Archives for 8 月 2025
Bible Verse–Psalm 56:3-4
What time I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do to me.
Bible Verse–Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Bible Verse–2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
I Can Get Along Well With the Surly “Big Sister”
By Shu Xun, Italy
I worked as a waitress in a restaurant. One night, a big sister working in our restaurant came back from the visit to her hometown. As it was the first time that we met, I greeted her with civility but she ignored me. From her words and actions, I found she was an aggressive woman with surly and insolent character. As for me, who didn’t understand anything overseas, couldn’t speak foreign language and was inexperienced in work, I was even the object of being bullied.
At work, she often ordered me around, asking me to give customers knives and folks, sauce, drinks, and the like. Sometimes, because there were so many customers in our restaurant, I was too busy to remember what she wanted me to take. When I asked her again, she would peevishly say, “What a bad memory! You forget something so quickly!” Once, while I was washing cups, she asked me to give customers drinks. However, my hands were full of foam while some other waiters were not busy, then I casually answered her, “I’m washing cups.” Unexpectedly, after hearing my answer, she suddenly came down on me loudly, “I ask you to serve drinks. Why do you wash cups?” Before getting off work, she even degraded me in public. I thought: You degraded me before so many people on such an occasion, where could I hide my face? You are too insolent! The more I thought, the more I felt bad. However, I had no choice but silently endure the grievance in my heart. In the days that followed, she still treated me like that. I was most reluctant to get along with such a person and was also unwilling to talk to her. When she again ordered me around and asked me to take something, I would ignore her directly. Even though I helped her, I was reluctant and my complaint against her increased by the day. I thought: You are older than me and I treat you as a big sister. Yet you treat me that way. Your words and actions are too insolent! If you go on like that, I will lose my temper with you and never bear you…. When I was absorbed in these thoughts, I became more and more annoyed and suppressed as if a volcano would erupt. However, thinking of myself as a Christian, I knew it was wrong, so I came before God and prayed: “Oh God, when I saw she treated me badly, my heart felt conflicted and distressed and I even wanted to scold her in return. But God, I believe this environment is arranged by You, and I should learn to obey Your sovereignty, but I don’t know why this environment happened to me. May You lead me to understand Your intention….”
After going home, I read God’s words: “You say that someone offended you, stepped on your toes, or pushed you aside, and you’re going to find a way to confront him, pit yourself against him, fight with him, and in the end you’ll rely on tactics and formidableness, on your ability to defeat him, to shame him. Is that okay? Is that putting the truth into practice? This is hot blood, and revealing a corrupt disposition. As believers in God, we can’t do that. Behaving that way hurts God. There is no bearing witness; it shames God! If non-believers do that and you also do that, then what difference is there between you? They conduct themselves that way and their methods and ways of doing things and of conducting themselves are like that. They rely on their hot blood, tactics, their corrupt disposition, artifice, ferocity, and malice in all things. If you also do things that way, then there’s nothing different about you.” God’s words really speak to my heart and exactly describe my current condition. It is true: When someone steeps me and even repels and degrades me, I will rely on my hatred and corrupt disposition to act against them. Then, am I not the same with the non-believers? Although that big sister treated me badly and aimed at me everywhere, yet that was her practice. If I lose my temper with her and even deal with her, what’s the difference between me and non-believers? In that case, not only will I lose my witness before God, but I will be also treated as a joke by Satan. Now reflecting on myself, why could I not stand her, want to lose my temper with her, and deal with her when she worked off her anger on me, or degraded and repelled me time after time? It turned out that I lived by the satanic disposition of “Tie for tat is fair play.” I thought: Since you make me lose my face and hurt my esteem, why do I keep standing you? Doesn’t it seem that I am always bullied by others and am a good-for-nothing without integrity and dignity? That is why I want to fight her back and to let her see that I am not easy to bully. If I truly do in that way, not merely do I not practice the truth, but instead I live by the worldly rules of living, which is hated by God.
