Diary of a Christian: Learning the Lesson of Obedience

Dec 26, 2018

Friday, January 5, 2018 Sunny

Today was a day I’ll never forget. The person in charge told me that the church urgently needed a sister to perform hosting duties and asked if I’d be willing. When I heard this, my heart was in turmoil and I couldn’t calm myself down. I never thought I would be asked to perform this duty, and the discontent I felt inside came straight out: “How can you arrange for me to do hosting duties? Elderly brothers and sisters are suited to do that kind of duty. Though my caliber may be lacking, it’s not so poor that I’m only fit to do hosting duties! I’ve been a leader for years and wherever I go, brothers and sisters host me and revolve around me, and yet now I’m actually expected to host others in turn? Don’t you know anything about how to use people? Won’t this be like using a huge crane to move chicken feathers, or putting fine timber to some trivial use? If my brothers and sisters back at home know that, even though I’ve worked really hard for years for my belief in God, I haven’t become a leader but instead am doing hosting duties, what will they think of me? Won’t they think that I’m not pursuing the truth, or that my caliber is too poor? If they really thought that, where could I ever show my face again?”

Christian Testimony "Salvation" | What Is Being Saved? What Is True Salvation? (Christian English Movie)

Christian Testimony "Salvation" | What Is Being Saved? What Is True Salvation? (Christian English Movie)

What is salvation? Those who believe in the Lord Jesus think that if they sincerely pray to the Lord, confess their sins, and repent, their sins will be forgiven, and they will be granted salvation, and when the Lord comes, they will be directly raised into the kingdom of heaven. But is salvation really that simple?

The Principles of Pursuing to Know God

3. The Principles of Pursuing to Know God

1. You must eat and drink all of God’s words to reach an understanding of the truth, and to know the significance and purpose of the three stages of God’s work;

2. You must obey God’s judgment and chastisement, and trials and refinement, to reach a knowledge of God’s righteous disposition and life essence;

3. You must obtain the guidance of the work of the Holy Spirit and walk Peter’s path of pursuing the truth and being perfected, and be able to seek a true love of God;

4. You must practice exalting God and bearing witness for God according to God’s words and the truth, and you must use the truth to resolve problems in order to bring people before God.

With the Grace of God I Found a True Home

Mar 4, 2019

By Xiaolin, United States

I Hate Dad—He Ruined Our Family

Crash … Bang …

“Dammit, say that one more time and I’ll make you sorry! …”

The clamor of fighting broke through the peaceful silence of the night, startling my sister and I awake. We realized our parents were fighting again. Since our mom found out that our dad was seeing another woman, she smiled less, and at any mention of him her eyes filled with discontent and sorrow. From then on they never stopped fighting—I couldn’t even remember how many times they had argued. When my sister and I ran into their room crying, we just saw dad reaching out to hit mom. Crying, I dragged at dad’s arm as hard as I could, but he was too strong and I couldn’t hold him back. That night, he broke two of her ribs. She couldn’t withstand such a life of suffering any longer, so after she healed she left home and got a job in another area.

To Pursue to Be an Honest Person We Must First Know Our Crafty Nature

Xiao Qiong Jinan City, Shandong Province

After reading the two fellowships from the above “The Four Indices One Has to Grasp in Pursuing the Truth to Attain the Transformation of His Disposition” and “Only Being an Honest Person Is True Repentance,” most brothers and sisters feel that they have become much clearer about the truth concerning being an honest person, and they also feel that they have had ways to practice and enter into it. So they all begin to practice being an honest person. However, while pursuing to be an honest person, we neglect an important matter, that is, we do not have true knowledge of our crafty nature.

It Is Most Important to Pursue to Know God

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Meiyu Benxi City, Liaoning Province

Whenever the subject of knowing God is mentioned, some people will say, “When I believe in God, I will just believe in God, and I will do whatever God asks me to do and do it just as God requires me. Then won’t I satisfy God? Besides, in my daily life I will pay attention to examining what corruptions I have expressed, and when I find any, I will pay attention to having it transformed. Won’t this be enough? Why should I pursue to know God?” And other people will say, “I have never seen the incarnated God; then how should I know him?” In a word, in our experience, we either do not pursue to know God or have no idea how to know God.

It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

Kang Rong Anqing City, Anhui Province

 It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

Now, brothers and sisters generally have such states: Those who lead the church only care to go around the church without being idle; those who preach the gospel only pay attention to gaining people; those who do general affairs only busy themselves with doing them properly; those who do hosting only think of hosting the brothers and sisters properly; those who cannot perform duties just keep attending meetings regularly without leaving God’s family. In short, those who perform duties only desire to get things done, and those who cannot perform duties are content merely with attending meetings; none pays attention to eating and drinking God’s word, to pursuing the truth, and to their personal life entering in. People all think in their notions that pursuing the truth is not important, and that as long as they perform their duty properly and do not leave God’s family, they can be saved and left.

