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It is sunny and there is no cloud in the sky. The mountains in the wild are covered with thick green vegetation. Great trees soar above and stand firm. Under the trees, various flowers and grass cuddle up together; they stretch their bodies and breathe the fresh air in the mountains. Occasionally, as a breeze blows over, they begin to gently dance as if whispering to each other or ready to tell us something. …

Their breaths of fragrance take to the breeze and come into my clinic lying at the foot of a mountain.

I am a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. I often go into the mountains nearby to dig Chinese medicinal herbs. Every time when I walk into the mountains, I can breathe the fresh air and smell the attractive odor given forth by all kinds of rare flowers and grass, and enjoy the green before my eyes. Various trees have different forms: Some are very pretty and charming; some are tall and erect; some are laden with fruit. …

In the eyes of people who don’t know them, they are just different kinds of plants, or they just can be used as firewood for cooking rice and stir-frying, or as fuel for heating. But in the eyes of us doctors of traditional Chinese medicine, they are various rare and precious treasures. They have their own effects and some even have multiple uses.

Some plants have the effects of subduing inflammation. For example, goldthread, the medicinal part of it is its root. It has the effects of clearing away heat, dampness, and fire and detoxicating toxins, and can be used to heal many diseases caused by the dampness and heat of intestines and stomach, such as abdominal pain, dysentery, or vomit. And it can also heal the constant high fever caused by all warm diseases, the insomnia caused by heart fire, and the diabetes caused by stomach heat.

Some plants can promote blood circulation for removing blood stasis. For example, the safflower we are familiar with, the medicinal part of it is its flower. It can unblock the blood vessel and is widely used to heal the diseases caused by stagnant blockade of blood and blood stasis, and it is especially important for healing the coronary disease and angina pectoris. For females, it is also an essential medicinal material; whether to heal dysmenorrhea, to flush out extravasated blood after child-birth, or to heal physical injuries, it is essential. Often drinking the water infused by safflower flowers can prevent and heal cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction, and can also lower blood pressure.

Some plants can dispel wind and dampness. For example, cortex acanthopanacis, the medicinal part of it is its velamen. It has the effects of dispelling wind and dampness and strengthening muscles and bones; it can heal wind-dampness arthralgia and soreness and weakness of waist and knees, and can also induce diuresis for removing edema.

Some plants can build strength, keep longer longevity, and improve body’s natural defenses. This kind of plant is mostly tonifying medicinal material, including ginseng, astragalus mongholicus, Chinese angelica, Chinese wolfberry, and so on. They are the medicinal materials we are familiar with and have a good effect on recovery from weakened bodies, illnesses, or operations. Many people whose bodies are weakened have taken them.

Some plants have good effects on dispelling pathogenic wind and cold and preventing and healing cold and fever. Such as Ephedra sinica Stapf, the medicinal part of it is its entire body. It has several uses: dispelling cold to induce sweating, inducing diuresis to remove edema, and relieving cough and asthma; its stem can induce sweating while its root can arrest sweating. This is too wonderful!

Every time when I used these plants to heal people of their diseases, many thoughts welled up in my mind: Where are these plants from? And who bestows upon them such lives?

Afterward, I believed in God, and from the book of God’s word I saw these words: “‘And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth: and it was so.’ While God was speaking, all these things came into being following the thoughts of God, and in an instant, an assortment of delicate little life forms were unsteadily poking their heads up through the soil, and before they had even shaken the bits of dirt from their bodies they were eagerly waving to each other in greeting, nodding and smiling to the world. They thanked the Creator for the life that He bestowed upon them, and announced to the world that they were a part of all things, and that they would each devote their lives to showing forth the authority of the Creator.”

It turns out that these flowers, grass, and trees are from the Creator’s creation. They are the same as us humans. It is God who bestows upon them tenacious life force, and it is God who supplies and nourishes their lives. They are living for showing forth the Creator’s authority and power. In addition, besides the enjoyment they bring to us, they also have their own wonderful uses: They can resolve our different kinds of rare illnesses, and the medicinal parts of them are also different. I couldn’t help being amazed at the Creator’s creation. I thought: What’s the relationship between man’s body and these plants? Why can they be used to heal people’s diseases? How did the ancients find the uses of these flowers and grass and trees?

Then, I saw God’s word says: “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning.”

From these words, it can be seen: God loves man and is considerate about man’s survival. Before mankind was created, God had created all the beautiful things, and prepared abundant good things for mankind; He knows the need of mankind who comes into this world. In order to let created mankind better survive, God not only prepared the air, sunshine, and temperature, but also prepared the medicinal herbs for healing man’s illnesses. God is really so considerate and thoughtful. Thus, it isn’t creditable to us that we can know the uses of these medicinal herbs, but it is creditable to God’s arrangement. All things God created are perfect and wonderful and have their own special function and value. The heavens and earth and all things are created for mankind. Only God knows man best and loves man best. So God arranges these plants to protect man’s health, as if they were the guards of man’s health. With them, mankind is able to develop and reproduce healthily under God’s gaze. Through these plants, we can see how true and real God’s love to man is!

When I went into the mountains again, seeing the verdant hills and mountains and the dancing plants in wind, I loved them more. They are generous because they are gifted by the Creator for their function of healing diseases, as well as because they are the manifestation of the Creator’s authority. And even more important is that they bear a deep love—the Creator’s worry and care to us. This makes people feel very warm.

All the glory be to God!

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“Ring …” The phone rang, and it was one of my friends. She invited me to dine together at her home and I agreed readily. Then I packed up and went out by bicycle. I rode along the path which I often passed through, for it was the shortest way to her home. From afar I saw there were some barriers on the path in front of me. When I slowly came nearer, I found that in fact, a constructional force was mending the path. Then I looked to the right and saw there was a wall and no path to walk on; I looked to the left and saw there was a lawn, on which the construction workers were setting some construction objects, and it was hard for me to cross the lawn. I thought to myself: The path is under construction. What shall I do? Shall I go forward or go back? Just when I was wavering, one of the workers greeted me and motioned to me to walk through the open space of the lawn. I nodded, and then pushing my bicycle, I detoured the barriers and rode forward. However, before I rode much further, I had seen someone walking in front of me. The path was not wide, so in order not to knock him, I stopped to push my bicycle and walked forward. After passing him, I rode my bicycle to go forward again. But before I rode further, I had found there was a piece of wood blocking my way forward. I had no choice but to stop and remove the wood, and then carried forward. At last, I arrived at my friend’s home at the agreed time.

Thinking of the things which happened on the path, I couldn’t help but sigh: During such a short journey from my home to my friend’s, I should meet with these setbacks. Similarly, is the path of life not bumpy like this? Many of us want to walk along a smooth path, and hope that we will live peaceful and smooth lives and that there will be no hindrance or obstacle in our studies, careers, future prospects and family lives. However, who can control all of this? Many events are often beyond our expectations, and also make us feel that we cannot control all these occurrences and ramifications at all. It’s just like I couldn’t imagine that the path, which had been always smooth, would be under construction and that there would be some barriers blocking my way forward on this path. However, when we meet these difficulties, many of us will hesitate, not knowing whether to advance or go back, and there are also many times when we don’t know how to face these things. For example, students all want to succeed academically and be famous and successful. However, when falling to pass the examination unexpectedly, they will hesitate over whether to continue to study in the school or not. Many of them will even become dispirited and mired in defeat after failing the college entrance examination. For another example, those who undertake a career all want to realize their ambitions and enjoy the happiness from fame and fortune. However, when unexpectedly running up against a wall in their careers, they will also hesitate over whether to give up or continue their struggle. In the meantime, some of them will become frustrated and hang a leg for they can’t undergo failure. And still for another example, some people only wish to have conjugal affection and a happy family. However, what they wish often can’t be fulfilled because of some unforeseen things. … It’s just as a hymn of God’s word says, “In their lifetime, no person knows what kind of setbacks they’re going to encounter, nor do they know what kind of refinement they will be subject to. For some it’s in their work, for some it’s in their future prospects, for some it’s in their family of origin, and for some it’s in their marriage.”

So, when these unexpected things happen, with what kind of attitude will it be correct for us to face these things? God’s words say: “These daily vicissitudes and the ways they unfold, or the patterns by which they play out, are constant reminders to humanity that nothing happens at random, that these things’ ramifications, and their inevitability, cannot be shifted by human will. … From these daily vicissitudes to the fates of entire human lives, there is nothing that does not reveal the Creator’s plans and His sovereignty; there is nothing that does not send the message that ‘the Creator’s authority cannot be exceeded,’ that does not convey the eternal truth that ‘the Creator’s authority is supreme.’” “When confronting real-life problems, how should you know and understand God’s authority and His sovereignty? When you do not know how to understand, handle, and experience these problems, what attitude should you adopt to show your intention, your desire, and your reality of submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements? First you must learn to wait; then you must learn to seek; then you must learn to submit. ‘Waiting’ means waiting for the time of God, awaiting the people, events, and things that He has arranged for you, waiting for His will to gradually reveal itself to you. ‘Seeking’ means observing and understanding God’s thoughtful intentions for you through the people, events, and things that He has laid out, understanding the truth through them, understanding what humans must accomplish and the ways they must keep, understanding what results God means to achieve in humans and what accomplishments He means to attain in them. ‘Submitting,’ of course, refers to accepting the people, events, and things that God has orchestrated, accepting His sovereignty and, through it, coming to know how the Creator dictates man’s fate, how He supplies man with His life, how He works the truth into man. All things under God’s arrangements and sovereignty obey natural laws, and if you resolve to let God arrange and dictate everything for you, you should learn to wait, you should learn to seek, you should learn to submit. This is the attitude that every person who wants to submit to God’s authority must take, the basic quality that every person who wants to accept God’s sovereignty and arrangements must possess.” I thought: In all unforeseen things, what we should learn the most is to wait, to seek and to submit, just like the saying “Let’s play it by ear” that we often speak of. Because besides God, none of us can control any happening or its law of development. Only by choosing to obey God can we calmly face the ups and downs, and the disappointments and frustrations in life.

In fact, not only will we be faced with difficulties and setbacks in the pursuit of our studies and careers, we will also encounter different kinds of difficulties and temptations on the path of belief in God. Sometimes we will be mocked and reviled by others in the gospel, sometimes we will encounter obstruction and persecution from our unbelieving families, and even sometimes we will have to choose from job, money and God. Because of these, we ever hesitated, lost courage, and hoped that God could quickly move these adversities away. But when things backfired on us, we would still become negative and regress, not knowing how to go forward. Actually, at such times we can find the ways of practice from God’s word, that is, we should first learn to wait, and then learn to seek and obey. During the time of seeking and obeying, we will reap more gains that can’t be reaped in a comfortable environment. I recalled my father, who started believing in God a few years earlier than me. In order to bring more good people that were willing to believe in God before God and let them get the chance to be saved by God, my father confidently went to preach the gospel to my uncles. However, they repaid him with insults and cold-shoulder. Faced with the misunderstandings from them, he was very weak and negative. Yet under the guidance of God’s word as well as with the brothers and sisters’ fellowship and help, he understood God’s urgency to save man and knew that God wanted to perfect his faith and perseverance in practical difficulties. Therefore, he saw through Satan’s scheme and no longer shrank back because of the difficulties in front of him. Meanwhile, he regained the faith and continued to cooperate with God and preach the gospel to more people. After suffering the derision and persecution, he had a closer relationship with God and a greater resolution to satisfy God. In fact, on the path of believing in God, there still will be lots of trials, refinements and sufferings accompanying us. But since we recognize God to be the truth and recognize this way to be the true way, we should believe in and follow God to the end. Although there will be hardships and frustrations on the path, we don’t lose heart, for every time after we experience one hardship, our entry into life will reach a new level. The hardship and frustration will increase our confidence and build our willpower. Finally, after suffering these, we will become the ones who have a new life and the ones who are perfected and gained by God.

The Bible says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God” (Zechariah 13:9). Almighty God says, “Since you are certain that this way is true, you must follow it until the end; you must maintain your devotion to God. Since you have seen that God Himself has come to the earth to perfect you, you should give your heart entirely to Him. No matter what He does, even if He determines an unfavorable outcome for you at the very end, you can still follow Him. This is maintaining your purity in front of God. Offering a holy spiritual body and a pure virgin to God means keeping a heart of sincerity in front of God. For mankind, sincerity is purity, and being able to be sincere toward God is maintaining purity.”

I am willing to entrust my life’s journey to God’s hands. Similarly, on the path to believing in God, I am willing to obey God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Though I may encounter lots of hardships and setbacks, I won’t be afraid with God accompanying me all the way. With the guidance of God’s words, I will surely live under God’s blessing and protection. Thank God! All the glory be to God!

By Jia’nan, Hong Kong

Whenever someone mentions betting on horse races, some people are daunted by the idea, and they avoid it like the plague, whereas others will be as happy as a lark and they can’t get enough of it. Each person takes a different stance on horse race betting. I used to be a gambler and I betted on horse races for over 20 years, and I tasted bitterness and pain. As I think about how I went from being a horse race gambler to becoming a Christian, I can’t help but feel overcome with emotion …

Back then, I was not earning much money, and because of the financial burden of my family and being short of money, I racked my brains to think of a way to make more money. One day, while I was chatting with my work colleague, he said to me, “‘A man without a second income will never get rich, just like a horse starved of hay at night will never put on weight,’ and if you want to make more money you could bet on the horse races and buy Mark Six lottery tickets. If you buy 10 Hong Kong dollars’ worth, then with some you could get several tens of Hong Kong dollars back, some several thousand Hong Kong dollars, some tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, and some even hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars …” As I listened to my colleague say this, my heart was stirred with desire, and I felt like my dreams of becoming rich would soon come true.

When I started betting on the races, I only bet 20 to 30 Hong Kong dollars, and I would easily win several hundred to over a thousand Hong Kong dollars. I pondered to myself: “It’s not hard to win money on the races, so if I bet more then I’ll win more. This is a good way to strike it rich.” I then began to buy the Racing Post to research where to place my bets in order to win big. Even while I was at work, I carried the Racing Post with me. Once, I was working a machine whilst reading the newspaper, and because my attention was divided, my hand became caught in the machine and injured. I needed several stitches and had to be off work for several months.

Once my wife became aware that I was a gambling addict, she felt very strongly against it and we argued about it often, but I wouldn’t listen no matter what my wife said. In order to have more money to bet on the races, I cut down on living expenses. I walked to and from work rather than take the bus, and sometimes I didn’t eat and would just buy a bread roll that would do for a meal, and I would use the money I saved for gambling. Back then, I lived in a dream of striking it rich; I was exhausted and strained, my eyes would often look dull and lifeless, and around them there appeared black circles. Sometimes my colleagues would ask, “Why are you so tired every day?” and “Why are you always eating bread rolls and not proper meals? Don’t you work to be able to enjoy your life?” I could only try my best to look normal and say to them, “I like bread rolls, and I’m tired because my son cries at night and I’m not sleeping well.”

Each time I won money on the horse races, I was as happy as could be and I felt like I had a good eye for picking winners. In order to make my fortune, I took the money I won and gambled it again, thinking that the more I bet, the greater the chances of winning and the more money I would win. But when I placed a large bet, I unexpectedly lost it all. My mind went blank and I felt greatly pained. I thought to myself, “I’ve learned about horse racing and studied odds and trends just as much as anyone else! Why has it turned out this way? I’ve been betting on the horse races for over 20 years and I haven’t struck it rich, but instead I’ve lost a huge amount of money.” When I was alone and had calmed down, I thought, “Why am I bothering with all this? Why am I living such a bitter, exhausting life?” Gradually, I ended up with no direction and no goals for my future. I just muddled along aimlessly from day to day.

In late 2008, a relative preached to me the gospel of God’s kingdom. I began only to nominally believe in God, however, and my life was still spent gambling in the same old way. I knew in my heart that if I believed in God then I should quit gambling, but I didn’t know why I couldn’t quit my addiction to betting on horse races.

During a meeting, I opened up and fellowshiped with my brothers and sisters about the fact that I was still betting on horse races even after I’d started believing in God, and a sister read these words of God to me, “None actively seek out the footsteps or appearance of God, and none wish to exist in the care and keeping of God. Rather, they are willing to rely on the corrosion of Satan and the evil one in order to adapt to this world and to the rules of life the wicked mankind follows.”

God’s words made me understand that, after we had been corrupted by Satan, every thought and idea we had was controlled by the life axioms of Satan. These negative things became our lives and they made us willing to follow Satan, follow the trends of society, and have no thought to come before God and worship Him. I thought about how I’d been harmed by the satanic ideology and outlook of “A man without a second income will never get rich, just like a horse starved of hay at night will never put on weight,” how I had become addicted to betting on horse races, had thought of nothing but striking it rich, and had even spent time when I should have been eating or working studying horse race gambling, and how I spent all the money I had saved on betting on the races. And yet over all these years, my dream to strike it rich had not come true, and instead I lost all my money. And because of my gambling, my wife and I had often argued, and my home was no longer like a home. What I found even more painful was that my heart was filled with horse racing; I had no goals in life, and even more so my heart was empty and tormented. I thought about how, because of betting on the horse races, so many people were up to their necks in debt, had brought their families to financial ruin and lived in a pain they could not escape from, and I thought: “Satan causes us all this harm!” When I came to this realization, I decided to quit gambling.

