Praise and Worship Song "God's Love Circles My Heart" | Praise and Thank God for His Power of Love11/30/2018 Praise and Worship Song "God's Love Circles My Heart" | Praise and Thank God for His Power of Love
The Sun of righteousness rises in the East. O God! Your glory fills the heaven and earth. My beautiful beloved, Your love circles my heart. Those who seek the truth—they love God, one and all. In the early morning, though I rise alone, joy is in my heart as I ponder God’s words. His gentle words, like those of a loving mother; His words of judgment, stern like father’s scolding. Naught else in the world do I love, with my whole heart I love only Almighty God. Ah hey, ah hey, ah hey, ah hey. Naught else in the world do I love, with my whole heart I love only Almighty God. God’s will has been revealed—to perfect those who truly love Him. Innocents, pulsing with life, offer up your praises to Him. A dance of joy is beautiful, leap and prance around the throne. From the earth’s four corners, we come, summoned by God’s voice. His words of life bestowed on us, we’re cleansed by His judgment. Love waxes stronger for being refined. It’s sweet to enjoy God’s love. Almighty God is so lovely, I love only Him. Ah hey, ah hey, ah hey, ah hey. Almighty God is so lovely, I love only Him. Ah hey, ah. Uh, uh. from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs
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Footsteps of the Holy Spirit | God's Word "Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God"
Almighty God says, "Knowing the work of God is no simple matter: You should have standards and an objective in your pursuit, you should know how to seek the true way, and how to measure whether or not it is the true way, and whether or not it is the work of God. What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified to, and what it can bring you. Distinguishing between the true way and the false way requires several aspects of basic knowledge, the most fundamental of which is to tell whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit." Christian Skit | "Watch Over This House" | Why Christians Are Treated Like This In China, Christians are persecuted by the CCP to the point that it's hard for them to go home, so they often live a wandering existence. In this skit, a Christian couple, fed up by being monitored in their village for their belief in God, decides to move to the city and rent an apartment, but it's not long before the CCP police officer, neighborhood committee member, security guard, and a neighborhood lout start visiting one after another to "help the old couple watch their apartment." Again fed up with the surveillance, the old couple decides to pack their bags and move again … Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared. from the church of Almighty God ![]() I Am Willing to Accept the Supervision of All Xianshang Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province A little while ago, every time I heard that the district preachers were coming to our church, I would feel a bit ill at ease. I didn’t reveal my feelings outwardly, but my heart was full of opposition. I thought: “It would be best if you all didn’t come. If you do come, at least don’t work in the church with me. Otherwise, I’ll be restricted and unable to commune.” Later, the situation got so bad that I actually hated their coming. But being so numb, I had no understanding of the state I was in, much less did I think to seek the truth to resolve it. One day, I read the following passage of God’s words: “The teaching of the feudal code of ethics and passing down of knowledge of ancient culture has long infected man and turned man into devils big and small. … Man’s face is filled with murder, and in all places, death is in the air. They seek to cast God out from this land…. It wishes to wipe out God’s all in one blow, to again insult and assassinate Him, and attempts to tear down and disturb His work. How could it allow God to be of equal status? How can it tolerate God ‘interfering’ with its work among men on earth? How can it allow God to unmask its odious face? How can it allow God to disrupt its work? How could this devil, fuming with rage, allow God to govern its court of power on earth? How could it willingly admit defeat? Its odious countenance has been revealed for what it is, hence one finds himself not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and it is truly difficult to speak of. Is this not its essence? … Demons and evil spirits … have closed off the will and painstaking effort of God, making them impenetrable. What a mortal sin! How could God not feel anxious? How could God not feel wrathful? They cause grievous hindrance and opposition to the work of God. Too rebellious!” (“Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I contemplated the meaning of this passage while reflecting on my recent condition: Why was it that I so disliked the district preachers coming to our church? Why wasn’t I willing to let them work alongside me in the church? Was it not because I was worried that if they were to come into the church, they would realize that I wasn’t working according to principle or God’s will and would prune and deal with me with regard to this issue? What’s more, I was scared that their coming would throw a wrench in my work plans. I was scared that they would commune better than me and cause me to lose my privileged status in the hearts of my brothers and sisters. If they didn’t come, I could go about my work plans just as I pleased. Even if my methods did not accord with the truth or God’s will, no one would know and certainly no one would deal with me or criticize me. In this way, my standing in the hearts of my brothers and sisters would only become greater, more privileged and more stable. All the brothers and sisters of the church would look up to me, admire me and obey my orders. The whole church would revolve around me. Was this not my true purpose? Thinking these thoughts, I became afraid. As it so happened, was I not scheming to drive out God from the hearts of my brothers and sisters so that I may gain status in their hearts? Was I not a living and breathing example of those poisons of the great red dragon, “The emperor is as far away as the sky,” “There is no king but me”? In order to control and claim dominion over humanity, the great red dragon combated the coming of God with full force, not allowing God to have a hand in the affairs of men, to expose its ghoulish face, to interfere in its plans or govern in its dominion. Thus, it wildly opposed, disrupted, tore down and decimated God’s work. It fantasized that, one day, it could wrest God from the hearts of humankind and fulfill its despicable objective of becoming the eternal arbiter of man and forcing mankind to worship it. What difference was there between my own thoughts and the actions of the great red dragon? Because I wanted to maintain my own status and assure that I could go my own way and not be restricted in my work, I didn’t want to let other leaders or coworkers supervise or inspect my work. I didn’t want anyone else meddling in the work of the church I led or watering my brothers and sisters. Was it not just because I wanted to control and claim dominion over others? Was my purpose not to proclaim myself king and earthly ruler over my brothers and sisters? I saw that the poison of the great red dragon—that unchecked arrogance and megalomania—had already penetrated to the core of my being. The influence of the great red dragon had long since taken hold within me: I had become as malevolent a demon as the dragon itself. On the surface, I was working to fulfill my duty, but my heart held ulterior motives. In reality, I was breaking up the throne, setting chaos in the ranks and erecting my own empire in opposition to God and in obstruction of the execution of God’s will. My nature was pure evil and so terrifying! If not for the harsh revelation and judgment of God’s word, I never would have known to what degree I had been corrupted by Satan and opposed God. I never would have come to realize that, deep within my soul, a dastardly plot had been hatched and that my true nature was so deeply afflicted by evil. Thank You God for Your revelations and enlightenment, which allowed me to realize my satanic nature of arrogance and vileness. I see that I am, in fact, a child of the great red dragon and of the archangel. God, I vow to seek the truth with diligence and come to a deeper understanding of the great red dragon’s poison within my nature. I vow, more so, to accept the inspection and supervision of other coworkers and leaders. I will accept the dealing and pruning of all. I shall place myself under the inspection of the entire congregation so I may fulfill my duties conscientiously to comfort Your heart. ![]() My Life Principles Left Me Damaged Changkai Benxi City, Liaoning Province The common phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” is one with which I am all too personally familiar. My husband and I were all particularly guileless people: When it came to matters that involved our own personal benefit or loss, we weren’t the type to haggle and fuss with others. Where we could be forbearing we were forbearing, where we could be accommodating we also did our best to be accommodating. As a result, we often found ourselves cheated and abused by others. It really seemed that in life, “All lay loads on the willing horse”—if you have too much kindness in your heart, if you’re too accommodating and modest in your affairs, you’re very liable to be cheated. With these thoughts in mind, I resolved to not subject myself to all this abuse and live in frustration anymore: In future matters and in dealings with others, I vow not to be too accommodating. Even after I accepted Almighty God’s work, I still applied this principle in conducting my behavior and interactions with others. At one point, I was working with a sister in fulfilling our duties. This sister often pointed out my inadequacies and shortcomings; I had the feeling that she was holding me down in every way. At first I thought: It’s not easy to be on your own away from home, try to use some forbearance. Later, however, after the sister proved to be unrelenting in her criticisms, I finally thought back to that phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.” It occurred to me that the sister must have recognized I was too kind and therefore an easy target and decided to make things hard on me by nitpicking over petty and inconsequential matters. I decided I wasn’t going to accommodate or forbear her behavior any longer, so I summoned all of the fishwife energy suppressed inside me and let loose an apoplectic tirade, stopping only when the sister didn’t dare to utter another word. Later, the sister asked me to commune with her and confided that she had realized the way she spoke and acted was very inhumane and hoped that I could forgive her. She also said that God had orchestrated this situation and used me as a way to deal with her. When I heard this, I was so pleased you would have thought I was a four-star general emerging victorious from the battlefield. What’s more, I was even further convinced that there was a lot of merit to the phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.” Only recently, while reading “The 100 Axioms of Satan Upon Which Corrupt Humans Rely for Existence” issued by the church, did I see a passage which said: “‘All lay loads on the willing horse.’ … Humanity has been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years and there are countless fallacies which Satan uses to brainwash people. Here we summarize 100 fallacies which humanity prizes as precious maxims to guide them through life. These fallacies have already taken root in the deepest depths of the human heart; if not equipped with the truths, humans are largely incapable of uncovering the true nature of these fallacies. If humans continue to hold Satan’s fallacies up as maxims and principles for living, corrupt humanity will never attain salvation.” After reading this passage from the fellowship I had a sudden realization, as if waking up from a long dream: The phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” was a fallacy created by Satan to indoctrinate and corrupt humankind. God asks that in our interactions with others we should be accepting, patient, tolerant, and forgiving. We should be thoughtful, respectful and loving toward others. By contrast, Satan’s life principle, “All lay loads on the willing horse,” subtly guides us away from good and toward evil, teaches us to not be too kind or conciliatory in our dealings with others. To protect ourselves, we must take “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” we must learn to be tough, barbarous and evil. I realized that “All lay loads on the willing horse” represents a fallacy, which is in diametrical opposition to the truth—it is Satan’s logic, it belongs to the negativity of Satan, a poison of the great red dragon. Satan works through these specious “theories” to brainwash humans into scheming against one another, murdering in cold blood, engaging in dogged and endless competition, submitting to no one until there is no humanity left within them. In this way humans become corrupt as Satan itself, sacrificial objects to be buried with it, and Satan achieves its goal of corrupting and consuming all of humanity. I couldn’t see through the illusion and took “All lay loads on the willing horse” as a truth to be accepted and respected. I thought that I couldn’t be too kind or accommodating, and that being patient or tolerant in dealings with others was the way of the stupid and ignorant and would only leave me vulnerable to cheating and abuse. Because I had always taken this fallacy as a maxim to be lived by, when the sister pointed out my inadequacies in order to help me to recognize them and change for the better, not only did I not accept her comments, I actually thought she was bullying me and nitpicking at inconsequential details. As a result, I unleashed the beast inside of me, acting like a demon. Even when the sister abased herself and offered me an apology, I still didn’t gain insight into myself or feel embarrassed, but rather sat there pleased as punch, thinking that the sister had finally “accepted defeat” because I had stuck to my maxim “All lay loads on the willing horse.” Having “won this victory,” I felt even more moved to uphold and praise this axiom of Satan. How absurd, how preposterous I was! I had gotten things completely backward, mistaking evil for good; I simply could not be reasoned with! God’s final work is to cleanse humanity of Satan’s poison, and use truth to change their corrupt disposition. In my own case, however, I hadn’t sought the truth, or strived to recognize Satan’s poison existing within me, nor did I practice the truth to change myself. Instead, I held on to Satan’s fallacies and rejected the truth. If I had continued on like that, I would never have begun to understand myself. I would never gain the truth and achieve a change in my disposition. In the end, I would have to be annihilated by God, as is Satan’s fate. Thank You God for Your enlightenment and illumination, which allowed me to realize that Satan’s axiom “All lay loads on the willing horse” is nothing but a fallacy which Satan uses to brainwash and corrupt mankind. This phrase is used as an excuse and tool by the corrupt mankind to continue striving against one another. The phrase is in contradiction to the truth, and can only corrupt and ruin mankind. If man attains his sustenance from Satan’s poison, if he acts according to Stan’s axioms, he will only become more corrupt and evil. He will be less and less humane and more and more in opposition to God, removed from God. He will never receive God’s salvation. Almighty God, I vow to put all my effort into Your words and into my pursuit of the truth, so that I may come to recognize the many varieties of Satan’s venom within me, thoroughly forsake the fallacies of Satan, and no more act according to Satan’s axioms. I vow to seek out Your will in all matters, and follow Your word, so that Your word may take root deep within my heart and become the axioms by which I do things, the standards against which I measure myself. Let me live in complete accord with Your word. ![]() The Secret Tip to Resolving Hatred Xiao Wu I was self-employed. Mainly I sold all kinds of textiles, and I also made clothes for my customers part-time. After a few years, my business became more and more popular, and people around me were all very envious. Later, a neighboring household opened the same kind of shop as mine and became my competitor. Naturally, the business in my shop was affected. The popular proverb says two of a trade never agree, but my peer was not just anyone, but my most trusted pupil, Xiaochen. Not only did Xiaochen open the same store next to my house, she even waited outside of her shop to intentionally steal my business. Whenever she saw somebody pass by the shop, she approached them and greeted them enthusiastically, guiding them into the shop, and she even purposefully said awful things about me. Seeing Xiaochen do everything she could to steal my business, I regretted taking her as my pupil and started hating her from my heart. When I saw her, I was unwilling to approach or talk to her, and sometimes I would even say some bad things about her in front of customers, or I would intentionally give customers a discount to bring back repeat customers, so that I could reduce her clients. But because we were neighbors, we could not avoid running into each other. As time passed, I became more and more pained and repressed in my heart, and my hate for her became deeper and deeper. It reached the point that whenever I looked at her, my heart became awfully choked, and my whole mind was occupied with thoughts of how to deal with her. Even when I dreamed, I dreamed I was fighting her. I was living so painfully at that time! In 2002, I heard my schoolmate say that believing in Jesus could bring peace and happiness, that it could broaden our hearts so that we no longer harbored hatred, so I believed in the Lord Jesus. I saw that the Lord Jesus said: “But I say to you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which spitefully use you. And to him that smites you on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that takes away your cloak forbid not to take your coat also” (Luk 6:27-29). From the Lord’s words I saw that the Lord has an unlimited and boundless love for us. He has unlimited tolerance, patience, and forgiveness for us. Didn’t the Lord already practice out these things that He required us to do? The Lord’s love deeply encouraged me, so I wanted to follow the Lord’s teachings, and I tried to tolerate Xiaochen, and not to quarrel with her. But in real life, I still hated her uncontrollably, and I could not practice the Lord’s word at all. When I thought that the Bible said that hating somebody is like killing them, I felt even more pain. I thought: I want to forgive Xiaochen, but why is it that I simply could not do it? I believe in the Lord and I know His demands, but why can’t I put the Lord’s word into practice? I lived in pain, and I could not extricate myself. Soon, in 2003, I had the fortune to accept God’s work in the last days. In a gathering, a sister read a part of God’s word directed toward my difficulty: “Man was only saved and forgiven his sins for his faith, but the sinful nature of man was not taken away and still remained within him. … This requires man to understand the path of growth in life, the way of life, and the way to change his disposition. It also needs man to act in accordance with this path so that the disposition of man can gradually be changed and he can live under the shining of the light, and that he can do all things in accord with the will of God, cast away the corrupt satanic disposition, and break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She also fellowshiped to me: “During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did a step of redemptive work. The sin of us humans was only forgiven, so that we were no longer sentenced by the laws. However, our sinful nature still remained, and it had not been resolved. It is like you living in hatred to Xiaochen, you can only control your external behavior to not insult her, but you have not resolved the source of hatred in your heart. We humans have been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years, and we have been completely taken over by all kinds of satanic poisons. Satanic philosophies and laws such as “Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,” and “A man dies for money; a bird dies for food” have become our life and our nature. We uncontrollably rely on these things to live, so we have all become selfish, self-interested, and only interested in profit. We fight and argue over our own interests and become jealous and hateful, causing us to uncontrollably commit sins and oppose God. Although in our heart we want to practice the Lord’s word, because we are bound and limited by satanic nature, we cannot put them into practice and we live in unbearable pain. In the last days Almighty God comes to resolve the root problem of us corrupt humans committing sins, to completely rescue us from Satan’s domain. For this purpose, God speaks words to perform the work of judging and purifying man, so that, through the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, we recognize our own satanic nature, come to understand that God’s righteous disposition is beyond reproach, gradually come to revere God, no longer live by Satan’s poison, seek the truth in all things, live on God’s word, and replace our own corrupt disposition with practicing the truth. In this way, we can live out a normal humanity, we can know how to act and how to conduct ourselves in contact with others. When we have left the bondage of Satan’s authority and are no longer controlled by our corrupt disposition, then we are living in release and freedom. Sister, if you often read the word of the Almighty God, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, often pray to God, ask God to protect your heart, then you will surely be able to let go of the hatred in your heart, break away from Satan’s corrupt disposition, and live relaxed and free. So, you must have confidence in God….” After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I understood that the reason I was never able to resolve the hatred in my heart while believing in the Lord Jesus is because the Lord Jesus only performed the work of redeeming sin, but not the work of casting away sin. This is why the satanic nature and corrupt disposition within me have not yet been removed. Only Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days can fully cleanse and transform me, rescuing me from sin! Having understood this, I became confident again about how to resolve the hatred between Xiaochen and me, and I made up my mind to properly pursue the truth and shed the satanic corrupt disposition soon. One day, I saw God’s word saying: “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? … 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” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)? After reading God’s word, I began to self-reflect. Why is it that I keep living in hatred to Xiaochen? Isn’t it just because she stole my business and this affected my own interests? In order to get more money and have one less competitor, all I thought about was how to exclude her and resent her, and I even had dark thoughts about her. In the past, I thought that my hatred of her had a reason. She offended me first, so that’s why I hated her to this extent. Now, I know that this is caused by my own selfish nature. Having recognized these things, I quickly prayed to God: “God, only now do I know that I hate Xiaochen because I have a selfish nature within me. God, I am willing to rebel against myself, I am unwilling to live by my satanic nature. I hope that You can help me, so that I can let go of my hatred to Xiaochen and live out a normal humanity.” In order to help me walk out of hatred, God arranged a situation for me. One day, Xiaochen was refurbishing her kitchen, and it took up the stairwell passageway shared between our two houses. Looking at this, I felt angry in my heart, that she was really pushing it too far. After stealing my business, now she was coming to take over my territory. This was really getting more and more out of hand! When I wanted to argue with her, I suddenly remembered that God said: “God is forever supreme and ever honorable, while man is forever base, forever worthless. This is because God is forever making sacrifices and devoting Himself to mankind; man, however, forever takes and strives only for himself. … for the effort of man is always for his own sake and not for others. Man is always selfish, while God is forever selfless. God is the source of all that is just, good, and beautiful, while man is he who succeeds to and makes manifest all ugliness and evil” (“It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Yes, God’s love is too selfless. God is incarnated into flesh twice only to save us humans. God has paid the absolute price so that we can achieve salvation. In the past, He sacrificed Himself on the cross for the salvation of humanity, and now He is incarnated into flesh again, enduring people’s resistance, condemnation, persecution, and defamation to perform work and save people, all without complaints or regrets and never asking us to repay Him. God’s life substance is so beautiful, so lovable, so worthy of our admiration and worship! And I have been corrupted by Satan to be too selfish and despicable, too cunning and evil, and I lived by Satan’s poison, “Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get.” As long as it relates to a bit of my profits, I would fight with others, haggle over every penny, and I cannot take any losses. I see what I live out is exactly the same as Satan’s, as if I am a living demon. Now, God has pointed out a path to changing my life disposition. I ought to practice it in accordance to God’s word, rebel against Satan, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. So, I prayed to God: “God, the matter that I encounter today is set up by You for me. I am willing to live out Your word, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. I hope that You will grant me confidence and strength, so I will no longer be fooled by Satan and let go of my hatred to Xiaochen in my heart.” After praying, my heart gradually became calmer, and I felt incomparably secure in my heart. At that moment, I felt for the first time that letting go of hatred could be so relaxing and releasing. Having had this experience, I was more willing to live my life in accordance to God’s word, and I was no longer willing to be fooled or corrupted by Satan. One morning, Xiaochen’s shop hadn’t opened yet, and I heard somebody yelling outside, “Miss Tailor! Open the door quickly!” I opened it up and had a look, and it turned out to be Xiaochen’s customer coming to pick up clothes from her shop. The customer saw that I opened the door, asking me if Xiaochen was at home. At this moment, I remembered something that happened before: One day, I was cleaning upstairs, and a customer came to look for me downstairs. Even though he knew I was at home, Xiaochen’s husband didn’t tell the customer. Thinking of this, I felt angry, and I didn’t want to tell the customer about the fact that Xiaochen’s at home. Then I remembered God’s word said: “You ought to know that God likes an honest man. … To be honest is to refrain from impurity in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (“Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When you rebel against the flesh, there will inevitably be a battle within you. Satan will try and make you follow it, will try and make you follow the conceptions of the flesh and uphold the interests of the flesh—but God’s words will enlighten and illuminate you within, and at this time it is up to you whether you follow God or follow Satan” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The enlightenment of God’s word allowed me to see that what I had just thought was still living by Satan’s poison. I wanted to treat Xiaochen as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Isn’t this still living within Satan’s corrupt disposition? God asks us to be an honest person and not lie or deceive people, but Satan allows me to act in accordance to the corrupt disposition of the flesh. Should I follow Satan and satisfy the flesh, or should I rebel against Satan, practice the truth, and satisfy God? At this moment, I felt God observing my every word, every act, and each and every movement. No, I must rebel against the flesh and practice the truth to satisfy God. Thinking of this, I told the customer calmly, “If you’re looking for Miss Xiaochen, she’s at home, just wait for a bit and she’ll come out.” When I practiced this, I felt very secure in my heart. Later, when repeat customers came to my house to make clothes but I was too busy and couldn’t manage it, I would introduce them to Xiaochen’s shop. When she found out later, she was also very touched. Finally, one day, when she saw me, she deliberated for a long time, and then called excitedly out, “Master!” This “Master” made me feel extremely warm inside. Ever since she opened her shop next to my house, she had never called me Master once. I knew at that moment that the reason we could resolve our hatred was because of the effect achieved by God’s word. Otherwise, the hatred between us could only get deeper and deeper. Thank God! All glory and praise unto Almighty God! ![]() A Different Experience of Job Seeking Liang Xin In today’s society, there are all different kinds of major enterprises and there seems to be a myriad of employment opportunities, but year after year, college graduates are a dime a dozen. The market of qualified employment candidates is so overcrowded you can’t gain a foothold, so the difficulty of finding employment after graduation has become a very practical problem. For every young person on the cusp of entering society after school, the most headache-inducing issue that they have to face is finding work, particularly at a good company. Everyone puts on their best face and racks their brains trying to squeeze their way in—the competition and pressure are intense. I, approaching graduation, had no choice but to face the plight of finding a job just like everybody else. The only thing different about me is that I’m a Christian and I believe that everything is prepared by God. However … Tossing Resumes to the Wind, the Arduous Path of a Job-Seeker As recruitment banners from all sorts of major companies began appearing and all kinds of recruitment ads were put up all over campus, students all crowded in front of the advertising board with the intention of reading every single recruitment notice. Work locations, salary, and recruitment conditions were our primary daily topics of conversation. The atmosphere on campus became very tense; the students were just like soldiers preparing for war, wanting to find a position to their liking. We were all rolling up our sleeves, preparing for action. One day, a top student who was in my dorm came back once again, dejected with her head hanging, and said listlessly: “It’s hopeless, again. Every company says to wait for news from them, but as soon as I leave I’m like another grain of sand on the beach.” In spite of myself, her words made my heart clench, and I thought: “Even for someone like her, the best student in our dorm, finding a job is this hard. What am I going to do?” She then went on to say: “Having a record of my grades is no use at all. Recruitment agencies aren’t looking at all of that. They look at how good-looking you are, how you carry yourself. If your external image isn’t good, you’re just wasting your breath.” This time her words really startled me: “It’s true! Society is very superficial now, so you either have to look good from the outside or have a way in through your family. Bookworms like her who are short, not that good-looking, and don’t have a nice demeanor, no matter how well they’ve done in school, they’re just making everyone else look better. I’m just like her—short, average-looking, and definitely fade into the background. How am I going to face looking for a job?” Thinking of all this, I started to fret over finding a job. Over that period of time, some recruitment agencies came to our school, and I went along with some of my classmates to talk to them. As soon as we stepped into the school auditorium it truly was an ocean of people. There were long lines in front of each recruiter’s table, and job-seekers were all eagerly crowding forward, intent on getting their resume into the recruiter’s hands first. However, I heard that successfully signed contracts were few and far between. Beautifully designed resumes with photographs affixed to the front piled up on the floor, scattered everywhere, some even with footprints on them. I felt pang after pang of sadness over this, and I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh: “Who says going to college will guarantee you a good future? Even finding a job is an almost impossible task!” Students were rejected one after another, chipping away at their confidence. Some even gave up in despair and said helplessly: “Whatever, it looks hopeless. I’ll just sign anything and be done with it.” Seeing my classmates lose their confidence one by one, my heart climbed up into my throat. I thought of a company I had been interested in with flexible work times that wouldn’t interfere with attending gatherings—everything was a good fit. I had prayed to God and left the issue in His hands to allow Him to arrange this matter—but later that company still hadn’t sent out recruiters. I couldn’t help but become anxious. I thought: “Why hasn’t that company come out to recruit yet? If they don’t come and I keep on like this, I won’t get a job anywhere else. Won’t that delay my future prospects?” Anxiously Awaiting, Why Not Leave It in God’s Hands? When my classmates saw that I wasn’t looking at other companies, they all told me: “You’re waiting around for nothing. It’s not certain if that company is going to come recruit at the school this year. If they don’t come, you won’t even have a chance at a job. What will you do then? Your hands will be tied!” I couldn’t help but feel concerned, hearing them say this. I thought: “They’re right! If that company really doesn’t come, once these companies are done recruiting, it really will have been in vain. I’ve spent four years in college. If I have to pack my bags and go back to my hometown after all this, how could I face all my family and friends who have placed such great hopes in me?” But I once again turned my thoughts to God, always keeping in mind that God will prepare something for me. I thought and I thought, and I still decided to wait. But waiting made the days really drag by. I heard a few rumors that that company wasn’t coming to recruit at my school that year, and every time it really agitated me. I was constantly concerned for my future and my confidence in God was shrinking. One time, a family member called me to ask about my job hunt and I explained my situation to him. He asked me: “Do you have a second-level certificate for computer?” “I didn’t test for it.” He then asked: “Do you hold some office in your school?” “No.” “Are you a Party member?” “No.” Hearing this, he said: “Don’t even think about that company coming or not. Without any of those things, it’ll be hard for you to get a position anywhere!” His words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over me, soaking me from head to foot. My heart was thoroughly chilled. I thought: “It would be great if I had successfully tested for those certifications! If I had participated in those school activities more proactively, wouldn’t my chances of finding work be greater?” But it then occurred to me, “But the top student in my dorm has all sorts of certifications and isn’t it just as hard for her to find work? They don’t play a decisive role either.” I felt much calmer after thinking about that. Day after day passed and the number of recruiting agencies dwindled. I was unbearably anxious but there was nothing I could do. I could only come in front of God and pray: “Oh God! I’m really suffering now and I can’t figure out what I should do about this issue of looking for a job. I’m afraid of losing my future prospects and of gaining nothing, ultimately becoming a laughingstock of my classmates. What should I do? God, please guide me.” After praying, I got out a notebook that I frequently wrote God’s words in and flipped through it. I stumbled upon a song praising God written by David: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up on a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. … When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said to you, Your face, LORD, will I seek. … Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies. Deliver me not over to the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psm 27:4-6, 8, 11-14). Seeing the words at the end, “wait, I say, on the LORD,” my heart was drawn to them. I continued reading: “That which My light shines upon, you must rely on Me to cast it away, live by Me always, be close to Me, and your actions must reveal My likeness. You shall fellowship with Me more when you are unsure of what to do, and I will guide you toward the right actions so that you may move forward. If you are unsure, do not take arbitrary actions; just wait for My time” (“The Twenty-ninth Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “You truly lack faith in My presence and often rely on yourselves to do things. ‘You can’t do anything without Me!’ But you corrupt people are always taking My words into one ear and out the other. Life nowadays is a life of words; without words there is no life, there is no experience, not to mention that there is no faith. Faith is in words; only by throwing yourselves more into God’s words can you have everything. Don’t worry about not growing up; life comes through growth, not through worrying.” “You are always apt to become anxious and don’t listen to My instructions. You always want to exceed My pace. What is that about? It is people’s wild ambitions. … Blind men! Why don’t you come to My presence more and seek? Why are you just acting blindly? You must see clearly! It is certainly not a person who is working now, but rather it is the Ruler of all, the one true God—the Almighty!” (“The Thirty-seventh Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading God’s words I suddenly felt my heart brighten. I thought: It’s true! Aren’t I an arbitrary person who is blind and foolish, trying to rely on myself? Even though I had left the issue of work in God’s hands for Him to decide, when the matter wasn’t settled I lost confidence in God and still didn’t wait for God to arrange circumstances for me or have an attitude of seeking and obedience. Instead, I fretted over my own future and fate. Faced with the facts, I finally saw that my understanding of God’s almightiness and rule was just a slogan, was just doctrine, but my actual faith in God was truly paltry and could not stand the test of time at all, nor could it hold firm when God arranged the proper circumstances. I thought of David writing the song in praise of Jehovah God; it was because he had seen so many of God’s deeds and had a true understanding of God’s almightiness and rule. So no matter what sort of hardships he encountered, he was able to genuinely lean on God, believing that God was faithful and would certainly guide him. Pondering all of this, my heart suddenly brightened: So, God actually carefully arranged all of this for me in order to perfect my faith and obedience for Him. What I need to do at this time is to exalt God as great in my heart, to set aside my own worries and concerns, and to experience God’s work and words within this environment, waiting for His will to become evident. I then came in front of God and prayed: “Oh God! Although I said with my mouth that I was putting the issue of work in Your hands, yet as I saw the hope of finding work growing fainter and fainter, I just wanted to do it on my own and I no longer believed in Your almightiness and rule. Oh God, my faith in You truly is so small! Now I understand Your will, and I will no longer rely on myself when doing things. I will no longer live within my worries and concerns, allowing Satan to toy with me. I only want to hand everything over to You and wait for Your time. I believe that everything You prepare for me will be the best.” I Will Never Fathom God’s Deeds Around midday three days, later my phone rang. It was an acquaintance from the Office of Academic Affairs, who said to me anxiously: “You better hurry up and get yourself out there. The leader from that company you’ve just been waiting for has come recruit and they’ll probably be away tonight. Hurry up and get out there.” This wonderful, unexpected surprise was very exciting for me and I simply didn’t dare believe that the company I had been waiting and hoping for, was suddenly coming three days after my prayer. Just then a passage from God’s words surfaced in my mind: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I felt amazed at how marvelous God is while quickly putting on a suit, grabbing my resume, and rushing to the recruitment center. The whole way there my mind was full of thoughts on what they would ask me and how I should answer. The more I thought the more nervous I got, so I quickly prayed to God, asking Him to calm me down. When I got there I saw a group of students outside who had gathered there some time ago. It seemed I was the last to receive the news. I went to the end of the line and watched one classmate after another go talk to the company leader, and they were all tactfully dismissed. They said they weren’t looking for female candidates, or they didn’t want anyone trying to test into graduate school—there were many reasons given for the rejection. My turn finally came. I very cautiously handed my resume to the leader—it was the very first resume I had handed over since the recruitment drive had begun, and it was the first one I had even printed. He looked it over and asked me if I had brought a copy of an employment agreement. I had. Unexpectedly, he didn’t ask me anything at all, but just said casually: “Sign it.” I didn’t dare believe my ears; it was just like being in a dream. When I finished signing it I felt like I was in a trance. Was I grateful, was I happy, was I excited? It was difficult to describe with words; all I could do was give my thanks and praise to God nonstop. I praised God and I praised Him more. Not only for getting a stable job, but even more because by going through that process, I had seen God’s wondrous ways and that all things and all events are under God’s rule and arrangements. Human thoughts and ideas are even more within His hands. God arranged the work for me, so no matter how high or how rigorous people thought recruitment conditions were, they could not change God’s rule or what He has determined. God’s words sprung to mind: “Without God’s work, no matter how good man’s doing, it will count for nothing, for the thoughts of God shall always be higher than the thoughts of man, and the wisdom of God is unfathomable to man” (“Only He Who Experiences the Work of God Truly Believes in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). This experience provided me with profound personal experience of these words from God. This job-seeking experience allowed me to genuinely see that God’s marvelousness and unfathomableness completely exceeds my imagination. Although those days of waiting felt long and arduous, after undergoing them they became a precious treasure in my life. My faith in God was too small, so He wanted to perfect my faith through the process of waiting to have me learn to give my true heart to God, to obey His rule and arrangements in all things. Thinking of it now, I sincerely feel that no matter how long that wait was, it would have been worth it because God reveals His deeds in His own time, letting me see that His actions are everywhere, that He is the most trustworthy, most practical One who is worth a lifelong faith and dependence! All glory be to God! Source: Gospel Testimonies ![]() A Father and His Step-Daughter Surpass the Ties of Blood By Xia Zixuan, Hubei Province A Grey Childhood There was no mother and no father around when Zixuan was growing up; she didn’t know what the cakes the children from the city talked about tasted like, and she’d never seen a goldfish blow bubbles in a fish tank. On no evening did she ever hear the stories of Grimm’s fairytales, but instead she listened to her grandpa tell her the story of The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. Her real father leaving and her mother remarrying had brought about feelings of inferiority when she was little, and even more so had become a shadow in the depth of her heart that she could not drive away. Especially when she saw the other children with their parents, caring for them and being with them, Zixuan’s heart would ache with pain. An Untraversable Chasm At the time of the millennium, Zixuan’s mother brought Zixuan to live with her in the city. Her step-father was good to her, but in her heart, Zixuan believed that “blood was thicker than water,” and that only family bonds built upon the kinship of blood were real. After all, her step-father was different from her biological father, and he could never treat her like his own daughter; even if he was good to her, it was a false display put on for her mother, and he was simply incapable of being sincerely and honestly good to her. Therefore, Zixuan felt very biased against her step-father, and they argued often. Even with tiny matters that were hardly worth a mention, as long as they happened in front of them both, it would develop into an entirely irrational quarrel. In over ten years, the family battles never ceased, their antagonism got worse and worse, and every one of them lived in a state of pain … Once the question of whether mushrooms should be blanched or not came up, and Zixuan and her step-father both stuck to their own views, in the end they both stomped off in anger, and after that they didn’t speak to each other again for two weeks. Zixuan’s mother was caught in the middle, and felt like she may as well adopt a neutral attitude, scolding them both and then employing the traditional virtue of “respecting the old and cherishing the young” to try to rein them both in. Because of her mother’s attempts to restrain them, Zixuan and her step-father would act very “harmoniously” in front of her mother, but the minute she was gone, they would quarrel unceasingly. Every time, it was Zixuan who would pick up on something, do something that was deliberately provocative and push her step-father to the end of his tether. But because Zixuan was the younger, she could only be reprimanded and lectured. Zixuan didn’t want to hear it, however, and felt it was unfair, and she thought: “How come the responsibility is always on me? Why is it always my fault?” This brought Zixuan much pain, and it proved to her even more that, in the absence of any blood ties, her step-father really was without any genuine concern or care for her after all—her real father would never have treated her this way, she thought. And so Zixuan couldn’t find it in her heart to love her step-father, and it seemed as though there existed an untraversable chasm between them. Feelings Reach Breaking Point Although Zixuan and her step-father were on “friendly terms” with each other when her mother was around, this feigned harmony could not last long. That year, the two of them couldn’t take it any longer and blew up over a certain matter, and thereafter their quarrels escalated, and the family was pushed toward breaking point. Winter came and temperatures dropped, and Zixuan’s step-father’s old illness of sinusitis returned. When they switched on their central heating, his nose would get so stuffy that he could hardly breathe, and to clear his nasal passages, he would open all the windows on the balcony. Yet Zixuan thought what a waste of money it was, to pay for central heating and yet have their home open to the four winds, like a great shack exposed to the elements. Not only that, but she was anemic and feared the cold, and so she resolutely forbade her step-father to open the windows. When it came to this issue, neither one of them would back down. Zixuan thought how her step-father was not as good as her biological father, and that he didn’t know how to love her, whereas her step-father thought of how he’d raised Zixuan for over ten years, all to no avail, and had expended so much of himself and yet had still failed to make her heart warm to him, and she didn’t understand him in the slightest. Zixuan’s mother saw that neither one of them would make a concession, and her patience had reached its limit. She just couldn’t stand it anymore, and so she yelled at them: “You’ve argued so often through all these years over such tiny things, have you ever once thought about my feelings? I’ve been stuck in the middle of you two for 18 years, how do you think I’ve managed to get through it?” Zixuan’s step-father felt bitterly disappointed, and he really couldn’t stand it any longer either, and so suggested to Zixuan’s mother that they divorce. Zixuan had also long since had enough of their life together, and she said angrily to her step-father, “Fine! Then we’ll each go our separate ways from now on, and stay clear of each other. I’m grown up now and can look after my mom. All our property and the house belong to you and I don’t want any of it. You’ve earned money all these years to raise me, so from now on I’ll pay it all back to you!” Seeing her family argue so, her mother felt grieved and helpless, and all she could do was sit in the living room, crying. This winter really had become a cold one for this family of three. Living in this awkward environment, Zixuan suffered greatly and felt much oppressed, and she felt even worse than she had done before. Yet she still didn’t know what to do, and could only yell silently at the sky every day: “Heavens, what should I do? Please help me …” Saved by God’s Hand Just when Zixuan was at her most pained and helpless, God’s salvation came upon her, and so her family that had been at breaking point was saved. Zixuan read these words of God: “One has no say in who one’s parents and relatives are, what kind of environment one grows up in; one’s relationships with the people, events, and things in one’s surroundings, and how they influence one’s development, are all beyond one’s control. Who decides these things, then? Who arranges them? Since people have no choice in the matter, since they cannot decide these things for themselves, and since they obviously do not take shape naturally, it goes without saying that the formation of all this rests in the hands of the Creator. Just as the Creator arranges the particular circumstances of every person’s birth, He also arranges the specific circumstances under which one grows up, needless to say. If a person’s birth brings changes to the people, events, and things around him or her, then that person’s growth and development will necessarily affect them as well. For example, some people are born into poor families, but grow up surrounded by wealth; others are born into affluent families but cause their families’ fortunes to decline, such that they grow up in poor environments. No one’s birth is governed by a fixed rule, and no one grows up under an inevitable, fixed set of circumstances. These are not things that a person can imagine or control; they are the products of one’s fate, and are determined by one’s fate. Of course, the bottom line is that they are predestined for a person’s fate by the Creator, they are determined by the Creator’s sovereignty over, and His plans for, that person’s fate” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words brought sudden enlightenment to Zixuan; it turned out that the family in which every single person is born, their background growing up, and who their parents, relatives and friends are, and so on, all have their source in the sovereignty and predestination of the Creator; it is not decided by parents, much less is it chosen by oneself. Zixuan thought of how she had been born into a poor family and her parents had not been around while she was growing up, but instead she had lived with her grandparents. Later, she became a family together with her step-father and, as it happened, these environments and backdrops as she grew up had all been predestined and arranged by the Creator. And because Zixuan had been nurtured on the ideas of atheism and evolutionism all these years, she hadn’t been aware that there was a God, nor did she know that people’s fates were ruled and predestined by God. Therefore, she had always felt dissatisfied with this kind of family, and had complained about her unfortunate fate. When it came to her step-father, she always treated him with bias, believing that, no matter how good a step-father he was to her, he could never be as good as a real father, and so she had become estranged from him and had always quarreled with him. For this reason, she had lived constantly in pain, and hadn’t this been brought about by her resisting and contending with the sovereignty and predestination of the Creator? And yet Zixuan couldn’t figure it out—what exactly was the reason that caused her to be dissatisfied with the fate the Creator had given her? That night, as Zixuan sat at her desk holding a book of God’s words in both hands, she continued searching for the answers, and she read these words of God: “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, and ever more opposed to Him” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “But when you truly know, when you truly come to recognize that God has sovereignty over human fate, when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Zixuan suddenly felt/felt suddenly like she understood: The root cause of why she hadn’t been able to get along with her step-father all these years was that she had been influenced and indoctrinated by the absurd traditional ideas of Satan, such as “blood is thicker than water,” and “without blood ties, it’s not a real family.” She had mistakenly believed that only those people who were related to her by blood were real relatives, and only they could be sincerely good to her—her step-father could never compare with her biological father. And so Zixuan had always suspected that her step-father’s good treatment of her had not come from a place of sincerity, and no matter how good he was to her, she always saw him as being false. So in over ten years, she had been unable to accept him or understand him, and she had quarreled with him often over tiny things that weren’t really worth mentioning; she had been raised by her step-father without knowing to be grateful, and nor did she have a shred of the conscience or sense or humanity that a normal person should have, and so she had not only hurt her step-father, but she had also brought great pain to her mother and had suffered a great deal herself. Now, she thought of her real father who had been a gambler, and about how he had never once bothered with her in all these years. Although her grandparents were getting on in years and didn’t have the strength to raise her, her real father had never given them any money to help out. Then she thought of her step-father: Although he was not related to Zixuan by blood, he had been willing to take on the responsibility of raising her, and had provided her with food, clothing, and had paid for her to go to school. Only when she thought this did Zixuan perceive that the Creator had arranged what was best and most suitable for her, and that it was God’s love that had enabled her to live a life in which she had everything she needed under her step-father’s roof. But her mind had been distorted by the mistaken ideas of Satan, and she had never been able to accept her step-father or fit into this new family after her mother remarried. At that moment, Zixuan felt like crying, and she thought of how she had enjoyed the Creator’s love and yet had never felt any gratitude, nor had she expressed any gratitude toward her step-father for his kindness of having raised her for 18 years—she felt so devoid of conscience! After she’d come to this understanding, her heart at last was brightened, and the haze that had shrouded her heart for so many years was swept away. She offered up a prayer to God: “O God! You have arranged what was best for me, and yet I have always been deceived by Satan, and have been deceived and held in bondage by the idea and the view that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ I have always felt displeased with the family that You arranged and predestined for me, and I have lived in misunderstandings and blame, unable to accept or submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements and bringing so much hurt and pain to my mother and step-father. O God! I now wish to let go of my previous mistaken views, submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements concerning my fate, treat my step-father fairly, and by Your word live out a human likeness. Amen!” Beginning A New Life From that time on, Zixuan began to cherish the family and relatives the Creator had arranged for her, and through being watered by God’s words, she seemed to grow up all of a sudden and become sensible. Zixuan no longer saw her step-father as an interloper, but instead treated him as her own family; she also learned to consider matters from other people’s perspectives, and understand and show consideration for the difficulties faced by her step-father and mother. She took responsibility for herself within the family, and did to the best of her ability the things she was supposed to do: She actively took responsibility for cooking the family meals so that at least when her step-father and mother returned home from work every day, they were sure to eat a meal Zixuan had cooked; whenever the sun showed its face, Zixuan actively hung her step-father’s duvet out to expose it to the sunshine; whenever her step-father expressed a view, she no longer contradicted him or opposed him, but instead she learned to respect her step-father, and if his opinion was correct, then she would agree with him. Little by little, Zixuan came to realize that the family God had predestined for her was actually really great, and all she ever perceived was love … One afternoon, when the blazing sun was high in the sky, Zixuan’s step-father braved the scorching heat and traveled a long distance to buy her a kind of cantaloupe that was grown far afield that she most enjoyed eating. When he got back, he was sweating profusely and his face had been burnt red by the sun, but when Zixuan was not there, he said to her mother: “This cantaloupe was really hard to buy. I’ve bought it especially for Zixuan, so don’t eat too much of it.” When he saw that Zixuan was still studying at 2 a.m. in the morning, he made a special trip to the market to buy her a brighter lamp, so that she could use it at nighttime…. Actually, he normally did things like this anyway, but Zixuan had never previously thought much of it. When she now looked again at these things her step-father was doing for her, her eyes overran with tears. She had truly come to appreciate that the family the Creator had predestined for her had always been one of love and warmth, it was just that she had always lived in blame and had never really perceived it. In gratitude, she offered up her thanks and praise to the Creator! Later, when her step-father went to the market to buy food, Zixuan would often go to help him, and their neighbors admired them. When Zixuan wasn’t around, her step-father would often praise her to her mother on how she had matured and become sensible, and about how she was able to be considerate to people, and long-awaited smiles bloomed on her mother’s face; Zixuan also left the pain of all those years behind at last, and began to live a relaxed and happy life. From then on, God’s word became the principle with which the family associated with each other, and more so became the standard of their conduct. The battles of the past were replaced by the practice of the truth, and love, understanding and tolerance took the place of the blame and misunderstandings of the past…. Although Zixuan and her step-father weren’t real father and daughter, yet they became something better, and the love and consideration between them surpassed the ties of blood. This was all because of the change wrought in them by God’s words, and God’s words also enabled this family, which had been at breaking point, to start anew! Source: Gospel Testimonies ![]() 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.” Ma Ling well knew that believing in God and performing her duty in China, a country with an atheist party in power, meant being subject to the CCP police’s persecution and arrest and even the danger of losing her life; and that Christians’ homes had not been their own for a long time, and wherever they went, they couldn’t stay long—her home would have to be sold sooner or later. She knew that selling it was her best course of action at the time, but she still owed tens of thousands of yuan on her mortgage. After the divorce from her husband she could not get her residence booklet from him, so she hadn’t been able to get the deed for the property. Without the property deed, there was no way to sell the apartment. The memory from several months prior of being sent off by an employee because the documents for her property deed weren’t complete surfaced in Ma Ling’s mind and she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. She was feeling a bit anxious. The more she thought about it, the more difficult she felt it was and the more unsettled she felt. All she could do was pray to God: “Oh God! Some brothers and sisters from the church have been arrested and my home is in danger. I want to buy a different place to continue performing my duty but I can’t get the property deed, so I have no way to sell this apartment. O God! Faced with this difficulty, I don’t know what to do next. Oh God, may You guide me, and if Your will is that I sell this apartment, may You open up a path….” After praying, Ma Ling thought of these words from God: “If you believe in the dominion of God, then you must believe that the things that happen every day, be they good or bad, don’t happen accidentally. It is not that someone doesn’t get on with you or opposes you on purpose; it is actually all arranged and orchestrated by God. … Through obeying, seeking, praying more, retreating to your spirit and coming before God then, unbeknownst to you, a change will happen in your inner condition. During this period, the reality of the truth is being wrought in you” (“To Attain the Truth, You Must Learn From the People, Matters, and Things Around You” in Records of Christ’s Talks). After thinking of this passage, Ma Ling’s agitated heart settled a bit. She realized that the things we encounter in our lives every day, both big and small, are within God’s rule and arrangements, and that as God had allowed her brothers and sisters to be arrested, her home becoming entangled also had God’s good intentions within it, and there had to be a truth she needed to enter into. She thought that this particular environment would force her to rely on and look to God more, and whether or not she was able to sell her home, she was willing to leave the entire matter in God’s hands, to experience God’s work and understand His almightiness and sovereignty through this. After understanding God’s will, Ma Ling determined she would try to get her property deed first thing in the morning. The next day she still felt nervous when arriving at the Deed and Title Transferring Office. Pacing back and forth outside of the main hall, she continually prayed to God: “Oh God! I am handing the issue of applying for the property deed over to You, and look to You for it. No matter what happens today I believe that behind it is Your will. O God, I only ask You to keep watch over my heart so that no matter what the outcome, I will be able to quiet myself before You, learn to submit to the environment I am in, not complain, and not blame You.” After praying Ma Ling clenched her fists a bit—she pushed open the door to the main hall and strode in. Clutching a stack of paperwork, she lined up at the deed applications window. Seeing the long line stretching out in front of her, she felt a little worried: “I wasn’t able to get the deed when I came before; will I get it this time? Isn’t not having my residence booklet a real problem?” In her heart she called out to God over and over to give her faith, and soon God’s words surfaced in her mind: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Mulling these words over, Ma Ling gradually gained some faith and strength. She thought: “That’s right! Any and all things are within God’s rule. God can make that which did not exist, exist; He can make that which did exist, not exist. Isn’t the thinking of the employee also within God’s hands? It is ultimately up to God whether or not I can get the property deed, and I believe that with God nothing is impossible. Even if I really can’t get the deed, I’m certain that behind this are His good intentions and I must learn to obey His sovereignty and arrangements.” Just then an employee asked Ma Ling, “Excuse me, what can we help you with today?” She replied, “I’m here to get the deed for my apartment.” The employee took the packet of documents she was holding and carefully looked through them page by page, then asked, “Do you have your residence booklet and marriage license?” Ma Ling replied honestly: “I can’t bring my residence booklet with me. Is there anything at all that can be done?” Saying this, she clenched her fists a bit and silently called out to God nonstop, afraid that the employee would slam her folder of documents closed, as had happened in the past, and tell her to come back when she had everything. To Ma Ling’s surprise, the employee paused for a moment and then said: “First go make photocopies of these documents, then find someone to help you get a photo of your residence booklet. You’ll also need to get a copy of your mortgage from the bank and a certificate of your marital status from the Civil Affairs Bureau.” When Ma Ling heard this, her tension finally dissipated and she gave sincere thanks to God for His guidance. It looked like things were falling into place. Ma Ling thought of a way to quickly get a photo of her residence booklet, and she even got a copy of her mortgage from the bank without going through the usual approval process. By 4:30 that afternoon she arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau and got a certificate of her marital status in hand, without a hitch. Seeing it was nearly 5:00 pm, closing time, Ma Ling rushed to the main hall in one go with all of her documents in hand. She hurriedly handed everything over to the employee. After looking through those documents, the employee smiled and said to her: “We have everything we need. Wait for us to get in touch with you then come back to pick up your deed.” Hearing this, Ma Ling was both surprised and excited. She hardly dared believe that over the course of just one short afternoon her property deed had been taken care of! Generally a copy of the mortgage on her apartment from the bank needed to be applied for in advance and took two weeks to get, but she was unexpectedly able to get it on the spot. On top of that, the employees at the Deed and Title Transferring Office when she had come before weren’t willing to deal with her case. She hadn’t imagined that not only would that employee have a much better attitude this time, but would also inform her of her best course of action. All of this was God opening up a pathway for her—it was God’s guidance! Ma Ling then gained a genuine personal understanding of God’s words: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” She really felt that all things are within God’s orchestrations and are doing service for God’s work, and that this is a reflection of God’s authority. Part 2 A few days later Ma Ling had her property deed in hand and was then able to get the sale of her apartment registered with a few agents. In the following days there were people coming to look at the apartment one after the other, but they were all put off by its small size and the fact that the property deed had just been issued (According to the regulations of the State, when buying an apartment with a newly-issued deed, an additional 20,000 yuan in property taxes is required). They thought it wasn’t ideal. One prospective buyer after another wasn’t interested in buying the apartment after seeing it, and Ma Ling became a bit concerned. An agent told her: “To be honest, the real estate market is really hot right now, and generally we can sell a place in just a few days. There have been so many people who have looked at your apartment but it still hasn’t been sold. The price is probably too high.” In hopes of getting her home sold expediently, Ma Ling had no choice but to ask the agents to reduce the price by 10,000 yuan. Ma Ling thought that with the reduced price the apartment should sell really quickly, but after another few days without any progress, she was losing hope and feeling anxious. She started to consider: “Hm, even with the price reduction no one wants to buy the apartment. The critical issues are that it’s small and the property deed had just been issued, so most potential buyers will feel it’s not a good investment. If I lower the price even more it won’t be enough for me to buy another place. It’s no easy task to get this place sold in a hurry…. But if I can’t sell it and this drags on, what if the CCP police find my home?” Ma Ling felt confused and overwhelmed in the face of this dilemma. In her helplessness, she realized that she was not in a good state—she was completely consumed by the difficulties of selling her home and did not have confidence in God. She prayed to God: “Oh God! The CCP government’s persecution of Christians has become worse and worse, and in some places the police have started going door-to-door to look for believers. Plus I don’t know how my brothers and sisters who were arrested are doing now, and the others who have been implicated have all been forced to flee. I’m the only one who hasn’t managed to get my affairs in order. Oh, God! I want to sell this apartment and continue to perform my duty, but my faith is not great enough, and I don’t know how to deal with the difficulties I’m currently facing. O God! May You give me true faith and strength so that I will not become negative or weak in this environment and I will be able to live relying upon Your words, and learn to obey Your orchestrations and arrangements.” After praying Ma Ling opened up a book of God’s words and saw the following: “To put it plainly, ‘the authority of God’ means that it is up to God. God has the right to decide how to do something, and it is done in whatever way He wishes. The law of all things is up to God, and not up to man; neither can it be altered by man. It cannot be moved by the will of man, but is instead changed by the thoughts of God, and the wisdom of God, and the orders of God, and this is a fact that is undeniable to any man” (“God Himself, the Unique I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words gave her great faith, enabling her to realize: “The heavens, earth, and all things are ruled by God and under the arrangement of God; aren’t all human affairs also within God’s rule?” Ma Ling thought of the Lord Jesus using five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand people in the Age of Grace and of Him raising Lazarus with a single word. In human eyes, these wonders are simply not possible, but they were really and truly done by God. All of that was the manifestation of God’s authority, so how could the issue of her home being sold not be within God’s arrangement and orchestration? Both the price it was sold for and the day when it was sold were also determined by God. If no one ever bought it and she was arrested by the CCP government, that would be what she needed to experience and there would certainly be truths that she needed to gain within that kind of environment. At this point, she was no longer willing to rely upon her own thinking to figure out if the apartment could be sold or not and realized that she needed to learn to seek God’s will, leadership, and guidance and wait and observe God’s deeds in the midst of this hardship. She felt much better after coming to understand all of that. She didn’t feel so anxious anymore, and just wanted to be able to concentrate fully on fulfilling her duty. That day a person came to look at the apartment, who, to Ma Ling’s surprise, took a liking to it and showed genuine interest in buying it. After negotiations the selling price was 5,000 yuan higher than she had anticipated. Not only that, but with alacrity the buyer paid for it up front with a single cash deposit of over 300,000 yuan. The buyer also agreed to allow Ma Ling to continue living there after the sale was complete until she was able to find another place. Seeing God’s rule and arrangements in all of this, on top of feeling gratitude to God, Ma Ling also gained true personal experience of God’s almightiness and sovereignty and she felt even more ashamed of her lack of faith. Thinking of everything that had taken place, from getting the property deed to selling the apartment, she saw that according to man’s mind, none of that could have been taken care of, as they were things that human means couldn’t achieve, but with what God had brought into play and arranged, everything had gone very smoothly. It was beyond human imagination. It was perfectly clear that getting a copy of her mortgage from the bank should have taken two weeks, but she got it that same day. It was quite evident that it was not an ideal apartment in several aspects, but because the buyer liked the layout of the apartment and the direction it faced, he was willing to buy it for a slightly higher price. The facts laid out before her gave her a genuine realization that all those things truly were within God’s control and His domination. They were determined by God—when it wasn’t the right time for Him, He wouldn’t do anything, and no matter how much she ran hither and thither, how much she ran herself ragged, nothing would be resolved. Part 3 After receiving the buyer’s payment, Ma Ling just had 250,000 yuan left after paying off the mortgage. Considering the fact that apartments were about 10,000 yuan/m2 on average at the time and even an unfinished garage would be sold for over 200,000 yuan, she thought there was no way she’d be able to afford an apartment with what she had in hand. Ma Ling felt a little discouraged—if she really couldn’t buy a place she’d have to rent, but the CCP government was closely investigating rented households. If she were renting, it wouldn’t be safe to perform her duty. She really didn’t know what to do. She racked her brains, but still felt that with the little bit of money she had, buying another place was nothing but a fantasy. She prepared herself for the worst. If she couldn’t afford another place she would have to rent, and even if that might bring danger there was nothing she could do about it. Ma Ling later read these words from God: “What man does or thinks, what man understands, the plans of man—none of this bears any relation to God. Everything proceeds according to God’s plan, in keeping with the times and stages set by God. Such is the principle of God’s work. … Do the facts prove that the behavior and conduct of man hindered the work of God? They did not hinder the work of God! Did man’s little faith in God, and his conceptions and imagination about God affect God’s work? No, they did not! Not in the least! God’s management plan is unaffected by any man, matter, or environment. All that He resolves to do will be completed and accomplished on time and according to His plan, and His work cannot be interfered with by any man. God ignores certain aspects of man’s foolishness and ignorance, and even certain aspects of man’s resistance and conceptions toward Him, doing the work that He must do regardless. This is God’s disposition, and is a reflection of His omnipotence” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Pondering over God’s words, Ma Ling thought of a matter that had happened in the Age of Law: When God promised Abraham that he would have a son, even though Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old, did not believe it was possible and fell down to the ground, laughing, God did cause Isaac to be born on the appointed day and carried out the work of the Age of Law on Abraham’s descendants. This made Ma Ling realize that human notions and delimitations cannot possibly hold back the completion of God’s work. As long as God has determined to do something, it will occur and become a fact, no matter where or when. She understood that this little difficulty she was facing in buying a home counted as nothing for God. God saw it with the utmost clarity. It was just she, foolish and ignorant, who could not see into the matter and did not have enough faith in God. Thinking of this, Ma Ling felt a rush of faith, realizing that when encountering difficulties she had always looked at the problems through her own eyes. Take buying a home this time as an example—she thought that whatever she could achieve God could also achieve, and that God couldn’t achieve whatever didn’t seem achievable. Wasn’t that lacking true understanding of God’s almightiness and sovereignty? Even if God chose not to open up a path for her to buy a new place, that wouldn’t mean He wasn’t able to do it, just that He had planned to do things that way. Either way, she should submit. When she thought of this Ma Ling’s heart felt much enlightened. She was no longer willing to rely on her own notions and imaginings in issues she encountered. As it is written: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecc 3:1). She would let things take their course with buying a home and believe that God had prepared and arranged everything. A few days later her agent suddenly called: “There’s a two-bedroom for sale and they have the deed….” Ma Ling hung up the phone and rushed out to see it. It was in good condition, in a nice location, and the price was good. It was perfect for her, and most importantly, it was really easy to get in and out of the place so that would be beneficial for performing her duty. Ma Ling reserved the apartment. She was absolutely certain that this was what God had prepared; she silently thanked God over and over. After moving in to her new place, it was much safer to have brothers and sisters over. They didn’t have to be as constrained as before. At the very least, the CCP police still weren’t aware that she was there so she could also perform her duty in peace. Experiencing such wondrous orchestration and arrangement from God once again, Ma Ling felt that she was very much in His debt. She saw that her faith in God truly was too small and at the same time felt an indescribable excitement and joy. Seeing all of these things happen one after another, she came to have a bit of genuine experience and understanding of God’s words: “Of everything that occurs in the universe, there is nothing that I do not have the final say in. What exists that is not in My hands?” (“The First Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She thought: “It’s so true. God’s authority and almightiness are with us at all times, in all places. God has the final say in all things, and no human can fathom God’s almightiness and sovereignty.” In the silence of the night, Ma Ling sat under the lamp at her desk and wrote in her notebook: “As one of creation, whatever I encounter, as long as I maintain a heart of accepting and obeying the sovereignty and arrangements of the Lord of creation, as long as I actively experience the leading and guidance of God’s words and observe His deeds, I will be able to personally experience His faithfulness as well as the authority and power that His words possess. As long as I genuinely believe in God and rely on Him, no matter what difficulties I face God will be there to help me at any time.” Thanks be to God! All the glory be to Almighty God! Who Was It That Rescued Her Marriage? (Audio Essay)
Yang Zi, China She had just turned twenty, she had a graceful figure and appeared as pretty as a flower, and there were many suitors pursuing her. But she didn’t pay this any mind until one day when her friend invited her to come out and she by chance met Lin. Lin was almost 6 feet tall, he was tall and handsome, with a dignified bearing. He spoke with humor and with wit, and was able to attract her in an instant. And Lin too was quite interested in her. The two of them started seeing each other very soon, and after a few months they got married. Before long they had a child of their own, and this made her feel very blessed. But good things don’t last forever. Just when she was starting to enjoy everything and long for a beautiful future, she discovered that Lin was not engaging in honest work every day. All day long he was idling about, and he would even go out often and get in fights and gamble. When he returned home, he would pick out faults with her no matter if there was something going on or not. He simply did not care for her or their child. She did not understand why Lin was acting this way. Many times with eyes full of tears she would urge Lin to walk the correct path, but not only did Lin not listen, he would even lash out at her, and one time he even went so far as to nearly choke her to death. She had lost all hope in Lin. Before long, Lin got sentenced to prison for breaking the law, and she had to support herself and their one-and-a-half-year-old child on her own. Her life was full of hardships and dashed hopes. It wasn’t until 2003, when Lin completed his prison sentence and was released, that she was finished with this painful marriage. After this, she took her son to her parents’ home. Since she didn’t have a job, she and her son had to rely on her relatives to assist them, which made her feel very embarrassed and helpless. When her neighbors saw that she was having difficulty taking care of her child by herself, they made an effort to look for a partner to introduce to her. At first she thought that she just wanted an average man, that as long as he was good to her child then it would be okay, but then she thought to herself: I’m still quite young, although I’ve gotten divorced, I cannot just settle for anyone. To her surprise, her neighbors introduced her to men who were very short, or otherwise they weren’t the least bit handsome, or they didn’t have a dignified bearing, some of them even forsook her for having a child, and none of the men that came by suited her, which made her feel quite disappointed. Later on she met Jun, he was eight years older than her, he was divorced, and he had a daughter. He had a dark complexion and average looks, and he wasn’t very tall. In her heart she didn’t really regard Jun highly, but he was honest and kind-hearted, and he was very kind to her and her son. So, she thought it over, and decided that for the sake of her son she had to compromise and marry him. After they got married, he was just as kind to them as he was before. He took care of them, he was very considerate, and he even did work around the house, cooking food and washing clothes. But she couldn’t get past the pitfall of her vanity, so she still could not completely accept Jun in her heart. She resented him for looking ugly and felt that he was undeserving of her. For this reason, she never wanted to go outside together with her husband. One time when she was out, she saw a dress in the display window of a shop that she really wanted to go try on, but she saw her husband behind her, who was old and dark, she thought if she let him walk beside her then the people working in the shop would certainly point at her and make fun of her behind her back, they would laugh about how she didn’t have a good eye for things. How could her husband be so old? She couldn’t let go of this pride of hers, so she made him wait for her outside in the entryway of the shop. In that moment, she saw a look of disappointment sweep over his eyes, but then he immediately smiled and said: “Go try it on, I’ll wait for you.” When she heard this, she felt somewhat ashamed and uneasy. After this, in order to make her accept him in her heart, Jun took over all household duties, and did them the best he could, but no matter what he did, she wasn’t able to fully accept him. In 2010 she started doing cosmetics business, and when this started, the clothes and makeup she wore became more and more fashionable and trendy, making her look even younger and more beautiful. When she would stand in front of the mirror next to her husband, he appeared even more like a rural peasant in contrast to her, he didn’t have the looks or the personality. The distance between them had increased, and at this time she felt even worse in her heart. In addition, she was interacting with lots of people and saw that these other people’s husbands were good-looking and outstanding, so whenever she would return home and see her husband, she would feel more dissatisfied, and she could not help but find faults with him. Actually, she felt lost, for she knew that her husband had always worked hard to win her favor, and that she shouldn’t treat him like this, but since she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, she couldn’t control how she felt. As time passed, Jun was unable to put up with this kind of life, the two of them would often get into quarrels, and they were living in suffering. She thought back to one afternoon when Jun came to the office to pick her up. Actually it would have been a good thing if he did not come because none of her coworkers knew what he looked like. But he came that day to pick her up, and then the next day her coworkers circled around her, asking: “Who was that yesterday who picked you up? He looked so rustic….” She immediately felt like she had lost face. She felt upset because she thought that her husband shouldn’t have come to pick her up. At the same time, she also asked herself how she could have found such a disappointing husband that she didn’t want to be seen with, who was ridiculed and looked down upon by other people. She really had a difficult time living like this. In this moment, she came up with a brazen idea: She would look again for someone of the opposite sex that she liked. As for her marriage with Jun, if it really wasn’t going to work then she’d end it. Thereupon, she accompanied her coworkers whenever they invited her to go sing at KTV, but all she wanted to do was find a person of the opposite sex that she admired. At this time, since Jun was often being avoided and ignored by her, he started to feel a suffering in his heart, and he too started feeling more and more indifferent toward her. It got to the point that he too would sometimes not return home when he got off of work. In this way, the marriage between her and Jun entered into a crisis … It was at this time that a classmate introduced to her the salvation of God in the last days. She saw that God’s word is very practical, and that every sentence spoke to a deep place within her heart. Not only did it reveal the truth and substance of humanity being corrupted by Satan, it also pointed out the proper path to follow in one’s life. So she gladly accepted God’s work in the last days. When she got together with brothers and sisters, she saw that they were all very pure and that they loved one another, and whenever they got together they never talked about what they wore or ate or about other pleasures. They never compared themselves with each other to see who was the prettiest or who had the most money, all of them just focused on pursuing the truth, and whenever things befell them they would always pray to God to seek. They reflected on themselves in the word of God to get to know themselves, and they strove to put the word of God into practice and conduct themselves as honest people. This was something that she had never seen before. In addition, she also saw that whenever the brothers and sisters were with their husbands and wives, they were still putting the word of God into practice. In particular, there was a sister who was younger and prettier than her whose husband had even worse looks than Jun, but the sister didn’t avoid her husband at all. The two of them got along very harmoniously. She couldn’t comprehend this. She didn’t understand why the sister wasn’t avoiding her husband. Later on the sister fellowshiped with her, saying: “Every person’s marriage was predestined long ago by God, so no matter what kind of marriage it is, behind the scenes there is always God’s careful arrangement, and in particular, whenever the husband that God arranges for us doesn’t have any looks and doesn’t conform to our expectations, this is actually the best thing possible for us, for within this is the gracious will of God. It is only because we have been deeply corrupted by Satan that we always have extravagant desires, picks and demands, which make us not understand what God’s intention is whenever He makes His arrangements, so then we always look down upon our own husband and feel that our marriages are not what we wished for, which makes us live in suffering. But when we seek God’s will and come to an understanding of the truth and are willing to let go of our individual preferences and desires, then we will see that the arrangement God has made for us is the best and most suitable for us, and really it is protection for us. If we are able to naturally submit to this, then we will no longer turn our backs to our husbands.” At that time, since she had just started believing in God, she still wasn’t aware of the truth, she seemed to understand the sister’s fellowship but did not really understand it. She just greatly admired what the sister lived out in the presence of her husband. One day came when she read in the word of God: “We only wish to talk about the ideas that social trends bring about for people, the way they cause people to conduct themselves in the world, the life goals and outlook that they bring about in people. These are very important; they can control and influence man’s state of mind. … 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. 