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Archives for 7 月 2019
Bible Verse–John 14:6
30 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 14:6
6Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.
Bible Verse–John 6:35
27 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 6:35
35And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.
Bible Verses–John 1:4-5
23 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 1:4-5
4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
What Are the Ways of Practice to Help and Sustain Brothers and Sisters?
20 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
By Bai Yang
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God” (1John 4:7).
Although we know that the Lord taught us to love each other so that we can use our living out to bear witness to God, yet many preachers and leaders in the Lord have such kind of distress: When we help and support brothers and sisters, seeing that they don’t attend meetings for many reasons and fall into a negative and weak condition and that they still cannot summon up their strength though we help them many times, then we don’t know what to do and even sometimes we will be passive and weak because of this. Sometimes, when we help brothers and sisters, we unwittingly stand higher and lecture them, which makes brothers and sisters disgusted. Finally, our help doesn’t achieve any results. Sometimes, after we help brothers and sisters, we always want them to look up to us. Because we have our own motives and goals, we can’t resolve the practical problems of brothers and sisters no matter how we help them. Thus, many brothers and sisters feel confused about how to resolve these problems, and about which paths they should take when they help and support brothers and sisters. Regarding these questions, let me share my gains with you.
First, We Should Support and Help Brothers and Sisters Based on Their Different Statures
Each of us is different in stature, caliber, the ability to understand, the circumstance of our life, and so on. So, we should support and help brothers and sisters according to their different statures rather than have any unreasonable expectations for them. For example, some brothers and sisters cannot perform service in the church due to many family entanglements, so we shouldn’t force them to do things against their will. Instead, we should treat them according to their statures and allow them to make their own choice. Despite this, we can fellowship with them about the meaning and value of working for the church. When they understand God’s will, they will be happy and willing to work for the church. For those who have believed in the Lord for a long time, when they meet difficulties and become weak, we should not ask them to become strong at once but should rely on love to fellowship with them, give them the time to seek and depend on the Lord and lead them to understand the Lord’s will. For those who are often negative, if no matter how we fellowship with them, they are still like this and even resist and dislike our fellowship, we should not insist on fellowshiping then, instead, we can pray for them and give them time to calm down, then find another opportunity to fellowship with them.
In a word, we should treat each one according to their actual situations, and enter into some relevant principles based on each one’s background and situation. Such as, what is an appropriate way to help new believers? How should we treat the believers who believe in God for a long time and but live in passiveness? We should not cut at one stroke in helping them. If we insist on asking brothers and sisters to do as we wish and to achieve the stature of us, the result will be the opposite and they will become passive easily.
God says: “God treats each and every person like this: Some people may be of immature stature, or they may be young, or may not have believed in God for very long and God may see that the essence of their nature is not bad or malicious, only that they are somewhat ignorant or lacking in caliber, or that they have been infected too much by society. They may not yet have entered into the reality of the truth and may not yet have crossed the threshold, and so it will be difficult for them to avoid doing ignorant things or expressing their ignorance. But God doesn’t see these things—He sees only that person’s heart. If they have resolved to enter into the reality of the truth, they take this correct direction and have this objective, then God watches them, waits for them and gives them the time and the opportunities to allow them to enter. It is not that God dismisses any redeeming feature they may have or beats them the moment they make a mistake. God has never treated anyone that way, right?” God treats us according to our statures and gives us enough time waiting for us to turn ourselves around. God doesn’t ask us to meet His requirements at once and neither does He give us a burden too heavy to bear. We are created beings. We should stand in the same position as brothers and sisters and show more consideration for them, put ourselves in their shoes, and not to force them to do something against their will; we should do in whatever way they can accept. When brothers and sisters see that we really want to help them but not make fun of them, and see that what we do is thinking about their life, they will surely get close to us. In this way, our helping and supporting them will be blessed by God.
