Gospel Movie Clip "Yearning" (5) - The Mystery of "the Lord Has Prepared a Place for Us"

Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus promised, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). Many people believe that the Lord returned to heaven, so He is certainly preparing a place for us in heaven. Is this understanding in line with the Lord's words? What mysteries are contained within this promise?

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Books of the Church of Almighty God

If Eastern Lightning is the true way, then what is the basis of your confirmation? We believe in the Lord Jesus because He redeemed us, but what do you use to verify that Eastern Lightning is the true way?

The Testimony of a Christian | Seeing My True Colors Clearly

Xiaoxiao    Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Due to the needs of the church’s work, I was reallocated to another place to fulfill my duty. At the time, the gospel work at that place was at a low ebb, and the situation of brothers and sisters was generally not good. But because I was touched by the Holy Spirit, I still took on everything that was entrusted with full confidence. After accepting the entrustment, I felt full of responsibility, full of enlightenment, and even thought I had quite a bit of resolve. I believed I was capable and could perform this job well. In reality, at the time I had no knowledge whatsoever of the work of the Holy Spirit or my own nature. I was living completely in self-satisfaction and self-admiration.

　　

　　Right when I was brimming with self-pride, I met a brother at a host family who was in charge of the work. He asked me about the situation regarding my work, and I answered his questions one by one while thinking: He will surely admire my work abilities and my unique insights. But never did I expect that after listening to my responses, he not only did not nod in appreciation, he said that my work was inadequate, that personnel has not really been mobilized properly, that I haven’t achieved any results, and so forth. Watching his dissatisfied expression and listening to his assessment of my work, my heart suddenly felt cold. I thought: “He says my work is inadequate? If I haven’t achieved any results, then to what extent will I have to go for it to count as achieving results? It should be good enough that I haven’t resented this rotten task and was willing to take it on, and yet he says I haven’t done a good job.” I was very defiant in my heart and felt so wronged that tears nearly started falling. Those defiant, dissatisfied and rebellious things inside me shot straight to the surface: My caliber can only achieve this much; I’ve done my best anyway, so if I’m inadequate then they might as well find someone else…. My heart was feeling extremely uncomfortable and I was at a loss, unsure of what to make of it, and so I was unable to hear a word he said after that. In those few days, my situation went from brimming with self-pride to feeling depressed and disheartened, from being very pleased with myself to having a stomach full of grievances. A sense of loss engulfed me. … Amid the darkness, I remembered God’s words: “Peter sought to live out the image of one who loves God, to be someone who obeyed God, to be someone who accepted dealing and pruning …” (“Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). What about me? All someone did was criticize me a little, say my work was not good enough, and I felt upset and wanted to quit my job. Is this a person who is willing to accept dealing and pruning? Is this seeking to love God like Peter? Isn’t what I have revealed what God resents? Not wanting others to say I didn’t do good enough and only wanting to receive the praise and recognition of others—isn’t that the basest of pursuits? In that moment, I had a ray of light in my heart, so I opened up The Word Appears in the Flesh and saw such a passage: “It would be best for you to devote more effort on the truth of knowing the self. Why have you not found favor with God? Why is your disposition abominable to Him? Why are your words loathsome to Him? You praise yourselves for your little loyalty and want reward for your small sacrifice; you look down upon others when you show a bit obedience, and become contemptuous of God upon performing some petty work. … A humanity such as yours is really offensive to speak of or hear. What is praiseworthy of your words and actions? … Do you not find this laughable? Surely you know that you believe in God, yet you cannot be compatible with God. Surely you know that you are unworthy, yet you remain boastful. Do you not feel that your sense has become such that you no longer have self-control? How can you with such sense be fit for association with God? Now are you not afraid for yourselves? Your disposition has already become such that you cannot be compatible with God. Is your faith not preposterous? Is your faith not absurd? How will you deal with your future? How will you choose the path to travel down?” (“Those Incompatible With Christ Are Surely Opponents of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words shot through my essence like a sharp sword, rendering me speechless. I was deeply ashamed and overcome with embarrassment. My reasons and my inner struggles vanished like smoke in thin air. In that instant, I experienced the power and authority of God’s word deep in my heart. Through the revelations of God’s word, I finally got to know myself: In the fulfillment of my duty I did not constantly strive for perfection to achieve the best results in order to satisfy God, but was instead content with the status quo and felt very pleased with myself. God says, “… man will ever be as infants before God.” Yet, I not only failed to recognize that my own situation would be resented by God, I even felt wronged when someone criticized me. I really was ignorant and unreasonable! I was always looking for praise for doing a little work, and as soon as it wasn’t received, all my energy would be gone; I sulked petulantly when my efforts were questioned instead of appreciated. At that moment, I saw my face of hypocrisy. I saw that the fulfillment of my duty came with demands and transactions and was full of impurities. It was not for satisfying God or repaying His love, but for ulterior motives.

Gospel Movie Clip "Yearning" (4) - Is the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven or on Earth?

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ”（John 10: 27）🕊💖🕊

Many people who have faith in the Lord believe that the kingdom of heaven is in heaven. Is this really the case? The Lord's Prayer says: "Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9-10). The Book of Revelation says, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ" (Revelation 11:15). "The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, … the tabernacle of God is with men" (Revelation 21:2-3). So, is the kingdom of heaven in heaven or on earth?

The Testimony of a Christian | Going Astray and Finding the Way

Xiaobing    Xuanzhou City, Anhui Province 🍃🍂🍃🍂🍃🍂🍃🍂

　　

　　“That which you are enjoying today is the very thing which is ruining your future, whereas the pain you are suffering today is the very thing that is protecting you. You must be clearly aware of that so as to keep away from the hook of temptation and to avoid entering the dense fog that blocks out the sun.” Every time I sing this song of God’s word “Enjoying Fleshly Comforts Will Ruin Your Future,” I think of time after time when I tested and betrayed God, and I feel both endless remorse and incredible gratitude.

　　In 1997, I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, and before long I had enthusiastically thrown myself into the work of spreading the gospel and had set my determination that in front of God, I would expend myself for Him without constraints in order to satisfy His heart. But as God’s work changed, when God’s work was not in line with my own conceptions and my desires were not fulfilled, my “devotion” to God then disappeared without a trace and my nature of betraying God was fully exposed.

Massimo Introvigne | Part 1 : How Chinese Regime Persecutes Christians—Lies and Violence

As is well known, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power through lies and violence, and it relies on lies and violence to maintain its power. The CCP’s rule is nothing but lies, violence, and murder. The CCP propagates atheism, regarding religion as the spiritual opium of the people. Christians preach the gospel and witness for God to carry out God’s will, but the CCP condemns such righteous deeds as abandoning and breaking up their families, and arrests and imprisons Christians on various false charges. In mainland China, Christians from various house churches, particularly from CAG, suffer brutal oppression and persecution for the sake of their religious belief, some of whom were left disabled or died. Many Christians have gone into exile and were rendered homeless with their families scattered. Countless Christian families have been thus broken! In this episode, we have invited Professor Massimo Introvigne, an Italian scholar of new religious movements, founder and managing director of Center for Studies on New Religions, to talk about why the CCP oppresses and persecutes The Church of Almighty God, whether the CCP’s accusations against The Church of Almighty God are true, and who is the main culprit behind the breakdown of Christian families, and so on. The truth will be uncovered, and the CCP’s cruel and evil essence against God that wins fame through deceiving the public and fights against justice will be exposed. Please stay tuned! 🤲💖🙏⛈⛈⛈🌈

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The Testimony of a Christian | A Rebirth

🍒🍒 Yang Zheng    Heilongjiang Province 🍒🍒

　I was born into an impoverished rural family that was backward in their thinking. I was vain from a young age and my desire for status was particularly strong. Over time, through the social influence and a traditional education, I took all sorts of Satan’s rules for survival into my heart. All kinds of fallacies nurtured my desire for reputation and status, such as building a beautiful homeland with your own two hands, fame will make you immortal, people need face like a tree needs its bark, getting ahead and being on top, one should bring honor to his ancestors, etc. These gradually became my life and made me firmly believe that as long as we are living in this world, we have to work to be seen highly by others. No matter what crowd we are with we must have status, we should be the most outstanding one. Only through living this way can we have integrity and dignity. Only living a life this way has value. In order to achieve my dream, I studied very diligently in elementary school; through storms and sickness, I never missed class. Day by day, I finally made it to middle school that way. When I saw that I was getting closer and closer to my dream I didn’t dare slack off. I frequently told myself that I had to persevere, that I had to present myself well to my teachers and classmates. However, just then, something unexpected happened. There was a scandal about our head teacher and the principal of the school that caused an uproar. All the teachers and students knew about it. One day in class, that teacher asked us if we had heard about it and all the other students said “No.” I was the only one who honestly replied “I heard.” From that time on, that teacher saw me as a thorn in her side and would frequently find excuses to make things difficult for me, to crack down on me. My classmates started to keep their distance from me and exclude me. They made fun of me and humiliated me. Finally, I was no longer able to tolerate that kind of torment and I dropped out of school. That was how my dream of getting ahead and being on top was crushed. Thinking of my future days with my face to the earth and back to the sky, I felt an inexpressible sadness and melancholy. I thought: Can it be that my life will be passed so unremarkably? No status, no prestige, no future. What’s the point of living like this? I really wasn’t willing to accept that fact at that time but I was helpless to change my circumstances. Just as I was living in pain and hopelessness that I wasn’t able to extricate myself from, Almighty God saved me and reignited the hope in my heart that had been extinguished. From then I began a whole new life.

