Knock, and the Door Shall Be 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.

What is the difference between a good servant and an evil servant?

Relevant Words of God:

The work of a qualified worker can bring people to the right way and allow them to go deeper into the truth. The work he does can bring people before God. In addition, the work he does can vary from individual to individual and is not bound by rules, allowing people release and freedom. Moreover, they can gradually grow in life, go progressively deeper into the truth. The work of an unqualified worker falls far short; his work is foolish. He can only bring people into rules; what he demands of people does not vary from individual to individual; he does not work according to the actual needs of the people. In this type of work, there are too many rules and too many doctrines, and it cannot bring people into reality or into normal practice of growth in life. It can only enable people to stand by a few worthless rules. This kind of guidance can only lead people astray. He leads you to become what he is like; he can bring you into what he has and is.

Reunited With the Lord

By Jianding, USA

I was born into a Catholic family, and from an early age my mother taught me to read the Bible. That was during the time the Chinese Communist Party was building up the nation after the civil war, and since the CCP government was suppressing all religions, I was 20 years old before I finally got the chance to go to church and listen to sermons. The priest often said to us: “We Catholics must properly confess our sins and repent. We must do good, not evil, and always go to Mass. During the last days, the Lord is going to come and judge everyone and send people to heaven or to hell based on their behavior. The greatest sinners will suffer eternal punishment in hell, whereas those who commit minor sins can still go to heaven as long as they confess their sins to the Lord and repent. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the Lord will never get to heaven, no matter how good they are.” When I heard this, I rejoiced that I had the good fortune to be born into the Catholic faith. I told myself to be serious in my seeking, attend Mass more often, and confess my sins and repent to the Lord more so that I could go to heaven and not suffer in hell. That’s when I developed the determination to go to church and participate in Mass regularly. The priest also told us then that the Lord would return in the year 2000—we were all elated to hear that, and we all became very earnest in our pursuit, awaiting the Lord’s return. But the year 2000 came and went and we didn’t see any sign of the Lord’s return. Many in our congregation lost their faith, and fewer and fewer people attended Mass. I also felt a sense of disappointment, but I still felt that my faith in the Lord wouldn’t be shaken, no matter what others did. That was because there had been many times when I’d been in danger when the Lord had protected me and I had emerged safely. If it hadn’t been for the Lord’s protection I’d have died long before, so I wasn’t going to be so ungrateful as to lose faith in the Lord.

What is the difference between the wheat and the tares?

Relevant Words of God:

As I have said, Satan has sent those who do service for Me to interrupt My management. These service-doers are tares, yet wheat does not refer to the firstborn sons, but rather to all the sons and the people who are not the firstborn sons. “Wheat will always be wheat, tares will always be tares”; this means that the nature of those of Satan can never change. So, in short, they remain as Satan. Wheat means the sons and the people, because before the creation of the world I added to these people My quality. Because I have said before man’s nature does not change, wheat will always be wheat.

I Finally Welcomed the Lord

Xiyue, Japan

When I was six years old my mother believed in the Lord Jesus, and she would often bring me to church gatherings. I slowly became aware of the fact that man was created by God, that if we are in trouble we should pray to God and rely on God, and that we should thank God for everything. My mother told me: “God loves people, so long as we pray to God and entrust Him with what’s on our mind and truly rely on Him, then He will solve our problems and bestow us with bountiful grace. As long as we truly believe in the Lord then He will come in the future to receive us into the kingdom of heaven!” Listening to mother’s words, my heart felt at peace and free from anxiety, I felt like I had something to rely on, and I firmly believed that one day the Lord Jesus would return to bring us into the kingdom of heaven. I looked forward to and dreamed of the arrival of this day.

The Return of a Prodigal Son

I was born in a small town in southern China, and starting from my paternal great-grandmother’s generation, our family has believed in the Lord. Stories from the Bible, hymns of worship and ecclesiastical music in the church accompanied me as I passed through the happy days of my childhood. As I started getting older, pressure grew in my studies, and in my heart I started to slowly grow distant from the Lord. However, the Lord never left me, whenever I would call out for Him, He would help me. The grace and holy name of the Lord Jesus are rooted deep within my heart.

What is hypocrisy?

Relevant Words of God:

What is the definition of the term “Pharisee”? It is someone who is hypocritical, who is fake and puts on an act in everything they do, pretending to be good, kind, and positive. Is that what they’re actually like? They’re hypocritical, and so everything that is manifested and revealed in them is false, it is all pretense—it is not their true face.

I Welcomed the Return of the Lord

Qingxin, Myanmar

My parents are both Christians and from an early age I started going with them to church to attend services. At the age of 12 I attended a grand Christian camp in Myanmar, and while I was there a pastor told me: “The only way to avoid death and enter the kingdom of heaven is to be baptized.” And so in order to enter the kingdom of heaven I decided to get baptized while I was at the camp. From that time on, I became a genuine Christian.

What is an antichrist? How can an antichrist be discerned?

Relevant Words of God:

In the time when God had not become flesh, the measure of whether man opposed God was based on whether man worshiped and looked up to the invisible God in heaven. The definition of opposition to God at the time was not so real, for man then could neither see God nor know the image of God or how He worked and spoke. Man had no conceptions of God and believed in God in vagueness, for He had not appeared to man.

Through reading the Bible, we all know that the Jewish Pharisees condemned and resisted the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus did His work, the Pharisees knew His words had authority and power. Nevertheless, they still fanatically resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus. They crucified Him on the cross. We do not understand and what was their nature and substance?

Answer: Everyone that believes in the Lord knows the Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus, but what was the root, the true essence of their resistance? You can say that in the 2,000 year history of religion, no one has figured out the answer to this question. Though the Lord Jesus’ cursing of the Pharisees was written in the New Testament, no one has been able to discern the Pharisees’ essence. When Almighty God arrives in the last days, He reveals the true answer to this question.

Coming Home (Part 1)

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.

A Different Kind of Love

By Chengxin, Brazil

By a chance opportunity in 2011, I came to Brazil from China. When I had just arrived, my eyes were overflowing with fresh and new experiences, curiosity, and I had a beautiful feeling about the future. But after a short time, this fresh and new feeling was quickly replaced by the loneliness and pain of finding myself in a far-off foreign land. Every day I went back home all alone, ate by myself, looking at the walls around me every day without anyone even to talk to, and I felt especially lonely in my heart, often crying all alone. When I felt the most pain and helpless, the Lord Jesus brought me into a gathering by means of a friend. Through reading the word of the Lord, singing hymns, and praying in gatherings, my lonely heart received the consolation of the Lord.

What are the differences between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of evil spirits?

Relevant Words of God:

You must understand what things arise from God and what things arise from Satan. The things that arise from God cause you to become ever clearer about visions, and they cause you to get closer and closer to God, earnestly sharing love with brothers and sisters; you are capable of showing consideration toward God’s burden, and your God-loving heart does not abate; there is a road ahead for you to walk. The things that arise from Satan cause you to lose visions and all you had before is gone; you become estranged from God, you have no love for brothers and sisters and you have a hateful heart. You become desperate, you no longer wish to live the church life, and your God-loving heart is no more. This is Satan’s work and is also the consequence brought about by the work of evil spirits.

What is the work of evil spirits? How is the work of evil spirits manifested?

Relevant Words of God:

What work comes from Satan? In the work that comes from Satan, the visions in people are vague and abstract, and they are without normal humanity, the motivations behind their actions are wrong, and although they wish to love God, there are always accusations within them, and these accusations and thoughts are always interfering within them, constraining the growth of their life, and stopping them from having normal conditions before God.

I Have Come Home (Part 2)

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.

You have said that the Lord Jesus has already come, but we don’t believe it. We have had faith in the Lord for many years and have always toiled tirelessly for Him. When the Lord comes He should first reveal it to us. Since the Lord has not revealed it to us, that just shows us that He hasn’t returned. What is wrong with this belief?

The Answer from God’s Word:

The work of God continues to advance, and though the purpose of His work remains unchanging, the means by which He works are constantly changing, and thereby so are those who follow God. … All men wish to gain God yet are unable to tolerate any changes in God’s work.

Judgment Has Begun in God’s Family

Aishen, America

I am a Christian. When I first started believing in God, I frequently heard sermons where people said, “The Lord Jesus is our Redeemer. He was nailed to the cross for our sins. Jesus is merciful and loving. As long as we frequently come before the Lord and confess our sins through prayer, our sins will be forgiven and when the Lord returns, we will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Afterward, I noticed, when I read the Bible, many parts where the word “judgment” is mentioned. For example: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). “Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained” (Act 17:31). At the time, I did not understand what judgment meant. So, I went to ask the preacher. The preacher told me, “When the Lord returns, He will do the work of judgment to determine man’s sins. Since Jesus is the sacrifice for our atonement, our sins will be forgiven and we will not be convicted. Furthermore, those who spend and toil for the Lord will receive crowns in accordance with their contributions. There will be large and small crowns….” I did not quite understand what the preacher told me. I felt that this “crown” idea was very similar to the idea that seniority must be given priority in the secular world. My heart could not accept it.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit? How is the work of the Holy Spirit manifested?

Relevant Words of God:

The work of the Holy Spirit is a form of proactive guidance and positive enlightenment. It does not allow people to be passive. It brings them solace, gives them faith and resolve and it enables them to pursue being made perfect by God. When the Holy Spirit works, people are able to actively enter; they are not passive or forced, but are proactive.

In recent years, the various sects and denominations in the religious world have become more and more bleak, people have lost their original faith and love and have become more and more negative and weak. We also perceive the withering of the spirit and we feel that we have nothing to preach and that we have all lost the work of the Holy Spirit. Please tell us, why is the entire religious world so bleak? Does God really hate it and has it been discarded by God? How should we understand God’s cursing of the religious world in the Book of Revelation?

Answer:

Now, the whole of the world of religion is a widespread desolation, devoid of the work of the Holy Spirit, and many people’s faith and love have cooled—this has already become an accepted fact.

I Have Come Home (Part 1)

By Chu Keen Pong, Malaysia

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.