The Fruits of Obeying God

Xie Cheng

    A few days ago, my leader Sister Cheng told me that the church had a new work that required some manpower, and asked me whether I’d be willing to do it. Hearing my leader say this, I was beside myself with joy, and I thought: “For three months now, I’ve been reflecting on how I was replaced because my striving for fame and gain in my duties interrupted and disturbed the church’s work. Now, at last, I can perform my duty again! If my brothers and sisters knew this, they’d definitely pay special regard to me, and would think that I’ve made progress by experiencing this failure.” I agreed to do it there and then. After my leader had gone, every day I looked forward to receiving notice of my new duty, but the days went by and no notice arrived. What did arrive was a stack of paper documents, and my leader asked me to type them up. Holding this stack of paper documents, my heart was full of questions: “What’s the meaning of this? Wasn’t it agreed that I’d be doing a new duty? How then can I be asked to type up all these paper documents? What am I, a typist? What on earth’s going on? If I’m not going to be doing the new duty, then surely my leader has to tell me why!” My mind was in a whirl, and I was unwilling to accept the reality of the situation. Faced with this pile of documents, I thought: “Typing isn’t a real duty. Anyone can do this work. Aren’t I a little overqualified to stay at home just typing up all these documents? If I’m not able to do any important duty, my brothers and sisters will surely say that, after being replaced, I still don’t have any true knowledge of myself and have not truly reflected on myself. What’s more, if I’m staying at home typing all day, then no matter how much I do or how well I do it, no one will know about it and I won’t have a chance to shine. I’ll forever be just a nobody, without any possibility of being promoted or put to some important use.” I was filled with misgivings, but I couldn’t refuse; all I could do was accept the duty.

Hymns of the Church of Almighty God | God Silently Provides for Everyone

I

God supplies all man's needs,

every place, at all times.

He observes all their thoughts,

how their hearts go through change.

And He gives them the comfort

that they need,

encouraging and guiding them.

For the one who loves Him,

for the one who's following,

God will nothing withhold,

all His blessings will unfold.

He gives grace to them all,

and His mercy flows wide.

What He has and what He is,

He gives without reserve.

Life music | God’s Will Has Been Open to Everyone | Eastern Lightning

From the creation of man,

God's being, His will,

His possessions and disposition

have been open to everyone

and open to all.

I

God has never hidden His essence,

nor His disposition or will on purpose.

It's just that mankind pays no mind

to God's works, His will,

so man's understanding of God

is pitifully weak.

From the creation of man,

God's being, His will,

His possessions and disposition

have been open to everyone

and open to all.

I Am Following in the Footsteps of the Lamb

Shen Ai, Singapore

When I was 18 years old my mother got ill, and so she started believing in the Lord Jesus. At the time, I knew the Lord Jesus’ name but didn’t understand anything about faith in the Lord. It was quite a coincidence that I later went to work for a company where most of the employees were Christians. Through interacting with them, I saw how they treated people with love and patience, and I came to believe that Christians were a pretty good bunch of people. During that period, there was a colleague who often told me the story about how the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross in order to redeem mankind. I gradually developed an interest in faith in the Lord, and started going with my colleagues to their church to worship. The first time I entered the church and heard hymns praising God being sung I was unexpectedly moved to tears by the Lord’s love. I prayed to the Lord like this: “Oh, Lord Jesus! Thank You for picking me out of the vast ocean of humanity to become one of Your daughters. I wish to follow You forever….” During that period, whenever I met some difficulties in my daily life, or was mocked by my friends and relatives because of my faith in the Lord, as long as I came in front of the Lord and prayed, my spirit would find immense release. I felt that the Lord Jesus was my only reliance in life and that I would never leave the Lord’s side. At that time my favorite hymn was: “Rock, rock, Jesus Christ! Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, only You are the savior. You are the mediator, You are the son of God, You are the lamb. You are the way and the truth, You are the life, You are the light, You are the rock, the fortress, the city of refuge and the shield. We belong to You; we will never be shaken from generation to generation.” And this is how I relied on the Lord’s great power and motivation gained from the guidance of the Lord’s words to get through all the difficulties and troubles of life.

But then, for some unknown reason, I started to slowly feel that I wasn’t enjoying the meetings anymore. The pastor’s sermons were always the same old stuff, without any new light in them, and I felt that I wasn’t gaining anything. My spirit began to wither, and became weaker and weaker. Because of this, I often prayed to the Lord like this: “Lord, in my heart there is no desire to go to the church meetings. When I do go I just go through the motions and don’t gain sustenance for my spiritual life. Lord, I feel helpless. I’m wandering around at a loss about what to do. Please lead me out of this.” But no matter how I prayed and begged I could never feel the Lord’s presence. The darkness and pain grew in my heart and my confidence became weaker by the day. Then, in 2014, my husband had an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. We ended up paying 2 years of medical bills and compensation, which left us with debts of over 100,000 yuan. It was this debt pressure that forced my husband and I to relocate to Singapore to work and make more money.

A Hymn of God's Word "God's Realness and Loveliness" | The Church of Almighty God

“For Adam and Eve, the Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed them.”

What we can see from this image is that God appears in the role

of the parent of Adam and Eve.

Ah … ah … ah … ah …

I

God made Adam and Eve, taking them as His companions.

As their only family, He looked after their life,

as well as took care of all, all their basic necessities.

God appears in the role of the parent, the parent of Adam and Eve.

God made Adam and Eve, taking them as His companions.

As their only family, He looked after their life,

as well as took care of all, all their basic necessities.

God appears in the role of the parent, the parent of Adam and Eve,

as the parent of Adam and Eve.

