Going Through the Tunnels and Getting Warmed by the Sun I

Going Through the Tunnels and Getting Warmed by the Sun I

Lin Fang

Like hundreds of millions of other Christians, I had been longing desperately for the Lord to come soon to take me to the kingdom of heaven and enjoy the blessings there. One day in November 2006, I finally heard the news of the Lord’s return. Under the guidance of God’s words, the brothers and sisters who spread the gospel patiently communicated with me, so that I recognized at last that the incarnate Almighty God is exactly the returned Lord Jesus and joyfully accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days.

After I accepted the gospel, Sister Yang solemnly fellowshiped with me, “We are now in the last days when God is doing the final stage of work to save man. God does His utmost to save man, while Satan continuously carries out its plots to disturb man and prevent them from coming before God to receive His salvation. So, the battle in the spiritual realm now is very intense. Let’s read a passage of Almighty God’s words.” I took the book and seriously read, “As God works, Satan harasses. In the last days, it will finish its harassment; likewise, God’s work will be finished, and the kind of person God wishes to complete will be completed. God directs people positively; His life is living water, immeasurable and without limits. Satan has corrupted man to a certain degree; in the end, the living water of life will complete man, and it will be impossible for Satan to interfere and carry out its work. Thus, God will completely obtain these people. Satan still refuses to accept this now; it continuously pits itself against God, but God pays it no attention. He has said, I will be victorious over all of Satan’s dark forces and over all dark influences. … God is wiser than it, and His work far exceeds it. Therefore, I previously stated the following: The work that I do is carried out in response to Satan’s ruses. In the end I will reveal My almightiness and Satan’s powerlessness. When God does His work, Satan tails Him from behind, until in the end it is finally destroyed—it will not even know what hit it! It will only realize the truth once it has already been smashed and crushed; at that time it will already have been burned in the lake of fire. Will it not be completely convinced then? For it has no more schemes to employ!” (“You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Sister Yang then said gently, “From Almighty God’s words, we can see that in God’s management work, Satan never spares anyone that God is to save. It uses people, events, and things to interfere with man, so that they may turn away from God, deny God, betray God, and finally lose God’s salvation. However, God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s schemes. God just takes advantage of Satan’s disturbance to let us know His work, His wisdom and omnipotence, and see through Satan’s evil and ugliness. So, no matter what we encounter in the future, we should seek the truth, see through Satan’s schemes, and stand testimony for God! As long as we consider things by standing on the side of God, Satan can do nothing with us.” Hearing the sister’s fellowship, I said with full confidence, “Yeah. We believe in the true God, so I’ll rely on Him and fear nothing. If I am tempted, I will absolutely stand on God’s side.”

Soon after, one day I went home happily after spreading the gospel. As I was coming to the gate, my neighbor rushed to me and, vividly gesturing with his hands, said, “Why do you come back so late? Something big happened! Your son’s friend Xiaoliu came to borrow your pickup, but it wouldn’t start. Then he drove a farm tractor and tried several times in vain to pull the pickup. Xiaohu was also there. Seeing that, he insisted on giving it a try. He put the tractor in fifth gear after sitting on it. As soon as the tractor was started, however, the ring at the end of the steel rope broke unexpectedly. It whizzed back and hit Xiaohu right in the temple, leaving him bleeding all at once…. Now Xiaohu is in the hospital.” Abruptly, my head went blank. I hurried home and prayed, “Oh Almighty God! I don’t understand Your will. Why do I encounter such a thing suddenly? May You enlighten me.” After praying, I recalled the words in the Bible, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil” (Luke 4:1-2). Then I suddenly thought of the truth regarding the battle in the spiritual realm, about which my sister had fellowshiped with me before, and realized that it was Satan’s temptation and disturbance. Satan wished to use that adversity to make me blame God, stray from God, and give up following Almighty God. That was a battle in the spiritual realm. At that time, I thought of God’s words, “… you are able to stand on the side of God when He does battle with Satan, and you do not turn back to Satan, then you will have achieved the love of God, and you will have stood firm in your testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words gave me great faith. I thought: Satan, I will never fall into your schemes and complain about God however you interfere. I will stand on God’s side and follow Almighty God. After understanding God’s will, I felt much assured.

Nonetheless, Satan did not resign itself to the failure, and still interfered with me through people, events, and things. More than twenty days later, Xiaohu recovered, but he refused to leave the hospital in order to squeeze money out of us. He said, “The pickup is yours, so you should pay the whole cost.” His wife stood up, shouting, “Right! Since the pickup is yours, you should pay the full amount….” Facing their perverse behaviors, I was very angry and got caught up in this matter. In extreme pain and upset, I did not want to communicate with them anymore and walked out of the ward. When I went downstairs, I thought: I am a believer in God. I’m not supposed to get angry like that in the face of problems. I should entrust this matter to God and rely on Him. After I arrived home, I opened the book of God’s word and saw the following, “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Looking at God’s words, I remembered that day when I boasted before Sister Yang, “If I am tempted, I will absolutely stand on God’s side.” However, when Satan interfered with me time after time, I did not stand testimony for God. With my heart constantly occupied by that matter and unable to be at peace before God, I did not seek the mind of God, but got entangled in the problems and lived in darkness, falling prey to Satan’s trickery. Only then did I recognize that Satan was truly evil and treacherous. It used that matter to disturb me, and thought of every possible way to let me deny God’s sovereignty, sway between right and wrong, get annoyed, and live in pain and darkness. I should not be tricked by Satan anymore. I was willing to rely on God and put that matter in God’s hands. Whether Xiaohu would leave the hospital and how much I had to pay at last were subject to God’s orchestration. Whatever the result, I would obey it. To my surprise, I saw God’s wondrous deeds the next day. God aroused a young man to criticize Xiaohu, “I’m really disdainful of people like you who bully good men and even want to squeeze money out of them. If I were in this situation, I would give you not a single penny.” The other patients in the ward also muttered, “Yeah. He got on the tractor himself, but asked others to pay for him. He was so unreasonable.” “Exactly. The person who borrowed the pickup should pay part of the expense. The owner isn’t obliged to pay the full amount.” Mutely, Xiaohu bent his head. Three days later, he left the hospital.

That experience allowed me to see Satan’s evil and baseness. It took advantage of people, events, and things to interfere with me, and attempted to make me complain about God and live in suffering and sorrow due the loss of money. Finally, I also saw God’s authority of mobilizing and ruling over all things when I was willing to rely on Him and stand on His side by faith. Just as the word of God says, “I will maneuver all things to serve Me. Even more I am to manifest My great power, for everyone to see that in the entire universe nothing is not in our hand, no man is not serving us, and no matter is not accomplished for our sake” (“The One Hundred and Nineteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The more I read God’s words, the more confidence I had in God. I only wished to experience God’s work more and overcome Satan’s temptation by relying on God in future environments.

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God’s Love Melted My Hardened Heart II

God’s Love Melted My Hardened Heart II

The next day after I had just finished my breakfast, Sister Deng came again. I felt assured that was the Lord’s preparation. I said to her, “Yesterday I considered what you had fellowshiped for a long time. I feel it is well-founded, but I still cannot come around. I always believe this: I have already received the judgment of the Lord by confessing all my sins in my life; I have emptied myself before the Lord, and I’m no longer of sin; and when the Lord returns, I can be taken to the kingdom of heaven directly. So I think that there is no need for God to come again to do the work of judgment.”

Hearing that, Sister Deng said with a smile, “Sister, let us read two verses first. The Lord Jesus said: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God’ (1 Peter 4:17). From these two verses, we can see that in the last days, God will come again to express the truth and do the work of judgment. The Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work, that is, redeeming man from sin through the salvation of His crucifixion so that man was qualified to come before God. Meanwhile, through His teachings, He enabled man to gain a little superficial knowledge of himself, but that didn’t involve the change of man’s life disposition. So, if man wants to be cleansed, he must accept the work of judgment and purification by the word of Almighty God—Christ of the last days.” Having said that, she took out from her bag a book entitled Judgment Begins With the House of God. “Let us see what Almighty God says about it,” she said. Then she began to read: “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. … Therefore, after that stage was complete, there is still the work of judgment and chastisement. This stage makes man pure through the word so as to give man a path to follow. … This stage is more meaningful than the previous one and more fruitful as well, for now it is the word that directly supplies life for man and enables the disposition of man to be completely renewed; it is a stage of work more thorough. Therefore, the incarnation in the last days has completed the significance of God’s incarnation and completely finished God’s management plan for the salvation of man” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading these words, Sister Deng fellowshiped, “Almighty God tells us plainly that the Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work in the Age of Grace but didn’t do the work of eradicating the root of man’s sin. The effect that stage of work has achieved on man is nothing but enabling man to receive Jesus’ salvation and confess his sin and repent. But because the root of sin is still within man, unremoved, man can continually sin. For example, when people interact together, they can intrigue against each other, struggle for fame and gain, and have jealous disputes with each other; some can pursue evil worldly trends, living in sins; some can blame God and betray God when encountering tribulations and trials; sometimes people can pass judgment on God and disobey God once God’s work is not in line with their notions; and so on. Since we still have so much corruption, how can we enter into the kingdom of God? The Lord Jesus once said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever’ (John 8:34-35). As God is holy, He won’t permit those who are impure to enter into His kingdom; this is a heavenly law, and no one can break it. This shows us that it is not enough for people to only accept the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus and be forgiven of their sins. They have to accept the work of Almighty God in the last days—the work of judgment and purification by the word, because only those who have been judged and purified personally by Almighty God are qualified to be taken into God’s kingdom.” Then Sister Deng read me another two passages of Almighty God’s word concerning God’s work of judgment in the last days and fellowshiped much with me about them.

After listening, I was excited and said, “Almighty God’s words are very practical. My condition is indeed as His words say. I confess and repent to the Lord every day, but I still commit sins in spite of myself. It turns out that the Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work in the Age of Grace. Though people were forgiven of their sins by believing in the Lord, their sinful nature was not resolved and thus they still often sin and resist God involuntarily. God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days is to cleanse people with the truth so that they will be totally set free from the bondage of sin and gain the truth and life. Almighty God’s work of judging and purifying man with the word is really practical. I must investigate it carefully.”

When Sister Deng left, she gave me the book Judgment Begins With the House of God, and I was thrilled to bits with it. During the following few days, I read many pieces of Almighty God’s word: “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4),” “Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth,” “The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word,” “How Does the Second Step of the Conquering Work Achieve the Results,” “Concerning Appellations and Identity,” and so on. God’s words resolved my notions completely, and I was fully convinced that the words expressed by Almighty God are exactly the way of God’s judgment in the last days. The more I read them, the more I felt I was too foolish and absurd. I came to realize that facing God’s work of the last days, what I had displayed was all the ugliness of arrogance and conceit. Had it not been for God’s mercy on me, I would not have heard His words of judgment. I confessed to God time and again. And I recalled how God had paid price for me and how I had resisted His work: In order to bring me before Him, God sent the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel to me time and again. But the stubborn and rebellious I, living in my notions and imaginations, rejected God’s work of the last days. Especially when I saw the book Judgment Begins With the House of God, I didn’t even allow the sister to speak anything about God’s new work, asserting that I had received the judgment and didn’t need God to come again to do any work of judgment and purification. Then I thought of Pastor Zhang, who had got sore boils all over and died tragically, and Sister Cui, who was in the terminal stage of cancer. And I suddenly realized why they had had such tragic outcomes: When God’s salvation of the last days came upon him, Pastor Zhang not only refused to investigate it but sealed off the church, threatening those believers who wanted to investigate the true way and preventing them from returning to Almighty God; when the brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God preached Almighty God’s work of the last days to Sister Cui, instead of seeking, she wantonly slandered it and even told her husband and son to drive them off. Their suffering such disasters has revealed God’s righteousness. At that time, I remembered this verse in Revelation: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). I felt God was calling me to immediately turn back from the path of resistance to God and keep pace with God’s new work and accept His work of judging and purifying man, so that I wouldn’t end up being punished for resisting God. God’s love for me was inexpressibly great!

At that moment, I was extremely remorseful, tears streaming down my face. I hated myself: I am too blind to know God, and have always been stubborn and opinionated and living in my own notions and imaginations, so that I rejected the brothers and sisters who preached the gospel to me. Also, I have hindered many brothers and sisters from investigating God’s salvation of the last days. I should have been punished by God according to my rebellious deeds. When I thought of that, my heart wrenched, and I prostrated myself before Almighty God and prayed, “O Almighty God, I am too ignorant and have truly wounded Your heart. I hate myself for being too foolish to see Your deeds and thus having resisted You. But You didn’t forsake me and still gave me an opportunity to return to Your family. I don’t know what I can do to repay You; I only hope to go all out to bring those true believers in the Lord before You to receive Your salvation, so as to make up for my transgressions.” The next day, with the book of Almighty God’s word—Judgment Begins With the House of God, I went to the homes of those true believers in the Lord in my former church to preach the gospel to them, sincerely repenting to God and repaying His love through practical actions.

The End.

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Inspirational Stories: Woe to the Conservative!

Inspirational Stories: Woe to the Conservative!

Xiaowen

There is an ancient Chinese story called “Carving the Boat to Seek the Sword.” It goes like this: During the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods, when a man from the state of Chu was crossing a river, his sword dropped into the water. He hurriedly carved a mark on gunwale. And after the boat came alongside the bank, he jumped into the water to seek his sword from where he had made the mark. Seeing this scene, people burst into an uproar: The sword doesn’t move but the boat has sailed away. Isn’t it too foolish to seek the sword in this way? The lesson of the story is that things are constantly changing and developing forward, and so if man views things as static and through conservative eyes, he will ultimately gain nothing.

Perhaps you deem that it is simply a ridiculous story and there is no such a foolish man in real life. But is it really the case? The answer is no, because such a story has been repeatedly presented in the history of human development, making numerous sinners of all time.

Two thousand years ago, that is, at the end of the Age of Law, the people became ever more degenerate and were in the danger of being sentenced to death by the law for committing sins. Jehovah God saw that. He loved the world. Therefore, He concluded the work of the Age of Law and was incarnated as the Son of man in the human world to do the work of redeeming mankind under the name of Jesus, so that man could continue to exist. During His work, the Lord Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven throughout the land, forgave man’s sins, healed the sick, cast out demons, and so on. He displayed numerous signs and wonders, which caused an uproar throughout the Jewish state. A lot of people saw, heard, and also spoke of the Lord’s great power and authority, from which many people recognized that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah, the ever-existing God Himself with unique authority and power, and thus accepted Him as their God and received His salvation. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the religious community also heard the preachings given by the Lord Jesus and saw His extraordinary power and authority, but they simply clung to their own conceptions and imaginations, believing that God’s work was forever unchanging and could only remain in the Age of Law, and that God’s name would always be Jehovah, because God once said, “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11). They thought that when God came back, He should only be called Messiah rather than Jesus. Therefore, they unscrupulously opposed and condemned the Lord Jesus’ work on the pretext that the name of the Lord Jesus was not that of the Messiah who was prophesied to come and His work transcended the laws of the Old Testament, treated Him as their enemy, and condemned His words with authority as blasphemies. And they blasphemed the Lord Jesus, saying, “This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:24), so as to deceive the ignorant people. As a consequence, the people rose up to oppose, defy, and condemn the Lord Jesus, and eventually crucified the merciful Lord Jesus alive—committed a heinous crime—and provoked the righteous disposition of God. Ultimately, the Jews were expelled from Israel and fled to countries around the world.

In the last days, God becomes flesh again and does the work of judgment beginning with God’s family under the name of Almighty God. He expresses a variety of truths to judge and purify man, and brings mankind the way of casting aside their corrupt disposition. Many people who truly thirst for God’s appearance are certain that Almighty God is actually the returned Lord Jesus through reading His words online, and watching the Church of Almighty God’s videos of hymns and gospel movies, and more. More and more people havereturned under the name of Almighty God. They are being led and shepherded by Almighty God andenjoying the provision of the truth and life bestowed by God, and their life disposition is being transformed gradually. However, some religious people still hold on to the work done by God in the Age of Grace and deny and reject God’s salvation in the last days when they know that Almighty God brings a new age, the Age of Kingdom, does the work of judgment with the word, and no longer heals the sick and casts out demons, andthat God’s name has changed, is no longer the Lord Jesus but Almighty God. They believe that when God comes again, He should still do the work of healing the sick, casting out demons, and forgiving man’s sins, and His name should still be the Lord Jesus, because the Scripture says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8), and “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). They think that only by trusting in and keeping the name of the Lord Jesus, can they enter the kingdom of heaven and gain the eternal life. So they blaspheme, slander, condemn, and oppose Almighty God on the grounds that departure from the Lord’s name and way is a betrayal of the Lord, and they spread various fallacies to deceive and control people and hinder them from seeking and investigating the true way. Besides, they abuse and driveout the brothers and sisters preaching Almighty God’s gospel of the last days, and even call the police and collude with the CCP government to arrest the brothers and sisters from the Church of Almighty God.

The Lord Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23). As for those who have preached, cast out devils, and done many wonderful works in the Lord’s name, why will the Lord Jesus say that He never knew them and condemn them? The reason is that because of their ignorance of God’s work which is always new and never old and continues to advance, and moreover, because of their arrogance and self-righteousness and obstinately holding to themselves, when they hear the Lord Jesus has returned to flesh and done the work of judgment andchastisement under the name of Almighty God, they not only have no intention of seeking, but alsomisinterpret the Bible out of context, and openly oppose and condemn Almighty God’s work in the last days. That’s why God will call them evildoers. And their ending is self-evident.

Today, people in the religious world awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus are just like the man who made a notch on the boat to mark where his sword had fallen overboard. They neither seek nor investigate the words and work of the returned Lord Jesus—Almighty God, but oppose and condemn them, and nail God to the cross again. They repeat the historical tragedy of the Jewish people who awaited the coming Messiah yet opposed and condemned and crucified the Lord Jesus, which eventually led to the destruction of their nation. Isn’t this worth thinking deeply about?

Almighty God says, “In each age, God does new work and is called by a new name; how could He do the same work in different ages? How could He cling to the old? The name of Jesus was taken for the work of redemption, so would He still be called by the same name when He returns in the last days? Would He still do the work of redemption? Why is it that Jehovah and Jesus are one, yet They are called by different names in different ages? Is it not because Their work in these ages is different? Could a single name represent God in His entirety? In this way, God must be called by a different name in a different age, must use the name to change the age and represent the age, for no one name can fully represent God Himself. And each name can only represent God’s disposition during a certain age and needs only to represent His work. Therefore, God can choose whatever name befits His disposition to represent the entire age. … There are those who say that God is immutable. That is correct, but it refers to the immutability of God’s disposition and substance. Changes in His name and work do not prove that His substance has altered; in other words, God will always be God, and this will never change. … God is not as simple as man imagines, and His work will not stop in one age. Jehovah, for example, will not always stand for the name of God; God also does His work under the name of Jesus, which is a symbol of how God’s work is always progressing forward” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From Almighty God’s words, we can see that God is always new and never old; because of the change in era, God must take a new name to represent His disposition and His work in that age; and although God’s way of working and His name change, His substance and righteous disposition will never change. When God did the work of the Age of Law under the name of Jehovah, He expressed the disposition of wrath and curse, making people at that time know what was sin; when the Lord Jesus came, He condemned and cursed those Pharisees who served God but opposed Him, saying, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13), allowing people to see that God not only possessed the disposition of love and mercy, but also revealed majestic and wrathful disposition to the enemy force opposing Him; and Almighty God—the returned Lord Jesus—expresses more of His righteous and majestic disposition in the last days. He expresses the truth to judge man and reveal the facts and truth of man’s corruption by Satan, so that man can get rid of sin, gradually be cleansed and changed, know God’s righteous disposition, and have reverence for Him through experiencing His work in the last days. This type of work from God is all to make man know more of His disposition, what He has and is, and His wisdom and almightiness, be more obedient to and reverent of Him and thus satisfy His will.

Therefore, when it comes to a major issue concerning the Lord’s coming, if man always sticks to his own belief, regards his own conceptions as the truth and God’s intention, stubbornly clings to the wrong viewpoints such as “The Lord Jesus Christ’s name will never change,” and “Any departure from the Lord’s name is a betrayal of the true way,” and defines God’s name and His work by a set of rules, he will never meet the Lord’s return, but ultimately be forsaken by God and fall into the darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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