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The work of God is always moving forward, and though the purpose of His work does not change, the method by which He works constantly changes, which means that those who follow God are constantly

The work of God is always moving forward, and though the purpose of His work does not change, the method by which He works constantly changes, which means that

#Daily Devotionals #The Word of God

Although many people believe in Christianity, many of them don't know how Christianity was formed and what true Christianity is? This article will tell you the answers.

#Bible Devotions #Bible Study #True Christianity

Does Matthew 24:27 mean the place where the Son of man comes is in the East? Where will Jesus Christ return in the last days? Read to find the mystery.

耶稣在末日回归的地方？

#Devotional Topics #Second Coming #Mysteries of Second Coming #Where Will Jesus Return

Why does God not appear in Israel in the last days? Through one fellowship, Zhong Hui came to understand the great significance of God working in China.

So, God Has Appeared in the East but Not in Israel

#Devotional Topics #Second Coming #Mysteries of Second Coming #Where Will Jesus Return

In what way will Jesus knock on the door when He returns? What does the Revelation say? Through seeking and fellowshiping, he finally understands. Read now to avoid missing the opportunity to welcome

How Will Jesus Knock on the Door When He Returns?

#Devotional Topics #Second Coming #Mysteries of Second Coming #How to Welcome the Lord

When the Lord returns, the dead in Christ shall rise. Will they arise from their tombs? How should we understand "the dead"? What can we do to turn into a living person? Read this article to find the

Do You Know the Mystery of “the Dead in Christ Shall Rise”?

#Bible Devotions #Bible Study #Daily Devotionals for Men

As one who believes in God, you should understand that, today, in receiving the work of God in the last days and all the work of God's plan in you, you have really received great exaltation and

Is the Work of God So Simple As Man Imagines?

#Daily Devotionals #The Word of God

In the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, mankind gained salvation from God. What is God's salvation according to the Bible? How can we gain God's salvation in the last days?

What Is God’s Salvation According to the Bible?

#Devotional Topics #Salvation and Full Salvation #God’s Salvation

Why Did the Lord Jesus Give Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven

By Yang Qing

I Was Confused When Reading the Scriptures

This morning, after the morning prayer, I opened the Bible and read chapter 16, verse 19 of the Gospel of Matthew where the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

She said, “Yes, from these two passages we can see Peter desired to know the Lord. When he was in contact with the Lord Jesus, he observed His every word and action. In the Lord Jesus, he saw much of the being of His divinity. For example, His words are full of authority and power; no one is capable of doing His work; no one possesses His mercy, love, patience and tolerance toward man. In addition, from the different ways that the Lord Jesus treated ordinary people and the Pharisees, Peter could see His holiness and righteousness. The Lord’s revelations and living out are all positive things and can bring light to man. Peter saw many adorable sides of God in the Lord Jesus, and these stirred up his love for the Lord. He took the Lord Jesus as an exemplar, was mindful of His will and had the utmost loyalty to Him, shepherding the churches and spreading His gospel. Besides, Peter firmly kept His words in mind, and always contemplated them and put them into practice. And he examined his own words and actions at all times. If he found there was something that he did was not according to the Lord’s words, he would pray to God and despise his rebelliousness. Thus he resolved to practice on the basis of the Lord’s words and follow the example of the Lord Jesus. Moreover, Peter stood as equal to the others when working and he didn’t put himself in a position of one of the Lord Jesus’ disciples, but only loved God and fulfilled his duty as a creature of God. No matter he encountered the derision of the unbelievers or the persecution of the ruling party, he had no complaints against God. No matter how many hardships he suffered and what kind of trials and refinements he faced, his love of God had never changed. Due to his pursuit, finally he could obey God unto death and love God to the utmost, and be nailed upside down on the cross for God’s sake. The Lord Jesus favored his humanity and his pursuit in believing in God, and knew he was the most worthy to be entrusted with everything and the most worthy of trust. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona … and on this rock I will build my church…. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven’” (See Matthew 16:17-19).

#Knowing Jesus #Jesus Christ’s Ministry #Jesus’ Disciples Knowing God

Catholic Testimony: Rejoicing at Jesus’ Coming

By Amy, USA

Welcoming the Lord is the greatest wish for all who long for His return. By the grace of God, I welcomed His return. My heart is full of gratitude toward Him, scenes of the past appearing in my mind.

The brother said, “Thank God! The question you’ve asked is an important one. We all know that we live in the late period of the last days. The Lord Jesus once prophesied: ‘And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.’ (Matthew 24:12). Lawlessness in the world of religion is growing. Religious leaders don’t abide by the Lord’s commandments, but only follow religious ceremonies and ancient traditions, turning churches into places of religious ritual and treating their responsibilities and duties as access to status and income. They appear godly outside but substantively are hypocritical. They don’t at all exalt God or bear witness to God, God’s words, and God’s requirements of man when preaching biblical knowledge, but only show off and bear witness to themselves. This leads to them deviating from the Lord’s way and bringing believers before themselves. They’ve been loathed and rejected by God. Another reason is that the Lord will perform a new stage of work in the last days and personally come to earth and express the truth to save mankind corrupted by Satan. The Bible predicted, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself come upon the shepherds, I will require my flock at their hand, and I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock any more, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more: and I will deliver my flock from their mouth, and it shall no more be meat for them. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them’ (Ezekiel 34:10-11). From these verses, we can see the Lord will personally come to search for, shepherd, and lead His sheep.” Hearing those words “come to earth, express the truth, personally search for and shepherd His sheep,” and his fellowship, I felt the love and care from the Lord and my heart was deeply touched. Unknowingly tears blurred my eyes. A sister was considerate and handed me some tissues with a smile. I took them with a shy smile. Then I listened to his fellowship carefully lest I lose one word.

During the meeting, the brother played for us two videos: “Jia Chunwang Ordered Siege on The Church of Almighty God. Project 807 Caused the Purported McDonald’s Murder” presented by MingjingLive, and “The Truth Exposed Behind the May 28 Zhaoyuan Case,” which allowed me to have some discernment of the rumors online. Then the brother fellowshiped, “The defendants of the Zhaoyuan case of Shandong clearly stated in court that what the state had been cracking down on was not the ‘Almighty God’ that they believed in and that they never had contact with The Church of Almighty God. They themselves didn’t admit they belonged to The Church of Almighty God, but the CCP judges openly contradicted the fact and ruled that these suspects were the followers of The Church of Almighty God. They brazenly framed and blamed The Church of Almighty God for this case. Wasn’t it twisting fact and framing, defaming The Church of Almighty God on purpose?” “Yes, it was.” We replied in chorus. The brother went on saying, “Then why did the CCP do this? What was its purpose? As we all know, the CCP is an atheist party. Since it gained power, it has been frantically suppressing and banning Christianity, Catholicism and other forms of religion. It has labelled Christianity and Catholicism the evil cult and the Holy Bible as the work of an evil cult, confiscating and destroying innumerable copies of the Bible and arresting countless Christians. Now, Almighty God has become flesh and delivered utterances of millions of words. People in all denominations and sects who love the truth and yearn for light, after reading the words of Almighty God, all confirm God’s word is the truth and that Almighty God is the appearance of the Christ of the Last Days, so they have one after another accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. In recent years, the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God has spread to many foreign countries and regions. The word of Almighty God is being spread and witnessed by more and more people. The rapid development of The Church of Almighty God has caused the CCP to panic. It fears that after people read God’s word and understand the truth, they will see through its demonic essence and reject it from heart. Therefore, in order to protect its dictatorial regime and turn China into an atheist state, it framed and blamed The Church of Almighty God for Shandong Zhaoyuan Case and wanted to build up public opinion for it to ban The Church of Almighty God. From this we can see the CCP is the devil Satan, the enemy of God.”

#Gospel Testimonies #Return to God #Come Before God

Do You Know? God Has a New Name in the Last Days

By Meng’ai

That year, when my family was building a house, there happened an accident which caused two people to be killed and two people to be injured.

One day, Brother Li happily came to my house and said to my husband and me, “Brother and sister, I have good news for you: The Lord Jesus for whom we have long yearned has returned. He is Christ of the last days, Almighty God. Nowadays, He is incarnated again and does a stage of work of judging and cleansing man. You can hurry up and investigate it.” At that time, I was reading the Bible. Once I heard his words, I felt very shocked. So I hastily said, “The Lord is called Almighty God when He returns? It’s impossible! The Bible clearly says: ‘Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). Only the Lord Jesus is the Savior. Apart from the Lord Jesus, there is none other name through which we can be saved. You have believed in other name, doesn’t this stray from the Lord’s way and betray the Lord? I advise you to confess and repent to the Lord right now.” Hearing my words, Brother Li smiled and said, “Sister, Almighty God is the Lord Jesus’ return. Although God’s name and work have changed, God’s essence is permanent, and He is still complete God Himself. What’s more, about God’s new name, there are also prophecies in the Revelation …” Before Brother Li had finished his words, I refuted him, “The Bible clearly says: ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever’ (Hebrews 13:8). The name of the Lord Jesus will never change. No matter what you say, I must keep the Lord’s name and His way.” My husband, sitting aside, thought over for a while and said, “Meng’ai, Brother Li has brains and thoughts, and he has always actively sought the Lord. Since he has accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days, he surely knows what he is doing. The Bible says: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). We might as well calm down and listen carefully.” Seeing that my husband wanted to seek, I thought: We must keep the Lord’s name since we believe in the Lord. If we stray away the Lord’s name, are we still the Lord’s believers? Therefore, I said obstinately, “The Lord Jesus is the only Savior who loves us. His name will never change. We must have conscience. We cannot forget the Lord’s great love to us, much less betray the Lord.” Seeing my stubborn attitude, Brother Li left helplessly. Later, Brother Li came many times to testify Almighty God’s work of the last days, but I avoided him in kinds of ways, refusing to accept God’s work in the last days time after time.

“Could the name of Jesus, ‘God with us,’ represent God’s disposition in its entirety? Could it fully articulate God? If man says that God can only be called Jesus, and may not have any other name because God cannot change His disposition, then such words are blasphemy! Do you believe that the name Jesus, God with us, can represent God in His entirety? God can be called many names, but among these many names, there is not one which can encapsulate all that God has, there is not one which can fully represent God. And so God has many names, but these many names cannot fully articulate God’s disposition, for God’s disposition is too rich, and extends beyond the knowledge of man. … And so, for man, God has many names, yet He has no one name, and that is because God’s being is too bountiful, and the language of man is too inadequate. One particular word or name is powerless to represent God in His entirety. So can God take one fixed name? God is so great and holy, so why do you not permit Him to change His name in each new age? As such, in each age that God personally does His own work, He uses a name that befits the age to encapsulate the work that He does. He uses this particular name, one that possesses the significance of the age, to represent His disposition in that age. God uses the language of man to express His own disposition. … You should know that God originally had no name. He only took on one, or two, or many names because He had work to do and had to manage mankind. Whatever name He is called by, isn’t it freely chosen by Him? Does He need you, a creature, to decide it? The name by which God is called is according to what man can apprehend and the language of man, but this name cannot be encapsulated by man. You can only say that there is a God in heaven, that He is called God, that He is God Himself with great power, too wise, too exalted, too wondrous, too mysterious, too almighty, and you can say no more; that is all you know. In this way, can the name of Jesus alone represent God Himself? When the last days come, although it is still God who does His work, His name has to change, for it is a different age” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)”).

My husband continued: “Actually, in accordance with His work principles, God changes His name in each age to represent the disposition He expresses and the work He intends to do in that age. It is just as how the name of ‘Jehovah’ was God’s name when God led the Israelites out of Egypt and also He worked during the Age of Law. The name of ‘Jehovah’ originally means the God who can show mercy on man, curse man, and also set forth laws to lead man’s life. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. When it came to the later period of the Age of Law, man was corrupted deeper and deeper by Satan. They not only didn’t keep the law but also made improper sacrifices on the altar, which brought them the danger that was executed by the law. However, God couldn’t bear mankind fell into that situation; He was personally incarnated and performed His work of the Age of Grace to save mankind. He took the name of Jesus, expressed the disposition of mercy and love, and bestowed the abundant grace upon those who followed Him. At last, He was nailed to the cross for the whole human beings, became all mankind’s sin offering and accomplished the work of the Age of Grace. The name of ‘Jesus’ represents the work that God did in the Age of Grace. Its original meaning is the God who is full of mercy and love, and redeems man. But although our sins were forgiven, the sinful nature still has taken root inside us and makes us more and more corrupted, to the extent that it has exceeded the corruption of men in the time of Noah. To thoroughly save mankind from the sin, God initiated the Age of Kingdom and began a new work—the work of chastising, judging, purifying and perfecting—expressing the disposition of righteousness, majesty and wrath. He will judge and chastise the whole human beings’ corruption and unrighteousness with such a disposition, to make the mankind recover their original image. Due to the change of the age, God’s name also has to change and He is no longer called ‘Jesus’ but is called ‘Almighty God’ according to the work He performs and the disposition He expresses. It is with this name that He concludes the work of His entire 6000-year management plan. This fulfills the words in the Book of Revelation: ‘And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, you King of saints’(Revelation 15:3), ‘And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns’(Revelation 19:6), and also fulfills Revelation 1:8, 4:8, 11:7, etc. However, regardless of what name God takes, God’s substance won’t change. Jehovah, Jesus and Almighty God are all one and the same, and they are just the different names God takes in different ages.”

#Christian Testimonies #Return to God #gospel

Why Must We Get Rid of Sin Before Entry Into God’s Kingdom

Dear Sister Zhang Ying:

This is Jiang Li. How time flies! More than a year has slipped by since I came to America. How have you been doing?

How is the condition of our church? I remember at a co-worker meeting, Brother Zhang said, “We believers of the Lord constantly live in the situation of sinning in the day and confessing at night, and are always bound by sins. If continuing like this, can we be raptured into the heavenly kingdom when the Lord returns?” At that time, I replied without hesitation, “The Bible says, ‘For by one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified’ (Hebrews 10:14). So, although we sin every day, the Lord no longer remembers our sins, let alone sees us as sinners. We have been justified and saved by faith. As long as we work hard, spend and sacrifice for Him, the Lord won’t abandon us and will definitely take us to the kingdom of heaven when He comes.” However, Brother Zhang refuted, by saying, “We humans have received the Lord’s salvation, and He doesn’t remember our sins anymore. Yet the Lord Jesus said, ‘Be you holy; for I am holy’ (1 Peter 1:16). The Bible also says, ‘And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). Now, we still often sin and confess, and can’t attain holiness. So, how are we fit to enter the heavenly kingdom and see the Lord’s face? Besides, the Lord Jesus never said that all believers can enter the heavenly kingdom so long as they labor for Him. I think entering the heavenly kingdom is not as easy as we imagine. Though I am uncertain of this, I think there is truth in here to seek.” When having such an argument, all of us were lost in confusion, not knowing how to enter the kingdom of heaven. I thought: The disasters in recent years get greater and greater, and from various signs we can judge that our Lord must have come, but we don’t understand this aspect of truth. In such a case, won’t we be forsaken when the Lord comes? So, in order to understand this aspect of truth, after I came to America, I sought many spiritual pastors and elders, but their understandings were nearly the same as ours. Thus, the puzzle in my heart still couldn’t be solved.

Sister Wang smiled and patiently fellowshiped, “The Lord Jesus forgave our sins. What does ‘sins’ refer to? Actually, before the Lord Jesus began His work, the sins people committed were mainly those factual sins that betrayed God’s laws, commandments and words. Because people of that time betrayed God’s laws and commandments, and would be condemned and punished by law, the Lord Jesus came to do the redemptive work. Since then, as long as we pray to Him, confess and repent our sins, He shall absolve us. And we will no longer be condemned and punished by His law. God will no longer count us as sinners. So, we can directly pray to Him, call out to Him and enjoy His abundant grace and blessings. This is the true meaning of being saved, but being saved is not the same thing as entering God’s kingdom. Actually, they’re very different. It can be said that they are two separate things. For the Lord Jesus never said that all those having been saved and absolved can enter the kingdom of heaven. Instead, the Lord Jesus said, ‘Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 7:21), and ‘Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 18:3). According to His words, we can see that those who can enter the heavenly kingdom must do the heavenly Father’s will and follow God’s words. They are the ones who know God, obey God, become compatible with God, and can dedicate themselves and make sacrifices to do God’s will. Such people can give their whole life to God and are willing to devote it to Him without any transactions, impurities, or extravagant desires. They don’t pursue their personal status, reputation or vanity, either. Even if God doesn’t bless them or takes all their things away, they can still submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements without their own choices. Only these kinds of people are eligible to enter God’s kingdom. Just like Job, he could truly obey and worship God, even when he was stripped of his priceless family possessions and all his children, and his body was covered with sore boils, he could completely obey God’s orchestrations and arrangements without complaint, and he still extolled Jehovah’s holy name. So, in God’s eyes, he was perfect and upright, and was the one that obeyed God’s will. Peter is yet another example. He was a person who loved and obeyed God. He lived wholly to accomplish God’s commission and carry out God’s will. He worked and expended without any thought of himself. Even when being crucified for God upside down, he was still whole-heartedly willing. So, he was the one who abided by God’s will and was most approved by God. Such people are qualified to enter God’s kingdom and can enjoy His blessings. God is holy, so if we mankind don’t love or obey Him or can’t get rid of corruption to be purified, we won’t be eligible to enter His kingdom. God won’t bring filthy and corrupt ones into His kingdom. This is determined by His righteous and holy disposition. Therefore, our notion that we are capable of entering the heavenly kingdom after our sins have been absolved is wrong. It completely comes from our human conception and imagination. It’s a misunderstanding of God’s will. For the Lord Jesus only said, ‘But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 7:21), and He never said all those whose sins have been pardoned can enter God’s kingdom.”

Sister Wang’s communication sounded reasonable to me. Yet I felt an unspeakable sadness in my heart then: Can our understandings be wrong during all our years of belief in the Lord? How could it be? At that time, I thought of the thing Pastor Li of our church did. As a pastor, he even dared to deceive the brothers and sisters—misappropriating the church’s money that was for building and repairing the church. I pondered: Can people like him really enter the heavenly kingdom? And now each of us still lives in sin, being unable to keep the Lord’s teachings at all. Behaving like this, we don’t bring any glory to the Lord. As for us who personally think we have been saved, can we really have the opportunity to enter God’s kingdom? The Lord is holy; how can He bear the existence of the filthy? The more I thought, the more afraid I felt. It seemed that my pursuit of all these years was not necessarily correct. Then I recalled the Pharisees who resisted the Lord Jesus. All of them served God in the synagogues and knew a lot about the Bible. To people, the Pharisees should have obtained God’s approval. However, they eventually suffered God’s punishment, for they condemned the Lord according to their own imagination and crucified the Lord Jesus on the cross. I thought to myself: It appears that the imagination of us humans is too horrible; unless solved, this can really take us to hell. In fact, I also often sin—envying others, hating others, clinging to wealth and pursuing status and vanity, which usually occupy my heart. And I can’t extricate myself from living in the whirlpool of sin. Indeed, if such dirty and corrupt people like me can enter the heavenly kingdom, then won’t the words said in the Bible, “And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14), be for nothing? Thinking of this, I eagerly asked, “Sister Wang, you communicated that not all those having been saved can enter the kingdom of heaven. I can accept this. The Lord said those who obey the heavenly Father’s will can enter the heavenly kingdom; what exactly should we do, then? Could you please fellowship more with me?”

She replied, “To become those who obey the heavenly Father’s will and can be brought into the heavenly kingdom, we must be freed of our corrupt disposition. This is most crucial. About this question, Almighty God’s words have given us the answer. Let’s read together. God says, ‘It is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance’ (‘Concerning Appellations and Identity’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘But the work for just how the corrupt satanic dispositions within man could be cast away was not done in him. 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. The sins of man were forgiven through God incarnate, but it does not mean that man has no sin within him. The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but man has been unable to resolve the issue of just how he can no longer sin and how his sinful nature can be cast away completely and be transformed. The sins of man were forgiven because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live in the old, corrupt satanic disposition. As such, man must be completely saved from the corrupt satanic disposition so that the sinful nature of man is completely cast away and never again develops, thus allowing the disposition of man to be changed. 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). According to these words of God, Sister Wang fellowshiped, “From Almighty God’s words, we can see that, in the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption, instead of the work of changing and cleansing man. So, if wanting to be purified and completely saved by God, we need God to do a new work. Today, God has come to cleanse man and transform man’s disposition. Only by following His footsteps, accepting His judgment and being cleansed of our corruption, can we be eligible to enter His kingdom.” After listening to her communication, I knew: In order to purify our corrupt disposition, God needs to personally do higher work. The Lord Jesus only redeemed us from our sins, allowing us to have the chance to come before God and accept His salvation, yet we haven’t escaped sin to receive cleansing. Therefore, in the Age of Grace, no matter how well we humans pursued or controlled revelations of our corruption, our corrupt disposition couldn’t be transformed. That’s the reason why we often live in the vicious cycle of sinning in the day and confessing at night. So, to transform our disposition, we must accept Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days.

Afterward, Sister Wang read another passage of God’s words to me, “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life, and will never be able to gain the perpetual way of life. That is because all they have is turbid water that has lain stagnant for thousands of years, instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? … Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that the people who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be despised by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom during the last days, which none may bypass. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and obey His way. You must not just think of gaining blessings without receiving the truth, or accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity, and shall never enter the kingdom of God. For this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth. And so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The retribution that should be suffered by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

#Spiritual Resources #What Is Salvation #How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven #Requirements for Entering the Kingdom of Heaven

I Feel Released in Church Life

By Chaotuo, South Korea

Many Christians don’t understand why they have to attend meetings, nor do they pay attention to meetings. In fact, it’s very important for us Christians to attend meetings. The protagonist of this article once didn’t like attending meetings, but later she became fond of it. What made her have such a change? The following is about her experience.

As soon as she saw me, the sister fellowshiped with me, “I know you’re busy and have a lot of stuff to do. But since we have believed in God, we should spend some time practicing our faith in God. Faith in God is not merely acknowledging that there is a God. We need to read God’s words and gather and fellowship with brothers and sisters. Only in this way can we gain more work of the Holy Spirit, gradually understand the truths and know God. Then our lives will progress. When I first started believing in God, I was also reluctant to attend meetings, thinking that it was holding me up. Later, I read these words of God: ‘The Holy Spirit not only works in certain men who are used by God, but even more in the church. He could be working in anyone. He may work in you for the present, and when you have experienced it, He may work in someone else next. Make haste to follow; the more closely you follow the present light, the more your life can mature and grow. No matter what manner of man he may be, so long as the Holy Spirit works in him, make sure to follow. Take in his experiences through your own, and you will receive even higher things. In so doing you will progress more quickly. This is the path of perfection for man and a way through which life grows. The path to being made perfect is reached through your obedience to the work of the Holy Spirit. You do not know through what kind of person God will work to perfect you, nor through what person, occurrence, or thing He will enable you to enter into possession and to gain some insight. If you are able to walk onto this right track, it shows that there is great hope for you to be perfected by God. If you are unable to do so, it shows that your future is bleak and devoid of light.’ ‘Though I may have finished speaking My word, people still don’t completely understand, and this is because they are lacking in quality. This problem can be resolved through the church life and through fellowshiping with each other.’ From God’s words, I knew that if we want to gain the work of the Holy Spirit and make progress in life, we should live the church life and fellowship God’s words with brothers and sisters more. When living the church life, we are no longer bothered by family issues, and we thus can quiet our hearts to ponder God’s words and obtain more work of the Holy Spirit. Our abilities to receive God’s words are poor, so if we don’t attend meetings but just read God’s words at home on our own, we can only understand the literal meaning of God’s words. When it comes to the inner meaning of God’s words, such as what kind of state God’s words refer to, what God’s will is in His words, our understanding about these things will be very limited; sometimes, we could even misinterpret and distort God’s words according to our imagination and form notions about God’s words. However, in meetings, there are many brothers and sisters gathering together and fellowshiping God’s words; through communicating the light we obtain in God’s words and sharing our experiences and knowledge, we can receive a lot of the supply of life and use the strengths of others to make up for our weaknesses; then we will achieve faster growth in life, and our problems and difficulties can also be resolved through such process.”

#Christian Testimonies #Church Life #Come Before God

Meet the Lord and Attend the Wedding Feast of the Lamb

By Wuruo, United States

One day when I was browsing the web, I saw a short story The Frog in the Well Knows Nothing of the Great Ocean.

#Christian Testimonies #Return to God #Videos About the Desolation of Churches

When Jesus Is Coming, How Can We Welcome Him?

Brothers and sisters of Find the Shepherd:

Hello! Now disasters are getting ever bigger. The day of the Lord has already come. We believers in the Lord are all anxiously waiting for Him to be raptured into the heavenly kingdom.

#The Second Coming of Christ #Waiting for Jesus #How to Welcome the Lord's Return #How to Recognize God’s Voice

Christian Testimony: The True Meaning of God’s Judgment

God’s words say: “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, expose the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds.

I remember that in the first meeting, the two sisters shared their experiences about how they returned to God. I really benefited greatly from them, especially from the experience of Sister Kemu. Others also regarded her experience as great and practical and Brother Xiaoyong said that her testimony of experience was very good and encouraged her to write it down to testify to God. Seeing everyone praise her, I thought: “Alas! Why don’t I have such experiences?” Because of this I felt very upset. After we had several meetings together, I found Sister Kemu could understand God’s words very well. In every meeting, with the encouragement and guidance of Brother Xiaoyong and Sister Liu, Sister Kemu could share the light she gained from God’s words. What’s more, she pursued the truth with perseverance and resolve. No matter how busy and tiring her work was, she could always keep a normal relationship with God and insist on reading God’s words and watching movies and videos. Seeing these, I thought: Although she is better than me now, as long as I make efforts to pursue the truth I also can catch up with her. In order to gain the approval and admiration of the brothers and sisters who looked after us new believers, I began to pursue the truth tooth and nail. At home, I seized every available opportunity to read God’s words and even sometimes when I was at work, I would wear my headphone to listen to the fellowship from the above and hymns. In the meeting, I became more active than usual. I scrambled to read God’s words and every time after reading God’s words I hurriedly communicated about my own understanding without pondering it. For I thought: I should say my understanding first, otherwise if what I think is said by others, I will be regarded as imitating others when I say it again. Besides, every time I was about to go to the meeting, I would review what we had communicated in the last meeting and read God’s words again to prepare to answer what the brothers and sisters who looked after us new believers would ask. However, they didn’t ask.

Once, I was being confused why Brother Xiaoyong didn’t ask what we had communicated in the last meeting when Sister Liu asked me to pray for others. At that time I was very muddled and didn’t know what to pray so what I prayed was very empty, dull and dry. And I just finished it with several sentences hastily. After prayer I felt very low-spirited. In the meeting, when I saw Brother Xiaoyong looking at Sister Kemu when she communicated, then feeling extremely frustrated, I hurriedly lowered my head and read the words of God, however, I couldn’t get any light and couldn’t memorize what they had said either, my mind being a complete blank. After the meeting, I went back to the dormitory, feeling weak throughout the body. Then I thought of the previous meetings, in which I always felt pleasure and had a lot to say. But now I was afraid of having meetings and didn’t know what to say. Especially when I thought of the look in their eyes when they looked at Sister Kemu, I thought now everyone didn’t like me anymore and I felt more and more uncomfortable, being passive in whatever I did. Those days, I was always absent-minded and always made mistakes during the work. I felt very distressed for this and my heart felt so heavy as if there was a big stone inside. So I came before God and prayed: “O God, recently I haven’t gotten any light when I communicated about Your words and my work didn’t go smoothly either. I don’t know why I meet with these things. O God, may You enlighten me and let me find new light and get some understanding when communicating about Your words in meetings.” At this time, Brother Xiaoyong sent a message to me to ask about my recent situation. Being afraid that he would look down upon me if I was open about my expression of corruption, I just replied to him with a sentence perfunctorily. Then I continued to read God’s words and learn hymns as usual. Also, I copied the words of praising God, summed them up together and memorized them. I thought: Last time I didn’t pray for others well, and I must do well next time.

In the evening, Sister Liu sent a video The Heart’s Deliverance to me. After watching the movie I cried, thinking that the protagonist was exactly the same as me. Especially when I saw God’s words: “As soon as it involves position, face, or reputation, everyone’s heart leaps in anticipation, and you always want to stand out, to be famous, to be glorified. You are unwilling to yield, always wanting to contend, although contending is embarrassing. However, you are not content not to contend. When you see someone stand out, you are jealous, feel hatred, complain, and feel it is unfair. ‘Why can’t I stand out? Why is it never me? Why is it always he who gets to stand out and it’s never my turn?’ There is some resentment. You try to repress the resentment, but you can’t, so you pray. After praying, you feel better for a little while, but later when you encounter the matter again you cannot overcome it. Is this not a case of immature stature? Is not a person’s falling into these conditions a trap? This is the bondage of a satanically corrupted nature.” Seeing the sister’s experience and God’s words, I realized that I cared too much about my face and status. Under the domination of the competitive nature, I always wanted to compete with others and get admiration and praise whatever I did. In order to be highly thought of by brothers and sisters, I racked my brain all day to memorize God’s words and listen to the fellowship. Even in the meeting I scrambled to communicate first. Weren’t these all for showing off myself? When I saw the sister’s strengths I didn’t learn from her humbly but pondered all the time how to show off myself. When my desire couldn’t be satisfied, I became negative and started to complain about everything. When faced with the fact I saw I was so corrupted by Satan that I was truly inhuman, arrogant and fragile. Thank God for letting me have a little knowledge of my corrupt dispositions. Meanwhile, from the sister’s experience, I found the path of practice—I should dissect and expose my corrupt dispositions and have a heart-to-heart fellowship with my brothers and sisters honestly. Then I came before God and prayed to God, resolving to practice the truth. Later I wrote my experience down and sent it to the messaging group and in the meeting I also opened up my heart to the brothers and sisters, saying all my own real thoughts and expression of corruptions. When I did like this, they didn’t look down on me, but instead, they shared their own experiences with me.

Thank God for His guidance. Through the little experience during this period, I understood the inner meaning of God’s work of judgment. Just as God’s words say: “What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God.” In the last days God does the work of judgment and chastisement through setting up practical situations to prune and deal with us so that our corruption can be revealed. In these people, events and objects, God also uses His words to lead us to understand the truth and His will so that our corrupt dispositions can be cleansed. Recalling my recent experience, when I lived by the opinions “A wild goose leaves behind a voice; a man leaves behind a reputation” and “A tree lives with its bark; a man lives with his face” and pursued face and status, then God turned His face away from me and also used the people, matters and things around me to deal with me and aroused brothers and sisters to communicate the truth with me. In this way, I could know my corrupt dispositions and the substance of face and status and also know how to pursue is in line with God’s intentions. These were all the results of God’s work of judgment in the last days. During the judgment of God’s words, I have understood God’s righteous and holy substance and at the same time I felt the earnest intention of God’s salvation which is comprised in God’s judgment and chastisement. Thank God, all the glory be to Almighty God!

#Bible Study Topics #God's Judgement

Forum: Will the Lord Be in a Jewish Image When Coming the Second Time

Several days ago, Preacher Yang Fan was communicating with some brothers and sisters.

Yang Fan gave a glance at them and said: “Yeah. There are still many other verses about this aspect. Let’s see Revelation 1:13–16: ‘And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.’ The appearance of the Son of man John saw on the island of Patmos is different from the image of the Lord Jesus. God was neither in the image of a Jew nor in the image of the resurrected Lord Jesus. From this, it can be seen that each time God appears to man He is in a different image. This also makes me understand that although the Lord Jesus once appeared and worked among man in the image of a Jew, He can also appear to man in different images. As such, how can we say that the Lord Jesus will still be in the image of a Jew when He comes again? And how can we say that the returned Lord who isn’t in the image of a Jew is not God? I’d like to fellowship a passage of words with everyone: ‘God being the greatest in all the universe, both above and below, could He fully explain Himself using the image of a flesh? God puts on this flesh in order to do one stage of His work. There is no significance in particular in this image of the flesh, it bears no relation to the passing of ages, nor does it have anything to do with God’s disposition. … When God becomes flesh, He merely descends from heaven into a particular flesh. It is His Spirit that descends into a flesh, through which He does the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that is expressed in the flesh, and it is the Spirit who does His work in the flesh. The work done in the flesh fully represents the Spirit, and the flesh is for the sake of the work, but that does not mean that the image of the flesh substitutes for the true image of God Himself; this is not the purpose or the significance of God become flesh. He becomes flesh only so that the Spirit may find an appropriate place to reside when doing His work, the better to achieve His work in the flesh—so that people can see His work, come into contact with His disposition, hear His words, and know the wonder of His work. … His appearance in the flesh bears no relation to His management, being merely for the sake of His work at the time. Yet it is impossible for God incarnate to have no particular appearance, and so He chooses the appropriate family to determine His appearance. If the appearance of God were to have representative significance, then all those who possess facial features similar to His would also represent God. Wouldn’t that be an egregious mistake? … God is Spirit, and man will never be capable of encompassing what His image is in the final analysis. His image can only be represented by His disposition. As for the appearance of His nose, of His mouth, of His eyes, and of His hair, these are beyond your capacity to encompass’” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)”).

#The Second Coming of Christ #Mysteries of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

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