Dear saints,
Brothers Ron Kangas and Ed Marks wrote some short words of encouragement regarding the upcoming summer semi-annual training (taking place in Atlanta 7/5 through 7/15). The deadline for on-time registration is this coming Lord's day, June 21. Here is the link for information / registration
Please read what these two brothers have written concerning this upcoming training. And open to the Lord prayerfully about your own personal participation.
Here is the word from our brother Ron Kangas:
The July 2021 training will cover Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. The 12 messages will not be mere summaries of the Life-study messages on these books but will release light, life, and truth regarding the mysterious intrinsic significance of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. The writing of the outlines involved intense spiritual warfare. This indicates two matters: (1) that the enemy is opposed to the content of these 12 training messages and fights against them; (2) that this training is of great importance in the eyes of God, for these messages will enable the saints to experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ, to do the will of the Father in their life and service, to become in Christ those who will conquer the satanic chaos by the victory of Christ and accomplish the divine economy for the new creation, and to take the way of life in reality for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. This training will be a special blessing to all those who are willing to pay whatever price the Lord requires for us to be trained, matured in life, and fully prepared to be the prepared bride of Christ, loving His appearing and longing for His coming.
And here is a more lengthy word from our brother Ed Marks:
Dear Saints,
I want to thank all of you for your prayers for our labor on all of the outlines on the Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. We all know that when we do anything in the work of the Lord, it is a "Body matter." I can say that truly whatever Ron and I composed for these outlines was something done in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body. I feel that these outlines came out from the Lord as our source, through the Lord as our means, and to the Lord for His glory. We are full of thanks to the Lord for allowing us to experience and enjoy Him as the merciful compassions of our God in all of our labor for the building up of Christ's Body, the preparation of His bride, and the ushering in of His kingdom.
I must testify personally that out of the many outlines on which I have labored since Brother Lee went to be with the Lord, these were the most difficult for me. I felt that I was entering into "unexplored territory" of new revelations and fresh experiences of Christ for each outline on which I worked. This, of course, was done in the midst of my continual weaknesses, but I thank the Lord for being our all-sufficient and laboring grace through the prayers of all the saints.
I would truly implore all the saints not to miss this training because I believe that it will be the best training that we have ever had so far. If any of the saints miss this training, this will be a great loss to them, because we believe with all of our heart that these outlines are the up-to-date speaking of the Spirit to all the churches in His taking another major step in and with us to prepare us to be His bride for His coming back.
The following are six significant points from the outlines that may give you a sense of the precious and up-to-date speaking of the Lord from His ministry:
1) The key to Joshua's carrying out all that is written in God's Word and the key to his prosperity, success, strength, and courage in taking the God-promised land were for him to not let God's word depart from his mouth by musing upon it day and night; the words "your mouth" (in Josh. 1:8) show that musing was mainly practiced by speaking aloud.
"The Hebrew word for muse is rich in meaning; it implies to worship, to converse with oneself, and to speak aloud; to muse on the word is to taste and enjoy it through careful considering. Prayer, speaking to oneself, and praising the Lord may also be included in musing on the word; to muse on the word of God is to enjoy His word as His breath (2 Tim. 3:16) and thus to be infused with God, to breathe God in, and to receive spiritual nourishment" (see Psalm 119:15 and footnote 1).
Musing upon the word is even richer, broader, and more inclusive than pray-reading, for it includes prayer, worship, enjoyment, conversation, bowing down, and even lifting up our hand to receive God's word (Psa. 119:48); to lift up our hand unto the word of God is to indicate that we receive it warmly and gladly and that we say Amen to it (Neh. 8:5-6).
2) If we would enter, possess, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we must do so by the presence of the Lord; regardless of what we do, we must pay attention to whether or not we have God's presence.
Brother Lee said---"In my youth I was taught various ways to overcome, to be victorious, to be holy, and to be spiritual. However, not any of these ways worked. Eventually, through more than sixty-eight years of experience, I have found out that nothing works but the Lord's presence. His being with us is everything"--Life-study of Joshua, p. 48.
3) We should take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband so that He can be our blessing to make us a channel of blessing to the saints and all the churches.
4) We have no right to divorce the Lord and no reason to forsake Him; we must take Him, love Him, honor Him, respect Him, regard Him, exalt Him, and cling to Him, rejecting Satan to the uttermost; then we will be blessed; blessed is everyone--nation, society, group, and individual--whose Lord, Head, King, and Husband is Jehovah (Psa. 33:12).
5) Ruth, as an appendix to the book of Judges, is the record of a couple's excellent story, bright and aromatic; the main character in this story, Ruth, is like a lily growing out of brambles and a bright star in the dark night.
Ruth told Naomi (when she decided to return to Bethlehem in the good land)---"Do not entreat me to leave you and turn away from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you dwell, I will dwell; and your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die; and there I will be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more as well, if anything but death parts me from you" (Ruth 1:16-17). This was Ruth's choosing God and His kingdom for the carrying out of God's economy concerning Christ.
6) We all must aspire to be Boaz's who take care of others' enjoyment of Christ and who are pillars in the church life. In addition to this, we need to see the great revelation of the "two husbands" in Romans 7:1-6 and how they apply to Boaz and Ruth as a type of Christ and the church.
I feel that anyone who is blessed by the Lord to make the decision to be in this upcoming summer training is to be like Ruth, who chose the goal of participating with God's elect in the enjoyment of Christ to bring forth Christ in order to meet today's need of both God and men.
May the Lord's multiplied grace be with all of you.
In Christ,
Ed Marks