Seeing God’s Hand in the Hardships of Selling and Buying a Home

Seeing God’s Hand in the Hardships of Selling and Buying a Home

Ma Ling

Part 1

Deep in the night when all was quiet, Ma Ling stood in silence by the window thinking about a conversation she had had with a church leader that day.

The leader, Sister Bai, said: “Sister Ma, one of the people taken in the most recent wave of arrests of brothers and sisters by the CCP government was a sister who used to stay at your home. We’re afraid that the police will track her movements through video surveillance recordings, and in that case you would certainly be implicated. The duty that you’re currently performing would be impacted too. I don’t know if you have any particular plans.”

Ma Ling pondered this for a moment, then responded resolutely, “I’ll sell my home! The CCP government has always tried to follow every clue to arrest more Christians. If I don’t move, the CCP police could burst in at any moment.”

God’s Love Guided Me Through the Trial of Illness

God’s Love Guided Me Through the Trial of Illness

By Yiming, Hubei Province

I Rejoice to Be Reunited With the Lord

I’m 78 this year and I have always suffered from headaches and diabetes. After I began to believe in the Lord in 2005, the illnesses that had beset me for years were eased; I perceived God’s love and thanked the Lord from the bottom of my heart. Two years later, a relative preached God’s work of the last days to me and he said that the Lord Jesus had returned as the incarnated Almighty God. He said that Almighty God was now performing a newer, higher stage of work on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, and that Almighty God was using the truth to judge and chastise man, to cleanse our corruption, and God would lead those who ultimately attained salvation into His kingdom. I was thrilled to hear this news, and I thought to myself, “I never imagined that I would actually be able to welcome the Lord in my lifetime. If in the future I could be led by God into His kingdom, that would be wonderful indeed!” Thinking this, my heart became filled with a joy I couldn’t express, and I thanked God’s love and salvation. After a period of seeking and investigating, I became certain from reading God’s words that Almighty God was indeed the Lord Jesus returned, and very soon after I was living the church life and doing all I could to perform my duty within the church.

A Wandering Heart Comes Home

A Wandering Heart Comes Home

After reading these words, Brother Joseph fellowshiped with me many truths to do with God’s work of judgment of the last days. I came to understand that God’s work is very practical and that it isn’t supernatural at all, God’s work of judgment of the last days is not like I had imagined: I had imagined God placing a gigantic table in mid-air, with God sitting on a great white throne and all of mankind kneeling before Him. Then God would list our sins one by one in order to determine whether we were good or wicked, and would decide whether we went up to heaven or down to hell. Instead, God has become flesh and has come to the world to actually express the truth, to judge man’s sins, to expose the truth of man’s corruption and satanic nature and essence. Brother Joseph fellowshiped with us.

A Wandering Heart Comes Home

A Wandering Heart Comes Home

Novo, Philippines

My name is Novo, and I’m Filipino. I have followed my mom in her belief in God since I was little, and would go listen to sermons at church together with my siblings. Although I had believed in the Lord for many years, I felt that I had not changed, and that I was the same as an unbeliever, in my heart thinking all day about how to make more money, and about how to spend my days in comfort and enjoy the good life. Furthermore, I also often went drinking with my friends, and the moment I had any spare cash I’d go gambling. I knew that doing these things was at odds with the Lord’s will, I would often pray to the Lord and confess my sins, and I would make firm my resolution to Him that I would give up these bad habits and never sin again from that day on. But with the cajoling and enticement of my friends, I simply couldn’t control myself. And so it was that I became more and more degenerate, my heart got farther and farther away from God, there was no longer any sincerity when I prayed to the Lord, and every week I would just say a few simple prayers, and do it in a slipshod way. Sometimes I would even feel such despair, as I knew that when the Lord returned He would judge each and every person based on their actions and behavior, and then decide for each person whether they would go up to heaven or down to hell. I felt I was so degenerate that God would not forgive me again. Afterward, I married and had kids. All I thought about was my wife and my children. When it came to my faith, I pushed it to the back of my mind. In order to provide a better future for my children and to achieve my desires to become rich, I decided to go work abroad. And so I came to Taiwan. After I found a job and made some money, I’d still not changed the way I used to live my life, and in my leisure time I would go with my workmates to drink and sing karaoke, living a life of revelry; I’d long since put my belief in God to the back of my mind.