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” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Once she finished the word of God, she finally understood. Actually, her suffering in these past years all originated from Satan’s corruption. Satan imbues man with the idea that men looking for women who are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” and women looking for men who are “tall, rich and handsome” is the only way to have a blessed and happy marriage. Under the influence of this kind of societal trend, people’s viewpoints on marriage have become distorted. Nowadays when people search for their other half, they simply do not care about the quality of their partner’s humanity, and whether or not they are suitable for themselves, instead they stress their partner’s looks, whether or not they’re tall and handsome or fair-skinned and pretty, or if their family is well off, or whether or not they meet the standards they have demanded for their spouse, and so on. They feel that so long as they are able to find a handsome or pretty spouse with money, then they will have a grand and enjoyable life that certainly will not be lived in vain. She also unwittingly accepted this kind of viewpoint when it came to choosing a spouse. In her mind she had always hoped to find a tall and handsome husband with a dignified bearing to share her life with, and she believed that this alone would make her happy. Think about it, the first husband that she chose carefully—Lin—all of his qualifications conformed to the standards she had when it came to choosing a spouse, he really did satisfy her vanity, but after they got married she realized that Lin’s humanity was not good, that his behavior was stubborn and obstreperous and that he had countless bad habits. Not only did she not have a happy marriage, on the contrary she was neglected by Lin, he made things difficult for her and even beat her. At last, she was even forced to raise her child alone. Whenever she was living together with Lin, there was a lot of suffering in her body and in her soul, and in the end, while she was in pain, she ended this first marriage. Whenever she thinks about that time in her life now, it scares her. But her current husband—Jun—although he is not handsome or tall, although he is quite unsophisticated, still his moral standing is good. He is kind-hearted and plays his part, and he really looks after the family. He takes care of and is really considerate of her and her son. He is always thinking of ways to make her like him and treats her son as his own. But because Jun’s looks were not as good as what she wished for, she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, and she always felt that Jun did not deserve her. She felt that she lost face and lowered her social status by finding a husband like this, so she always looked at him with unfavorable eyes. All along she wasn’t able to accept him, and it got to the point to where she wanted to fully give up on her marriage with Jun and once again find someone of the opposite sex who was tall and handsome so that she could satisfy her vanity. It was in this moment that she finally came to a sort of realization. Because she had been imbued with Satan’s ideas and her viewpoints on marriage were distorted, she didn’t know what kind of marriage she needed, so she was not able to accept Jun, and fully ignored and neglected Jun, which caused her and Jun to both live in suffering. It was for this reason that their marriage was going down a rocky path. In that moment, she really did come to an understanding through her experience. If people do not believe in God, they will not possess the truth, and so they will not be able to discern Satan’s misconceptions and lies. They will follow the evil trends of society and live on the basis of Satan’s erroneous thoughts and viewpoints, they will be duped and bound by Satan and live in suffering. How truly pitiable this is! After understanding these things, she was willing to turn away from her own mistaken viewpoints and take another look at the marriage she was in. She was also fully aware that she was a Christian herself, so she must live out the likeness of a Christian to bring shame to Satan. Thereupon she stopped thinking about going off to look for someone of the opposite sex who conformed to her desires, and instead she started to care for Jun. Slowly, she started to accept Jun in her heart. Jun could also feel the change she went through, which made him very happy. They gradually grew much closer than before when they had been indifferent to one another. The mood in their home also stopped being so tense. One day her friend came to visit her at home. When Jun saw her coming, he hurried into the kitchen to prepare lunch. As the two of them chatted, her friend said: “Our classmate Pan Lin’s husband is handsome and rich. He’s the vice president of a company and has several properties in Hangzhou….” As she heard her friend say this, she felt a sting in her heart, and she immediately thought about her dream from youth, which brought about a vague feeling of disappointment…. She realized that her situation wasn’t right, so she immediately prayed to God asking Him to protect her heart. After the prayer, she realized: When we look at people, we cannot emphasize their outward appearance, and the most important thing is to see what kind of humanity a person has. Some people, even though they are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” or “tall, rich and handsome,” have an extremely inferior quality of humanity, or not even the slightest bit of humanity. Wouldn’t we suffer if we lived together with a person like this? Because the viewpoints I pursued before were incorrect, in the end, I didn’t obtain happiness. On the contrary, I suffered an unspeakable amount. Even today, I still have not awakened, so how could I want to repeat such disastrous actions? The husband that God has prepared for me now is the most suitable, as well as the most beneficial, so why should I bring further trouble upon myself? Thinking of this, her heart was enlightened. She was no longer affected by her friend’s words. She smiled and said to her friend: “Everyone has their own lives. Whatever kind of home and whatever kind of marriage we have is arranged by God. What’s more, people who are rich and have good looks always have more desires, but this is not necessarily happiness. I used to want to find a husband who was tall and handsome and had a dignified bearing, but in the end Lin did not engage in honest work and I lived in lots of pain! Now I have Jun. Although he is some years older than me and his looks are not as good as Lin’s, his moral character is good, he doesn’t have any bad habits, and I know he loves me dearly and is considerate of my needs. Although our life is nothing special, it is quite harmonious, and I feel very happy.” At this time Jun came out, and this time she didn’t avoid him or try to hide him, rather she calmly introduced him to her friend. Her friend told her: “At first glance I could tell that your husband is an honest and hardworking man, and he is very good to you, you truly are blessed!” She nodded her head cheerfully, and in her heart she silently thanked God, because she was fully aware that this was God looking after her and protecting her. If it weren’t for the enlightenment and guidance of God’s words, then she and Jun may have parted ways long ago. Then how would she have this blessed life that she has today? This is all God’s blessing! When Jun saw that she was no longer avoiding him, a happy smile appeared on his face that had never been there before. After this, her relationship with Jun became more harmonious. Every time she would return home, Jun was always waiting for her with a cooked meal, and he was also very supportive when it came to her faith in God. Every time that she saw these things, it really moved her. She truly felt that God had bestowed her with the best things, and that only by submitting to God’s plans and arrangements can a person truly be happy. She had a deeper understanding that she ought to enjoy this marriage that God has bestowed upon her, and in her heart she felt more and more liberated. She thanked God from the bottom of her heart for saving her marriage that was on the brink of falling apart. All glory be to Almighty God! ![]() A Haughty Spirit Before a Fall Baixue Shenyang City Because of a work requirement, I was transferred to another work area. At that time, I was very grateful to God. I felt that I was lacking so much, yet through God’s divine promotion, I was given the opportunity to fulfill my duty in such a wonderful work area. I made a vow to God in my heart: I would do my very best to repay God. However, after I arrived, I discovered many loopholes in the work being done. As a result, I took it upon myself to begin inspecting each item of work. As I was performing my inspections, I was also thinking to myself: “How did any work get done like this? None of the work was managed properly! I thought the work done here would be excellent. But I never thought it would be worse than my previous job. Now that I’m here, it must be properly managed, step by step, according to the work arrangement. I will lead all the brothers and sisters to enter into life.” Because of this, I got together with the coordinators, began organizing each item of work, communicating, planning, and making arrangements. Throughout my communications, I frequently revealed my true feelings, “The work quality here is so low. My work before wasn’t like how yours is now. At my old workplace, we always managed work in such-and-such a way, we always did so-and-so well. We were obedient to God….” After these meetings, some of the coordinators would say: “Exactly right! We haven’t done any work of real value. This time, we need to start over and do our work according to God’s requirements.” Others would say: “Thank you for your great communication and for the arrangements you made today. Otherwise, our lack of attention to safety measures would be too dangerous.” Upon hearing these words, I was very happy. I felt that I was indeed stronger than their former leader. While I was proud of myself, I also couldn’t help but feel a little guilty: Was it really appropriate for me to talk like that? Why did I always say that my former workplace was better? But on the other hand, I thought: What’s wrong with saying that? I was just trying to teach them how to do a better job. In this way, I didn’t follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to examine myself. In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Just as I was diving head-first into my work with very high hopes, I felt that, in my heart, I was losing touch with God. Not only did my work fail to fall into place, but also the effectiveness of our gospel work went from soaring to taking a nosedive. I fell into an extremely painful position, but wasn’t sure what I did wrong. So, I went before God in prayer to earnestly seek guidance. At this time, words from a hymn began ringing in my ear: “As a leader serving God, one needs to stand on principles. Even if you can’t communicate the truth clearly, your heart must be in the right place. You must exalt God no matter what and bear witness to God as best as you can. Only say as much as you yourself understand, only exalt and bear witness to God. Do not exalt yourself and let others worship you. Whatever you do, do not exalt yourself and let others worship you. This is the first principle you must remember” (“Three Principles for Leaders to Remember” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs).Tears streamed down my face. Remorse, guilt, and gratitude all filled my heart at the same time. I recalled all that I had said to the coordinators and felt that I was really unworthy of God’s divine promotion. The church arranged for me to come here to do my duty so that I could exalt and bear witness to God, lead brothers and sisters before God, and help them to know Him. Yet, I shamelessly showed off, exalted myself, bore witness to myself, and built myself up. I did this so that others would look up to and worship me. I was prideful. I bore witness to myself and built myself up in the name of loving and satisfying God. How does such a despicable person deserve to serve God? How could the work of such a person be blessed by God? All I was doing was competing with God for the hearts of men. I was no more than an antichrist. I was interfering with God’s work and acting as His rival. My ministry was purely against God, and God hated it. The more I thought about it, the more I detested myself. I couldn’t help but remorsefully prostrate myself before God, and cry out to Him, “Oh God! Thank You for Your chastisement and judgment which awakened me, allowing me to recognize my antichrist essence and nature like that of the archangel. You also revealed the direction of my ministry to me, helping me understand that only if I exalt and bear witness to You can I satisfy You, allow Your will to be done, and accomplish the mission You gave me to do. Only exalting and bearing witness to You are glorious. That is my duty as the created for the Creator. Oh, God! From now on, I vow to examine my heart and motives before I speak or act, consciously exalting You and bearing witness to You, leading brothers and sisters to know You, and comforting Your heart by being someone who possesses truth and humanity.” Source: A Haughty Spirit Before a Fall in Judgment Before the Seat of Christ Praise and Worship Music "The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything" (Christian Musical Documentary)
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十一月 2018
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