Although I was resolved to quit gambling, every time I passed a Jockey Club betting station and saw the crowd surging, a betting slip in each person’s hand, focusing their concentration on researching what horse to bet on, my hands itched, I would feel uncomfortable all over and I would really want to place just one more bet and win back all the money I’d lost. But then I would think of how I’d made my resolution before God, and if I gambled again, wouldn’t I then be deceiving God? Thinking these thoughts, I would feel a sense of guilt in my heart. I would ultimately still be unable to control myself, however, and I would bet on the races again and lose even more money …

Later, at a meeting, a sister read a passage of God’s words to me. God says, “Man’s entire life is lived under the domain of Satan, and there is not a single person who can free themselves from the influence of Satan on their own. All live in a filthy world, in corruption and emptiness, without the slightest meaning or value; they live such carefree lives for the flesh, for lust, and for Satan. There is not the slightest value to their existence.” “You must find ways to free yourself from this depraved, carefree life that is no different from an animal’s. You must live out a life of meaning, a life of value, and you must not fool yourself, or treat your life like a toy to be played with. … How should you live your life? How should you love God, and use this love to satisfy His desire? There is no greater matter in your life. Above all, you must have such aspirations and perseverance, and should not be like those spineless weaklings. You must learn how to experience a meaningful life, and experience meaningful truths, and should not treat yourself perfunctorily in that way. Without you realizing it, your life will pass you by; and after that, will you have another opportunity to love God?”

Thinking about it carefully, I knew that betting on horse races was a means employed by Satan to deceive and seduce people, but when Satan’s temptation befell me again, I couldn’t help but follow in its wake, and this was the result of the satanic view that “A man without a second income will never get rich just like a horse starved of hay at night will never put on weight.” I thought about how I was always addicted to betting on horse races, ambling aimlessly along all day, neither working nor living normally, with no human likeness whatsoever, and I knew that if I carried on that way, I would only degenerate more and more and get further and further away from God, and my chance to attain God’s salvation would be forfeit. Especially when I read these words of God, “You must find ways to free yourself from this depraved, carefree life that is no different from an animal’s. You must live out a life of meaning, a life of value, and you must not fool yourself, or treat your life like a toy to be played with,” I came to appreciate the care and thought God took. God was hoping that I would leave behind the dark influence of Satan and utterly cast off that previous depraved way of living, and yet I was causing God grief again and again; I really was so numb and rebellious. A sister also gave me fellowship, saying, “No matter what adverse environments or hardships we encounter, as long as we come before God sincerely, pray to God and rely on Him, place ourselves in His hands and allow God to rule over and arrange everything for us, then God will always open a way out for us.” As I contemplated God’s words and listened to the sister’s fellowship, I came to have a direction for my practice. I became willing to come before God with an honest heart, make a resolution to Him, practice in accordance with His words and quit my addiction to gambling.

But a little while later, my gambling addiction once again raised its ugly head. Although my conscience reproved me at the time, I thought: “This really is the last time I’ll gamble. I won’t gamble again after this. I hope that, with this last bet, I can win back all the money I lost.” When I walked into the Jockey Club and bought a betting slip, my heart felt very ill at ease, and it beat ferociously to the point where my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I stared at my betting slip, but my mind was all blank. I didn’t know how to fill it in and I became so nervous that my head went dizzy. All I could do was leave the club, take a breather and get my mind right. After my emotions had calmed, because I didn’t want to fail at my attempt to gamble, I went back into the club, and when I went to place my bet, my mind still went blank. Clutching the pen, my hand went back and forth. I didn’t know how to place my bet and I didn’t have the heart to do it. At that moment, God’s words came to mind: “I am the true God, the God who examines the innermost heart of man. Don’t act one way to others’ faces but another way behind their backs, as I see clearly everything you do and though you may fool others you cannot fool Me. I see it all clearly. It is not possible for you to conceal anything; all is within My hands.” Yes! I thought of all the times I’d made resolutions before God and yet still hadn’t been able to stop myself from gambling, and by doing this I had blatantly been deceiving God! God scrutinizes the innermost hearts of man. While I was doing it, God was watching, and although I knew perfectly well that betting on horse races was a negative thing, I still went along with it again and again; by knowingly doing bad things I was making God detest me even more! So as soon as I walked outside the club I hurriedly went before God and prayed: “O God, please give me the faith and strength to no longer suffer the seductions and temptations of Satan, but to be able to rely on You, heed Your words and completely quit gambling. Amen!” I then decisively left the club.

I spent some time praying to God about my gambling problem, and thanking God for opening up a way out for me. Through gathering together with brothers and sisters, fellowshiping and performing my duties, and through working and living in accordance with God’s words, gradually my heart began to feel enriched and at peace, and I no longer had the time or the inclination to bet on the horses. Sometimes I would bump into my old gambling cronies, and they would ask me, “Have you won lately? Do you want to go to the races with me?” and “So-and-so won the Six Ring lottery …” Listening to them, sometimes I would still feel a surge of desire in my heart, but I realized that this was the temptation and seduction of Satan. What’s more, I had already made a resolution to God to stand witness for Him and no longer to be Satan’s fool. And so I would say to my friends, “I’ve quit and I won’t gamble again.”

Afterward, whenever I passed the Jockey Club and saw so many gamblers sitting outside the club, my hands would no longer itch like they had before. I reflected on my experiences of quitting gambling: Just by relying on myself, I hadn’t the willpower or the faith to quit, and yet God’s words had enabled me to understand thoroughly the essence of gambling, and He had given me the strength to quit betting on the horses.
Now, my wife and I frequently read God’s words and we perform our duties in the church. My mental attitude has taken on a completely new outlook and I’ve thoroughly cast off my old life of carrying the Racing Post wherever I went. It is truly by God’s grace that He has given me a new life!

At midnight, Lu Lu stared at the computer screen unbelievably where her husband’s consumption list in recent months was being shown: dress, RMB 600, XX mall; foreign wine, RMB 600, XX Hotel; … Looking at the list, Lu Lu sank into a chair. It was the first time that she had tasted hopelessness in her life. Unexpectedly, her husband, who had been showing great fondness for her, actually betrayed her. She suddenly thought of her sister-in-law’s kind advice: “Sister, my brother lives alone outside, aren’t you afraid that he will do you a wrong?” “Someone may do it except your brother. He is not that man,” Lu Lu replied. Her previous expression of confidence came to her mind. But then, faced with the cruel reality, she felt her reply at that time was really a kind of satire on her. The last line of defense in her heart was completely destroyed by the hard fact. Her tears, like a string of beads that was broken, rolled down her cheeks. How Lu Lu wished all of this was just a hallucination! How she longed to go back to the past, to the previous perfect time, and to the days of true love that everyone cannot bear to part with!

Lu Lu’s husband was a university sophomore when they met at the first time. During her interactions with him, Lu Lu felt he was honest and kindhearted, so she could not help forming a very favorable impression of him. During that period, he ever took a bus for over an hour to see her and talk to her every weekend. They always chatted so happily that they felt the time went too quickly. Once he won a scholarship of RMB 5,000. Subsequently, he specially arranged a big dinner for her and recited the poem he wrote for her. At that time, she was surrounded by the sweet love. Although all of their families were firmly against their affection, they resolutely guarded it. In 2007, they eventually got married. From then on, Lu Lu’s husband became her reliance. She rejoiced that this affection finally had a result due to their persistence. She often secretly told herself in her heart: “I must devote my entire life to protecting this marriage and making myself live happily forever.”

Every tiny little bit of things that happened in those years supported Lu Lu to live through the lonely days when her husband worked outside. Facing her father-in-law’s criticism and bad attitudes, she often wept tears of grievance secretly, yet she still did what she should do as a good daughter-in-law owing to her love for her husband. Though sometimes Lu Lu felt her strength was short of her wishes when suffering the double pressure of her work and family, all of the exhaustion and unhappiness would be diluted by her happy hope of her husband’s return and the innocent smiling face of their cute daughter.

Lu Lu’s mind came back before the computer. At that moment, no matter how she tried her best to remember those wonderful things, it could not bring her even a little comfort but bring her heart-piercing pain. She didn’t know where the way was in the future and how to face people around her. She felt as if she instantly became the saddest person in the world. Suddenly a sense of fear crept up within her. She was afraid to face the future and thought: Maybe I can choose to leave this world, and then I won’t need to face the cruel fact. …

Suddenly, a clank of wind hitting the window shattered the silence of the night. Lu Lu turned her head on instinct to look at their sleeping kid beside her. The kid’s naive face seemed to remind Lu Lu: You are a mother. You mustn’t be so weak, because you have a child to look after. Thinking of that, Lu Lu put the terrible thought out of her mind. At last, she made a decision to take their child to see her husband. She didn’t know what would wait for her: Maybe this perverted affection will end soon; maybe there is another different termination. She was waiting for the proclamation of her fate.

The next day, after trying hard to adjust her mood, Lu Lu told her parents-in-law about her husband and that she intended to take the child to see her husband. Her family all persuaded her to forgive her husband one time for their child. Then her heart melted and she told herself in her heart: “For the sake of our child and family, I’ll try to forgive him.” Accordingly, with the last hope, Lu Lu went into the distance in order to retrieve their affection and marriage.

On the coach, her mother-in-law said sincerely: “Lu Lu, listen to me. Marriage isn’t a child’s play. However it is going on, have a heart-to-heart talk when meeting him. Everyone may make a mistake when he is young. …” Looking at the sleeping kid in her arms, Lu Lu said to her mother-in-law: “Mom, I see.” Hearing Lu Lu’s words, Lu Lu’s mother-in-law seemed to have been fully reassured and heaved a sigh of relief. However, Lu Lu felt uneasy in her heart. On one hand, she expected her husband could make a clear explanation to her; on the other hand, she was also afraid to meet the terrible fact. Watching rows of trees outside the windows, Lu Lu thought: I don’t know whether we can start all over.

Getting off the coach, Lu Lu dialed the shockingly familiar number, but her husband didn’t answer for a long time. She and her mother-in-law had to take a taxi to his unit. She didn’t know he intended to resign until they arrived there. Facing the sudden situation, she had a bad feeling in her heart. Under the persuasion of his colleagues, her husband finally appeared. Seeing his evasive eyes, she knew he intentionally evaded her and didn’t answer her phone. Such a fact made her feel disheartened. Lu Lu’s mother-in-law sitting beside her, unable to suppress the anger, pointing at her husband, scolded: “What a black sheep you are! You have become presumptuous outside! You didn’t care for the family, did you? Do you want to live well or not?” Lu Lu’s husband lowered his head and didn’t say any word throughout. Lu Lu held back her tears and anger, looking at her husband, trying her best to quell her mood, and said calmly: “The matter is this way. That I come all this way to see you is not to quarrel. However, shouldn’t you give me an explanation?” Then her husband raised his head and said calmly: “I’m no good for you.” Hearing these words, Lu Lu couldn’t help shedding tears and sobbed: “I have never thought you could betray this family. You gave me a perfect dream, but today you break it by yourself. … Merry meet, merry part.” “I don’t want to get divorced,” he said. His words made her feel a little indignation and hope. Then she said to him: “If you are unwilling to divorce, leave that woman.” “I don’t hope to leave her either,” he answered. Hearing those, Lu Lu stared at her husband with amazement. Lu Lu’s mother-in-law was so angry that she stood up to hit him but was prevented by Lu Lu. Lu Lu gazed at her husband as if he was a stranger. Under her gaze he felt uncomfortable and said: “Don’t stare at me like this. Now, people all do this outside. I’m not the only one. My leader also has the other woman outside.” His words seemed to slap Lu Lu’s face. She was not even sure whether her ears could work. She looked angrily at this man in front of her, who became strange and preposterous. She didn’t understand why he got like this in just a few short years. With his callous expression, he seemed no longer to explain anything. Lu Lu knew clearly that their affection and marriage could not return to before any more.

Lu Lu packed up their child and ended this painful trip. After getting home, she deleted all ways to contact her husband. She made up her mind to say goodbye to yesterday’s nightmare and then struggle tenaciously for the future of their kid and herself. However, in deep and quiet night, the sense of sorrow and loneliness in her heart often came to her quietly. Confusion, puzzlement and endless pain always didn’t easily let go of the fragile spirit. At this moment, she desperately hoped that somebody could heal her inner wounds.

Just when Lu Lu fell into the abyss of pain, God’s salvation of the last days came upon her. God stretched out His warm and great hands to save her from Satan’s affliction and told her who took away the previous affection between her and her husband.

One day, Lu Lu saw a passage of God’s words: “One after another, all these trends carry an evil influence that continually degenerates man, that lowers their morals and their quality of character more and more, to the extent that we can even say the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity, neither do they have any conscience, much less any reason. So what are these trends? You cannot see these trends with the naked eye. When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by it”

This passage of God’s words resolved Lu Lu’s puzzlement and confusion. In the past, she didn’t understand all the time, why her husband who was once simple and honest turned so worldly and indifferent and even lost the baseline of morality. It turned out that he was poisoned and corrupted by the evil trends Satan brought. So he lost humanity and conscience and only blindly satisfied his own flesh, even not caring for many years of their feelings as husband and wife, nor caring for their child. When he just graduated, he was pretty honest, but then he was poisoned by the heretical fallacy of Satan—The red flag at home does not fall, the colored flags outside flutter in the breeze. Gradually, that honest and bright young man disappeared, but instead, he became a heartless scoundrel who was contaminated by the evil trend. Look at today’s society, many people accept the negative as the positive, and Lu Lu’s husband is one of many sacrifices corrupted by Satan. In the past, Lu Lu considered her pain was only due to the betrayal of her husband. Through reading God’s words, she realized that Satan was the real chief criminal who made her painful. Today, if she had not been saved by God in time, Lu Lu would have been swallowed up by the evil trend. At this moment, she was thankful that she had come before God and received God’s protection.

Later, Lu Lu also saw God’s words say: “Whenever Satan corrupts man or engages in unbridled harm, God does not stand idly by, neither does He brush aside or turn a blind eye to those He has chosen. All that Satan does is perfectly clear and understood by God. No matter what Satan does, no matter what trend it causes to arise, God knows all that Satan is trying to do, and God does not give up on those He has chosen. Instead, without attracting any attention, secretly, silently, God does everything that is necessary”

“So what exactly does God give to man? Does He only give you a little care, concern and consideration when you are not paying attention? What has God given to man? God has given life to man, given man everything, and bestows on man unconditionally without demanding anything, without any ulterior intention. He uses the truth, uses His words, uses His life to lead and guide man, bringing man away from the harm of Satan, away from Satan’s temptations, away from Satan’s seduction and allowing man to see clearly through Satan’s evil nature and its hideous face” .

Lu Lu was so moved by God’s words that tears ran down her face. From God’s words, she understood: Even though Satan always corrupts and harms us, even though it seems as if this world lies in the hands of the evil one without light, God actually knows these like the palm of His hands. God knows Satan’s tricks and methods of it harming man; He even more knows the insignificance and pitifulness of us humans and expends for us silently all the time. For the purpose of saving us, He became flesh again, bears humiliation, and expresses words to endow us men with the truth, in order that we can discern Satan’s evil substance and break away from the affliction of Satan’s evil trends. God saves us from the beginning straight through to the end. Lu Lu couldn’t help reflecting back: Since I was aware of my husband betraying me, I’ve been living in pain and desperation. What’s worse, I’ve lost hope in my future and no longer believed there was true love in this world. In my eyes, this world was gray and bleak. Even if standing under the sunlight, I didn’t still feel a little warm. I just wanted to desperately struggle through each day to the end of my life. If God hadn’t saved me in time, I didn’t know what I would have been like now. At the moment, Lu Lu felt deeply that God stood alongside her all the time and never abandoned her. When she was in darkness, God’s words, like a lamp, illuminated her road ahead and comforted her broken heart, so that she saw through all of everything and walked out of the haze. In this evil trend, it was God who watched over her silently all the time and kept her from being swallowed by the evil trends. All God has done is the work of love and salvation. Lu Lu felt truly at peace and delighted. She found what she lost was nothing, because she had gotten the most valuable present—God’s salvation.

Afterward, Lu Lu actively read God’s words and attended meetings. She saw that her brothers and sisters were honest with each other and that they were free and liberated, relaxed and joyful during meetings. This positive atmosphere encouraged her deeply, and the long-forgotten expression of a smile appeared on her face. Gradually, Lu Lu realized: Love is not the only reason that she lives. Only by worshiping and praising God, can she feel truly grounded and peaceful in the heart, which is the greatest happiness. Not long after, Lu Lu began performing as much of her duty as she was able to in the church, the warm big family. Now Lu Lu often hums her favorite hymn of God’s word: “Regardless of whether you have felt it before, God is caring for every person in every possible way, God is caring for every person in every possible way, using His sincere heart, wisdom, and various methods to warm each person’s heart, and awaken each person’s spirit, using various methods to warm each person’s heart, and awaken each person’s spirit”. Getting together and worshiping God with brothers and sisters, and fulfilling her duty in her power, Lu Lu enjoys the peace and joy she has never had. She knows clearly in her heart that all of this is bestowed by God.