Guileless People Are Not Necessarily Honest People

Guileless People Are Not Necessarily Honest People

Cheng Mingjie Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province

I consider myself to be an outgoing and forthright kind of person. I speak with people in a very straightforward manner; whatever I want to say, I say it—I’m not the type to beat around the bush. In my interactions with people I tend to be a pretty straight shooter. Often, I get cheated or ridiculed for too easily placing trust in others. It was only after I started going to church that I felt I had found a place I could call my own. I thought to myself: In the past my guilelessness has put me at a disadvantage and made me vulnerable to the deception of others; but in church God wants honest people, people who have been scorned by society, so I don’t have to worry anymore about being too guileless. I felt especially comforted when I heard that God loves the honest and simple, and that only the honest shall receive God’s salvation. When I saw how distressed my brothers and sisters had become as they began to recognize their treacherous nature but could not change it, I felt even more relieved that, being honest and straightforward, I wouldn’t have to go through such distress. One day, however, after receiving a revelation from God, I finally realized I wasn’t the honest person I thought I was.

How Should I Face It, After Testing Positive for Hepatitis B? (Audio Essay)

How Should I Face It, After Testing Positive for Hepatitis B? (Audio Essay)

I was struck by an illness that came out of nowhere, and in the blink of an eye I had become mired in pain and despair, and I lost all hope for life. Nevertheless, through God’s wonderful salvation, I came to understand that God’s will was behind my illness, and I saw God’s wondrous deeds. Remembering the events of that time, they are as vivid to me now as they were then.

A few months ago, my boss told us that Xiao Wang, one of my colleagues, had contracted a serious liver condition and had been hospitalized for treatment. The boss went on to say that the illness Xiao Wang had contracted could be transmitted to other people through physical contact, food, drink and bodily fluids. As we were often in contact with Xiao Wang, it was highly probable that we would have been infected, so we were told to go to the hospital immediately for testing. Hearing this news, the office was suddenly all abuzz; everyone was worried that they were infected, and so we all hurried to hospital. After a series of tests, I waited uneasily for the results. After a while, the doctor came and handed me the test results, and said: “You are a carrier of the Hepatitis B virus, and it has not been contracted recently, but has probably been there for a while.” I simply couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and I asked the doctor to repeat herself. The doctor said regretfully, “You heard right. This is real. You must seek urgent treatment. If you delay, then your condition will worsen, and if it becomes liver cancer then you’ll be in real trouble. What’s more, as this virus cannot be wholly eradicated from the body, you will carry this virus for the rest of your life. You should get your mind right and be prepared!” This terrible, sudden news left me all at sea, and my whole body seemed to shrivel up like an eggplant affected by the frost, and my legs felt as heavy as lead. Scared out of my mind, I took the test results and left the hospital, not knowing how to get home.

A Brief Talk About the Source of the World’s Darkness and Evil

A Brief Talk About the Source of the World’s Darkness and Evil

By Yang Le, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

When I was still at school, my father grew sick and passed away. After he died, uncles on both sides of the family who had often been helped by my father not only did not take care of us—my mother, my two sisters and I, who had no source of income—but, on the contrary, did everything they could to make a profit off us, even fighting with us for the little legacy my father had left behind. In the face of my relatives’ indifference and all the things they did that I never could have expected, I felt such extreme pain and couldn’t help but hate the utter lack of conscience and the heartlessness that these relatives displayed, at the same time also gaining a sense of the fickleness of human nature. After that, whenever I saw some occurrences in society of family members fighting each other over money, or even suing and murdering each other over money, I would feel that the world today was too full of darkness, that people’s hearts really were sinister and the world really was too fickle! At that time, I thought the reason why the world was so full of darkness was because people had turned bad, that they no longer had any conscience and that there were too many evil people in the world. Afterward, only through reading the words of God did I realize that what I had seen was just a surface-level phenomenon, and was not the source of the world’s darkness and evil. From God’s words I saw clearly the real source of darkness and evil in the world.

Every Word of God Is an Expression of His Disposition

Every Word of God Is an Expression of His Disposition

By Hu Ke, Shandong Province

Whenever I saw these words spoken by God, I felt anxious: “Every sentence I have spoken contains within it the disposition of God. You would do well to ponder My words carefully, and you will surely profit greatly from them” (“It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I felt anxious because understanding God’s disposition is so important both to man’s understanding of God and their seeking to love and satisfy Him. But when reading the words of God, I always felt like God’s disposition was too abstract, and I didn’t know how to understand it. Afterward, through fellowship from my church leader, I came to know that I should understand what God likes and what He hates from His words, and thereby come to understand God’s disposition. I subsequently tried for a while to put this into practice and I saw some results. But I still felt at a loss regarding God’s words, “Every sentence I have spoken contains within it the disposition of God,” and had no idea how exactly to understand it.