Second, We Should Stand on an Equal Footing to Support and Help Brothers and Sisters
When we see brothers and sisters with difficulties, we should not despise and denigrate them, much less take a lecturing tone with them. We should stand on an equal footing, be considerate toward the condition of brothers and sisters, and say some heartfelt words to them.
The Lord Jesus has said: “But you shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that does serve” (Luck 22:26). God does His work with the greatest patience and love. God requires us to let go of ourselves when we serve and help others and to treat brothers and sisters with patience and love. So, no matter when, we should stand in an equal footing with brothers and sisters to do things or have a heart-to-heart with them, just like chatting with our friends and relatives. If we do so, brothers and sisters are willing to speak with us from their hearts. When we learn what practical difficulties they meet and then fellowship with them about God’s will according to their difficulties, we will help brothers and sisters. For instance, when they encounter difficulties in their work, we can fellowship about how to rely on God and look to God and talk more about our own experience with them; when they fall ill, we can encourage them to have faith in God, and tell them what God’s will is during the refinement, so that they don’t misunderstand God or blame God and can bear witness to God, and so on. After brothers and sisters hear our fellowship, they will have the path of practice and know the Lord’s will. Only then can we succeed in helping and supporting them.
Third, We Should Set Our Intents Right and Help Brothers and Sisters With Sincerity
Although we usually support and help brothers and sisters, unavoidably, we will still mix in our personal motives and goals during the course of helping and supporting them. If we don’t get rid of these mixtures, it will be difficult for us to act in harmony with the Lord’s will and get His approval and blessings.
For example, when we help and support the brothers and sisters who are weak in spirit, we talk about some profound biblical theories or the experiences of our abandoning and expending and suffering to show off and bear witness to ourselves. After hearing our fellowship, brothers and sisters may have some drive at that moment and even look up to us, and for this reason we get pleased with ourselves and enjoy being worshiped by them. This kind of help and support is mixed with impurities and is sinning. For it is not simply helping and supplying brothers and sisters with a loving heart according to the Lord’s teachings, much less is it exalting and testifying God and in order to bring them before God. Moreover, such help and support can make brothers and sisters be energized only for a while, and they will still be passive when encountering difficulties again. Because they neither get any supply in their spirit and nor know the Lord’s will, they cannot be strong in their spiritual life. God is the truth, the way and the life. Only God can make us strong in our spirit. God has said these words: “You must not have the slightest corrupt disposition of selfishness or arrogance, otherwise My work on you will not progress. You must understand clearly that whether men fall or stand strong is not because of them, it is because of Me.” So, when we help and support brothers and sisters, we should first put our heart right, honor God as the greatest, and help them with a heart of sincerity and a heart of satisfying God.
The Lord Jesus said: “I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). The reason why brothers and sisters are weak is because they are thirsty in their spirit and cannot receive any supply. This requires us to talk more about God’s intention to save mankind, to lift God up, and testify for Him more during our fellowship, so that we can bring brothers and sisters before God. When brothers and sisters come to understand God’s will, their spirit will naturally not be weak.
The three aspects of supporting and helping brothers and sisters above are all effective ways of practice. I hope they can benefit you a lot. May the Lord bless and guide us in service to Him.
Bible Verse–John 10:28
20 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 10:28
28And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Job Bible – The Inspiration I Gained From Job’s Experience
16 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
By Luo Fan
Recently, I came across many difficulties in my job, which made me open the Book of Job and read it again. I saw the archetypal words spoken by Job: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Pondering these verses, I wondered: Why was Job able to utter these words when such a great disaster befell him? What power made him say them?
With this question, I searched everywhere, and finally found the answer in the following passage of words in a spiritual book: “In his heart, Job profoundly believed that all he possessed had been bestowed upon him by God, and had not come off the back of his own labor. Thus, he did not see these blessings as something to be capitalized upon, but took holding on to the way that he should by tooth and nail as his living principles. He cherished God’s blessings, and gave thanks for them, but he was not enamored of, nor did he seek more blessings. Such was his attitude toward property. He neither did anything for the sake of gaining blessings, nor worried about or was aggrieved by the lack or loss of God’s blessings; he neither became wildly, deliriously happy because of God’s blessings, nor ignored the way of God or forgot the grace of God because of the blessings he frequently enjoyed” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II”). Job had received so many blessings from God, but he did not regard them as something to be capitalized upon, nor did he forget God’s grace because of them. When he lost all his property, instead of being sorrowful and distressed or gathering his servants to go wrest them back, he obeyed God’s sovereignty and arrangement.
Then I thought about myself: When I was blessed by God in my job at ordinary times and everything went right for me, I would always admire myself secretly, thinking that I had the ability, and I often showed off my brilliance and achievements in front of my colleagues. But because I was arrogant, self-satisfied, and self-righteous, God hid His face from me. Without the leadership and guidance of God, I lived in the darkness, becoming like a fool. Not only did my work performance drop sharply, but I couldn’t see through the problems in my job at all. I even felt that I was incapable of doing this job and would be fired at any time. Living in a state of depression and disappointment, I either complained that the difficulty of the job was great or complained that the clients and the leaders were too demanding. … At that time, Job could act that way when he only realized from his experiences that all he possessed was bestowed upon him by God. Such a humanity is truly admired by later generation. In contrast, I, who have believed in God for many years, knew clearly that the achievements I made in my work all came from God’s blessings, but when I lost these blessings, I was unhappy or even negative and retreating.
Reflecting on the journey I’d gone through, I realized that, in order to save us, God has been setting up different environments for us at different times. Sometimes God arranges an environment of ease, in which we live in God’s blessings. At such times, we should thank God for His grace, and should not steal His glory. Sometimes God creates adversity for us to better perfect us. For example, in the case of Job, after he underwent the trial of losing everything and life threatening, he saw God and said, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5); such a result is only achieved through adverse circumstances. Another point, which is especially important, is that we shouldn’t misunderstand God’s will while undergoing adversities, for God does not have the intention to abandon us nor does He want us to suffer when He allows hardships to befall us. Sometimes in order to temper us, through the adversities, God leads us to overcome the difficulties and improve our professional skills. Sometimes we run up against a wall because we have some false viewpoints within; and so we have to come before God to examine ourselves so as to know our false viewpoints and have them transformed. Sometimes because there’s something wrong with our work but we don’t realize it, God allows us to encounter setbacks so as to force us to stop and reconsider the work, so that we will find the problems and get them resolved. … All in all, when we meet with difficulties in our work, it contains God’s intentions of various aspects, which requires us to ponder carefully in the actual difficulties.
My false viewpoints were altered through Job’s experience. In my future experiences, I’m willing to seek God’s will in all things and obey God’s arrangements. When I don’t understand God’s will, I will no longer blindly judge and misunderstand God’s will. I will pursue to have true faith and obedience in God like Job, achieving a deeper knowledge of God.
Bible Verse–John 12:45
16 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 12:45
45And he that sees me sees him that sent me.
Every Morning Seek God’s Direction – Morning Inspiration to Motivate Your Day
15 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Do Not Forget to Get Close to God Due to Busy Work
10 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
By Yi Mi
It is said in the Bible that “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phl 4:6-7).
Through these verses, first I want to share a story which I saw on the Internet a few days ago.
Being busy, a believer often had no time to pray. Consequently, he thought out a way; that was, he wrote the prayer down and hung it on the wall. Afterward, he prayed to the Lord, saying he was pretty busy and he really had no time to pray. He let the Lord have a look. After you hear this story, I believe that you, as I read it for the first time, are also unable to know if you should laugh or cry. Nonetheless, it is really the true state of many brothers and sisters in the Lord. Often, we neglect prayer for being busy. Even if we pray, the praying is merely to go through the process. Have we thought whether God will listen to our prayers? I’ll give you an inappropriate example. If two persons love each other, they surely keep no secrets from each other and want to talk more constantly. On the contrary, if they have no feeling, they will be as the word “in the wrong company a single word is too many” describes. In fact, the relationship between God and us is the same way. If there are no normal prayers and no communion between God and us, how can we have a normal relationship with Him? Without a normal relationship, how can He admit that we are believers in Him?
Prayer is for Christians a necessary way to practice spiritual devotions and also the basic requirement God made of us. However, we don’t know the significance of prayer, so we consider it to be an additional burden, and even to be an encumbrance.
God says, “Prayer is one of the ways in which man cooperates with God, it is a means by which man calls upon God, and it is the process by which man is touched by God’s Spirit. It can be said that those who are without prayer are dead ones without spirit, proof that they lack the faculties to be touched by God. Without prayer, they are unable to attain a normal spiritual life, much less are they able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit; without prayer, they sever their relationship with God, and are incapable of receiving God’s approval. Being someone who believes in God, the more you pray, the more you are touched by God. Such people have greater resolution and are more able to receive the latest enlightenment from God; as a result, only people like this can be made perfect as soon as possible by the Holy Spirit” (“Concerning the Practice of Prayer”).
From God’s words, we see that prayer is for us a way to call out to God and also a way to engage with His Spirit. If we have no prayer in believing in God, we will have no way to engage with His Spirit, nor will we be the people who truly live in the presence of Him. Whoever has no prayers is someone who doesn’t have a spirit. When we long for God in our heart, we will call upon and fellowship with Him, and then the Holy Spirit will work on us and enlighten us to understand His will. Thereupon, we can better achieve being perfected by Him.
Looking back, Joshua’s leading the people of Israel to rise against Jericho was in the prayer; so it was with the Ninevites who repented and received God’s mercy. In my own practical experience, I also tasted that when I could not understand or discern many things, I could unconsciously understand them and then know how to do them by praying; when I encountered danger or tribulations, by praying, I would have confidence and be firm and courageous, and so on. I really knew in experience that the meaning of prayer is too profound and that God imparts too much to us when we pray to Him.
If you can pray to God with your heart, open your heart to Him, and speak more of the words within your heart to Him, you will surely feel the power of prayer. And if you understand the significance of prayer, you will not take being busy as an excuse to refuse to get close to God.
Bible Verse–John 10:4
9 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 10:4
4And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Bible Verse–John 8:12
9 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 8:12
12Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Bible Verses–John 1:1、3
6 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
John 1:1、3
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Bible Verse–Joshua 23:16
2 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Joshua 23:16
16When you have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.
Who are the Ones Chosen by God?
2 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Question: It is said in the Bible, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns?” (Romans 8:33-34). This proves that the Lord Jesus has forgiven all our sins through His crucifixion. The Lord doesn’t regard us as sinful, then who can accuse us?
Answer: The Bible says, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” But we must be very clear who are the ones chosen by God? Those habitual sinners, traitors, those who steal from the offering, fornicators, the fearful, and the hypocritical Pharisees, are they the ones chosen by God? If anyone who believes in God is one He has chosen, then how do we explain the words in Revelation 22:15, “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie”? Therefore, not everyone who believes in God is chosen by God. Only those who truly serve the Lord and love God, and have real testimony are ones chosen by Him. For example, Abraham, Job, and Peter are those who obeyed and feared God. They had righteous deeds and testimonies. They were approved by God. No one could accuse them. Yet when did God call all believers righteous? Most people often sin, and still resist and betray God. This is a fact. Lord Jesus never called most of His believers righteous. So “God’s elect” refers to those who do righteous deeds and can follow God’s will.
Exiting the Ark
1 7 月, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Ark Rests on Ararat – Genesis 8
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
Noah Sends a Raven and a Dove
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in to him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, see, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again to him any more.
Exiting the Ark
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spoke to Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creeps on the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatever creeps on the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
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