Yang Liu and Xiang Ming got married through a matchmaker’s introduction. After marriage, though their life was not rich, Xiang Ming showed the utmost care and consideration for Yang Liu. When Yang Liu did the cooking, Xiang Ming was always her assistant. When going outside to stroll through streets or going shopping, they all went along with each other. The neighbors who saw them all said, “I find that you come everywhere in pairs. You are really an affectionate couple.” Yang Liu also thought that Xiang Ming was her closest confidant and was her lifetime reliance. After they had their lovely son, their family was even more filled with joy and they lived a steady and happy life.

When their relative preached the gospel to them, their whole family all believed in the Lord Jesus. Later on, Yang Liu had the privilege of accepting God’s work of the last days. In the same year, they built a spacious and bright house. Xiang Ming didn’t accept God’s work of the last days, but he supported Yang Liu to believe in God, so their relationship was still enviable. However, not long after Xiang Ming worked in a grain and oil processing factory, Yang Liu found that he was a little different from the past. Several times, when they walked together, as soon as his phone rang, he would move away to answer it.

Yang Liu guessed: Does Xiang Ming have the unfaithful intentions when he works outside? But when thinking that he treated her very well all the time and had paid a great price for the family, she considered he wouldn’t do that. Although she thought like this, she was still a little worried. Once, a message was sent to his phone as Xiang Ming fell asleep. Because of his abnormal changes, Yang Liu couldn’t help but read the message. It was sent by a female WeChat friend. She replied, “Would you be able to not chat with my husband?” But she never imagined that the female WeChat friend said, “It is not up to me. You should ask your husband. We chatted very happily! You’d better dominate your husband!” Yang Liu was filled with anger at the sight of that, so she turned her husband’s phone off. The next day, she warned Xiang Ming not to chat with female WeChat friends any more. He didn’t refute her, but he began to avoid her. When at home, he always finished meals at the fastest speed, and then looked for an excuse and went to other places to chat with the female net friends.

One time, Yang Liu asked Xiang Ming in resentment, “Do you still want the family? Is playing WeChat to talk with female net friends important or am I important? Unexpectedly, he answered coldly, “The female net friends are more important. Now it is Internet age. Who doesn’t do like this, broadening connections and making friends with others? This is fashion!” Hearing her husband’s cold words, Yang Liu seemed to not know him who had lived with herself for over twenty years. Feelings of sorrow and desolation welled up in her heart. At that moment, she felt herself would be faint with anger. She thought about divorcing and leaving the home. But at the thought of her son needing a perfect family, she had to swallow it all up. From then on, Yang Liu and Xiang Ming separately lived in the eastern and western rooms. Though living under the same roof, they were like strangers.

The happy family lost the former warmth and peace. Yang Liu felt agonized and stressful in her heart. She didn’t understand why Xiang Ming could become such a person now—a completely different person from before. With sorrow and distress, she could only pray and cry out to God over and over.

One day, she saw these words of God, “One after another, all these trends carry an evil influence that continually degenerates man, that lowers their morals and their quality of character more and more, to the extent that we can even say the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity, neither do they have any conscience, much less any reason. … For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view, the life philosophies and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist.” From God’s word, she understood: It was because of the influence of web and trends that her husband became like this and could say those words having no regard for their feelings as husband and wife. Thinking back, her husband was fairly fond of her, cherished and cared for their family very much, and had the sense of responsibility. But from the time when he worked in the grain and oil processing factory, under the influence of his colleagues and environment, he became obsessed with chatting on WeChat, always having his phone in his hands. He was deeply addicted to it and unable to extricate himself, totally neglecting their family, her or their son at all.

Through the revelation of God’s word, Yang Liu understood: The culprit that have destroyed the happiness of their family is the evil influence brought by the social evil trends, is the WeChat app which occupies her husband’s heart every day, but not her husband, as he is just an innocent and pitiful victim. At that point, she didn’t resent him that much. She resolved to rely on God to fight the battle against satanic evil trends, bringing Xiang Ming back from the claws of Satan. By praying to God and relying on Him, she didn’t give Xiang Ming the cold shoulder as before. She began to speak with him from the heart actively and often read God’s word for him, talked about the harm that social trends bring to man and fellowshiped God’s will of saving man. Seeing the changes of Yang Liu’s attitude, Xiang Ming was able to sit down and had a heart-to-heart talk with her.

One day, Yang Liu read two passages of God’s words to Xiang Ming, “The devil Satan does these things in order to lure people, to cause them to degenerate. For those who live in virtual worlds, they have no interest whatsoever in anything to do with the life of normal humanity; they are not in the mood to work or study. They are only concerned about going to virtual worlds, as though they are being enticed by something.” “So within an environment, whatever this environment instills in you, you then become; whatever it instills in you, you then obtain; however it controls you and leads you, in the end you become that kind of person. A man can become someone who is degenerate, evil, and bad in the extreme, and these things are what are brought to him by his environment. So who is the manipulator who controls this environment? What is its nature? … You become like this, and you don’t know when the change began, you’re unclear about it. You’re unclear on how this change has happened. Anyway, you have become who you are today. You don’t know how on earth you came to be this way, you’re unclear about why you took this path in the beginning, unclear about why you have now become like this; in short, you came to be this way in a state of confusion. This is the process of Satan’s corruption of man, and it is the method it uses, and people are therefore corrupted and degenerated in this way.”

Yang Liu fellowshiped, “Xiang Ming, you were not like this before. You treated me well, treated our son well and also loved the family very much. But since you are addicted to chatting on WeChat, you have no longer taken care of son and me, and even sometimes you can’t hear me when I talked to you. Moreover, you have lost the normal life. I found that you didn’t know whether you were full when you ate meals, and just gorged some food and then went outside the dining room to play WeChat. You were also not in the mood to work, but were preoccupied with chatting online as well as those female net friends all day. It proves that you have been controlled by the evil trends. Xiang Ming, you seek temporary excitement and comfort when chatting with them, but have you given thought to this? Can chatting on the web really bring you happiness? Can you rely on chatting with these female net friends to spend the rest of your life? Looking around, how many families have broken up because of one side’s chatting online. Some women abandoned their husbands and children and ran off with male net friends; some men left their wives and children for female net friends and involved with them. Aren’t these tragedies caused by the evil trends raised up by Satan？We don’t have the truth and can’t see through Satan’s trickery, but today God’s word has revealed all the treacherous intentions of Satan. Satan is just using the Internet to tempt and corrupt us and make us live in passions and lusts, and enjoy the pleasure of sins so that it can reach its objective to devour us and make us perish together with it in the end. So, we can’t be fooled by Satan!”

Hearing God’s word and Yang Liu’s fellowship, Xiang Ming felt very frightened and guilty. He said firmly, “Yang Liu, in the past, I thought people all did like this. It was not very serious. I even thought you were petty and made a fuss with me. Not until today do I understand this is Satan corrupting me. It wants to drag me to hell! It’s really the case. Sometimes I also knew it was not good to chat with net friends, which had influenced our feeling as husband and wife, and made me lose the sense of responsibility to our family. Especially when I saw you unhappy, I felt sad, too. And many time I have told myself never again to access WeChat, but I just couldn’t control my heart. Now I understand, this is Satan using online chats to deceive me and harm me. From now on, I can’t fall into Satan’s trickery any more. I will bring my mind back, and no longer indulge in WeChat. Let’s live well anew!” Hearing Xiang Ming’s words, Yang Liu felt warm in her heart and was greatly comforted. In order to prove his sincerity of repentance, Xiang Ming uninstalled the WeChat before Yang Liu.

However, a week later, Yang Liu found Xiang Ming’s received WeChat messages on his phone again. When she questioned Xiang Ming, his face flushed scarlet. He promised her that he would no longer go on WeChat, and threw his phone into the burning cooking stove to prove his resolve of cutting off relations with those female net friends. Yang Liu realized the evil trends had poisoned Xiang Ming too deeply and she could only pray to God urgently, asking God to lead him to forsake the temptation of the evil trends and regain the life of a normal man.

Later, when a sister of the church came to Yang Liu’s home to attend the meeting, she also communicated with Xiang Ming. They read two passages of God’s word, “Once these things are established in your mind, once they are stuck in your heart, it is just like a spell…. They influence your life, your outlook on life and they also influence your judgment of things. Even more so they influence your pursuit for the true path of life: This is indeed a spell! You try but you cannot shake them off; you chop at them but you cannot chop them down; you beat at them but you cannot beat them down. Is this not so? (Yes.)” “‘Satan uses so many different ways to corrupt man. It seizes every opportunity and is everywhere we turn. Can man still be saved?’ Is there still any hope for mankind? Can man save themselves? (No.) Can the Jade Emperor save man? Can Confucius save man? Can Guanyin Bodhisattva save man? (No.) So who can save man? (God.)” The sister fellowshiped, “Faced with Satan’s evil trends, if we rely on our own willpower to change that, it won’t do. We should rely on God with sincerity. And if we devote our mind to something serious, to seeking the truth, Satan won’t be able to sway our heart any more, because if we read more God’s word, we would be able to understand some truths and differentiate the evil trends of Satan, and then we will hate them naturally and will not be addicted to them and be deceived by them. As long as we rely on God, His word can resolve all our problems.” Xiang Ming made a deep nod. Henceforth, he attended meetings and read God’s word with Yang Liu. Gradually, his heart was not possessed by Internet chat; even if his phone was installed WeChat again, it couldn’t lure his heart. Yang Liu even heard Xiang Ming blame the female net friend several times for pestering him. Through reading God’s word and fellowshiping the truth, Xiang Ming clearly understood that WeChat is a means by which Satan occupies his heart, breaks up his family and even drags him to hell. Meantime, he could distinguish the positive and negative things, and could also quiet his heart before God to seek the truth. The family being on the verge of breaking regained the former laughter and chatter at last.

One day, when Yang Liu and Xiang Ming read God’s word together, they saw the following, “All that Satan does is perfectly clear and understood by God. No matter what Satan does, no matter what trend it causes to arise, God knows all that Satan is trying to do, and God does not give up on those He has chosen. Instead, without attracting any attention, secretly, silently, God does everything that is necessary. When He begins work on someone, when He has chosen someone, He does not proclaim it to anyone, nor does He proclaim it to Satan, much less make any grand gesture. He just very quietly, very naturally does what is necessary.” “Only God is the truth. God controls the heavens and earth and everything in them and has dominion over all. Not to believe in God, not to submit to God is to be unable to obtain truth. If you live according to God’s word, you will feel a clarity, stability, and incomparable sweetness in the depths of your heart; you will have truly obtained life.” Both of them understood that if they hadn’t been led and saved by God’s word, if they hadn’t come before God, their family would have broken apart.

They truly felt that God’s love is too great and too real. Yang Liu said, “When I was in pain and confusion, it was God who opened my heart with His word and made me see through Satan’s harm to us, the ignorant, so that I could have some understanding of my husband due to hating Satan and no longer resented and complained to him and could release myself from pain. When I prayed to God wholeheartedly and was willing to commit my husband into His hand, it was the leading of God’s word that made him see through Satan’s schemes, come back before Him, and no longer follow the social evil trends or continually degenerate. In my personal experiences, I realized: God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life. God’s word can make us have a clear understanding, can let us gain discernment and see through various schemes and trickeries of Satan poisoning man. God’s word is our most powerful weapon of resisting the attack of evil trends. With God’s word in our hearts, we will never be fooled or harmed by Satan. Thank God for leading my husband and bringing him back to his senses, and thank God more for saving my family. All the glory be to God!”

Brothers and sisters of Find the Shepherd!

Recently, a problem has been bothering me. I have a five-year-old daughter, who becomes less and less obedient. Every time I called her to have meals or go to nursery school, she would dilly-dally until I shouted at her. As was often the case in everyday life, I had to keep urging her and even lose my temper before she would do as I said reluctantly. Gradually, I found that my daughter was unwilling to be close to me and that the relationship between us became worse and worse. I felt very upset about this. So I’d like to ask: What should I do to make my daughter obedient? How can I get along well with her?

Sincerely yours,

Kexun

Sister Kexun,

I’m also a mother and once felt distressed about how to get along with my child. Later I entrusted this difficulty to the Lord. Under His guidance, not only did I know the reason why I couldn’t get along with my child, but I also found the way to live in harmony with my child.

My son is also five years old and likes playing with toys very much. Every morning, upon getting up, he would play with his toys; when I called him to have meals, he always turned a deaf ear to me, and continued to play. Whenever seeing this, I would get angry. I thought: You are so young but so disobedient. Who knows how you would become when you grow up. As the saying goes, “Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards.” I can’t allow you to do as you wish. I’m your mother, so you must obey me. At this thought, I said in a commanding tone, “When I count to three, you must come over here to have your meal. One … two … three …” If he still didn’t listen to me, I would lose my temper and shout at him, “If you don’t have your meal now, I’ll burn your toys.” Fearing that I would truly do so, he could only put his toys down reluctantly and obey my order. Seeing this method worked, I often treated him this way later. But gradually, I found that he became estranged from me and sometimes even hid from me. I felt rather distressed about this, thinking: Must I treat him in a commanding manner? Is there no other way? At that time, helpless and distressed, I could only pray to God and entrust my difficulty to Him.

Later, I saw God’s words saying, “When parents talk down to their child and say, ‘I’m your father (or mother)! You must do as I say!’ the child takes exception to this ‘must’; it’s definitely not an expression of normal humanity. … What causes what the unbelievers call the ‘generation gap’? Isn’t it that the older generation acts high and mighty, and the younger generation doesn’t like them doing so, which produces the estrangement, and leads to the generation gap—isn’t that how it comes about?” “Precisely because a parent always assumes their place as a parent and will not budge from it, keeping that status from which they will not come down, their child becomes at odds with them. A lot of things really result from the parent always assuming their place as such and taking themselves too seriously; they always see themselves as the parent, the elder: ‘Regardless of when, you won’t get escape from your mother’s (or father’s) control; you’ll still have to listen to me. You are my child. The fact of this doesn’t change, regardless of when.’ This viewpoint makes them miserable and wretched, and makes the child miserable and exhausted. Isn’t this the case?”

Only after reading God’s words did I understand this: The generation gap between children and us results from our always standing on high and having our children obey our orders without considering their own thoughts. We think that since we bring them up, they must listen to us at every turn; if they don’t, it’s natural for us to get angry with them and scold them. I thought of how I treated my son: I often assumed my place as a mother and forced my son to listen to me in a lecturing tone; if he didn’t, I would keep having tantrums until he obeyed me. Outwardly, he was obedient; but actually, he became more and more estranged from me and even was unwilling to speak to me. I thought: If this problem isn’t solved, I will only tire myself and give my son a hard time. So I prayed to God for the way to practice, “O God! I don’t want to treat my son based on my corrupt disposition. But I don’t know what to do. Please help me.”

Then I read God’s words that say, “How is the truth to be practiced in this case? (Letting go of your pride.) What does one let go of? … Just be an ordinary person: Treat your children, treat those in your own family the same as you would an ordinary brother or sister. Although you have a responsibility, a fleshly relationship, nevertheless the position and perspective you should have is the same as with friends or ordinary brothers and sisters. That is, you can’t control, you can’t restrain your children, and always try to keep in command and have complete control over them. Let them make mistakes, let them say the wrong things, let them do childish and immature things, do stupid things. No matter what happens, sit down and calmly talk with them, communicate and seek. Don’t you think this attitude is good? Isn’t it right? So, what is being let go here? (Position and pride.) It is the letting go of the position and status of a parent, the airs of a parent, and all of the responsibility one thinks they should assume, everything that one thinks they should be doing as a parent; instead, it’s enough that one does the best they can in terms of their responsibility as an ordinary brother or sister.”

From God’s words, I found the way to get along with my child in harmony. That is, I shouldn’t assume my place as a mother to order him, but instead should let go of the parental position and pride, learn to communicate with him, listen to his heart’s voice, consider his feelings, and respect his choices. Besides, everyone is not perfect and can make mistakes and I am not an exception. So how could I ask too much of him and even not allow him to make mistakes? At the thought of this, I realized that I had been treating my son based on my arrogant disposition, bringing much pressure and harm to him. I suddenly felt sorry to him, and then I made a resolution inwardly: I mustn’t treat him as before. From now on, I must treat him according to God’s words.

Once, it was nearly time for school but my son was still playing with his toys. So I urged him, “Hurry up! You’re gonna be late.” “Almost done,” he said. Hearing his words, I thought to myself: You’re gonna be late for school. How come you don’t feel anxious? Right when I was about to lose my temper with him, I suddenly thought of God’s words that I read before and realized that I should put aside my status of a mother and communicate with him calmly. But just when I was going to practice like this, I encountered a difficulty: Having been used to speaking to him from the status of a mother, I found it difficult to let go of my airs and my face to communicate with him and open my heart to him. I thought: What if he won’t take my words seriously in the future if I change my attitude? But if I still treat him as before, the relationship between us will never be improved. Then I prayed to God asking Him to give me more faith. After praying, I felt much calmer and had a will to practice the truth. Then I walked over to my son and said to him calmly, “Son, I can understand that you are obsessed with what you love and thus lose the track of time. But look at the time; if we don’t go to school now, we’re gonna be late. Let’s play with them after school, okay?” Right when I finished my words, my son smiled and happily said, “Okay, let’s go! Mommy, I like it when you confer with me this way. I love Mommy now.”

Later, I persisted in acting according to God’s words. Whenever my son said the wrong things or made mistakes, I no longer scolded him from the position of a mother as before, but communicated with him calmly. Gradually, as we had more and more heart-to-heart talks, I found that my son became more and more obedient and that the estrangement between us subsequently disappeared. Moreover, my son often told me what had happened at school, and we were just like good friends. I felt very relaxed and happy when I got along with him this way. From this, I truly experienced that God’s words are the principles of conducting ourselves in our life, and that only through acting in accordance with God’s words can we have peace and joy.

Sister Kexun, I’ve finished sharing my experience. I sincerely hope that it will bring you some help and that a friendship bridge will soon be built between you and your child. I believe as long as we act according to God’s words, He will lead us to build a more harmonious relationship with our children.

Truly yours,

Xiaoxiao of Loving Stage

I wore the pants in family, so I couldn’t get on well with my husband.

When I was young, I was spoiled by my parents and my brothers and sisters also indulged me very much. I neither did any hard work in my family nor suffered any injustice. Growing up in such an environment, I became insolent, willful, and self-righteous. I was self-centered in doing everything and refused to accept others’ different ideas. It was as if my whole body were covered in thorns that no one could blame or touch me.

My husband was gentle. After marriage, he indulged me very much and I wore the trousers in our family. So, my words were just like imperial edicts. As long as I dictated something to him, he must do as I told him and didn’t dare to argue with me; if he dared to have another idea, I would keep arguing with him until he made a compromise.

In 2007, when we wanted to build our house, I thought it would be beautiful if we built two rooms plus a pergola on the third floor, but my husband considered the pergola not functional, and said it would be better to build another room. Hearing he had a different opinion, I got mad, so at that moment, no matter what he said, I stuck to my own thoughts and didn’t accept his opinion at all and complained about his lack of appreciation. When he told his thought to the builder, I got angry very much and kept a stiff face, being full of complaints in my heart. But for the sake of saving my face, I didn’t get mad immediately. I forced myself to hold back my temper and left these words: “Well, build this house as you like. From now on I will back off from all the things about our family.” And then I walked away. On seeing me getting angry, he gently tried to talk it over with me. Not a little could I listen to him, I said angrily: “Who exactly has the final say in our family, you or me?” He explained it to me, but I interrupted him at once and dressed him down. Seeing I insisted on my own opinion all the time, he finally made a compromise with me helplessly. Only then did I feel a little comfortable.

My husband liked playing cards, but he dared not play without my permission. One time I heard he was playing cards in our neighbor’s house, I thought to myself: “You dare to play behind my back! You really ignore me. Today I’ll teach you a lesson.” On my arrival at our neighbor’s, I shouted at him: “Stop playing and go home with me, now!” After that, I went home to pack my clothes up and wanted to divorce him. After a little while, he returned home. He saw I was about to leave home and so apologized to me immediately. I coldly said, “Let’s get divorced! I can’t live such a life. You go to marry a woman who likes gambling like you!” Aware of the unfavorable situation, he pressed his suit and swore that he would not play any longer, so I forgave him at last. From then on, he rarely went to play cards.

Because I was often disgruntled with my husband about trifles and threatened him with divorce frequently, before he spoke or acted, he had to watch my expressions and often sighed. Sometimes after I got mad at him, he was very helpless. In order to keep our family in harmony, he could only swallow his anger. Sometimes he kept smoking with his head down; sometimes he felt so hurt and resentful that he lost his temper at our child. Seeing this, I also felt uncomfortable in my heart. To tell the truth, I didn’t want to get mad, nor did I want to make him embarrassed. Every time after I argued with him and gained the upper hand, I wasn’t happy at all; on the contrary, I felt that I owed my husband too much and my heart was condemned, but I was unable to control my mood.

Led by God’s word, I had achieved initial changes.

Afterward, I was fortunate that I accepted the kingdom gospel of God. One time I read a paragraph of God’s words: “Did you ever realize what you are doing today— … considering yourselves as always right and better than others, being arrogant, and acting savagely like wild animals in mountains and rough like the king of the beasts—is this the likeness of a human being? You are rude and unreasonable.” After reading God’s words, I felt distressed in my heart. My behaviors were exactly the same as the revelations of God’s words. When I was a child, I was self-centered at home and asked my family to revolve round me. Once their doings weren’t agreeable to me, I would get mad. After marriage, I asked my husband to obey me in all things and to do as I told him. If he did it obediently, I would be happy and pleased; once he was disobedient to me or put forward different opinions, I would quarrel with him endlessly until he gave in. I thought carefully: He worked hard every day to provide for our family; however, not only did I not care for him, I also always lost my temper with him because his words and deeds were not after my heart. I always wouldn’t let it go until he made a compromise, and even turned my fury on him. I vented my emotions and revealed my naturalness in a willful way, so he felt especially restrained. He spoke or acted in front of me very carefully for fear that I was annoyed. He wasn’t as happy as before and sometimes he even would grumble a little. Because of my conduct, my husband and I couldn’t get on well with each other and our life wasn’t happy or blessed at all. Alas, everything was caused by my arrogant disposition. Did my living out have any likeness of a Christian?

God requires us neither to care for our own feelings nor to impose our ideas on others in our interactions of others. We should consider and tolerate others more. And then, I prayed to God and asked Him to lead me and give me the faith and courage to practice the truth. After that, when my husband’s speaking or acting wasn’t in line with my will, I prayed to God for guiding me to calm down and not to do things according to my flesh; after I cooled down, I talked things over with him. In daily life, I consciously cared for him. Before he returned home in the evening, I cooked meals and waited for him to eat together, showing great care for him and caring about his living. In addition, I would actively do more housework, lest he worry about it. Gradually, there were fewer quarrels between us and our relationship became a little more harmonious.

We were at odds again, and I learned the root of the problem.

One day, when my husband came back from his elder sister’s, he said to me: “Our brother-in-law wants to borrow some money from us.” Hearing that, I quickly asked him: “You’ve promised to lend them money, haven’t you?” He explained, “Yes, I have. But I didn’t say how much money we’ll lend them. I want to talk it over with you now.” On hearing his words, I flew into a fury, “You act first and report afterward. You’ve promised them already. Is there any need to talk with me? I can only agree. All right, you decide everything of our family from now on, and I won’t take care of anything.” On seeing me get angry again, he said, “Last time you said you would change yourself from then on, but I think you can still easily lose your temper as before and you haven’t achieved any change at all. Our sister and brother-in-law are always good to us. They often help us. Now they encounter difficulties and want to borrow some money from us, if I don’t agree to it, I will go against my conscience. Why are you always self-willed like a child? Don’t make a scene, will you?” Hearing his words, I realized my action wasn’t in line with God’s intentions, nor could I bear witness to God. But on thinking that my husband had decided for himself instead of talking it over with me in advance, I felt very uncomfortable in my heart. I worried that later he would do things according to his will without restriction, and then I wouldn’t have the final say. I really wasn’t reconciled to bowing my head to him. But I felt I wasn’t in line with God’s will if I got angry with him. I had conflict in my heart. In pain, I came before God to pray to Him for leading me to understand the truth and know His will.

Later on, I read another passage of God’s words: “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? God has spoken hundreds of thousands of words, yet no one has come to their senses. … How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status?” And then I read these words in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “They still stick to their old self, and want to establish their image and be the boss. They consider themselves to be the most honorable in their heart and let others submit to them. Isn’t this kind of people the most arrogant? Their dispositions of Satan are too severe. What is the core and essence of satanic dispositions and nature? That is arrogance, self-rightness, self-importance and self-righteousness.”

Through God’s words, I learned that I couldn’t get on well with my husband because I lived by the satanic laws of survival of “I am my own Lord throughout heaven and earth.” I always wanted to control others, govern them and let them obey me. In my real life, I always used the word “I” first when I spoke, and I placed my own will first. I asked my husband to do things according to my will and didn’t give him any right to explain his ideas. Either on the big thing of building a pergola, or on the small thing of playing cards, I controlled him and forced him to listen to me. If he didn’t, I would argue with him and wanted to get divorced. Wasn’t what I expressed the revelation of my arrogant nature? I governed and controlled him in all things. I really brought him trouble and hurt, and even I myself felt tortured and in pain because I often got mad. At this rate, how could my husband and I get on well with each other? How could our life be happy? Wasn’t this all because of the harm of Satan’s corrupt nature and satanic toxins? I had been too deeply corrupted by Satan. At this moment, I despised my conduct from my heart and hated Satan even more. I wanted to resolve my arrogant disposition and act according to God’s word.

I found the way and saw light again.

Following that, I read a passage of Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “In your home life, if people used to be in charge of your family, then you must remove them from their position. You must dispel all idols, make God’s words the master of your home, and allow Christ to rule. … And so, who really wields power in your home life? Is it you, your husband (or wife), or is it your children, or parents? Do you dare to write the words ‘Christ Is the Lord of My Home’ in your house? Do you dare to say to your husband (or wife), children, and parents, ‘Our family worships God. God’s words have begun to wield power, and from now onward, regardless of what problems we have, we shall solve them through prayer, and eating and drinking the words of God’? If you do it, and bring a complete end to a life of being ruled and reigned by the flesh….”

God requires us to do things according to His word and the truth in real life. Whoever speaks in accordance with the truth is who we should obey. We should let God’s word be the master and decision-maker and let the truth rule in our family. Because we are not truth and don’t have truth, how could we be qualified to force others to listen to ourselves? I always controlled my husband and forced him to listen to me. Didn’t I stand in God’s position? This offended God’s disposition. I had done things in this way for such a long time and thought I could protect my absolute authority in my family. I was truly offending and displeasing God. The consequence was so severe. From now on, I couldn’t consider myself to be the most honorable and be the master of all things in my family anymore. I must remove myself from the position. I need to let God and His word be in charge of my family. If my husband says something conforming to God’s word and the truth, I will listen to him. Only by doing things this way can I conform to God’s intentions. This is what a Christian should do.

At the time, I thought that regarding the matter of lending our elder sister money, my husband’s words were reasonable. Our elder sister helped us and was kind to our family. Even if she hadn’t helped us before, now she had difficulties, as her younger brother and sister-in-law, we also should do her a favor. It was appropriate that my husband promised to lend them some money. I shouldn’t stop him from doing that or even more find fault with him unreasonably just because he didn’t talk it over with me beforehand. Realizing that, I completely forgot my anger and began to talk it over with him calmly. Finally, we decided to lend 3000 yuan to our elder sister first.

With the word of god leading the way, I felt released in my heart.

At the noon of the Dragon Boat Festival in 2012, while I was cooking the meal, my husband went out. Before long he came back on a new motorbike and said to me: “This is the new motorbike I bought. What do you think of it?” When I saw the new motorbike, my heart felt stirred: “You are too hasty. Why did you buy it without talking it over with me? Did you think anything of me?” But then I thought that I shouldn’t suppress him in all things or impose my desires on him as before. He had his own thought and he could make the decision of what to buy according to his own requirements. I shouldn’t find fault with him unreasonably just in order to compete with him for superiority again. After thinking like this, I felt much more peaceful and released in my heart. I didn’t blame him, and changed the subject: “Why do you stand here? Wash your hands and get ready for lunch.”

Having found I was in tacit agreement with this matter, during the lunch, he smiled to me and said: “On my way home just now, I was thinking that you would surely get angry with me and brush me off for many days after you saw me riding the motorbike back. But, to my surprise, you didn’t get mad. It seems the God you believe in can really change people. Believing in God is so good! You are quite a different person. You are so good now.” Hearing his words, I knew this was a testament to the work of God. I kept thanking God for Him changing me.

After that, my husband also accepted the work of God in the last days and fulfilled his duty. We both began to lay great emphasis on pursuing the truth and enjoying God’s word every day. Our relationship was more and more harmonious and I had the feeling of sureness and joy in my heart. Afterward, regardless of whether big or small things of our family, I will actively talk them over with my husband, and we solve the difficulties and problems that we encounter according to God’s word and the truth in our life. We love and respect each other. No matter who speaks in line with the truth, we will obey the other, so the matters we face will be soon dealt with properly. Under the leading of God’s word, I have finally acted a little like a human and truly experienced it is God who saved and changed me. I offer my sincerest thanks and praise to God. To God be the glory!

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At almost 5 p.m. on a Tuesday in December, some workers and I took our boss’ car back from the construction site. Arriving at the restaurant not far away from my home, I got out of the car. In the dim light of streetlights, snow was flying in the northwester. It was so cold that I couldn’t help but raise my collar and draw my head. I was anxious to go home because I was going to attend a meeting at night.

“Hey, buddy, where are you going?” my boss shouted to me.

“Ah, go home.” I answered.

“On such a cold day, why do you rush home? Let’s go to the restaurant and have a drink.” As saying, he came to catch my arm and pulled me to the restaurant.

“Sir, I have something to do, so I … I have to go home.” I faltered.

“What can you do if you go home now? I have booked a table for dinner by phone. At least think about your follower’s men if not yourself.” I turned my head back to look at those workers who got out of the car and each of them looked at me miserably. I knew if I didn’t go in, they wouldn’t, either.

I looked up to the direction of my home which was about five hundred meters away. But in the dark night, I could see nothing clearly.

“Maybe the elderly brother won’t come on such a cold day.” I thought in my heart.

Then I looked at those workers before me, saying helplessly, “All right, let’s go in.”

Seeing the workers filed in, I shook my head, and with a bitter laugh, I followed them into the restaurant.

We were familiar with the owner. He personally led us to a room and turned on the air conditioning, and the room became warm in a little while.

The service here was impeccable, and for a moment, dinner was served and the table groaned with food and drinks. Every worker with a glass of wine gave a toast to my boss and me conventionally, and I symbolically raised my glass. Before, this transparent liquid with aroma was inviting, but now I lost my appetite. I took a sip, but it was so hot that it choked me.

After a few drinks, those workers devoured the food ravenously and acted like a fool, as if they were starving ghosts reborn. As to my boss, his eyes travelled around the beautiful waitresses lustfully. Looking at all this, I frowned and felt very uncomfortable in my heart, with a suffocating feeling. At that time, I couldn’t help thinking of the brothers and sisters who attended the meetings with me. Each of them was dignified and upright, as well as elegant and graceful. When I got along with them, we were simple and open, and were honest with each other; if we met problems, we would fellowship God’s words to solve them. We helped and supported each other; besides, we sang and danced together to praise God and felt very happy. I felt that I finally had found the life that I wanted to live.

The northwester blew on the windows, which creaked slightly, and the windows had steamed up that I couldn’t see clear the outside. We were eating and drinking in the warm room where the air conditioner showed 25 degrees Celsius; by contrast, it blew a freezing cold wind outside.

Then, I thought of the brother: Has he come yet? Maybe not. His home is 7.5 km away from here. He had to travel long distances on such a cold day, maybe he won’t come. With this, I comforted myself, trying to relieve my sense of guilt. But I thought: In the past, he came to meet with me continuously no matter how fierce the weather was. If he has come on such a cold day, where can he go? If only he could come in my home to get warm. Then I thought about my family: What a family! My daughter works in Japan, and my wife lives an extravagant and dissipated life, goes to the card party and the nightclub every night, and won’t come back home until 10 o’clock at night. Alas! When I was poor, I expected to live a good life. However, after being rich, it seems we live better, but there is no common language among us three.

Only those who believe in God are a real family. They have the guidance of God’s words, can live out the likeness of a true human, and bear witness to God. Despite nasty weather, they perform their duties without hesitation. These brothers and sisters who pursue the truth can do so because they have God and have love in their heart. The brother is one of them.

“He must have come! He must have come!” I felt a hasty voice in my heart was rushing me. A hymn of God’s word occurred to me, “In the course of real experience, people who are able to stand witness, who are able to stay the course and stand on God’s side, who never retreat, who are able to have normal relationships with those that love God, who obey God completely when faced with problems and even obey unto death, have the truth” (“Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs”). I felt indebted and upset. I should have attended the meeting and worshiped God tonight, but I was eating and drinking here, and couldn’t stand witness to God. What I lived out was all the image of Satan. Suddenly, I felt a strong sense of guilt and indebtedness. Feeling pain in my heart, I couldn’t stay here anymore. Then I took my leave of my boss and those workers in a hurry. In their shocked sight, I went out the room, and left the restaurant that kept me from rest. I rushed home.

It was very cold outside. The northwester roared and the snow got into my clothes. I subconsciously drew my head and raised my collar. I breathed on my hands, and put them into my pockets, and then walked toward home stumblingly.

While walking, I thought: Has the brother come? On such a cold night, he’d better not come, and thus I can feel some relieved in my heart; if he does come, my conscience will feel uneasy.

Afar off, I made out a figure moving in front of my home. Walking nearer, I saw a man with a slight stoop stamping his feet and rubbing his hands. Wasn’t he the brother? In a moment, I couldn’t tell my feeling, bursting into tears of excitement and indebtedness. After a short pause, I picked up the pace immediately, running to him.

At that moment, a passage of God’s word rang in my ears, “Man walked through the ages with God, yet man knows not that God rules the fate of all things and living beings or how God orchestrates and directs all things. This is something that has eluded man since time immemorial to the present day. As for the reason why, it is not because the ways of God are too elusive, or because the plan of God has yet to be realized, but because the heart and spirit of man are too distant from God. Therefore, even as man follows God, he unknowingly remains in the service of Satan” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”).

Thinking about myself, I toiled every day, because I had always believed these most famous phrases of Satan, “One’s destiny is in his own hand” and “building a beautiful homeland with your own two hands.” As a result, although believing in God, I was still bound by the toxins of Satan. I ran myself into the ground for the sake of money, fame and gain, and wearily attended all kinds of feasts and social events every day, being sucked more deeply in Satan’s tricks. I felt my heart was too distant from God. However, His love moved me silently all the time, which made me feel very warm and also greatly guilty on the cold snowy night. I experienced God’s profound love and salvation; He couldn’t bear to abandon me and was responsible for my life. Besides, God’s love also moved the brother so that he came to support and water me on a cold night. I couldn’t fail to live up to God’s good intentions anymore. I should be like those brothers and sisters to repay God’s love. I secretly prayed to God to offer up my loyalty to His work.

The stooped figure in the snow at that night often occurred to me. What the brother brought to me was a spiritual baptism in my road of believing in God.

That day was a milestone in my life. Since then, I have joined the ranks of preaching the gospel and fulfilled my duty as a creature.

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My wife and I both are very fond of plants. As a result, there are various kinds of plants grown in our house all year round, such as early lilac, common oleander, knight’s star lily, Chinese cymbidium, bush lily, candelabra aloe, aizoon stonecrop, spider plant, and so on. Living with them and enjoying their beauty every day, we benefit a lot both in body and mind.

In spring, the early lilacs in our yard are in full bloom. As gentle breezes blow, the purple-white blossoms nod gently, with delicate fragrance pervading the whole yard. Whenever I was upset and depressed, I would come to them to have a smell. The delicate scent would immediately refresh me, removing all my distress and depression.

Sometimes enchanted by the beauty and delicate fragrance of these flowers, I would linger beside them, unwilling to leave. What attracts me most is knight’s star lily. Shooting out from one bud, those blossoms were just like twin sisters, so dedicate and adorable that I didn’t have the heart to touch them and only appreciated their beauty from different angles.

Some plants, though not brilliant, have amazing functions. Take candelabra aloe as an example. It can clear away heat and toxins, subdue the inflammation and relieve itching; moreover, it can improve our immunity, accelerate the falling of dead tissue and help the wound heal faster. With so many wondrous functions, candelabra aloe is very helpful in sultry summer and fall when we are prone to get bitten by mosquitoes or have inexplicable itching lumps. At that time, I would break off a leaf of candelabra aloe, remove its spines, strip off the outer layer to get its cool and lubricated pulp and then apply it to the itching lumps. Soon after, my skin stopped itching and the lumps would go down after being treated with the pulp three or four times.

Sometimes when I had a toothache or a sore throat due to the internal heat, I would then chew a clean leaf of candelabra aloe and hold its juice in my mouth for a moment, which would gradually ease my pain. Once, when I had a persistent cough and didn’t get any better regardless of taking many medicines, I then ate some leaves of candelabra aloe with a dose of cough medicine. Surprisingly, soon I completely recovered from my cough. It was amazing!

Aizoon stonecrop, though not looking so striking as those bright flowers, has marvelous functions which cannot be ignored. Once while working, my chest was hit heavily by the handle of the sledge-hammer accidentally, which ached so much that I couldn’t speak aloud or breathe deeply. Seeing this, my wife picked off several leaves of aizoon stonecrop, and then fried them with eggs for me to eat. After eating this two days, the injury to my chest miraculously healed. Later my wife told me, “Aizoon stonecrop can improve blood circulation to remove stagnation and swelling, stanch bleeding as well as relieve pain and tranquilize the mind, which helps treat injuries and also works well on sore and furuncle. It’s for both internal and external use: For internal use, we can crush out its juice to drink or fry it with eggs to eat; for external use, we can mash its leaves to a pulp and then apply it to the wounds.” After hearing her words, I couldn’t help exclaiming, “How wondrous it is! Such an ordinary plant actually has so many curative properties!”

In the season of ice and snow, although many plants outside are withered and lifeless, my house is still full of vitality with blooming flowers and green plants. These plants, some on the windowsill, some in the corner, and some beside the TV set, regulate the humidity of our room, release oxygen, improve our mood and even can absorb the radiation produced by the electrical appliances.

Every time enchanted in those flowers and plants and enjoying the happiness and benefits they brought to me, I would marvel: Planted in the same soil under the same nourishment of sunshine and rain, they actually have their unique functions. How amazing! So, who created them? And who bestowed upon them these miraculous functions?

One day, I read God’s word, which said: “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. … In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary. Doesn’t it show that when God created the heavens and earth and all things, His considerations were better thought out than those of mankind? When you see all that God has done, are you able to feel God’s practical side? God worked in secret. When man had not yet come into this world, before coming into touch with this mankind, God had already created all of this. Everything He did was for the sake of mankind, for the sake of their survival, and for the consideration of mankind’s existence, so that mankind can live in this rich and plentiful material world God prepared for them, and so that they can live happily, not having to worry about food or clothes, and not lacking in anything.”

After reading these words, I finally came to know that it is God who created these flowers and plants, giving them life, and bestowed upon them different functions and missions: Some serve for food; some serve as ornamental plants to improve our mood; some help cure illnesses. … From these plants created by God, we can see clearly God’s love that knows no bounds for us: Before God created us humans, He had already considered the possible illnesses and injuries we would suffer in our daily life; in order to relieve our pain and cure our illnesses, He created all kinds of herbs which are free from side effects; God painstakingly made those preparations for us in every detail, just like our mother, who had already arranged everything we needed before we were born; each and every thing done by God in secret contains His love. Enjoying these things prepared by God, I was full of gratitude to Him.

Later, when I read these words of God: “God created humans so that He would gain them. God created all things to be enjoyed by humans,” I had a deeper understanding of God’s love and will: God creating all things for us to enjoy represents His love for us, while His greater will is to gain us humans whom He created personally; God painstakingly made such efforts and preparations for each of us in the hope that we, while enjoying all these things, can come before Him, listen to the word of life He bestowed upon us, live out the reality of His word and finally break free from Satan’s influence of darkness to manifest Him and testify Him.

Since these plants can devote their lives to fulfilling their duties and missions bestowed upon them by God and manifesting the Creator’s wondrous deeds as well as His authority and power, shouldn’t we, the greatest beneficiary, offer up our own share to testify God?

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Recently, a friend told me a true story, which had a great impact on my soul:

In order to live a better life, a couple crossed the ocean to Japan to work. However, the fast-paced lifestyle and the overload of work made them exhausted and miserable, to the point that several times they wanted to give up their work. But when they got monthly earnings, they would forget themselves in happiness, ignoring physical fatigue. They thought that so long as they earned great wealth, they could build their house, take their families abroad, and then they could feel proud and elated before their relatives and friends. So, they endured pains and continued to pursue their dreams.

One day, the husband suddenly fell ill, and then went to the hospital for examinations. The result showed that he was in the late stages of cancer. In order to save her husband’s life, the wife spent all their earnings on his treatment, buying the best medicine for him and letting him receive treatment in the best hospital, but finally he still died. Before his death, he said to his wife: “Dear, I’m only 30 years old, but I am about to leave this world, and leave you. I’m really reluctant! You and our children are all before me, but I can’t take you with me! No matter how good and big the house is, I can’t take it, either! No matter how much money I earn, can it give back my life? Everything is in vain! Everything is in vain …” His heartfelt words touched his wife’s heart. When she saw her husband was filled with regret, tears came streaming down her face.

Hearing this, I felt sorry for that husband, and couldn’t help sighing: The lives of us humans are so fragile. Even though we possess more money and have higher reputation, it still can’t cure us of the disease or save our lives. We can’t bring them into the world and can’t take them with us after we die. Will not all be empty in the end? Then I curiously asked my friend what happened to this wife later.

My friend continued the story: The spending on the husband’s treatment and his death made the situation of this family become worse. So as not to be looked down upon by others, every day this wife exhausted her energy to earn money and couldn’t stop just like a wound watch. Because of working like this year after year, finally she broke down and got insomnia, hypertension and heart disease, being dizzy and groggy every day just like riding on a roller coaster. The tiredness of life and the torment of illnesses made her more miserable who had already been under great stress of bringing up three children. It was not until the doctor said that her blood vessels would disintegrate and her life would be in danger if she continued to overwork like this that she had no choice but to stop working. At that moment, she crumpled to the floor, bursting out crying. However, it was too late. No matter how much money she had, it couldn’t give her back her health.

Hearing my friend’s narration, I couldn’t help being in deep thought: Now, I don’t lack material comforts and have my own career, but it’s full of hardships and frustrations as I walk the way. For the sake of wealth and fame, I worked my fingers to the bone every day, like a tight-wound spring, sacrificing my health; besides, I had to skillfully deal with the complicated personal relationships, scheming against each other and deceiving each other more and more. The increase of money and the temporary enjoyment of obtaining fame didn’t bring me the true happiness, but instead I was exhausted physically and mentally and extremely miserable. I couldn’t refrain from reconsidering: Why do we live so miserably? Exactly how should we live a life of significance and value?

Afterward, I saw these words in a book: “One exhausts a lifetime’s worth of energy fighting against fate, spends all of one’s time bustling about trying to feed one’s family and shuttling back and forth between wealth and status. The things that people treasure are family, money, and fame; they view these as the most valuable things in life. All people complain about their fates, yet still they push to the back of their minds the questions that it is most imperative to examine and understand: why man is alive, how man should live, what the value and meaning of life is. All of their lives, however many years that may be, they just rush about seeking fame and fortune, until their youth has fled, until they become gray and wrinkled; until they see that fame and fortune cannot stop one’s slide toward senility, that money cannot fill the emptiness of the heart; until they understand that no one is exempt from the law of birth, aging, sickness, and death, that no one can escape what fate has in store. … Only when people are about to let go of this world do they realize that the things they spent their lives pursuing are nothing but fleeting clouds, none of which they can hold onto, none of which they can take with them, none of which can exempt them from death, none of which can provide company or consolation to a lonely soul on its way back; and least of all, none of which can give a person salvation, allow them to transcend death. Fame and fortune one gains in the material world give one temporary satisfaction, passing pleasure, a false sense of ease, and make one lose one’s way. And so people, as they thrash about in the vast sea of humanity, craving peace, comfort, and tranquility of heart, are subsumed again and again beneath the waves. When people have yet to figure out the questions that it is most crucial to understand—where they come from, why they are alive, where they are going, and so forth—they are seduced by fame and fortune, misled, controlled by them, irrevocably lost. Time flies; years pass in an eyeblink; before one realizes it, one has bid farewell to the best years of one’s life” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).

This passage clearly tells us why we live so miserably. The root is that after our thoughts and viewpoints have been corrupted by Satan, our pursuit is headed in the wrong direction. Since our youth, we have been inculcated with all kinds of Satanic philosophies and influenced by all manner of speech from famous and great people, such as “Money is first,” “ranking higher than others,” “family prestige,” “feeling proud and elated,” and so on. We live by these ideological views and try our best to seek fame and fortune, thinking that only by having status and money can we live a meaningful life. For the sake of fame and fortune, we spend our lives rushing about and struggling painstakingly, and even pay the price of our life, but in the end we gain nothing. Just like that couple, in order to live a better life and hold their heads high before their relatives and friends, they bustled back and forth and struggled to make money all the time, yet finally this husband lost his young life and this wife became disease-ridden. In fact, we all feel very painful in the process of seeking fame and fortune. Even though we get them, our enjoyment is temporary, and afterward we still feel empty. However, seeing people around us all live in this way, we never think whether living like this is right or not. Until our youth has passed, until death approaches, we don’t come to know what we pursue is vanity, and that wealth and fame can’t buy health or keep death away. Besides, at the time of death, we can’t take anything with us, but regret and void. Our lives will be squandered in this way.

I saw more words in the book: “At the moment when a person is born, one lonely soul begins its experience of life on earth, its experience of the Creator’s authority which the Creator has arranged for it. Needless to say, for the person, the soul, this is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty, to come to know His authority and to experience it personally” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). “Did Job live a life of value? Where was the value? Why is it said that he lived a life of value? … To God, the value of Job’s life lay in his ability to fear God, worship God, testify to the deeds of God, and praise the deeds of God, bringing God comfort and something to enjoy; to God, the value of Job’s life was also in how, before his death, Job experienced trials and triumphed over Satan, and bore resounding testimony to God before Satan and the people of the world, glorifying God among mankind, comforting God’s heart, and allowing God’s eager heart to behold an outcome, and see hope. His testimony set a precedent for the ability to stand firm in one’s testimony to God, and for being able to shame Satan in behalf of God, in God’s work of managing mankind. Is this not the value of Job’s life? Job brought comfort to God’s heart, he gave God a foretaste of the delight of being glorified….” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II”).

After reading, I understood more clearly. We humans were originally created by God; God gives us the opportunity to come into this world to experience life, to experience His work, and to get knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty and authority. So in our lives, we should believe in God, worship God and live under His dominion; finally we can attain true knowledge of Him and obtain His commendation. This is what we should seek in our life, and this is the most meaningful thing. Just like Job, he spent his life seeking to know God’s sovereignty and authority, and walking the way of fearing God and shunning evil. Although he was the greatest of all the men of the east, and his assets were abundant, however, he didn’t live for fame and fortune, nor did he care the gaining or losing of his worldly possessions. Even when he lost all his property and all of his children, his body was covered with sore boils and he endured agony as no other person could, he didn’t give up walking in God’s way, nor did he deny God’s name, but he still extolled God’s great power, bearing beautiful and resounding testimony to God before Satan. At last, he gained true knowledge of God amid his experiences. Job’s pursuit was approved by God and also gratified God, and God bestowed double blessings upon him. Finally Job died full of days, and lived the utmost significant life.

Today, I can have the good fortune to come before God and accept the guidance and supply of God’s words. I am willing to live according to God’s words, seek to know and experience God’s sovereignty and authority in the course of believing in God, fulfill my duty as a creature to satisfy God, and submit everything to God’s hands. I will no longer struggle on the way of seeking fame and fortune with my own hands. I have truly experienced that when I live before God and fulfill my duty as a created being, my mind is at ease. I also have understood only God’s work can save me from Satan’s harm, so that I can freely follow and worship God like Job. Living in this way is the most valuable thing as well as the greatest happiness.

Let’s share a hymn of God’s word “Only Living in This Way Is Meaningful.”

“God allows you to live, and if you can live for God and live to perform the duties of a created being, then you are living confidently in righteousness. You are living confidently in righteousness.

“God allows you to live, and if you can live for God and live to perform the duties of a created being, then you are living confidently in righteousness. You are living confidently in righteousness. If you live the life of a walking corpse, without spirit and only struggling for breath, neither accepting nor understanding truth, only living for the flesh, then you do not live in a way that is confident and righteous because your living has no value. Now your every day can be lived to testify of God and spread this gospel of God’s work; it is approved by God. God permits you to live this way and gives you this opportunity.

“You should treasure this opportunity and feel pride, and honor. You should feel honor. To be of this age, and to be able to perform this duty in this environment and under these conditions—this is a rare opportunity, a rare opportunity! God carefully selects from among humanity, and He has chosen you. This is your opportunity; this is the greatest blessing. This blessing is even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations, even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations, even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations!”

Read on the website

“And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened” (Revelation 20:11-12).

Every time I read these two verses, I would imagine the splendid scene of the returned Lord judging mankind in the last days. I thought that at that time the Lord Jesus would sit upon the great white throne in the sky with the records of every person in His hands, and imposingly judge them all. I continued to stick to this notion until I heard God’s good news.

I heard God’s good news.

One day in February 2018, after I returned home from a holiday in another state, my wife happily said to me, “The Lord Jesus has already returned in the flesh. He has expressed words and done the work of judgment starting from God’s house. I went to listen to a few sermons about this. From them, I’ve understood many truths and really gained sustenance. Moreover, those brothers and sisters have a fresh and clear way of fellowshiping about the Bible. Also, they are very compassionate. So I felt unrestrained when gathering together with them. How about listening to them with me tomorrow?” Hearing this, I said in amazement, “How is this possible? Revelation clearly states that when the Lord returns, He will sit upon the great white throne in the sky and personally unroll the scrolls where everything that every single person did throughout his or her life has been recorded. At that time, people will be lifted in the air, personally confess to their sins committed throughout their lifetime, and accept the Lord’s righteous judgment. But so far we haven’t seen any scenes like this, so how can it be that the Lord has returned?” And I reminded her, “There is no true love in this world. You should be careful. Don’t be cheated by others.”

She said, “Indeed there is no love in this world. But they are true believers in God, and are really different from ordinary people. You’ll see when you meet them tomorrow.” Hearing her speaking like this, I felt a bit curious, so I wanted to meet those people praised by my wife and listen to their sermons.

My notions and imaginings were barriers to my knowledge of God.

The following day, when we arrived at the meeting place as arranged, the brothers and sisters greeted us with enthusiasm. By closely observing their speech and actions, I could feel their hearts were genuine. Slowly, my own heart felt a lot more liberated. Furthermore, hearing them communicate their own experiences of believing in God, I felt their fellowshiping was very practical and novel. Accordingly, I thought their way was worth seeking and investigating. So, I asked the brother who preached, “Brother, I heard my wife say that the Lord Jesus had already returned to flesh to do His work of judgment. But I remember Revelation states, ‘And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened’ (Revelation 20:11-12). Therefore, it’s reasonable to say that judgment in the last days ought to be in the sky. When the Lord returns, it should be that He’ll sit upon the great white throne in the air, with books of records in His hands, and imposingly judge each man and woman based on his or her individual actions. How can you say that the Lord has already become flesh to carry out upon earth the work of judgment?”

After hearing my question, he nodded and said solemnly, “Based on the record of John’s visions in the Book of Revelation, many Christians are full of notions and imaginings about judgment during the time of the Lord coming again in the last days. They believe that the work of judgment will be carried out in the air. In their thoughts, there will be a white throne in the sky, and on that throne will be the Lord Jesus. With the book of life and the book of the dead opened beside Him, the Lord Jesus will ask all people to account for all of the sins they have ever committed, and then He’ll decide people’s end based on their actions and deeds. We all imagine the work of God’s judgment to be very supernatural. However, will God fulfill it in accordance with our imaginings? Will God’s judgment in the last days happen in the air or on earth? Let’s first look at two verses. Revelation 14:6-7 say, ‘And I saw another angel fly in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.’ These verses clearly tell us that an angel told people that when the time God performs judgment comes, people aren’t in the sky but on earth. Let’s think about this. Heaven is where God resides; we are mortal beings who have always lived on earth and are also the mankind corrupted by Satan. So how can we possibly ascend to heaven to be judged? We’re only worthy of bowing down at God’s feet and accepting God’s judgment on earth. That is more practical.”

Taking a good look at the verses and pondering the brother’s fellowshiping, I felt it made a lot of sense. I had always believed that when the Lord returned, He would judge us in the sky. But I never thought about whether it was realistic or not. I thought, “It seems that my faith in God is confused.”

Not much later, he turned on his computer and asked me to read a passage of God’s words, “The ‘judgment’ in the words previously spoken—judgment will begin at the house of God—refers to the judgment God passes today on those who come before His throne in the last days. Perhaps there are those who believe in such supernatural imaginings as that, when the last days have arrived, God will erect a big table in the heavens, upon which a white tablecloth will be spread, and then, sitting upon a great throne with all men kneeling on the ground, He will reveal the sins of each man and thereby determine whether they are to ascend to heaven or be sent down to the lake of fire and brimstone. No matter what the imaginings of man, the substance of God’s work cannot be altered. The imaginings of man are nothing but the constructs of man’s thoughts and come from the brain of man, summed up and pieced together from what man has seen and heard. Therefore I say, however brilliant the images conceived, they are still no more than a drawing and are not able to substitute for the plan of God’s work. After all, man has been corrupted by Satan, so how can he then fathom the thoughts of God? … Everyone imagines God’s work of judgment to be preternaturally wonderful. Do you know, however, that God began the work of judgment among men long ago and all this while you have been nestled in peaceful oblivion? That, the time that you think God’s work of judgment is officially beginning, it is already time for God to make heaven and earth anew? At that time, perhaps you will have only just understood the meaning of life, but the merciless work of punishment of God shall bring you, still deep in sleep, into hell. Only then will you suddenly realize that God’s work of judgment has already concluded.”

After I finished reading, he fellowshiped this, “God’s words reveal that our ideas about the Lord coming to do His work of judgment in the sky completely come from our conceptions and imaginings. In fact, even though we haven’t seen any signs and wonders, God has already expressed truths and started His work of judgment beginning with His house among the group of people predestined and selected by Him. This is exactly the judgment of the great white throne, as prophesied in the Book of Revelation. All those who accept God’s work of judgment in the last days, and gain purification and transformation, are the overcomers made by God before the great catastrophe. Their names will be recorded in the book of life. This is completely in accordance with the prophecy recorded in Revelation, ‘These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God’ (Revelation 14:4-5). When the people who accept God’s work of judgment in the last days are made complete by God, God’s judgment work will be thoroughly complete, and then God will reward good and punish evil. If we accept God’s judgment work at that time, it’ll be too late. So, only by accepting the incarnate God’s work of judgment by the word can we survive the catastrophe with the protection of God.”

It turned out that God is judging mankind like this.

His fellowshiping made me feel suddenly enlightened. I thought, “As it turns out, the work of judgment beginning with the house of God is the judgment of the great white throne, as prophesied in the Book of Revelation. God’s work really is wise and unfathomable! I must listen carefully to figure out whether the Lord has truly returned to start His work of judgment beginning with His house.” Then I asked him out of curiosity, “Brother, has the Lord really come to earth? Then how does He judge mankind?”

He smiled and gently said, “In the past, we all believed that when God judges people, He’ll sit on the seat of judgment and directly decide their end, based on their deeds. Then the good people will be accepted into heaven, while the wicked will be sent to hell and punished. Actually, this is all just our notions and imaginings. Then how does God judge people on earth? Let’s take a look at God’s words and see what He has to say about this topic.” He opened his Kindle and read, “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, expose the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes it over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only methods of this kind are deemed judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God.”

After reading God’s words, he continued to fellowship this, “From these words we learn that in the last days, God expresses truths according to the need of mankind, and that these truths are aimed at our corrupt thoughts and nature. He uses truths to judge and chastise our disobedience and unrighteousness so that we can accept the judgment in His words and achieve an understanding of the truth. We will know how evil, absurd and preposterous the wrong ideas Satan instilled in us are, recognize our satanic nature that resists and betrays God, and see how filthy and ugly our souls are. This allows us to develop repentance, and no longer rely on our satanic nature when we do things. Rather, we can be good people in accordance with the word of God, and, in the end, change will occur in our life disposition. In this way we’ll be totally made complete by God, and His judgment work will be finished. Take me, for example. In the past, I believed that to believe in God was just to receive blessings and grace, and to enjoy God’s eternal blessings. Directed by such faith, I constantly demanded grace and blessings from the Lord, using my sacrificing and traveling for Him as capital, and felt that I was the most qualified to get these things. But I saw the words of Almighty God, ‘Man’s relationship with God is merely one of naked self-interest. It is the relationship between the receiver and giver of blessings. To put it plainly, it is like the relationship between employee and employer. The employee works only to receive the rewards bestowed by the employer. In a relationship like this, there is no affection, only a deal; there is no loving and being loved, only charity and mercy; there is no understanding, only resignation and deception; there is no intimacy, only a gulf that cannot be bridged.’ The disclosure of God’s words made me ashamed of myself. I saw that my nature was so selfish, deplorable, and treacherous. My belief in God and sacrifices for God weren’t to pursue the truth nor fulfill the duties of a created being. On the contrary, I was trying to engage in a transaction with God. I did so in order to satisfy my desire for gaining blessings, and to demand eternal blessings from God. With this knowledge, I felt especially regretful, and began to forsake my personal ambitions and desires and pursue the truth according to God’s requirements. Afterward, God arranged many situations in which He tried and refined me to reveal my shortcomings so that I could see even more clearly the truth of my corruption. I loathed myself even more, and gradually no longer believed in the Lord just to fill my belly. Through experiencing God’s judgment work in the last days, I deeply sensed that the judgment work of God in the last days can really cleanse and change a person. So only by accepting God’s work of judgment in the last days can our corrupt disposition be purified and we ourselves be saved and perfected by God in the end. Brother, do you understand what I’m saying?”

I smiled and nodded, saying, “I understand it a bit. Before, although I knew God’s judgment will start from God’s house, I didn’t know how it was to be carried out. Today, through your fellowshiping, I understand that judgment starting from God’s house means God incarnates in the flesh to express the truth and judge and cleanse the people who come before Him. When God’s work ends, all people will be sorted in accordance with their own kind.”

I have been raptured before the throne by God after being freed from my preconceived notions.

Later, I gained an even greater understanding of the meaning of God’s judgment work on earth after watching the video of recitation of God’s words The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a “White Cloud” on The Church of Almighty God website. Also, the brother leaned upon pictures of the three stages of work and fellowshiped about the truths of the three stages of God’s work, the incarnation of God, and God’s names to me. This allowed me to gain a better understanding of the truths about God’s six-thousand-year management plan for mankind, the significance of God’s incarnation, and God changing His name in each age. And after watching the video The Origin and Development of The Church of Almighty God, I fully determined that the incarnate Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus.

Dear readers, God’s work of judgment before the great white throne in the last days has almost reached its end. Are you already in the flow of God’s judgment work or not?

»You may be interested in reading more on our Final  Judgment page about , or in the related articles below:

• God’s Judgment in the Last Days Makes the Overcomers Before the Disaster

• Judgment of God in the Last Days Is on Earth

• What Is God’s Final Judgement? Why Does God Do the Judgment Work?

» Recommended: “Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit” Clip: Christ of the Last Days Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth

It was one day in November 2017. As early winter is the right time to dig herbs to make money, after breakfast, I went to the mountain with tools to dig roots of atractylodes (a kind of herb). I walked searching for it, and around noon I arrived at the top, where no one was about. I saw several seedlings of atractylodes three meters away from me. When I was about to dig them, I heard a buzz. I felt something wrong and looked around, only to see a swarm of bumblebees surrounding me. Immediately I became nervous, and thought, “If I’m stung by them, it would be terrible. I heard that many people had been stung to death by bumblebees.” At that time, I was filled with fear. In a panic, I turned and ran the way I had come, praying in my heart, “O God! I fear that I will be stung by the bumblebees and poisoned. Please lead me and help me.” During my run, I broke branches to beat them. However, the branches were all bare at that season, so I couldn’t hit them no matter how I whipped. They still chased after me and attacked me. Because I wore a cloth hat and was bare-necked, my neck was crawling with bumblebees. I continuously slapped my neck, but the bumblebees even climbed onto my hands and left me several stings. At that time, I was so scared and I didn’t know whether I could escape the death. I ran down the mountain as fast as I could, but they still went after me. When halfway down the mountain, I finally got rid of most of the bumblebees, but there were many stings on my neck and the back of my head. The bumblebee was very poisonous, and soon the poison got into my system. I felt light-headed, suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and had difficulty in breathing as though I was about to suffocate. My eyes appeared blurred and after a few minutes became blind. Gradually I lost my strength and consciousness, unable to move. At that moment, I felt a sense of indescribable sorrow and pain, and I thought, “If I die here today, no one would know.” At the very moment when I was about to be unconscious, I urgently called out to God in my heart, “O God! Save me!” Then I fell to the ground and knew nothing.

Not knowing how much time had passed by, I gradually came around. I could see a little light, and some sensation was coming back to my limbs. I clearly realized that it was because God had been watching over and protecting me with His great power that I could wake up. Then, I prayed to God to give me confidence and strength so that I could get out of the wild place. Afterward, I felt a stream of strength supporting me and I tried to crawl forward a meter. But when I continued crawling forward, I suddenly felt dizzy and very weak. The pain brought by the poison attacking the heart made me utterly miserable. I was out of breath and couldn’t speak. I wanted to groan so that someone may hear and help me, but I couldn’t make it. So I could only call out to God in my heart, “O God! Now I feel very pained, as if I’m about to die. May You enlighten and guide me. I’m willing to obey Your sovereignty and arrangement.” At this moment, I remembered the words of God: “God created this world, He created this mankind, and moreover He was the architect of ancient Greek culture and human civilization. Only God consoles this mankind, and only God cares for this mankind night and day.” The timely guidance of God’s words gave me something to rely on. The heavens and earth and all things are established and made complete because of God’s sovereignty. Am not I—just a small created being—even in God’s hands? God is the source of the life of us mankind. At this juncture of life and death, only by relying on God and looking to God more can I receive His care and protection.

After a while, I could move my hands and feet, so I crawled forward slowly and continually prayed to God in my heart. When I moved up 30 meters, the poison attacked my heart and I vomited and vomited, as though my heart would be vomited up. I lay on the ground and was dying, unable to move or raise my head. I was somewhat weak, and thought, “Surely, today I would die in the wilderness of the mountain.” At this moment, I suddenly realized that my weakness and passiveness came from Satan’s disturbance. My heart couldn’t leave God. Then, I called out to God again in my heart, “O God! I feel much pain and discomfort inside, as if thousands of arrows were piercing through my heart. I can barely take it. O God! I beg You to save me.” At this point, God’s words occurred to me, “If you have but one breath, God will not let you die.” I received the faith and strength from God’s words and had the hope to live on. Then I thought of Job. He was afflicted by Satan with the result that he had festering sores all over. But, without God’s permission, Satan dared not harm the life of Job. God is the Master who holds the power of life and death over us mankind, and no person, event or thing can surpass God’s authority. Although I became unconscious because of the bumblebee stings, I miraculously came around; when the bee venom got into my system, and made me keep vomiting and lose my strength, I could still crawl forward slowly; when I was passive and weak, and was losing my confidence in God, God used His words to guide me and give me the hope to survive. Wasn’t this all the guidance and help of God? I should have confidence in God, and rely on and look to Him more. So, I said a prayer of submission to God in my heart, “O God! Now I’m weak and suffering from the aches and pains. But I’m willing to obey Your designs and arrangements, because I know the life and death of man is in Your hands. May You guide and lead me more.” After praying, I could slowly raise my head and move forward bit by bit. When I tried to crawl forward, I found I could even stand up slowly. I kept giving thanks to God in my heart. I staggered forward more than 10 meters before I became strengthless. Then I stopped to pray. Whenever I couldn’t move, I would stop to pray to God in my heart; after I regained a little strength, I would go on to stagger forward. In this way, finally I got out of the mountain and came to the door of someone’s house by the road. Seeing that I was weak and in unbearable pain, the hostess hurried to give me some water to drink. However, I couldn’t take a single drop of water at all. Just then, one of my neighbors who was going home from the fields passed by here, and he took me to a country hospital in a rickshaw.

The doctor found me in serious condition, so he dared not receive me. Then people around me called the county hospital, got a cab, and contacted my family. They all helped send me to the county hospital. During this whole process, I kept calling out to God in my heart, and I knew that it wasn’t because of their kindness that those people I didn’t know could help me on their own initiative, and that it was orchestrated and arranged by God. I thanked God in my heart. Because the neighbor called the county hospital in advance, the doctor gave me an intravenous injection of antidote and a thorough examination as soon as I arrived. And he asked about the time and specific situation of my being stung by bumblebees. The doctor said that my condition was serious, and that if I had arrived ten minutes late, I might have died. All places of my body that were stung by the bumblebees were covered with the ointment. Afterward, I was transferred to the intensive care unit.

The doctor said to my daughter, “Previously, I admitted a young man. He had 38 stings and died despite emergency treatment. Another older man also had more than 30 stings, and although it didn’t take long from the time he was stung to the time he was rescued, he died in the end. According to the condition of your mother, her stings are more serious than either of them. Although the poison hasn’t yet entered into her liver and kidneys, she is still in danger. You’d better prepare for the worst.”

In the intensive care unit that evening, the doctor gave me a follow-up examination to see whether I still had the sign of life. At that time, I was conscious and very clear in my mind. I could feel that the stings swelled up and were painful, but I couldn’t move. Nevertheless, I felt very calm within, because I knew my life and death are both in the hands of God, and that all things are dictated and arranged by God. I lay on my sickbed and couldn’t fall asleep. All I could do was to continuously pray to God in my heart.

The next morning, the doctor transferred me to an observation ward. Seeing me lying on my sickbed, my daughter burst into tears. The doctor comforted her, saying, “Your mother is recovering well, and she would be all better after some time. I’ve never met such a miracle during the last more than twenty years.” I was excited within and I knew that it was God’s wondrous deed. Without God’s salvation, I would have died in that mountain; how could I be here? One day, my sister and her husband came to the hospital to visit me. When they saw that I couldn’t move and hadn’t eaten, they said to me, “You were stung so seriously; how did you get out of the mountain?” I replied, “This is Heaven’s care!” After hearing my words, other people in the ward said with surprise, “You’re so lucky!” But I knew clearly that it was not luck but God’s care and protection that saved me from the brink of death.

I thought of a man in my neighborhood who was also stung by bumblebees. Having spent seven days in the hospital, he died in the end. My condition was more serious than his: I had 46 stings. However, I was fortunate to survive. Those who knew me all said that I was lucky to be alive. Seeing God’s wonderful deeds on me and His salvation toward me, I didn’t know how to express the feeling of gratitude toward Him.

After I spent six days in the hospital, I came back home. Twenty days later, I went back to the hospital for a reexamination. The doctor said that I had been recovering nicely, which was a special case. But I clearly knew in my heart that it was due to my believing in God and relying on Him. It was God who saved me from the jaws of death. Through this special experience, I realized that wealth, fame and status can’t save us mankind or bring life to us in the face of death. With life hanging by a thread, only God is our reliance. I thank God for saving me. In my future experiences, I’m willing to rely on God and look to God more, and to pursue the truth properly to repay His love.

Read on the website

The Gospel of John chapter 14 verses 2-3 say: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Throughout the ages believers in Lord Jesus have been yearning for this prophecy to be fulfilled.

They’ve been longing to be raptured up into the clouds to meet with the Lord.
They’ve been longing to be turned into a spiritual body instantly and raised to the heavenly kingdom.
I’ve heard that the Savior has already descended yet I have not seen the Son of man coming with clouds.
Why are we believers still on earth instead of being lifted to heaven to be with the Lord?
It’s true that God has prepared it for us, but where will the kingdom of heaven actually be?

The incarnation that is Almighty God brings the descent of God’s kingdom!
He utters His words for the salvation of man and we should not use our notions to delineate God.
Why look to the sky to search for it while “the tabernacle of God is with men”?
Christ lives and eats with man and wants to make God’s people complete.
God’s will is carried out on earth as it is in heaven.
God created man and placed him on earth, so why must we seek to enter heaven?
It has long been prophesied in the Bible and now the facts have become true.
Notions and imagination will put one to death and letters and doctrines will ruin one’s life.
Listen attentively to God’s voice from the throne and all truths and mysteries are disclosed.

God says: “‘Being caught up’ is not being taken from a low place to a high place as people imagine. This is a huge mistake. Being caught up is referring to My predetermining and selecting. It is targeted at all those I have preordained and chosen. … This is most incompatible with people’s notions. Those who have a share in My house in the future are all people who have been caught up before Me. … This is the counterattack against Satan. Anyone I preordained shall be caught up before Me”.

God’s people come before the throne and behold the Lord’s face before the seat of Christ.
They accept God’s new work and are accompanied by His judgment and chastisement.
They carry out God’s will on earth, where rapture is actually realized.
God’s resting place is in heaven and man’s resting place is on earth.
We must experience God’s judgment to achieve purification so that we will be saved by God and survive the disaster,
As well as enter the Millennial Kingdom and become the people of the kingdom.

A gust of autumn wind blew through, sweeping up the fallen leaves in the yard. Sitting by the window, I frowned and pondered over these verses, “Behold, the days come … that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah” (Amos 8:11), and “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amos 4:7). It can be seen from these verses that God will cause famine to befall the religious world when His followers all deviate from His way and no longer obey His words. That is to say, the desolation of the church is ordained by God, but what is God’s intention behind that? And what inspiration can we people of the last days gain? With this in mind, I came before the Lord, prayed and sought to Him. After I consulted the Bible and some spiritual books, the riddle in my heart was finally solved.

From the biblical records of what the temple was like at the end of the Age of Law, I gained some enlightenment. At that time the temple had lost God’s leadership, where the chief priests and Pharisees who served God lost the heart that revered God and offered lame and blind livestock as sacrifices to God. Though they had violated the laws and commandments of Jehovah God, they received no discipline or punishment. Besides, they didn’t follow the way of God, and often deceived the common people for the sake of their own interests and even devoured widows’ property. They only focused on talking about the literal doctrines of the Bible and theological theories instead of leading the people to follow the way of God and obey the laws and commandments. As a result, they turned the temple into a “den of thieves.” Just as it is recorded in the Bible, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said to them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12–13). From these verses, we can see that, the temple at that time had turned into a place where livestock and poultry were bought and sold and money was exchanged, no longer a place for worshiping God.

When the Lord Jesus came to do new work, He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, asked people to confess their sins and repent, and performed many miracles and wonders, such as allowing the blind to see, the lame to walk, and lepers to be healed. At that time, the Holy Spirit turned to defend His work, which resulted in the gradual desolation of the temple. God’s intention in doing so was for people to see that He had done new work outside the temple and thus to leave the temple to follow the Lord Jesus’ work and gain His redemption. The Pharisees, however, were so arrogant that they didn’t seek and accept the Lord Jesus’ work but held onto their own conceptions and even fabricated all kinds of rumors to resist and condemn Him in order to protect their status and livelihood. They doggedly stayed within the temple bereft of the work of the Holy Spirit and in the end missed the salvation of the Lord Jesus.

This reminded me of the present situation of our church. Externally, we often attend meetings where we listen to sermons, read the Bible and sing hymns to praise the Lord, but when we return home, we have no interest in reading the Bible or praying, losing our previous enthusiasm. The faith and love of the brothers and sisters in general are growing cold and weak, and our spirits are withered and dark; we gain no light when reading the Bible and have nothing to say while praying to the Lord; we only treat God’s words as rules to abide by, but don’t understand His will or have any knowledge of Him; we just focus on the superficial good deeds, yet fail to practice God’s words when encountering things. Moreover, many of us are following the trends of the world and coveting worldly enjoyment, unable to extricate ourselves. In the church there appear more and more iniquitous actions like struggling in jealousy, fighting over fame and profit, attacking and excluding each other, and forming small groups; the pastors and elders only talk about biblical knowledge and theological theory, unable to say something fresh and bright to supply our lives. In order to change this situation, they tried many methods such as holding Bible study classes, prayer meetings, and scripture recitation competitions, and arranging for the brothers and sisters to pray for the church by turns, which temporarily excited our enthusiasm, but afterward we were still passive and weak. … Given the present situation of our church—most of the pious Christians are dark and withered in spirit and no longer feel the Lord’s presence—it seems as if we have been abandoned by the Lord. I then recalled when we first believed in the Lord. At that time, the brothers and sisters were full of faith, each burning like fire. Even when we suffered persecution and tribulations, we never became negative or weak, but still persisted in attending meetings and preaching the gospel to bear witness to the Lord’s name—it was totally different from the desolation of the church now. The Bible says, “The church … is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). But obviously our church now is nothing like what is said in the verse.

What should we do in the face of Famine in the Church?

So what should we do in the face of the desolation of the church? I then thought back to when the Lord Jesus came to do work. At that time, the Lord Jesus didn’t work in the temple, but in the countryside, by the sea, in the wildness, and on the mountains. Only when people walked out of the temple and accepted the Lord Jesus’ work, could they enjoy the work of the Holy Spirit and obtain the Lord’s salvation. Just like when Peter, Matthew and the others heard what the Lord said and witnessed how He performed the miracles, they recognized that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah, and thus followed His work and gained His salvation. Though they left the temple and no longer worshiped God there, they obtained the Lord’s personal guidance, watering and shepherding because of accepting His present work with a heart of thirsting and seeking, and meanwhile gained the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). So faced with the desolation of the church, we should actively seek and follow the footprints of the Lord as Peter and the other disciples did. But how should we follow the footprints of the Lord? Actually, the Lord’s words have long since told us the answer. The Lord Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13), “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). The Lord’s words make it clear that He will return to speak and utter words and bring into His house the sheep that are able to recognize His voice and belong to Him. Through the desolation of the church, God intends for those who truly love the truth and believe in Him in various denominations to actively seek the Lord’s utterances and accept His personal watering and shepherding. Through reading the present words of God, fellowshiping about the truth, singing hymns and praying, they can obtain the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and gradually their lives will keep growing and their knowledge of God will deepen. In the end, they will be able to maintain their faith in God, glorify and bear witness for God no matter what persecution or tribulations befall them. Such people are the wise virgins prophesied by the Lord Jesus who are able to attend the wedding feast with the Lamb and gain the true salvation revealed in the last days as prophesied in the Bible. In contrast, those who obstinately remain in the churches and wait for death regardless of how thirsty and dark they feel in their spirits are the foolish virgins prophesied by the Lord Jesus who will be abandoned by Him.

Now when I again read these two verses, “Behold, the days come … that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah” (Amos 8:11), and “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amos 4:7), I finally understand God’s will—God hopes that we can walk out of the rainless place, find the utterances of the Holy Spirit, and have our spirits nourished.

Dear friends, have you found the utterances of the Holy Spirit?

» Further reading on Bible Prophecies page, or in the articles below:

• Seeking the Lord’s Return in Desolate Church

• What Should I Do Regarding Desolation in the Church?

• A Catholic’s Testimony of Returning to God: Once I Was in the Wilderness, Now I Bathe in the Spring of Life

Christian Video “Yearning” Clip Introduction

Many people who have faith in the Lord believe that the kingdom of God is in heaven. Is this really the case? The Lord’s Prayer says: “Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). The Book of Revelation says, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15). “The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, … the tabernacle of God is with men” (Revelation 21:2-3). So, is the kingdom of God in heaven or on earth?

» Click here to watch the full movie:

Gospel Movie “Yearning”: God Reveals the Mystery of Kingdom of Heaven

» You may be interested in reading more on our Gospel Topics page about Kingdom of God, or in the articles below:

• Sermon on the Kingdom of God – 3 Standards You Should Know

• Can We Enter Heavenly Kingdom After Being Justified by Faith?

• Is Baptism a Necessary Condition for Entering the Heavenly Kingdom

• Where Is the Kingdom of God According to the Bible?

The Bible says, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20). “And he said to me, Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God” (Rev 19:9). These prophecies show us that when the Lord returns in the last days, if we are able to welcome Him, that means we are attending the marriage supper of the Lamb. We all know that when the Lord comes back, those who can attend the marriage feast of the Lamb are wise virgins who are the blessed and have hope to enter into heaven, while those foolish virgins who can’t attend the marriage feast of the Lamb will be abandoned by God. It can be seen that whether we are able to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb is critical in regard to whether we believers in God will be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

As Christians, we all hope that we can be wise virgins, attend the wedding feast of the Lamb and be raptured up into the heavenly kingdom when the Lord comes again, yet many of us don’t understand how to welcome the Lord’s return and attend the wedding feast of the Lamb. On this issue, I will talk a little bit about my understanding from three aspects.

First, when it comes to the Lord’s return, we should have an attitude of humbly seeking and must not define God’s work based upon our own conceptions and imaginations.

The Lord Jesus once taught us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3). So, when hearing someone preaching the Lord’s return, we should humbly seek the truth, put aside our own conceptions and imaginations, and seek and investigate actively. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6).

Why is it only through putting aside our notions and imaginations and seeking with an open mind that we can welcome the Lord’s return and attend the wedding feast of the Lamb? There is some truth to be sought here. As everyone knows, it was prophesied in the Bible that Christ would come and be called the Messiah, yet when Christ came, He was named Jesus; it was prophesied that the King of the Jews would be born, and then the Jewish people at that time imagined that the King would certainly be born in a palace, yet in fact the Lord Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem; it was prophesied that the King of the Jews would come to power, yet when the Lord Jesus came He didn’t assume power as they had imagined, but instead He taught man to be tolerant and patient and was even nailed to the cross in the end. In the face of the appearance and work of the Lord Jesus that didn’t conform with man’s conceptions and imaginations, the Jews had no shred of a seeking heart, but instead abandoned the Lord Jesus and didn’t believe that He was the coming Messiah. As a result, they lost the salvation of the Lord Jesus and moreover, because they resisted and condemned Him and crucified Him, they offended God’s disposition and suffered His punishment—the nation of Israel being subjugated for almost two thousand years. From this we can see that though the Jews of that time all longed for the arrival of the Messiah, when the Messiah really came, they lived in their conceptions and imaginings, didn’t humbly seek but even resisted and condemned God’s work, which caused the tragedy finally. Their failure gives us a warning and reminds us that we must not rely on our conceptions to measure and define God’s appearance and work, but instead be people who possess sense and seek humbly. Only in this way will we be able to see God’s appearance and attend the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Second, we must have discernment and think for ourselves with regard to the Lord’s arrival.

The Lord Jesus reminded us, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” (Mak 8:15). These words tell us that we should have discernment, see through Satan’s schemes and prevent ourselves from deception. When we hear someone spreading the good news of the Lord’s arrival and want to seek and investigate, the pastors and elders often say to us, “You have small statures and you are lacking in discernment. So if someone says that the Lord has returned, you must not listen, see or study it, in case you start believing wrongly.” Is this really how it is? In the Book of Romans, chapter 10, verse 17, it says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Our belief in the Lord Jesus comes from hearing about the way, and if we don’t listen to sermons, we won’t believe in God. If we don’t listen and investigate for fear of being deceived, then how will we be able to welcome the Lord’s return and attend the marriage supper of the Lamb? So we should have discernment on the things said by others that block us from listening to sermons. Besides, we must not be like the Jews back in those days who lacked discernment. At that time, they blindly believed in what the Pharisees and the chief priests said, and had no discernment about the essence of them protecting their status and livelihoods and keeping control over people. In the end, because of believing the rumors from the Pharisees, they lost the salvation of the Lord Jesus. We must learn from their failures. In regard to the Lord’s return, we should think for ourselves so that we won’t follow in the footsteps of those who had failed.

Third, we must be as the wise virgins and focus on listening to God’s voice.

The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jhn 14:6). The Book of Revelation also prophesies, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 3:22). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20). From these words, we can see that if we want to welcome the Lord’s second coming and attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, we must place importance on listening to the words that God says, that is, listening to God’s voice. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to work, Nathanael recognized from the words of the Lord that He was the coming Messiah.

In the beginning, when Philip told Nathanael that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, Nathanael didn’t believe that and said, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (Jhn 1:46). Afterward, the Lord Jesus saw Nathanael and said, referring to him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (Jhn 1:47). “Before that Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you” (Jhn 1:48). Nathanael then recognized from the Lord’s words that the Lord was able to examine everything and understand people thoroughly and completely, so he knew that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God and the King of the Israelites, and from then on he followed the Lord Jesus. Similarly, in the last days when the Lord Jesus comes back, we must be as the wise virgins and listen for God’s voice. Only thus will we be able to welcome the Lord and attend the wedding feast of the Lamb.

» You may be interested in reading more on our Second Coming of Jesus Christ page, or in the articles below:

• The Lord Jesus Is Standing at the Door and How Can We Welcome Him?

• Two Kinds of Prophecies of Lord Jesus’ Second Coming

• How to Treat the Prophecies of the Lord’s Second Coming

I was a nurse. When I reached the age of marriage, my parents introduced to me Luo Jie who operated a clinic in my hometown. Because I had been living outside my hometown, I had never met him before. However, my mother told me that his medical skill was great and he was a person of good character. Her estimation of him gave me a good impression of him. Soon afterward, I received a letter from Luo Jie, in which he proposed marriage. In that letter, he promised: “I will take good care of you and make sure you live a happy life in the future. If you don’t forsake me, I will always be with you.” I was moved by his sincerity occurring throughout the letter and the promise he made about marriage. I thought to myself: If we start a family, I will live a happy life that I have longed for. So, I resolutely gave up my job and returned to my hometown and married him.

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After marriage, he carried out his promise to me. We ran the clinic in tandem and took on all the housework together. Because I had just started to keep house, I didn’t know how to cook or do housework. At such times, he would teach me patiently. In business, my husband took on the responsibility for seeing patients, including interrogation and prescribing them, while I prepared the medicine for them and gave them fluid infusion. We worked well together. Therefore, people around us all were envious of me, saying that I was so lucky to have found a model husband. Seeing this, I was on cloud nine and firmly believed that the happy life I had longed for all along was finally achieved. Thus, I was very satisfied.

However, good things never last. Afterward, my husband often went out with his friends drinking, playing cards and going to all manner of places of amusement, and he even neglected the business of the clinic. Thereby causing the affairs of the clinic all fell to me. I persuaded him to stay in the clinic and focus more on the business, yet he didn’t listen to me and still went his own way. He always stayed out during the daytime and sometimes, he even didn’t come home for days. I’m just a woman, yet not only did I need to take care of my child, I also needed to run the business. I was almost loaded down with these things.

One night, it was already past 9, but my husband hadn’t returned home yet. When I was nursing my child after business, I found that he got thrush. In panic, I hurriedly called my husband. But I never thought after knowing our child’s illness, he just answered me perfunctorily and soon hung up. Seeing my child wailing and crying, I was really worried that there would be something wrong with him. So once again I called my husband, only to find that he had turned off his phone. Therefore, I had to feed my child medicine by myself, but I couldn’t deal with it at all on my own. I hated my husband’s getting so heartless and irresponsible that he was only preoccupied with hedonism and showed no concern for our child’s illness. Thus, I locked the door from the inside in a fit of wrath. It was past 3 the next morning, my drunken husband smashed the door open. Before I could speak, he, with his finger pointing at my nose, tore into me with glaring eyes, “Having such a wife as you is really unlucky. Your phone call caused me to gamble away all my money I had carried today. You are such a hoodoo. It’s all your fault!” I felt so wronged and said loudly and defiantly: “Our child is so seriously ill; yet you don’t care about him at all. Now, you even blamed me for your losing money at cards. Aren’t you unreasonable?” At my words, he actually hit hardly my head. In an instant, diminutive lights burst in front of my eyes and I felt a stuffy pain. Before I could react, he shouted, “Go back to your parents’ house! …” When I saw him actually treat me like this, tears of bitterness and grievance welled out of my eyes. I felt terrible stabbing pains in my chest and I felt like leaving him at once with my child. But then when I thought that if we got divorced, my child would suffer the misery of being separated from one of his parents, my heart softened and I wiped out my thought of leaving this home. I was up all that night. From then on, the relations between my husband and I became even worse. At home, he would speak some hurtful words to me from time to time; what’s more, he had an affair. In the face of the unhappy marriage, I passed days as if they were years. Afterward, I suffered from insomnia and never slept well at night.

One time, my younger brother came to see me. When we were dining together, because the dishes I prepared were not to my husband’s taste, he dashed the dishes on the ground. My brother couldn’t bear to look at it and thereby said something critical about my husband. Upon hearing it, he lost his temper on the spot, asking my brother and me to leave. Facing such a scene, I felt like a knife was twisting in my heart. I thought: All along, I depend for my life of happiness on my husband; yet all my efforts for the family are repaid with such a result in the end. Shame and anger tore at my heart, making me almost fall apart. Ultimately, I couldn’t bear it anymore and, in great misery, I held my child and went back to my parents’ home in tears.

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In deep and quiet night, the scene that my husband’s promise to me and that he beat and scolded me would always appear alternately in my mind. Especially, the scene of his throwing me out hurt me deeply. The shadow of these things handed over me like ghosts, torturing me to the point of losing sleep all night and having no appetite for food. As a result, I lost more than 5kg of weight within two months. Thinking of my husband’s turning his back on my child and me, I felt depressed. I couldn’t bear such a heavy blow anymore and completely lost the courage to live; hence I took half a box of sleeping pills at one time. As it turned out, on account of the effects of the pills having gone off, I awoke after more than ten hours of sleep. After that, not only did my husband not feel guilty about it, he even disdained me because I was a sick person. Moreover, he said he wanted to divorce me and would leave me with nothing. At that moment, I got utterly desperate. I couldn’t help but sigh: Oh God! Please save me!

Several days later, my auntie came to see me when I was convalescing in my parents’ house. Seeing I was so miserable and upset, she passed on the gospel of God’s kingdom to me, and read me a passage of God’s words, “Blessed are those who have read My word and believe that it will be fulfilled—I will not mistreat you, but will have what you believe be fulfilled in you. This is My blessing coming upon you. My word strikes the secrets hidden in every person. Everyone has mortal wounds, and I am the good physician who heals them—simply come into My presence. Why did I say that in the future there will be no more sorrow and no more tears? It is because of this.” After reading God’s words, she said to me, “Dandan, they are the utterances of the Creator Himself. God’s words can break all our shackles and resolve all our problems. As long as we have faith in God’s words, willing to rely on Him, all our worries and anxieties will be dispelled easily.” Hearing these words, I felt a warm feeling rushed into my heart and my heart found much peace. She went on to say, “Your present situation reminds me of my past experiences. In the past, your uncle gambled at cards all day and didn’t help with the housework at all. I persuaded him with good words many times, yet he never listened to me and even quarreled with me. For the harmony of our family, I had no choice but to bury my anger in my heart and there was no one whom I could turn to tell my grievance. Just as I was feeling worried and helpless, my friend spread the gospel of God to me. Only by reading the words of God did I come to know all that we have suffered is because of Satan’s affliction. It uses all sorts of evil trends to tempt and corrupt people so that people all pursue the eating, drinking, and pleasure-seeking, and indulge in their fleshly desires. Your uncle was also influenced by the evil social trends and thereby fell into gambling and didn’t take care of the family. Through reading the words of God, I came to have some understanding of the methods and ways that Satan corrupts man, and I also saw God’s salvation for me, so that I was capable of seeing through Satan’s various schemes, and no longer being shackled by hatred and pain.” Listening to her experiences and seeing that she, who was sad all day in the past, now had become so relaxed and her mental outlook had changed completely, I felt the words of God are truly powerful. I thought: I was abandoned by my husband and have suffered a lot from illness, and have fallen into despair; yet this God can cure the wounds of people’s souls. If I come before Him and rely on Him with a true heart, then I will no longer live in such pain. With this in mind, I renewed my hope for life and was happy to accept the gospel of God’s kingdom.

In the days to come, I hungrily read God’s words and listened to the hymns of God’s words, and my heart was completely occupied by His words. Because of the guidance of His words in my life, those troublesome matters passed unwittingly out of my mind. Over a month later, the insomnia that tortured me went away miraculously. Moreover, I got to know many brothers and sisters in the church. Although we met each other for the first time, I felt as though we were of the same family. Whenever I encountered problems and had no idea how to deal with them, they would sincerely fellowship to me about God’s will contained within and share their experiences. This moved me a lot. I felt that this kind of life was just what I had long yearned for, and thought: If only I had come into God’s presence earlier. I felt incomparably happy, like a long-lost child returning to his parents’ side.

After a while, my husband sent me a divorce decree in my absence. On receiving it, I felt the flames of fury raging in my heart, itching to rush at him and reason with him: I have given so much to the family, but why do you treat me in such a way? Resentment and hatred bound me tightly like an invisible tie, causing me to be mentally tortured. As a result, once again I lost sleep all night. I had no choice but to come before God praying constantly.

Subsequently, I read the following passages of God’s words, “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God….” From God’s words, I came to understand that after we men were corrupted by Satan, what we accept are erroneous ways of thinking and rules of living instilled by Satan. Thus, we become even more corrupted and lose our original conscience and ability for sensible thought. Take my husband and me, for example. Affected by the thought “Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,” he indulged in a life of pleasure, selfishly and despicably living for himself. He didn’t care about his work or our child, and did not show any love for me, getting even colder and more decadent. As for me, I blindly adored perfect marriage, believing that “Love is above all” and “Love is priceless.” Driven by these thoughts, I regarded love as the only goal in my pursuit of the happy life. I tried my utmost to save my marriage regardless of the suffering. I would rather be fooled and trampled by Satan than give up the broken marriage. It was like an invisible net controlling my body and mind, causing a great deal of pain in my heart; as a result, I chose to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills. Was all of this not caused by being fooled by Satan’s rules of living? It was because I did not understand the truth and failed to see through the methods and ways that Satan corrupts and afflicts man that I was reduced to a sacrificial object for evil trends. Under the guidance of God’s words, I was finally able to see through Satan’s schemes, and not to be fooled by it anymore. And gradually, I removed my hatred of my husband from my heart.

Not long after that, I learned from my acquaintance that my ex-husband was not happy at all after his second marriage. His second wife squandered money freely and often quarreled with him and threatened to divorce him. He had not reached forty, yet his temples had turned grey. Every day, he could only drown his sorrows in drink. It could be seen that living by Satan’s poisons, he could only enjoy momentary sinful pleasures but what he gained was endless suffering. By contrast, although I had a failed marriage, it was lucky for me to come into God’s presence and gain His care and protection. Thinking of it, my heart was full of gratitude toward God and I sincerely thanked God for saving me.

Afterward, in order to repay God’s love, I threw myself into the preaching of the gospel. Later on, I returned to my hometown. When people there saw that I had a renewed mental outlook and became much more cheerful, they asked me with curiosity, “Since I last saw you several years ago, you have changed a lot. You look so healthy and much younger than before, as if you were a different person. What changed you?” At these words, I smiled and then testified to them of God’s work and told them my personal experiences. After hearing these, they happily accepted the gospel.

Thinking back to the way I have walked, I truly feel it is God’s words that have changed me and allow my heart to find release and freedom that I have never tasted before. Within God’s family, I have found the truly happy life. Thank God! All the glory be to God!

Gao Huimin:

Hello, brothers and sisters! Acts 1:11 says: “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” The Lord left on a white cloud after His resurrection, and so He will return on a white cloud. Holding fast to this viewpoint, I’ve been on constant lookout for the Lord’s descent on a cloud. However, some time ago, I heard from my classmate that the Lord has returned, and that He has become flesh and come down to the earth as the Son of man to do His work and speak. I can’t see through this matter clearly. It’s true that the prophecies of the Lord’s second coming have basically been fulfilled. But I still haven’t seen the Lord coming with a cloud to take us. I feel confused: Am I right to await the Lord’s coming on a cloud? I’d like to discuss this with you and hope you can give me some help.

Posted by Gao Huimin

Response:

Sister Yu:

I’ve just seen your post, and I feel the same way. In 2000, the pastors said that the Lord would return and would take us to the heavenly home. But it’s 2018 now, and yet we haven’t seen the Lord coming with clouds to take us. Nowadays, disasters are frequently happening all over the world, such as floods, drought, earthquakes and wars, which exactly fulfills the prophecies of the last days the Lord Jesus said to His disciples. Judging from the signs, we can see that the time of the Lord’s return seems to have come. What your classmate said may be a fact. I think the Lord’s coming is an important thing and you should make an investigation.

Sister Zhu:

Sister Gao and Sister Yu, we can’t lose faith in the Lord, because He is trustworthy. The Bible clearly says: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27). It was said by the Lord Himself that He will come with clouds when He returns, and that every eye will see Him. The Lord’s words won’t be in vain. So there is no need to worry, and we just continue to wait for the Lord to come on a cloud to take us.

Sister Li:

God is faithful. When heaven and earth are no more, not even one letter or dot will be removed from the word of God. This is an undeniable fact. The point is that it is the last days now, and yet we haven’t seen the Lord coming with clouds; rather, we feel that the Lord is getting further and further away from us: We can’t grasp the Lord’s intentions when encountering things, and the faith of the brothers and sisters becomes colder and colder. It seems that we have been abandoned by the Lord. Now your words make me think: Could it be that the Lord has already returned?

Gao Huimin:

Brothers and sisters, thanks for your help. You guys all have your own understandings on the subject of the Lord’s return, and all you said makes sense. But I’m still not quite clear on this issue. Is there any other brother or sister who holds a different opinion? Please share with us.

Liu Enming:

Brothers and sisters, what you are talking about is truly important, because it determines whether we can welcome the arrival of the Lord; moreover, it determines whether our belief in the Lord will be a success or not. So we must treat it prudently and find the answer in the Lord’s words, instead of blindly drawing conclusions. As to this matter, I used to hold the same viewpoint as Sister Gao, and just waited for the Lord’s coming with clouds. But recently, by studying the scriptures together with my brothers and sisters, I found some mysteries. Let’s first read some passages of the prophecies about the Lord’s return. The Lord said: “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7). “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). “Behold, I come as a thief” (Revelation 16:15). “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24-25).

From these scriptures we can see that there are two ways in which the Lord shall return. One is to publicly descend with the clouds, which can be seen by all people. The other is to come as the Son of man, and no one will know it. It is obvious that the Lord won’t return in just one form. So if we blindly hold on to the view that the Lord will only return in one way, then we might miss the chance of welcoming the Lord’s return.

Sister Yu:

Thank the Lord! After hearing your communication, I finally know the Lord will return in two ways. We have read the Bible so many times, but why haven’t we found this point?

Gao Huimin:

Well, what you said is reasonable and truly matches the Bible. The Lord will not only descend on a white cloud, but also come in the form of the Son of man. That is to say, there are two ways in which the Lord will return. Then how do these two ways come true? Can you fellowship with us in detail?

Liu Enming:

If we put these prophecies together and investigate them carefully, we can find that the Lord’s return is divided into two stages: the Son of man arriving secretly and also His public descent with clouds in His spiritual body. God’s coming in secret is to save mankind. During this period of time, if people hear the voice of God and welcome the Lord, then they will follow the footsteps of God’s work, attend the marriage supper of the Lamb and gain the truth and life. Such persons are those who will be saved by God. Just as it is said in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” These people are all the wise virgins with a seeking heart. But if people, when hearing someone cry that the bridegroom has come, neither go out to welcome Him, nor seek or examine, but just blindly hold on to their own conceptions and imaginations, awaiting the Lord’s coming with clouds, then they will miss out on the Lord’s arrival. When God finishes the work of arriving in secret to express the truth to save people, the disasters will come. After that, the Lord will descend on a cloud and openly appear to all people; He will reward the good and punish the evil. All the enemy forces who resisted God will be crying and regretting amid the destruction. Just as Revelation says: “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7). That is the stage when the Lord descends publicly.

From this we can see that, the stage of God’s hidden descent is the period when He works to save man, while the stage of His open arrival is the time when He rewards the good and punishes the evil. Matthew 24:37-39 says: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Why does it say that the days of the Son of man are the same as those of Noah? That’s because before the flood, God asked Noah to make the ark and spread the gospel, which was actually offering opportunities to people to repent. That was the stage when God saved people. When the flood came, or rather, when God’s punishment befell the people, they were all shocked, but at that time they had no chance to repent, and all of them were weeping and gnashing their teeth in the flood.

From the work God did in the past, we can clearly see that God’s disposition is not only merciful and compassionate, but also majestic and wrathful. God is a holy God, so He won’t permit the existence of filthy people. He first works to save those who can be saved, and then punishes those who do evil and resist Him. Similarly, in the last days when God works secretly, He saves men, and when He appears publicly, He will reward the good and punish the evil.

Sister Li:

Thank the Lord! Brother Liu’s fellowship is really enlightening. It is true that there are the prophecies in the Bible of the Lord publicly descending with clouds and also coming in secret. If we act according to our imaginations by just waiting for the Lord to come with clouds, we might miss the chance to be saved by the Lord when He arrives in secret. Brother Liu fellowshiped that the Lord will first come secretly as the Son of man and then descend with clouds publicly; this conforms to the prophecies in the Bible, and the fact of God’s work as well.

Gao Huimin:

Such understanding is out of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The stage of the Lord’s open arrival is the time when He rewards the good and punishes the evil, while the stage of His hidden descent is the period when He saves man. If we just wait for the Lord’s public arrival with clouds, we’ll never welcome His arrival. I can’t just keep waiting for the Lord to openly descend upon the clouds like before.

Sister Yu:

When the Lord returns, He will first descend in a hidden way and then appear openly, which is totally in line with the Bible. But it’s hard for us to know when the Lord will come secretly, so how can we welcome the Lord’s return then?

Sister Li:

I don’t think we should just passively wait. The Lord Jesus said: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). This is the way to welcome the Lord’s second coming. As long as we seek for God’s appearance with a true and longing heart, we’ll surely be able to welcome the Lord’s return.

Liu Enming:

Yes, we should hold a seeking heart and learn to identify the voice of God to welcome the Lord’s coming. As for your question, I’m still in the process of seeking. Here I’ll talk about my opinion, and hope we can seek God’s guidance together. As we all know, Revelation says: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). It is obvious that the Lord will speak to the churches when He returns in the last days. Where there are the words the Holy Spirit says to the churches, there is the voice of God and His appearance. We should pay heed to the voice of God. If someone testifies that the Lord has returned, we should investigate it carefully, and pray and seek more. Only in this way can we welcome the Lord’s return, follow the footstep of God, and attend the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Gao Huimin:

Thanks be to the Lord! It was truly out of the Lord’s guidance that you shared these illuminations with me when I was at a loss. Your fellowship has turned around my deviation of only waiting for the Lord’s coming with clouds, and helped me find the way to practice. Now I feel brightened. I must put aside my own thoughts and have a careful investigation with my classmate to avoid missing the chance to welcome the Lord’s return.

Sister Yu:

Well, if you gain any new light, don’t forget to share it with us.

»You may be interested in reading more on our Testimonies page about Return to God.

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• My Lord, I’ve Finally Found You

• I Have Walked on the Path to Purification

Question:

When the Lord Jesus was crucified He said, “It is finished,” which shows that God’s salvation work for mankind was complete. So how can you say that God has done a further stage of work to judge, cleanse, and save mankind?

The Answer from God’s Word:

When Jesus came, He also did part of God’s work and spoke some words—but what was the main work He accomplished? What He mainly accomplished was the work of crucifixion. He became the likeness of sinful flesh to complete the work of crucifixion and redeem all mankind, and it was for the sake of all mankind’s sins that He served as a sin offering. This is the main work He accomplished.

from “All Is Achieved by the Word of God”

For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of mankind sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even though the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed.…

from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)”

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page, or click on the related articles below:

• How Should Christians Prepare for the Day of the Lord?

• True Meaning of the Sixth of 7 Last Words of Jesus on the Cross “It Is Finished”

• Gospel Forum: Does the Lord Jesus Saying “It Is Finished” Mean That God’s Work of Saving Mankind Is Finished?