God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

Wang Yan

The last days are here, the prophecies in the Bible have basically all been fulfilled, and brothers and sisters all look forward to the Lord coming to receive us into the kingdom of heaven. But many brothers and sisters in the Lord are asking: Although we go to church every week to give worship, and we often read the Bible and we expend ourselves and work for the Lord, we are always committing sins in the daytime and then confessing in the evening, living in this vicious spiral, and we can never free ourselves from the bonds of sin. If things carry on this way, will the Lord really forgive us, and receive us into the kingdom of heaven? How exactly does the Lord treat sinners?

Why is it only through experiencing and obeying the work of God incarnate that one can know God?

Why is it only through experiencing and obeying the work of God incarnate that one can know God?

Why is it only through experiencing and obeying the work of God incarnate that one can know God?

Bible Verses for Reference:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jhn 1:14).

The Transformation of a Fallen Man

The Transformation of a Fallen Man

Tong Xin Fujian Province

I was born in the countryside. I came from a line of humble farmers and on top of that our family was few in number, so we were often bullied. When I was 13 years old, there was a child beaten by someone from outside of our village. The villagers falsely accused my father of instigating it and they said they were going to search our house and confiscate our property, take away our pigs and even beat my father. There was also a time when another villager took our fishing net and kept it as his own. When my father went to get it back, the villager actually hit my father, relying on his own power and influence. My father had to just eat humble pie as he knew that he had neither money nor power. My mother told my brothers and me that we must fight for ourselves in the future, and never live a life of oppression like this. Being young and detesting the injustice in society, I was determined that in the future I would stand out from the crowd and earn their respect, and never be oppressed. So I studied very hard, but I wasn’t smart enough and I couldn’t get into any universities, so I chose to pursue development in the army and joined easily by going through connections.

An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

Under God’s care and protection, my illness gradually improved. Even though I wasn’t able to speak clearly, I could ride a bicycle and do a little bit of work in general affairs. However, because my arrogant nature was too deeply entrenched, God once again arranged for new people and things to judge me and change me. One day, the church leader arranged for me to take on hosting duties. After hearing this I felt very unwilling to do it. I believed that acting as a host was a waste of my abilities, but I also couldn’t refuse, so I grudgingly agreed. While I was hosting, some brothers and sisters were meeting at my house and had me watch the door to safeguard our surroundings. Once again my inner thoughts arose: Just acting as a host, keeping an eye on the door—what will I get out of this? I thought back to the past. When I stood behind the pulpit I was so haughty, but in my duty today I didn’t have any face or any status. My rank was so low! So after a period of time, my internal resistance became greater and greater, I felt more and more wronged, and I was no longer willing to fulfill that duty.

An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

Zhang Yitao Henan Province

“God, Your work is so practical, so full of righteousness and holiness. You have been patiently working for so long, all for us. In the past, I believed in God but I didn’t have a human manner. I disobeyed You and hurt Your heart without knowing. I am full of shame and regret and am indebted to You. Only now do I realize this. … Without Your harsh judgment, I wouldn’t have today, and facing Your genuine love I am grateful and indebted to You. It was Your work that saved me and caused my disposition to change. Without sorrow and pain, my heart is full of happiness” (“Oh God, the Love You Have Given Me Is Too Great” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Every time I sing this song, I think of God’s salvation for me through all these years, and I am full of gratitude for Him. It was God’s judgment and chastisement that changed me. It made me—an arrogant, ambitious, rebellious son—appear a bit more like a human being. I sincerely give thanks for God’s salvation of me!

A Lost Sheep Has Returned to the Side of the Shepherd

A Lost Sheep Has Returned to the Side of the Shepherd

Xinjing, Malaysia

Ever since I have any memory, my parents have been doing odd jobs and worship in the temple. I once asked my mom, “What kind of god do you believe in?” She said, “I don’t know, yet I have to worship because this has been handed down through generations.” I thought: If she herself doesn’t know what she worships, what’s the meaning of her worship? Therefore, I think my mom is blindly worshiping. Afterward, I grew up gradually, and began to search for my own belief. At that time, I had a middle school classmate who was a Christian. After graduation from middle school, she invited me to attend a preaching meeting, and I accepted her invitation happily. At the preaching meeting, I heard the pastor read the following scripture: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I was deeply touched, feeling God’s love is so great that He has bestowed mankind His Son in order that they could gain eternal life through Him. Therefore, after the preaching meeting, I asked the pastor to pray for me and decided to return to the Lord. After believing in the Lord, I was eager to read the Bible. Gradually, I understood some biblical knowledge, and began to serve in the English church service.

