A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
As far as we at LSM have been able to gather, Brother Witness Lee designed the LSM logo shortly after he was saved. The original design did not have the circular text around it, which makes sense because Brother Lee created the design in China long before he adopted English as the main language for his ministry. In the early 1980s, as the ministry expanded its endeavors, the logo was re-introduced and adopted by LSM as its logo. The circular text in English was added, and the logo soon became ubiquitous. Brother Lee himself never had much to say about the logo, but on at least one occasion he noted that even this little logo had been criticized by the dissenting ones: “Furthermore, for the sake of easy identification, we asked the trainees to wear jackets with a logo that says, ‘In Christ.’ This has also been criticized” (CWWL, 1988 4:421). Thankfully, those criticisms died out long ago, and today most of us find the LSM logo harmless and appealing. The logo did not change the nature of the Lord’s recovery but, contrary to past suspicions, has continued to testify to the intrinsic message of this ministry.
Indeed, this logo offers infinitely more than mere “brand appeal.” When you take the logo apart, the inset Greek letters spell ΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ (EN CHRISTŌ), which is the signature expression of the apostle Paul: in Christ. Paul uses this phrase and its other variant in Christ Jesus 73 times in his Epistles, not to mention the over eighty instances of the related phrases in the Lord, in Jesus, and in Him (and other variants). Taken together in all its variants, this little mystical phrase points to the great secret of the Christian life and the church life: everything we are and do must be in Christ. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3), and we have been raised and seated in the heavenlies in Christ (Eph. 2:6). We are redeemed in Christ (Rom. 3:24), righteous in Christ (Phil. 3:9), justified in Christ (Gal. 2:17), begotten in Christ through the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15), made sons of God in Christ (Gal. 3:26), freed in Christ (Rom. 8:2), sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2). We are faithful in Christ (Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:2), encouraged in Christ (Phil. 2:1), boasting in Christ (Phil. 3:3), living to God in Christ (Rom. 6:11), and hoping in Christ (Eph. 1:12). We have been created as God’s masterpiece in Christ (Eph. 2:10) and are fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body in Christ (Eph. 3:6); we are one Body in Christ (Rom. 12:5). Faith is in Christ (1 Tim. 3:13), love is in Christ (1 Tim. 1:14), and grace is in Christ (2 Tim. 2:1); indeed, full salvation itself is in Christ (2 Tim. 2:10). If you are in Christ, you are a new creation that abides into eternity (2 Cor. 5:17)!
The phrase ΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ within the LSM logo and the phrase In Christ surrounding it remind us that Christ is the center and circumference of everything in the Godhead, in God’s economy, and even in the universe. The green color of the logo symbolizes God’s eternal life that is in Christ (Rom. 6:23; 2 Tim. 1:1). The words Living Stream Ministry refer to, well, us, who bring you all these riches with the hope that our logo will encourage you to live in Christ Jesus at all times.
...the great secret of the Christian life and the church life: everything we are and do must be in Christ.
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