I Have Found True Happiness

Zhang Hua, Cambodia

I was born into an ordinary farming family. Even though my family was not wealthy, my father and mother loved each other and treated me very well. Our family life was quite abundant and blessed. After I grew up, I told myself: I must find a husband that will treat me well and I must establish a blissful and happy family. This is what is most important. I do not seek riches, I only need to have a loving relationship with my husband and a peaceful family life.

The Aftermath of False Pastor Bringing a Storm to My Family

By Linglin, Taiwan

“Mom, are you still meeting with people from Eastern Lightning online? The pastor has asked us to keep an eye on you, and if you have any contact with them again, we have to stop you!” As he said this, my son grabbed my tablet computer away from me.

At that moment, my husband, who had never touched alcohol in his life, unexpectedly lurched drunkenly from another room and, pointing at me, shouted: “Our son’s mother-in-law is a pastor and you have to listen to her. If she says you are not to have any contact with them, then that is what you will do! She said that if you keep believing in Eastern Lightning, then our church will not admit you anymore. You must listen to us on this. You are not allowed to meet with those Eastern Lightning people again!”

Ever since the pastor—my son’s mother-in-law—found out that I’d accepted God’s work of the last days, she had been inciting my husband and son to try and stop me, to force me to give up the true way. But I had already become sure that Almighty God was the Lord Jesus returned, so how could I give up my belief? And so, the family battles began …

We Will Find the Light After Seeing Through the Rumors

By Xiaocao, United States

As the saying goes, “The wise man doesn't listen to rumors.” The unfounded rumors are unworthy of our attention. However, when the rumors reach us, how should we treat them? Especially when investigating the true way, how should we Christians seek the truth in the face of rumors?

From a fortuitous opportunity I heard  the gospel  of God's kingdom. After several meetings with the brothers and sisters, I knew the truths of the origin of mankind, the root of mankind's degeneration, the inside truth of God's three stages of work, the mystery and significance of the incarnation , and other respects. I also got some understanding of God's work to save man. The more I listened to their fellowships, the more I had enjoyment in my heart. Later in a meeting, Brother Deng fellowshiped, “The  Lord Jesus has returned and long ago been incarnated in China and carried out a new work, and His work of the last days has spread from the East to the West.” After hearing this, I felt so excited: God has already carried out His work on earth! I never thought that I’d be so lucky to welcome the Lord. Thanks be to the Lord! No wonder their fellowships make so much sense—they have followed God’s new work. Because every meeting I could gain a lot and I felt joy when I was with the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God, I became increasingly fond of attending meetings. One time, at the end of a meeting, Sister Li led us to pray to God. When I heard her say in her prayer, “Thank God for choosing this sister from the vast sea of humanity…,” a feeling of warmth flowed into my heart, and I couldn’t help shedding tears. We didn’t know each other, but they treated me like family and they spoke honestly, which enabled me to feel the warmth of a family. Only God can lead man to live out love. Thanks be to God! Thinking of this, I felt extremely grateful to God for His love: He had chosen me from the vast sea of humanity and allowed me to be fortunate enough to come before Him.

Christian Testimony: The Path to the Kingdom of Heaven Is Narrow

By Yingying, Malaysia

A pilgrim’s path is perilous. A Christian’s road of following God on the right path is full of difficulties and obstacles—all sorts of Satan’s tests emerge one after another. Aside from having faith in God, Christians must also learn discernment. This is the only way to see through Satan’s trickery and stand witness when Satan’s test befalls you. Now, I’d like to share my own personal story with everyone.

A Christian Teacher’s Story: She Apologized for Her Anger Toward Her Student

By Xing Jia

“Good rain knows its time right; It will fall when comes spring.” (translated by Xu Yuanchong). Unknowingly, drops of spring rain fell on the earth. It was drizzling. Soon, the whole county town was shrouded in a veil of mist and rain.

He Finally Knew How to Escape Sin After Over 40-Year Belief in God

By Tiexin

Fallen So Far That the Lord Might Have Abandoned Me

At the age of 20, I was baptized and returned to the Lord. From the Bible, I knew that the Lord Jesus was personally crucified to redeem mankind and took on the sins of all people. As long as we prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus and repented to the Lord for our sins, the Lord would forgive our sins and bestow abundant grace upon us. I was moved by the Lord’s great love, and was determined to spend my life following the Lord’s teachings and expending for the Lord to repay His love.

Later, I found that I couldn’t keep the Lord’s teachings. Aside from continuing to serve God in the church, I was indistinguishable from a Gentile outside the church, spending my days eating, drinking, and amusing myself. Later, I even began to indulge in gambling to satisfy my desire to make money. Each time I prayed to the Lord, my heart was filled with self-blame as I knew gambling was detested by God. Many times I came before the Lord and swore to never gamble again, but I couldn’t overcome the temptation from my friends, and I was trapped deeper and deeper in sin and unable to extricate myself. I felt the Lord had abandoned me. In disappointment, I left the church in 1992.

In the years after I left the church, I lived like a zombie, endlessly busying myself to repay gambling debts. I yearned for the story of the prodigal son returning to happen to myself, but when I thought of what I had done, I felt too ashamed to come before the Lord. This way, my relationship with the Lord had grown more and more remote.

The Lord Pitied Me, but How Could I Escape Sin?

Later, at the age of 38, I passed the government’s civil servant exam. With a steady income, I no longer had to spend all my time repaying my debts. I knew the Lord still pitied me, and then, I found a church and began going to meetings again.

In the year 2000, I looked for a new church. At that time, although I was also eager to spread the gospel and took part in all kinds of service work in the church, I still lived a life of sinning during the day and confessing at night, which was very distressing for me. Once, I read that Romans in the Bible teaches us, “I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1–2). I felt even more upset and thought, “How come I often involuntarily commit sins? Then how can I renew and transform myself? Why can I never meet the Lord’s requirements?” These questions never stopped troubling me.

Understanding the Root of People’s Inability to Escape Sin

In August of 2017, I met two sisters on the internet, and our discussions went very well. After that, I decided to join their Bible study group.

Once, as we were researching the Bible, my sisters read me two passages of God’s word directed at why we always lived in a state of sinning and confessing and how to escape the bondage of sin, “For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed…” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).

My sister then fellowshiped, “As we all know, the Lord Jesus was crucified, which has redeemed us from our sin. When we sin, if we pray to the Lord and repent, we are forgiven for our sins, but our sinful natures haven’t been resolved. We are dominated by satanic dispositions such as deceit, arrogance, cunningness, greed, evil, selfishness and despicability, so we still often sin and oppose God. Sometimes, in order to protect personal interests, we will tell lies and deceive others despite ourselves though we clearly know that God requests that we be honest people. Sometimes there are also misunderstandings with others; although we know God demands that we first remove the beams from our own eyes, our arrogant disposition still causes us to set our gaze upon others. What’s more, sometimes in order to experience fleshly greed, we follow the wicked trends of the world, focus only on eating, drinking and being merry, and live out a worldly life. God says: “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). It’s also written in the Bible that, “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). God is holy. If we don’t resolve our satanic nature, we will never be able to escape from the bondage of it, and what we live out will still be the filthy corruption in how we originally were. We are simply unqualified to see the Lord’s face or to enter into the heavenly kingdom. So, in the last days, the Lord will come again to do the new work of judging and purifying our sins, and completely save us from the bonds of sin, which fulfills these words in the Bible, ‘And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:47–48). And 1 Peter 4:17 says, ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.’ Only by accepting God’s judgment and experiencing God’s work can our corrupt satanic dispositions be cleansed and transformed, and can we truly escape the bondage of sin, become a person in possession of the truth and full humanity, achieve full salvation and enter God’s kingdom.”

After hearing my sister’s fellowship, my heart was touched. In the past, I didn’t understand why we continued to live in sin and couldn’t escape the bondage of sin. Now, I know that what the Lord Jesus did was only the work of redeeming the human race. Only our sins are forgiven in our belief in the Lord, yet the sinful nature inside us has not been eliminated, and due to the control of our sinful nature, we still frequently sin and oppose God. In the last days, to save us sinners, the Lord has come to the world to do the work of judgment to thoroughly purify our sinful nature, save us from Satan’s dominion, and bring us into His kingdom. The Lord’s love for us is truly great.

She went on to say, “Brother, the Lord Jesus has actually already come among men, He is the incarnate Almighty God, and He has expressed more than a million words and revealed all the mysteries in the Bible, and is now doing His work of judging and purifying people. These truths that I fellowship about with you today are understandings I came to by reading the words expressed by Almighty God.”

The Lord Jesus has already returned? This news was very exciting to hear. But I thought again, “No, if the Lord has returned to do the work of judgment, it would be a major event. Why haven’t I heard of such a thing? Our pastors and elders haven’t told us such a thing either! What’s going on?”

Why the Religious World Condemns Eastern Lightning

With doubts in my mind, I hurried to search online for information about The Church of Almighty God. I saw that the pastors and elders of Hong Kong’s religious world were condemning and resisting it, which instantly made me conflicted. I thought, “The sister’s fellowship was in accord with the Bible, so why is The Church of Almighty God resisted and condemned by religion? What’s this all about? Forget it. Now that the majority of the pastors and elders of the religious world are condemning the work of Almighty God, there’s no use investigating further.” So I quit the group and blacklisted the sisters with whom I had studied before.

Although I had quit the group, the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God continued to attempt to contact me. After finding me, Sister Liuxin from The Church of Almighty God tried to alleviate my confusion through fellowship about the disturbance she experienced from her pastor when she had just accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. After that, this sister showed me two gospel films from The Church of Almighty God, “Who’s Nailing God to the Cross Again?” and “Stay Out of My Business.”

After we watched the films, she again fellowshiped with me, “Brother, the truth is, each time God appears to work, His appearance is accompanied by the disturbances and attacks of Satan’s forces. Just like in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus was incarnated to do work, the Pharisees saw that the Lord Jesus had come, and was not called the Messiah and did not lead the Jews to escape the rule of the Roman government, but instead gave sermons on repentance and taught tolerance, patience, and love of your enemies. The Lord Jesus’ work refuted the notions and imaginings of the Pharisees, so they denied the fact that the Lord Jesus was Christ and God Himself. Especially when the Pharisees discovered that there was authority and power in the work and utterances of the Lord Jesus, and that many people had turned toward the Lord one by one, they—in order to protect their positions and status—wildly judged and condemned the Lord Jesus, made up rumors and released fallacies to blaspheme the Lord Jesus, and even allied with the Roman government to have the Lord Jesus crucified. The Pharisees publicly resisted God and contended with God for status, and they were exposed as antichrists by the Lord Jesus’ work. In the last days, how the pastors and elders of the religious world condemn God’s work of the last days is the same as how the Pharisees resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus’ work. Many pastors and elders have known that The Church of Almighty God has been bearing witness to the return of the Lord Jesus, and some of them have also read the words expressed by Almighty God; they know that Almighty God’s words have authority and power, but they still cling to their conceptions and refuse to accept them. To preserve their own status and positions, they openly judge and condemn Almighty God’s work in the last days and use all kinds of methods to obstruct and disturb the brothers and sisters from investigating the true way. They even unite with the atheist CCP government to get the people from The Church of Almighty God arrested. From the religious world’s pastors’ and elders’ defiance and condemnation of Almighty God’s work of the last days, we can see that they are all people who despise the truth and resist God, and that they are stumbling blocks and obstacles to people accepting the true way, and are antichrists who stand as enemies to God. Just as the words of the Lord Jesus when cursing the Pharisees: ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. … You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?’ (Matthew 23:13,33).

“God is almighty. God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s scheming. God uses the CCP’s political power and the wild condemnation, resistance, and persecution of the antichrists in the religious world to reveal every type of person. Those in various religions and denominations who truly believe in God and love the truth, hear that The Church of Almighty God has already testified to the return of the Lord and then actively seek and investigate. Through reading the words expressed by Almighty God, they recognize God’s voice and one by one, they have accepted God’s work of the last days. But those who loathe and despise the truth cling to their notions and imaginings, refuse to seek or investigate God’s work of the last days, and even wildly resist and condemn God’s work of the last days. They have been exposed and eliminated by God long ago, and those who seriously resist are cursed by God and punished by God for offending God’s disposition. This fulfills the prophecies in the Bible that in the last days, God will do the work of separating the wheat from the chaff, the lambs from the goats, and the good from the evil servants. So, in the matter of welcoming the Lord’s return, we must learn to be wise virgins, learn to hear the voice of God, and must distinguish the rumors and fallacies of the religious world and not be deceived by them, because only in this way can we welcome the Lord’s return and dine at the Lamb’s wedding feast. This precisely fulfills the prophecy in chapter 3, verse 20 of the Book of Revelation, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’”

After hearing her fellowship, my heart felt light. When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, the Jewish Pharisees wildly defied, condemned and judged Him. Today in the last days, the religious pastors and elders, for the sake of their own positions and jobs, also wildly resist and condemn the work of God, and prevented their believers from investigating the true way. The pastors and elders of the religious world are contemporary Pharisees. In this moment I thought of the following verse from the Bible, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). I understood, as I investigated the true way, I shouldn’t blindly believe the words of the pastors and elders of the religious world. Instead, I should listen more to the words of Almighty God, because only this way would I have the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return. Therefore, I decided to conduct a thorough investigation of the work of Almighty God in the last days.

The Blessing That Was Almost Missed

Believing in Rumors and Lies and Rejecting God’s Salvation Several Times

In the past, I saw the propaganda from TV news and public bulletin boards: The CCP government opposes and cracks down people believing in Almighty God. It also says that anyone who discovers these people should report them and that the informer will be rewarded with 500 to 2000 yuan for reporting each of them. So I thought: It’s too dangerous to believe in Almighty God. I dare not believe. Once I’m arrested for belief, what a shame it will be!

3 Ways to Get Closer to God

By Qingxin 

The Bible says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). As believers in God, we all know that building a normal relationship with God in order to get closer to God and receive more of the Holy Spirit’s work is crucial. In the fast-paced modern life, however, busy jobs, complicated relationships and evil social trends draw us in and occupy our hearts more and more, and they prevent us from quieting ourselves before God. This causes our relationship with God to become ever more distant and causes us to often feel empty and agitated in the depths of our souls. So how exactly can we establish a proper relationship with God and become closer to God? This is a very important issue put in front of each believer. Actually, we need only to grasp the three aspects below, and our relationship with God will grow closer.

After Escaping the Shackles of Money, I Am Free

By Xiao'ai  Hong Kong

“Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” Many people approve of this view, thinking that in today’s society, you need money to make others look up to you, and that without money, you are a second-class citizen. Once, I used to believe this as well, and I strove to earn money, but it only brought me endless bitterness and torment …

My Determination to Become Rich and Escape a Life of Poverty

When I was young, my family was poor. We couldn’t afford the 500 yuan tuition fees for my brothers and sisters. Even borrowing money from everywhere we could, we barely got by, and our neighbors all looked down on us. I remember how the children in the neighborhood would often brag about the new appliances in their house, and when I saw how proud they were, I admired them. I thought society was precisely this materialistic, that “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” and that if we had money, all of our family’s problems would be resolved, that our material lives would improve, and that we wouldn’t be looked down on by others. Those thoughts made me very impatient to grow up so I would have the ability to get work and earn money.

Beware of the Pharisees’ Leaven on the Path to the Heavenly Kingdom

By Kemu, Myanmar

Editor’s Note: Two thousand years ago the Jewish commoners didn’t beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and were deceived by their heretical fallacies, and  thus followed them in resisting the Lord Jesus, losing God’s salvation and receiving God’s punishment. Today, at the crucial moment of the Lord Jesus’ return, how should we learn from the failures of those in the past and beware of the leaven of the modern Pharisees? Sister Kemu has first-hand knowledge of this. How did she beware of the leaven of today’s Pharisees and welcome the return of the Lord Jesus? Let’s read her story together.

The Story of Job: Why Did Job Curse the Day of His Birth?

By Mu Cheng

It is dusk, and a grey-haired old man was sitting by the ashes of his fire, his exposed skin densely covered in painful boils, the surface of the boils broken and suppurating in a horrifying scene.

The old man’s expression showed that he was extremely sorrowful, yet he remained silent and, picking up a potsherd, he began to scrape at the boils.

After a long while, he said, “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived” (Job 3:3).

How Can We Understand God’s Will When Hardship Befalls Us?

By Xiang Yang

One day, I read a fable. There was once a farmer who hoped that his wheat would not be affected by any terrible weather while it was growing, but would grow tall and strong in light winds and sunshine. But when his wish was realized and the time came to collect the harvest, the wheat held no grain. As it happens, if wheat is not baptized through all kinds of hard weather as it grows, it will not bear a rich harvest.

What’s Most Important in Life? A King’s Last Words Provide Food for Thought

By Mo Yan

I happened to stumble on a story from history while on my phone one day—it was really inspiring for me, so I wanted to share it with others. The story goes like this: Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders in history. He became very ill on his return journey from his victorious military campaign, and just as he was about to die, he shared his three last wishes with his generals. First, he wanted his physicians to carry his coffin back, and he wanted the road to the cemetery where his coffin was to be taken to be strewn with gold, silver, and precious stones. Lastly, he wanted both of his hands to be placed so they were outside of the coffin. Alexander explained that by doing so, he wished to impart three lessons upon the living. First, no matter how great a physician’s skill, they cannot save people’s lives; they cannot determine a person’s life and death. Second, it isn’t worth it to spend an entire life in the pursuit of wealth; it’s a waste of precious time. And finally, each one of us comes into this world empty-handed, and we will leave empty-handed. We can’t take a single thing with us.

Christian Testimony: How to Maintain Friendships in the Face of Making a Profit

By Ye Qing, China

Monday, September 3, 2018 Clear sky

As of today, I’ve been working in the beauty parlor for a month. When I first started, the boss arranged for a girl named Xiao Jie to show me the ropes. She had a very upbeat personality, and she would tell me everything, whether it was things going on at home or problems she’d encountered at work, and we got to know each other pretty quickly. With Xiao Jie’s help, and through studying and training hard and learning from the strengths of my colleagues, my skills improved rapidly, and many customers began to ask for me personally. To express my thanks to Xiao Jie, I bought some make-up products and clothes just for her. We are becoming closer and closer, we confide in each other whenever we have an issue, and we’ve become friends that can say anything to each other. I’m so happy to have made such a good friend.

135-B-7 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God” (IV)

Everyone who believes in God has a different relationship with God, which is decided by the person’s nature. Those who love the truth often pray to God and commune with God, so their relationship with God becomes more normal over time. For those who do not love the truth, their prayers are not genuine, which means their relationship with God will certainly not be normal. Why? Because they do not love the truth, they do not truly commune with God, and they do not truly pray to God. Their prayers are pleas and more pleas, perhaps pleading for a cure for their illnesses, or for grace and blessings from God, or for God to solve their problems. There is always more pleading. Such men are despised by God. For those who hate the truth, their relationship with God will be even more abnormal. They have a hostile relationship with God, they are sworn enemies of God and Christ. All those who hate the truth are wicked people and antichrists, therefore it is impossible for them to establish a normal relationship with God, because their nature and their disposition are in opposition to God, and they resist God. For example, the priests, scribes and Pharisees of Judaism, as well as the pastors and elders of the religious world of the last days all hate the truth, therefore they believe in the vague God in heaven, yet are sworn enemies of Christ. Isn’t their relationship with God a hostile one? All those who hate the truth have a hostile relationship with God. All those who do not love the truth or are bored of the truth have an abnormal relationship with God. All they do is plead. They all live for themselves, they all plead for themselves, they never strive to grasp God’s will, nor are they considerate of it. Only those who love the truth have a normal relationship with God. All those with a normal relationship with God have the love of God in their heart and are able to obey God. Why do they need to always pray to God? Why do they need to always fellowship with God? Maybe we can already see the underlying reason, which is that they love the truth. They see that God’s words are the truth, they see that God’s words thoroughly explain all of life, that the best words to live by are God’s words, and that all the famous words spoken by the famous people of the world are all Satan’s lies, Satan’s logic and philosophies.

Understand the 3 Main Paths to Welcoming the Lord’s Return

By Yanjin

Being able to welcome the second coming of the Lord Jesus is the greatest wish of those who truly believe in the Lord. So how can we welcome the Lord Jesus? What follows is fellowship on the three main paths so that we may welcome the Lord’s return together.

Testimony of a Christian: How She Overcame the Temptation to Have an Affair ( Part 2)

Over the next few days, although Jingru had not fallen into Satan’s temptation and she knew that she could never be with Wang Wei, her meeting with Wang Wei that evening and his sincere confession replayed in her mind over and over like a scene in a movie …

Testimony of a Christian: How She Overcame the Temptation to Have an Affair (Audio Essay, Part 1)

Xiyue

One evening, Jingru was tidying her place.

“Ring, ring.” The phone began to ring. She answered it and a strange yet familiar voice sounded in her ear: “Hello! It’s Wang Wei. You’re home!”

“Wang Wei?” Jingru was somewhat astonished: Why was he calling her now after so many years?

“Yes … I’m home. What’s up?” asked Jingru in surprise.

“Long time no see. I’d like to take you for a ride. I’m on my way to your place and will arrive soon. Wait outside your door for me!” said Wang Wei.

After she’d hung up, Jingru’s heart began to race, and her thoughts immediately returned to those days at school …

What Should I Do After My Husband Has an Affair? (Part 2)

By Shiji

My Husband’s Betrayal Originated From the Evil Trends of Society

Over the days that followed, I often attended meetings with the brothers and sisters, and we would read God’s words, sing hymns and dance in praise of God. Gradually, my oppressive mood became greatly lightened. But every time I thought of how my husband had betrayed me, I still felt a dull throb of pain in my heart. Only later, when I read God’s words, did I understand why my husband had strayed, and I also understood the root cause of my pain.

What Should I Do After My Husband Has an Affair? (Part 1)

By Shiji

Romance novels were my companions as I grew up. Whenever I read stories about male and female protagonists swearing to uphold their love and going through untold hardships before finally achieving their desires, I was always moved to tears. From that time on, such ideas as “till death do us part” and “love is supreme” became deeply rooted in my heart, and I began to yearn for the kind of sincere love that I found in these novels, to look forward to having a happy and blissful marriage, and to long to be able to find a life-long partner in the future.