The Church of Almighty God | Bye Bye, Games!

Bye Bye, Games!

Introduction

Hello everybody! Online games are one of the trends that are present in society these days. Many young people are deeply addicted to these games. Those that are harmed by these games also know that playing these games brings all sorts of negative consequences to their future prospects and their families. However, no matter what, they are unable to break free. Just how can they thoroughly break free from these games? Next, we will listen to Brother Zhangjin share about his experience. Afterward, from what he shares with us, you will be able to find the answers you need.

What Does It Mean to Have Humanity?

What Does It Mean to Have Humanity?

Introduction

Brothers and sisters, peace be with you! The majority of us understand “normal humanity” as, if nothing else but, living harmoniously with others, having a loving heart, tolerance and acceptance for others or being kind and charitable. Now, do you know how we should live out a normal humanity as God requests us to? As Christians, how can we practice and gain entry so that we can live out a genuine humanity in accordance with God’s will? The essay that will be shared today will provide us with a new understanding about this topic. Please listen …

Establishing a Proper Relationship With God | As a Christian, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

Establishing a Proper Relationship With God | As a Christian, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

If we do not participate in church life, if we occasionally pray to God ourselves and read God’s words, our attainment of the Holy Spirit’s work will be very limited. Without the Holy Spirit’s work, we will not be able to understand the truth, nor will we be able to enter into the reality of the truth. When we encounter difficulties or problems, since we do not understand God’s intentions, we will frequently not know what to do nor how to put the truth into practice. If we occasionally rely on our own notions and imaginations to do things, we will do things that violate God’s intentions and even offend God’s disposition. We will lose the Holy Spirit’s presence, not to mention God’s salvation.

3 Methods on How to Pray So That God Will Listen

3 Methods on How to Pray So That God Will Listen

Cheng Shi

Brothers and sisters:

Peace to you in the Lord! Praying is an important way for us Christians to establish a normal relationship with God. This is especially the case during the morning and at night. That is why learning how to pray is extremely important. However, many brothers and sisters feel perplexed: Every single day, we pray both in the morning and at night; we also pray before we eat and after we finish eating as well as when we have gatherings; furthermore, each time we pray, we say a lot to the Lord and pray for a long time. However, we always feel as if God is not there; it feels as if we are just talking to ourselves when we pray, and our spirit does not feel peace or joy. Why does God not listen to our prayers? How should we pray so that we can receive God’s praise?

Establishing a Proper Relationship With God | As a Christian, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

Establishing a Proper Relationship With God | As a Christian, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

Xiaogao

Hello brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A,

I get very tired from working during the day, and I do not sleep very well at night. As a result, I am not willing to make it to gatherings on time. I do not like to be restricted. I feel that if I have spiritual needs, as long as I look for my brothers and sisters to chat during those times, it should be fine. I wonder what the cause of this issue is. How should I resolve this?

An Jing

God's Utterance "God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III" (Part Six)

God's Utterance "God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III" (Part Six)

Introduction

Almighty God says, "God’s treatment of people who blaspheme or resist Him, or even those who malign Him—people who intentionally attack, malign, and curse Him—He does not turn a blind eye or a deaf ear. He has a clear attitude toward them. He despises these people, and in His heart He condemns them. He even openly declares the outcome for them, so that people know that He has a clear attitude toward those who blaspheme Him, and so that they know how He will determine their outcome. However, after God said these things, people still could rarely see the truth of how God would handle those people, and they could not understand the principles behind God’s outcome, His verdict for them. That is to say, mankind cannot see the particular attitude and methods God has for handling them. This has to do with God’s principles for doing things. God uses the advent of facts to deal with the evil behavior of some people. That is, He does not announce their sin and does not determine their outcome, but He directly uses the advent of facts to allow them to be punished, to get their due retribution. When these facts happen, it is people’s flesh that suffers punishment; it is all something that can be seen with human eyes. When dealing with some people’s evil behavior, God just curses them with words, but at the same time, God’s anger comes upon them, and the punishment they receive may be something people cannot see, but this type of outcome may be even more serious than the outcomes that people can see of being punished or being killed."

from "Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh"