

• James (14)

• 1 Peter (34)

• 2 Peter (13)

• 1-3 John (44)

• Jude (5)

Level 4: 445 messages

• Deuteronomy (30)

• Joshua (15)

• Judges (10)

• Ruth (8)

• 1 & 2 Samuel (38)

• 1 & 2 Kings (23)

• 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (26)

• Job (38)

• Psalms (45)

• Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (20)

• Isaiah (54)

• Jeremiah, Lamentations (44)

• Ezekiel (27)

• Daniel (17)

• Minor Prophets (35)

• Zechariah (15)

In order to assist in our picking up such an appetite, the following links are resources on-line and video messages on this topic.  We encourage everyone to watch them and review the website.  Our intent is that all will be encouraged, that no matter what level of life or experience we have, this need is for us and we may simply start, and continuously progress.

https://500lifestudies.org/

• Introduction to the burden and the upcoming device APP (android & apple)

• 10 tips to get more out of studying

• Recommended schedule and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYt6I3QC8c

• Understanding the purpose of the LS. 

• Life Studies supply life in a long term slow constitutional way.

• Don't give up on the HWMR or 7 feasts / year. Add  Life Studies: pick them up! You have the time.

• Degradation comes from loss of the truth. This truth is for all of God's people and it's normal for everyone, it's not for special ones.

• See these truths, the intrinsic, organic truths in the way of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qLFsSLGTI&t=643s

• Recovery of the Truth, the word of the truth, the full gospel of God, including God's eternal purpose and New Testament economy. 

• See the New Jerusalem. 

• The younger generations need to take-in the Life Studies for constitution. 

• There is a great need for picking up a burden for propagation of these truths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjM96qyLNCg

• the children of Israel were to remind each other of the need to become constituted with the word of God, wear on clothing, in their homes, remind their children, similarly we should also.

• discard the Egyptian constitution and culture by continual feeding on the mana.  You are what you eat.  In the NT we have the word of the faith, the healthy teachings, the truth of the gospel, words of salvation

• The future of the recovery is not based on your whim to read or not.  If you mean business, then do it!  Don't wait for the app. 

• Re-read the scriptures, like in the crystallization study of Nehemiah (Winter Training) to re-establish God's testimony with the House of God and the Wall of the City of Jerusalem, the children of Israel were "Babylonian" in constitution and culture and needed the word of God to be ministered to them by the priestly scribe, who knows the word, the understanding of the word, skilled in the word, and had insight into the word.

• It doesn't even take a whole generation to lose everything.  There needs to be a revival of going to the word, standing with the word and standing for the word.  If not, you get subjected to the lies, ideologies that are not God's word.  

• Get the life from the Life Studies, get the truth, enjoy the supply, the Life Studies have a gigantic dispensing function, prayerfully read and review them.

• Example/Testimony: for preparing the training messages, Minoru was drowning, swimming with the riches of the truth and supply from the  Life Studies and the word of God.  

• So many saints are short of enjoyment, barely surviving, but the recovery should be healthy and living, vital, joyful through a serious, daily intake of the  Life Studies and word.... this will make your life and marriage and church life better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUeZCcLGPGM&list=WL&index=44 

• Maintain and elevate the standard of life in the church life from a rich nourishment and supply from the word in the Bible through the Life Studies.

• The Life Studies simply open the Bible and its riches.  They are better than other topical publications.

• Reward yourself, incentivize, celebrate if you read 500 Life Studies.

• Change the mindset to that of necessity, with a long term life endurance of a practice and habit of reading the Life Studies, go beyond reading for your enjoyment, pay the price.

• For the sake of longevity in the recovery, may the saints learn to love the truth and take it in, fill yourself with them and help others to do the same - the tortoise wins the race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0L9VGhj8bk&list=WL&index=29

• No one can read the LS for you.  Draw me and we will run after you.  This is much like prayer and we all need to build up a habit and that habit should supply the corporate practice.

• Pray over the crucial verses

• Seven Ways to read the LS: read a short portion, repeat crucial parts together, read with some prompted explanation/sharing, pray-read, read with variation in your voice (like music), read/sing, read to apply to your life (sharing)

• overcome emptiness with precious content.  Ezra saved the whole nation.  How we need more Ezra's in the churches. 

• Outflow comes from these precious things.  Gospel & shepherding with the precious truths of the Bible. Without being equipped, you have nothing to say. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8QbfvpK9Xk

• The first half is testimonies of the young working saints. 

• Starting at 48:50, the second half is Minoru's sharing. There is much encouragement to take care of your life but pursue the Lord and life and links to the need to have a long-term constitution of the truth.

• Aligning with a timeline to redeem your time.  Don't be foolish but wise.  Don't waste your time.

• Br Curt Kennard shares his exp getting constituted, being unveiled to see the person of Christ. and migrating for the Lord's move. Introduces the 500 Life Study messages web page.  

• GTCA burdens and needs.

• Testimonies begin (1:54)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gv_S8vnbnw&t=6s

• covers the burden and testimony of getting into Life Studies, recalling fellowship and leading from br W Lee to give direction to the brothers in working on the messages for the radio broadcast based on the Life Studies with view of not merely "program" reading and obtaining points but of receiving the burden. 

• Finding the burden will refresh you, nourish you and link all the points together. He gives a practical example of reading the bible and finding the burden and all the main points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwufhobIEgg