God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

Wang Yan

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

Listen! Who Is This Who Speaks?

Listen! Who Is This Who Speaks?

Feb 25, 2018

Zhou Li, China

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

Almighty God’s Work Has Caused Us to Walk the Same Path as Husband and Wife

Almighty God’s Work Has Caused Us to Walk the Same Path as 

Husband and Wife

Jan 11, 2018

Liu Xue, Henan Province

In 1991, since we were enduring the hardships of family conflict, my husband and I believed in the Lord Jesus together. From then on, we no longer quarreled. We read the Bible and attended gatherings together very zealously. Not long afterward, my husband left the Three-Self Church and switched over to the Stream of Recovery. In regards to the matter of my husband switching denominations, I did not mind. I believed that as long as we believed in one God, it did not matter which denomination we belonged to.

Breaking Free From Shackles and Returning to the Presence of God

Breaking Free From Shackles and Returning to the Presence of God

Feb 26, 2018

By Yongyuan, USA

In November of 1982, our whole family emigrated to the USA. Because our family had been faithful to the Lord since the generation of my grandfather, we quickly found a Chinese church in Chinatown, New York where we could attend mass after we arrived in the United States. We never missed a single mass since we started attending, and my mother and elder sister were especially good about reading the scriptures whenever they had time to seek the Lord’s blessing. At that time, the priest would often say: “When the Lord comes, He will judge people publicly and divide people into categories: Those who truly repent and confess, and who are of good faith in Him, will be able to go to heaven; those who commit sins but not grave ones will suffer the torment of purgatory but are still able to be saved and ascend to heaven; those who do not believe in the Lord or commit sins that are too grave will suffer the punishment of hell.” These words left an impression on my heart as if they had been branded there. They caused me to believe in the Lord with enthusiasm, and even if I was busy with work, I never stopped going to mass.

Emulate the Lord Jesus

Song About Jesus | "Emulate the Lord Jesus" | Jesus Christ Is My Beloved

I

Jesus completed God’s mission,

the redemption work of all man

by giving His cares to God’s will,

without selfish purpose or plans.

At the center He placed God’s plan.

To heavenly Father He prayed,

seeking heavenly Father’s will.

He would seek and He’d always pray.

If like Jesus you give all your cares to God

and turn your back to flesh,

God will trust you with vital tasks

to enable you to serve Him.

Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom (Part 2)

Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly 

Kingdom  (Part 2)

February 26, 2018

Bearing this question in mind, I went to find the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. Sister Lin fellowshiped to me, saying: “As for why it is that the elder and the pastor did not seek or investigate Almighty God’s work in the last days, but instead frantically accused and resisted Him, Almighty God has already made clear the essence and origin of this problem. Almighty God says: ‘Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and ridiculous?’ (‘When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Look at the leaders of every denomination. They are all arrogant and self-right, and they interpret the Bible out of context and according to their own imagination. They all rely on gifts and erudition to do their work. If they were incapable of preaching anything, would those people follow them? They do, after all, possess some learning, and can speak a little of doctrine, or know how to win over others and how to use some artifices, through which they have brought people before themselves and have deceived them. Nominally, those people believe in God—but in reality they follow their leaders. If they encounter those who preach the true way, some of them would say, “We have to consult our leader about our belief in God.” They require someone’s consent to believe in God; is that not a problem? What have those leaders become, then? Have they not become Pharisees, false shepherds, antichrists, and stumbling blocks to people’s acceptance of the true way?’ (‘Only the Pursuit of the Truth Is the True Belief in God’ in Records of Christ’s Talks). When the Lord Jesus had first come to do His work, He was beset by the frantic accusations and resistance of the Jewish leaders—the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. In the end, they crucified the Lord Jesus. The ancestors of the Pharisees believed in God and were expert in the law. So why would they resist and accuse the Lord Jesus, and nail Him to the cross? We can see from the word of God that this was brought about by their satanic nature of being obstinate, arrogant, and not submitting to the truth. The Lord Jesus expressed so much truth, and they did not seek after or investigate it, but rather adhered to their own viewpoints. Their belief in God relied only on their own notions and imaginations, and they interpreted the Bible by taking verses out of context. This caused them to be blind, and not to obtain enlightenment from God. They did not know the work of the Holy Spirit, and did not understand the truth, nor could they understand God’s voice. This truly caused the words of the Bible to come true: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed’ (Mat 13:14–15). The pastors and elders in religious circles in the last days are the same as the Pharisees of that time, as what they place importance on is knowledge of the Bible and theoretical study of theology. They rely on their own thinking and imaginings to interpret the word of the Lord, and to delimit the way the Lord will return. They stubbornly cling to their own notions and imagination, and they do not seek the truth whatsoever. Not only do they not investigate the work of God in the last days, but they blindly resist and accuse Him, exposing their satanic nature of stubbornness, arrogance, and hostility to the truth. They study theology, equipping themselves with knowledge of the Bible, but that does not mean that they have any love for the truth, nor does it mean that they are able to accept and obey the truth. They explain Bible knowledge and theological theory, their only goal being to increase their own renown and reputation. They do so to safeguard their own status, and make believers look up to them reverently, adore them, and follow them. They see that the words which Almighty God expresses are the truth, and that they are able to conquer and save people, and that many people who have a love for the truth and who yearn for God’s appearance have read the word of Almighty God and have turned to Almighty God. They believe that the work of Almighty God is a threat to their status and livelihood, and so they fight back frantically and do their utmost to accuse and resist Almighty God. They take whatever means necessary to obstruct and disrupt believers from turning to Almighty God in an attempt to dominate God’s chosen people for all time. This is the root of why elders and preachers do not seek or investigate the work of Almighty God and why they frantically resist and accuse Almighty God. It can be seen in the evil deeds of the preachers and elders who resist God that they are the Pharisees of our time, and that they are the obstacle preventing believers from accepting the truth and being raised up into the heavenly kingdom. They are the antichrists, who resist God and make God their enemy, and have been revealed by God’s work in the last days.”

Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom (Part 1)

Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom 

 (Part 1)

February 26, 2018

By Meng’ai, Malaysia

The year my husband died, I was deep in despair, and on top of that I had the added burden of raising my children. Hardship had suddenly befallen my life, but I had the love of the Lord with me all along, and with the help of my brothers and sisters I got through this difficult time. To recompense the love of the Lord, I continued to make donations and serve the church, and have been doing so for over thirty years. In this time, I have experienced the thriving of the church and seen the glorious occasion of the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. I’ve also witnessed desolation and helplessness in the church. I thought back to when the Holy Spirit first began to do the great work in the church, when we experienced enjoyment and gained much from listening to the pastor’s preaching. There was mutual love among the brothers and sisters just as if we were all one family, and everyone was united in spreading the gospel and bearing witness to the Lord. Later, without knowing what had happened, there was no longer any light in what the pastor preached. It was like everything was just the same old story repeated again and again, and the believers simply could not get anything to nourish them. Their faith and love gradually waned, and there were fewer and fewer people coming to gatherings. Those of us who participated in service were also just going through the motions. We all acted according to the wishes of the people in the ministry and not at all in the service of God, but rather we just exerted ourselves in front of other people and tried to win their admiration. I knew that this kind of service was not in line with God’s will, and so it was very painful for me. I also felt helpless, with no idea how to walk the path ahead of me. I hoped all the more for the Lord to return as soon as possible, so that all these problems would be solved.

I Have Come Home (Part 2)

I Have Come Home (Part 2)

December 16, 2018

By Chu Keen Pong, Malaysia

The next day, March 12, I felt a kind of indistinct hope and ineffable excitement. This was because I had mostly discussed the “Son of man” with Susan the night before, and had talked about the “incarnation” as well. Even though I could draw a connection between the ‘Son of man’ and the ‘incarnation,’ and could know in theory that the Lord Jesus is none other than the incarnate Christ, I still wanted to know the answers to questions such as what the incarnation truly is, what Christ is, on what basis one could say with certainty that God has become incarnate, and so on. But since Susan and I both had work during the day and were only free in the evening, I just hoped that time would move a bit more quickly.

I Have Come Home (Part 1)

I Have Come Home (Part 1)

By Chu Keen Pong, Malaysia

Dec 16, 2018

God’s Wonderful Orchestration and Guidance

I have believed in the Lord for more than ten years and served in the church for two years, then left the church to go abroad for work. I have been to many places including Singapore and have earned a lot of money, but in this existence in modern society, where the strong prey on the weak, and where people compete with and scheme against each other, where each person tries to outdo the other in treachery, I have faced innumerable complex interpersonal relations and was always on my guard against others. They were also on their guard against me, and this gave me the feeling the whole time in the depths of my heart that I couldn’t find any stable ground to stand on. This way of life made me feel exhausted in body and spirit. The only thing that offered me any consolation was the diary I carried with me in which I kept some pages of scriptures I had excerpted. Sometimes I would read them and they would fill in the emptiness in my spirit. Even though I hadn’t gone to a church gathering in many years, since last year I just had one thing in mind: to find a church in which I could serve the Lord in earnest. After that, I took advantage of some free time to go to large and small churches in Malaysia but I always went there happy and left feeling discouraged. I always felt I was lacking something inside, but I could never figure out exactly what it was. In this contradictory state, I went to another extreme, just playing video games online and watching movies, sometimes playing all night or watching one movie after another. My work and sleep schedule were a mess. When I first started doing this I was somewhat conscious that the Lord was displeased with me, but I gradually became numb. It was just at that time that I lost my cell phone. At the time, I complained inwardly about it. My cell phone was lost, and with it a lot of data was gone, and I had no way to log in to Facebook…. On the surface, this was a bad thing, but I never expected that it would be a turning point for my life. It was just like the Chinese proverb, “An old man loses his horse, but who knows what good fortune will come?”

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

What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly 

Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

December 8, 20184

By Siyuan

The Origins of Christmas

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

Coming Home (Part 1)

Coming Home (Part 1)

December 3, 2018

By Muyi, South Korea

“God’s love overflowing is freely given to man, God’s love is around him. Man, innocent and pure, without a care to tie him down, lives in bliss in the eyes of God. … If you are a person of conscience and with humanity, you will feel warm, being cared for and loved, you will feel blessed with happiness” (“How Important God’s Love for Man Is” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Every time I start to sing this hymn of the word of God, it’s hard to keep down the emotions stirring inside me. That is because I was once far astray from God and went against Him. I was like a lost sheep, unable to find the road home, and it was God’s steadfast love that led me to return home. In what follows, I wish to share my experience of returning to God’s house with both those brothers and sisters who are part of the Lord as well as those friends who have not yet turned to God.

After Listening with My Heart, I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return

August 18, 2017

Max, United States

In 1994, I was born in the United States. My parents are both Chinese. My mother was the classic example of a successful career woman. She is able to think for herself and is very competent. I love my mother very much. When I was in Grade 2, my parents brought me back to China to study so that I would be able to learn Chinese. It was also at that time that I started to get acquainted with the Lord Jesus. I remember one day in 2004, after I got home from school, there was a guest at our house. My mother introduced her and told me that she was a pastor from the United States. I was very happy because that was when I found out that my mother had believed in the Lord Jesus for some time. Before, she did not believe. Every Chinese New Year, she would burn incense and worship Buddha. However, after my mother started to believe in the Lord Jesus, I no longer had to smell the whiff of burnt Joss paper and incense. That day, the American pastor told me a story about the Lord Jesus. Soon after, I was brought to the bathroom and before I could react, “plop,” the pastor had dunked my head into the bathtub and after a moment, pulled my head out. All I heard was my mother and the pastor telling me, “Welcome to the embrace of the Lord Jesus. We are all lost sheep.” In this way, I started a new life journey before I knew it. However, because the Lord was with me, my heart was very happy. Afterward, each Sunday, I would go to church to worship and listen to the pastor talk about Bible stories and read from the scriptures. I was very happy all along. My heart was steadfast and I felt that believing in the Lord Jesus was truly a good thing.

God’s Love Guided Me Through the Trial of Illness

God’s Love Guided Me Through the Trial of Illness

November 16, 2018

By Yiming, Hubei Province

I Rejoice to Be Reunited With the Lord

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

Returning to Life From the Brink of Death

Returning to Life From the Brink of Death

                               
November 14, 2018   By Yang Mei, China

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

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

By Wang Zihan, Shanxi Province

Interpersonal relationship is a topic that causes headaches for many people. This is also a topic that is encountered often throughout one’s life as a Christian. The Lord Jesus requires us to get along harmoniously with each other and to love others as we love ourselves. Many devout Christians are also willing to put the Lord’s teachings into practice. However, in reality, when we interact with others, we frequently encounter conflicts, and misunderstandings, so much so that our relationships become rigid and break down. This leads to pain for everyone. Now, what is the reason that we are unable to exist harmoniously with each other?

When There’s a Knock at the Door, You Must Open It

opened’ By Qing Ting, China

In 1989, I followed along with my mother in accepting the gospel of the Lord Jesus. After I began to believe in the Lord, through often attending gatherings and reading the Scriptures, I came to know that it was God who created the heaven, the earth, and everything therein, and that He had created mankind, and that it is God who provides everything for mankind. At that time the preacher would often tell us, “No matter how many difficulties there are, as long as we pray to God, God will help us. This is because the Lord said, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened’ (Mat 7:7–8).

Gospel Movie Clip "Sweetness in Adversity" (4) - Why Does the Chinese Communist Party Force Christians to Join the Three-Self Church?

Gospel Movie Clip "Sweetness in Adversity" (4) - Why Does the Chinese Communist Party Force Christians to Join the Three-Self Church?

Introduction

In China, house churches have directly suffered the consequences of the atheistic Chinese Communist government's frantic suppression and persecution. They force them to enter the Three-Self Church which is controlled by the United Front Work Department. What secret is the Chinese Communist Party hiding by doing this? Christians brave the dangers of being imprisoned and even losing their life to spread the gospel and bear witness to God. Just why do they do this?

(7) - The CCP Slanders The Church of Almighty God as a "Human Organization": What's Their Motive?

(7) - The CCP Slanders The Church of Almighty God as a "Human Organization": What's Their Motive?

Everyone who believes in the Lord knows that without the appearance and work of the Lord Jesus, there wouldn't be any believers or followers of the Lord. Even more, Christianity never would have come into being—no matter how gifted the apostles were, they could not have created the church. Likewise, The Church of Almighty God came into being entirely because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, Christ of the last days. It is because Almighty God expressed many truths and people turned back toward God after hearing His voice that the church was formed. But the Chinese Communist government slanders The Church of Almighty God, saying it is just a human organization. What kind of sinister motive do they have?

Gospel Movie Clip "Red Re-Education at Home" (1)-Debate: What Really Is a Cult? | Eastern Lightning

Gospel Movie Clip "Red Re-Education at Home" (1)-Debate: What Really Is a Cult? | Eastern Lightning

 Since coming to power, the Chinese Communist Party has unceasingly suppressed and oppressed religious beliefs, even publicly branding Christianity and Catholicism as cults and calling the Bible cult literature. Over these years, The Church of Almighty God has been bearing witness to the return of the Lord Jesus, and it has also been condemned by the CCP as a cult. The CCP is an atheist party. It is a satanic regime that is an enemy to God, so how can it be qualified to determine that any particular religion is the true way, or is a cult? How should one discern what really is a cult?

Christian Variety Show | 2018 Comedy Skit | "The Pastor's 'Good' Intentions"

Christian Variety Show | 2018 Comedy Skit | "The Pastor's 'Good' Intentions"

Yang Xiangming is a worker in a denomination, and once he determines Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus in the last days, he guides some of his brothers and sisters to turn toward Almighty God. This makes his pastor uneasy, so his pastor uses status and money to tempt him, and also uses his son's wedding to threaten Yang Xiangming into abandoning the true way…. Faced with his pastor's "good" intentions, what will Yang Xiangming finally decide to do? At this critical moment when we ought to welcome the Lord's coming, why does this pastor prevent believers from investigating the true way? The skit The Pastor's "Good" Intentions helps you understand the truth of the matter.

Recommendation: Why are good sheep in the church able to investigate Eastern Lightning? Are those people who are unable to seek and investigate God's work in the last days able to enter the kingdom of heaven after all?