Why We Should Pay Attention to Knowing Ourselves

Gan’en Luoyang City, Henan Province

In the course of our believing in God, many of us brothers and sisters pay attention only to working and performing duties, and very few of us pay attention to knowing ourselves. Many times when we fellowship in a meeting about the topic concerning knowing ourselves, some brothers and sisters have questions and resistance in their heart: Since we believe in God, we just believe in God. If I am assigned to do hosting, I will do hosting; if I am assigned to preach the gospel, I will preach the gospel. I will do whatever I am assigned to do and practice in whatever way I am required to practice. I submit to the arrangements of God’s family and also perform my duty. Isn’t it good enough if I do not make mistakes in performing my duty? Why always fellowship about knowing ourselves? What is knowing myself to do with my believing in God? Can I do well in believing in God if I know myself? Even some leaders also think: The work arrangements have stated the principles of all aspects of the work very clearly. Isn’t it good enough if we do not work against the work arrangements but carry out the work according to the requirements in them without changing them? Why must we know ourselves?

Listen! Who Is This Who Speaks?

Zhou Li, China

As a church preacher, the greatest affliction is no more than spiritual dryness and having nothing to preach. I felt helpless seeing fewer and fewer brothers and sisters coming to meetings and I came before the Lord many times to pray earnestly and ask the Lord to strengthen brothers and sisters’ faith. But the desolation of the church had not improved at all and even I lived in weakness and negativity …

The Awakening of a Deceived Spirit

By Yuanzhi, Brazil

I was born in a small city in Northern China. In 2010, I followed my relatives to Brazil. In Brazil, I got acquainted with a Christian friend. He brought me to church to listen to sermons. But though I went three times, I never absorbed it. Afterward, because my job was keeping me busy, I didn’t go to church again until one day in June, 2015, when my friend brought me to church once more. This time, through what brothers and sisters shared, I had some understanding that the Lord Jesus is the Redeemer. Especially, when I first read Genesis, I understood that man was actually created by God and that God had created all things, and I felt that the Creator is truly wondrous. In school, the textbooks had taught me that man evolved from apes and monkeys and all the things in the world were formed naturally. Suddenly, I felt that, for more than twenty years, I had been deceived. Only after reading the Bible did I completely awaken. From that point on, I believed in the Lord Jesus.

Uncovering the Mystery of “Judgment”

By En Hui, Malaysia

My name is En Hui and I’m 46 years old. I live in Malaysia, and I have been a believer in the Lord for 27 years. In October 2015, I moved to another city to take up a job. My new colleagues were all big fans of Facebook, which they used for chatting, finding new friends, and posting images. Seeing that I didn’t have a Facebook account they set one up for me, and I gradually learned how to go online and use it. Sometimes I would see the postings of some brothers and sisters in the Lord and I’d share them and “like” them. Sometimes I’d post things that praised the Lord or share the Lord’s grace with some of my good friends. Every day I felt that there was fulfillment in my life.

The Road to Purification

Christopher, Philippines

My name is Christopher and I am a pastor from a family church in the Philippines. In 1987, I was baptized and returned to the Lord Jesus. By the Lord’s grace, in 1996 I became a pastor of the local church. At that time, apart from preaching in many places around the Philippines, I also preached in places like Hong Kong and Malaysia. Because of the work and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I felt that I had inexhaustible energy in my work for the Lord and an unceasing flow of words in my sermons. I would often go to support brothers and sisters when they were negative and weak. Sometimes members of their family who did not believe in the Lord were unfriendly toward me, yet I could be tolerant and patient and not lose faith in the Lord and I believed that the Lord could change them. So I felt like I had changed a great deal since believing in the Lord. However, since 2011, I have not felt the work of the Holy Spirit as strongly as before. Slowly, I have had no new enlightenment for my sermons and have not had the strength to break free from living in sin. I could not help getting angry at my wife and daughter and teaching them a lesson through my temper when I saw that they were not doing as I desired. I knew that this was not in keeping with the will of the Lord, but often I could not help myself. I felt particularly distressed about this. In order to free myself from a life of sin and confession, I put more effort into reading the Bible, fasting and praying and found spiritual pastors everywhere to seek and explore this together. But all of my efforts were useless and made no difference to me living in sin and to the darkness in my soul.

What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

December 8, 2018

By Siyuan

The Origins of Christmas

Every year, as Christmas approaches, shops on the street arrange a dazzling display of Christmas presents, with Santa Claus and Christmas trees, and so on. Festooned in trees and on buildings there are many-colored lights, and whole cities are decorated with lanterns and colored hangings, and everywhere there is joy and excitement. To Christianity, Christmas is a very special holiday, and several months before Christmas, many churches will begin to busy themselves preparing everything necessary for the Christmas holiday. On Christmas Day, the churches are filled, and brothers and sisters get involved in the celebrations, eating Christmas dinner, putting on performances and worshiping the Lord Jesus, and so on. Everyone’s face is flushed with happiness. However, when we get together in joyous gatherings to celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, do we understand the meaning of Christmas? Perhaps brothers and sisters will say, “The Lord Jesus was nailed upon the cross to redeem all mankind, and so as to remember and celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, Christians established Christmas. Though the specific day on which the Lord Jesus was born is not recorded in the Bible, Christmas gradually became a universal holiday in the wake of the expansion of Jesus Christ’s gospel.” We may have known this, but do we know God’s love and His will for us that was actually hidden behind the birth of the Lord Jesus? And how should we approach Christmas in a way that is after the Lord’s heart?

The Word of God Guides Me Through the Snares

February 26, 2018

By Tian’na, Hong Kong

The Word of God Guides Me Through the Snares

As I go through the passage of God’s words, “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men,” I cannot help but recall my experience two years ago of breaking free from the binds of rumors and returning before God.

Returning to Life From the Brink of Death

November 14, 2018

By Yang Mei, China

In 2007 I suddenly fell ill with chronic renal failure. On being told the news, my Christian mother and sister-in-law, and some Catholic friends all came to visit me to preach the gospel to me. They all told me that I only had to go to God and my illness would be cured. But I didn’t believe in God at all. I thought that illness could only be cured through scientific medical treatment, and that any disease that couldn’t be cured by science was incurable. After all, was there any power on earth greater than the power of science? Faith in God was just a form of psychological crutch, and I was an upstanding state school teacher, a person who was educated and cultured, so there was no way I’d start believing in God. So I turned them down and started looking around for medical treatment. Within a few years I’d been to virtually every large hospital in my home county and throughout the province, but my condition didn’t improve. In fact, it was getting worse, but I stubbornly clung to my own way of looking at the situation and insisted that science could change anything and that curing illness was just a question of finding the right process.

God’s Love Is Most Real

Wenzhong, Beijing

August 11, 2012

God’s Love Is Most Real

On the night of July 21, 2012, we had a huge flood here, which seldom happens. I would like to tell everyone who thirsts for God what I actually experienced and saw then.

Catholic Beliefs: The Lord Really Has Returned

October 21, 2018

By Renshi, USA

My whole family believes in God. I attended mass with my mom from the time I was a little girl and God bestowed so much grace on us—we were full of gratitude toward Him and we were also longing for the Lord’s return. But I never imagined that when the Lord really did return to work and save us, I wouldn’t recognize His work but would instead rely on my arrogant nature and cling to my old notions, nearly missing out on the Lord’s salvation. Every time I think of this I feel self-reproach but I also rejoice. The Lord Jesus had mercy on me and through my brothers’ and sisters’ patient fellowship on the Lord’s new words I have gained an understanding of His new work, thus becoming able to follow His footsteps. I am grateful for the Lord’s salvation for me that allowed me to catch the very last train for the Age of Kingdom. Now all sorts of scenes of me accepting the Lord are playing in my head….

Christian Life: 4 Tips to Teach You How to Interact With Others in Accordance With the Lord’s Intentions

October 6, 2018

By Wang Zihan, Shanxi Province

How to Interact With Others in Accordance With the Lord’s Intentions

Interpersonal relationship is a topic that causes headaches for many people. This is also a topic that is encountered often throughout one’s life as a Christian. The Lord Jesus requires us to get along harmoniously with each other and to love others as we love ourselves. Many devout Christians are also willing to put the Lord’s teachings into practice. However, in reality, when we interact with others, we frequently encounter conflicts, and misunderstandings, so much so that our relationships become rigid and break down. This leads to pain for everyone. Now, what is the reason that we are unable to exist harmoniously with each other? How should we Christians interact with others in our lives in accordance with the Lord’s intentions? This has also been a problem that I have had difficulty with in the past. Thank the Lord for His guidance! Afterward, I was able to find the answer in a book that resolved my difficulties. Here, I will share a bit about my experience and understanding!

Can We Enter the Kingdom of Heaven Now That Our Sins Have Been Forgiven（Part 2)

Can We Enter the Kingdom of Heaven Now That Our Sins Have Been Forgiven（Part 2)

September 18, 2018

He Jun, Sichuan

Monday August 13th, 2018. Cloudy yielding to sun.

Today, I bumped into Brother Zheng, who I haven’t seen for ages, and I was really happy to see him. As we chatted, I mentioned the thing that had been puzzling me all this time. After I’d told him about it, Brother Zheng gave me fellowship, saying, “Man’s sins were forgiven when the Lord Jesus was crucified, and when we believe in the Lord, our sins are forgiven and we are saved. But what exactly does it mean to say that our sins are forgiven? If we can understand this issue, then we would know why we still commit sin even after believing in the Lord and having our sins forgiven. When it comes to whether or not we will be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we first have to take a look at the background to the Lord Jesus’ appearance and work.

The Lord Has Appeared in the East (part 2)

The Lord Has Appeared in the East (part 2)

Qiu Zhen, China

August 25, 2018

When I heard this, I interrupted the sister and asked in a puzzled manner, “Sister, the Old Testament records that Jehovah God did work in Israel, the Lord Jesus’ work was in Judea and God’s two stages of work were both in Israel, so the Lord’s return should also be in Israel. How can you say it is in China?” Sister Hao smiled and said, “We think that God’s first two stages of work were both in Israel, so the Lord will definitely do His work in Israel when He returns. Is such thinking true to the facts? Could it be that God is just God of the Israelites? Could it be that God just controls and saves Israelites? Let’s see what Almighty God says.”