　It was March 1999, and from a fortuitous opportunity I heard the gospel of the last days of Almighty God. I learned that God incarnate had come to earth and He Himself was speaking to and leading mankind to save us from the domain of Satan, to allow us to cast off our lives of being in pain, of being fallen, to live in a new heaven and earth. And from the patient and painstaking fellowship from my brothers and sisters, I heard many truths that I had never heard of before, such as: God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the mystery of God becoming flesh, that corrupt people need the salvation of God incarnate, what kind of sense creations should possess, how to worship the Lord of all creation, how to live out your proper humanity, what truly is a human life…. I was profoundly drawn in by these truths and they made me firmly believe that this was the work of the true God. That day my brothers and sisters also sang a song of life experience, “Thinking of the Bitter Past and the Sweetness of the Present, I love God Even More”: “Oh practical God! I beg You to hear my story. I cry when I think of the past; my heart was dark and without light; my life was without hope, I could not speak of the suffering in my life, I could only helplessly pass the days. How could it not cause my heart misery? Oh practical God! Listen to me, thinking of the past, my heart is in pain. It was Satan the devil harming me, making me corrupt and fallen. Your words illuminated me and led me out of the darkness. Oh true God! Oh true God! I love You from within my heart.” This lit up my soul which had long been in darkness like a ray of light, and I could not help but burst into tears. Many years of repression, injustices, and sadness seemed to suddenly be released. My heart felt much lighter. Aside from this excitement, I was even more grateful to God for selecting me from among millions of people, allowing my tired, sad soul to find a warm haven. From then my life changed radically. I was no longer disconsolate and dispirited, but I put my whole mind to reading the word of God, going to meetings, and fellowship on the truth. Every day was full and happy. Later I was lifted up by God and began to perform the duty of preaching the gospel. Because I was quite enthusiastic and positive as well as the fact that I was of a certain caliber, after a period of time my work was really bearing fruit. I gained the praise of my evangelical team leader, and the brothers and sisters in the church also looked up to me. They would always come ask me about things they didn’t understand about preaching the gospel. Without realizing it I started to become a little self-satisfied, and I thought: I have so quickly gained in the church the reputation and status I hoped for in the world for so many years. My “hero” side has finally found its place! Seeing my accomplishments I felt very fulfilled and I worked even harder to fulfill my duty. No matter how great of a difficulty I faced, I would do my utmost to overcome it. No matter what the church arranged for me to do, I willingly obeyed and did my best to complete it. At times the church leader dealt with me and pruned aspects of me because I hadn’t performed my duty well. No matter how upset I was, on the surface I wouldn’t make excuses for myself. Although I suffered quite a bit during this period of time, as long as I had status among my brothers and sisters and was looked up to by them, I felt that it was very much worth paying this price. But God can see into every part of people. In order to transform my erroneous views on human life and values, in order to cleanse the impurities in my belief in God and performing my duty, God carried out judgment and chastisement as well as trials and refinement on me.

ISHR Annual Meeting Spotlights Persecution of Religious Belief in China

🌳🌳🌳 Thoughts after reading:🌳🌳🌳

We feel sad for their sufferings and also admire their faith and testimony, and are encouraged and resolved to head to righteousness and follow God to the end. At the same time, we detest and reject those devils who persecute them. Let's pay attention to their suffering and pass the positive energy!

In Recent years, the situation of the religious freedom in China has been worsening. More and more Christians have been forced to flee to other countries to seek political asylum because of being unable to bear the CCP government’s persecution. As the true facts of their persecution by the CCP are gradually being known by the world, some international human rights organizations start to give them attention and appeal for their status. From April 6 to 7, 2018, an annual meeting of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) was held at Gustav-Stresemann-Institut in Bonn, Germany.The theme of this annual meeting was “Focusing on the humanitarian situation and religious freedom in the Middle East.” Some human rights activists, religious figures and representatives of persecuted Christians were invited to participate in this meeting. During the meeting, some speakers discussed the situation of the religious persecution in China. The Church of Almighty God (CAG) Christians, as invited guests, also gave speeches, and introduced the main measures the CCP has applied to cruelly suppress and persecute the CAG, which aroused the attention of some participants.

The Testimony of a Christian | Judgment Is Light

🌱🎊🌱🎊🌱🎊 Zhao Xia    Shandong Province 🌱🎊🌱🎊🌱🎊

　　My name is Zhao Xia. I was born to an ordinary family. Due to the influence of dictums like “A man leaves his name behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies,” and “As a tree lives for its bark, a man lives for his face,” reputation and face became particularly important to me. Everything I did was to earn other people’s praise, compliments, and admiration. After getting married, the goals I set for myself were: I will live a wealthier life than others; I must not let anyone say negative things about how I treat the elderly or about my behavior and conduct; and I will make sure my child gets into a famous university and has good prospects, so as to add more luster to my face. Therefore, I never quarreled with my in-laws. Sometimes, when they said harsh things to me, I would feel so aggrieved that I’d hide and cry rather than give them attitude. When I saw others buy clothes for their parents during Chinese New Year and other holidays, I would immediately go buy some for my mother-in-law, and it would be of the best quality too. When relatives came to visit, I would help buy food and cook. Even when it was a little tough or tiring I would still be completely willing. Afraid I would be less well off than others, I left my baby daughter behind a month after giving birth to her and went straight back to work. As a result, my daughter suffered from malnutrition and became only skin and bones because she couldn’t drink my breast milk. Her situation improved only after 100 nutritional injections, while I was so tired that I had a sore back every day. Though it was difficult and tiring, I endured the hardship and gave tirelessly for the sake of earning a good reputation. In just a few short years, I became a famous daughter-in-law in the village, and my family became wealthy and envied by people around us. As a result, my in-laws, neighbors, relatives and friends were all full of praise for me. In the face of praise and compliments from those around me, my vanity was greatly satisfied. I felt my hardships over the last few years were not in vain, and I was very flattered inside. However, my serene life was interrupted after my brother-in-law got married. His wife always spoke to me sarcastically, saying that I had ulterior motives in treating our mother-in-law well because I just wanted her assets. She always said that our mother-in-law was biased since she gave us more things than she gave them, and we often argued as a result of this. I felt very aggrieved and wanted to argue with her in public to protest my innocence, but it would ruin the good image I had built up in people’s hearts. Hence, I would force myself to hold back, and when I could bear it no longer I would have a big cry in private. Afterward, the sister-in-law pushed her luck by occupying the land distributed to my side of the family, which made me shake from anger and not eat or drink for days. I even wanted to fight it out with her. However, thinking that it would make me lose face, damage my reputation, and make those around me look down to me, I swallowed it all up, but inside I felt so suppressed that I was in torment. I looked sad and sighed all day, feeling like it was too painful and tiring to live and not knowing when there would be an end to such a life.

　　Man’s end really is God’s beginning. Right when I was in pain and feeling helpless, Almighty God reached out His hands of salvation toward me. One day, my neighbor asked me: “Do you believe in the existence of God?” I answered: “Who doesn’t? I believe God exists.” She then said that the God she believes in is the one and only true God who created the universe and all things, and that in the beginning, mankind lived in God’s blessings because they worshiped God, but after they were corrupted by Satan, they no longer worshiped God and thus lived under God’s curse and in pain. Almighty God of the last days came to bestow upon people the truth and save them from the abyss of misery. In addition, she also communicated her own experience of believing in God. After listening to her communication, I felt I had found my closest confidant, and could not help but tell of all the pain in my heart. Afterward, she read a passage of God’s word to me: “When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He is waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers: becoming conscious of the fact that you came from God, somehow and somewhere once lost, falling unconscious on the roadside, and then, unknowingly having a ‘father.’ You further realize that the Almighty has been watching there, awaiting your return all along” (“The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words flowed into my heart like a warm current, consoling my painful and sad heart, and I could not stop my tears from falling. In that moment, I felt like a wandering child in suffering who had suddenly returned to the embrace of her mother. There was an unspeakable excitement and emotion in my heart. I kept thanking God, for He took me to His house and cared for me when I had nowhere else to go. I shall follow God with my heart and soul! Since then, I read God’s words, prayed to God, and sang hymns to praise God every day, which made me feel especially relaxed in my heart. Through attending meetings, I saw that brothers and sisters were much like a big family, even though they are not related by blood. Their interactions were simple and open, full of understanding, tolerance, and patience, and without jealousy, conflict and scheming or pretension and duplicity. They did not bully the poor while loving the rich, and were all able to treat everyone with sincerity and equality. My heart would feel especially free when we sang hymns praising God together. I hence fell in love with this loving and warm, fair and joyous church life. I became convinced that Almighty God is the one true God and made up my mind that I would follow Him to the very end.