In this work God does, in this work God does,

man is unable to see how lofty God is, or His paramount supremacy.

Nor can they see Him shrouded in mystery, or His wrath and majesty.

Everything they can see is the love of God and His humility.

And they see His concern for man as well as His duty and care toward man.

The Words God Bestows on Men Are the Ways They Should Keep

God doesn't look at whether our status is high or low. As long as we praise with a true heart, God feels pleased. All the glory be to Almighty God.

I

Throughout every age,

when God does His work on earth,

He always bestows some words

upon humankind,

He tells them some truths.

These truths serve as the way

man should adhere to,

the way which man should keep.

It's the way that leads man to

fear God and shun evil,

and something in their lives,

and in life's journey

that they should practice,

should adhere to.

These are the reasons

that God bestows His

words upon them.

To Be an Honest Person Is Truly Great!

Feeling after reading:    📕🌱🌳📕🌱🌳📕

The Lord Jesus asked us to be honest, we also often practice the Lord's requirements to be an honest person. However, for most of the time, we fail to put the Lord's requirements into practice. What is it that stop our footsteps of being honest?

Wu Ming, China

　One day in 2004 a friend said to me: “Every day you get up early and are busy all day cutting cloth, you exhaust yourself, yet you still don’t make money. Today’s society relies on the tongue to make money, like the popular saying goes: ‘It is better to have a slick tongue than to have strong arms and legs.’ You know that I’m now engaging in the direct sales business selling makeup products, not only does it make me beautiful, I also don’t need to exert too much effort each day, I just need to speak a few words with my customers and sell my products in order to make a lot of money. Why don’t you change jobs and come sell makeup products with me?” I looked my friend over, she really was prettier than before, and then I thought about how I had been a dressmaker for over 10 years, how I hadn’t really made any money at it, and how I wasn’t getting any younger. If it really was like what my friend was saying, if by switching to a job where I sold makeup products I could make easy money, and could even become younger and prettier and win the high praises of others, then that would be much better! As I thought about this, I told her right then and there that I was willing to become a part of the company. Later, after my inspection, I ordered over 3,000 yuan worth of products, and I started my job in the cosmetics industry as a beauty consultant for this company.

God’s Words Guide Me to Learn How to Educate My Children (II)

Xiaoxue, Malaysia

　One day after dinner, I taught my eldest son how to read Chinese—just the simple words, “Heaven, earth, people, and, earth, daddy, mommy….” I taught him quite a few times, but he still couldn’t write them. He would write the first word and then forget the next one. The anger inside me rose up, and I grabbed the ruler on the table and hit him several times. I shouted loudly: “How stupid you are! You cannot even learn these few words!” My eldest son was hit until he cried, “waah, waah” and broke free and ran to stand in the corner. I scolded him, “Come over here and keep writing!” My eldest son did not come over, so I grabbed hold of him and pulled him onto the chair. Seeing that my eldest son’s hand had been beaten red and swollen by me, I felt a stabbing pain in my heart. I cried and returned to my room and prayed to God: “God! As soon as my child displeased me, I could not control my anger. I don’t want to treat my children like this. God, may You help me.” After praying, I slowly calmed down.

　Later, I taught him as usual, but he still did not learn. I remembered praying to God and I did not get angry again. At the same time, I also started to reflect on myself. Why could I not control my temper when my child did not please me? Whilst reflecting on this, I thought of a passage of God’s words: “Once a man has status, he will often find it difficult to control his mood, and so he will enjoy seizing upon instances to express his dissatisfaction and vent his emotions; he will often flare up into rage for no apparent reason, so as to reveal his ability and let others know that his status and identity are different from those of ordinary people. Of course, corrupt people without any status will also frequently lose control. Their anger is frequently caused by damage to their individual benefits. In order to protect their own status and dignity, corrupt mankind will frequently vent their emotions and reveal their arrogant nature” (“God Himself, the Unique II” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Some exercise restraint in their anger, while others are more rash and flare up with rage whenever they wish without the least bit of restraint. In short, man’s anger derives from his corrupt disposition. No matter what its purpose, it is of the flesh and of nature; it has nothing to do with justice or injustice because nothing in man’s nature and substance corresponds to the truth” (“God Himself, the Unique II” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through what God’s words revealed, I saw that I was too deeply corrupted by Satan and too arrogant and domineering, always suppressing and forcing my children in my identity and status as their mother and as soon as they did not meet my demands and standards, I could not stop myself from getting angry and chiding and physically punishing them. I actually had no reason at all. Was the reason why I got so angry with my son not because his results from taking the school entrance test were the worst of all the children? This made me feel a loss of face in front of others. “Treating my child so strictly and disregarding his feelings today is not all for his own good or to make him quickly improve his academic performance, but to gratify my own vanity and desire for status. I’m too selfish and despicable! It is because of my arrogant, selfish corrupt disposition that I cannot obey God and always want to break free from God’s mastery and arrangements and want to arrange everything for my children based on my own ability and finally bring myself and my children so much pain.” When I thought of this, I hated myself and no longer wished to live by Satan’s corrupt disposition and be fooled by Satan. So I prayed to God and asked God to keep my heart, to guide me through His words, and to arrange even more environments to change and cleanse me. Subsequently, I no longer demanded too much of my son. Instead, I patiently taught him and did my best to be a mother. Slowly, I no longer worried because my children did not learn, and felt especially relaxed and happy. When I looked at my two children again, I realized that they were really cute and lively, and I realized then how unfair it was for my children when I always made them live my way and grow into the standard image in my mind.