Next, I also read these God’s words: “Before everything you do, before your hot-bloodedness bursts forth, you must calm yourself, call out God’s name, and think about whether what you are doing is in accordance with His will; if what you are doing is unsatisfactory to God, He will help you tame your hot-bloodedness, little by little, and sort the situation out. Will this be of benefit to you? If people are too intractable when they are together, it will be difficult for them to return to the earliest state of their relationship, so, when you are about to vent, when naturalness and hot-bloodedness are about to burst forth from you, and when this naturalness and hot-bloodedness are liable to hurt others, you had better think a while, and be sure to pray more to God. The brothers and sisters of the church, or members of your family—you have to get along with all of them. This is the minimum requirement.” Reading these words, my heart was suddenly brightened. God’s words gave me a clear path of practice. Today, as a person following God, when encountering things, I should firstly think that everything is controlled in God’s hands. Although what she did damaged my interests, making me lose my face and feel pained, yet I am a Christian. First, I should come before God and pray to Him, letting my heart be tranquil, not relying on hot blood, not looking for others’ trouble, and pursuing to live out normal humanity by God’s words. Only by these can I glorify and manifest God, and put Satan to shame. Having equipped myself with God’s words, I knew the path of practicing the truth. So, I prayed to God: “Oh God. Today, as a Christian, I can’t speak and behave by Satan’s life principles, or treat others relying on hot blood. I am also willing to seek to live out normal humanity to testify You in this environment….”
Then, when I worked with her, sometimes she spoke with a bad tone to me or ordered me around, and I could still feel uncomfortable. But at such times, I would hurriedly pray to God and be willing to obey the environment that God arranged for me; I couldn’t treat this thing by the way of non-believers just because I felt distressed. No matter how she treated me, I thought, I should peacefully talk with her through the prayer. It was wonderful that, when I practiced in that way, the pain in my heart gradually disappeared and it became easier and easier for me to practice the truth.
In the blink of an eye, a month or two passed. Slowly, that big sister seldom came down on me, her words weren’t so gruff as before, her attitude toward me became gentle, and she even greeted me with concern. Sometimes, she cared for me and said, “Tingting, the weather gets cold. You remember to wrap up warm.” “I have an extra piece of work clothes. If you don’t have enough to change, you can have it.” What made me feel more wonderful was: Sometimes she helped me with my work, and when I helped her, she said thanks to me. In the past, she talked with our boss and other workmates; but now, she actively came to chat with me about her past life or other things, and took care of me. Likewise, I could chat to her with an open heart as well…. Confronted with all of this, I felt warm in my heart and couldn’t help but thank and praise God. I truly realized that God’s word is the truth.
Thanks be to God! In my experience, I saw that, no matter how big the contradiction between people is, no matter how deep their estrangement is, or no matter how unreasonable we feel the other is, as long as we come before God to seek His intention, pray to Him and act in accordance with His word, we will see His wonderful deeds.
Bible Verse–Isaiah 41:10-13
Fear you not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with you shall perish. You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even them that contended with you: they that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing. For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you.
Bible Verse–Isaiah 54:4
Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
Bible Verse–Ephesians 6:10
Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Have You Found Out the Ways to Quiet Your Heart Before God
By Xiyue, China
The Bible says, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1Co 14:33). From this verse we can see that God likes us to quiet ourselves before Him in all things. Only when we are quiet in front of God will we feel that our hearts are closer to Him and will we achieve growth in our spiritual life. However, in real life, we cannot quiet our hearts before God due to various factors. Most of the time, our hearts are occupied by outside things such as jobs and families; or our minds are disturbed by the complexities of interpersonal relations, such as friction with our brothers and sisters and conflicts between us and our families; or we think about the interests of our flesh while expending and working for the Lord. These things leave us unable to quiet ourselves before God. I once was like this. After I read some content on a gospel website and listened to several brothers’ and sisters’ fellowship, I found out three ways to quiet myself before God and I gained a lot. Here I will share them with you.
1. Praying With a Single-minded and Sincere Heart
God’s word says, “First, begin from the aspect of prayer. Pray with undivided attention and at fixed times. No matter how pressed you are for time, how busy your work, or what befalls you, pray every day as normal, and eat and drink God’s words as normal.” If we wish to quiet our hearts before God, we should first start by praying. Sometimes, when very busy with work, we neglect to pray; sometimes we casually say a few words to the Lord in a rush. As a result, our spiritual condition is abnormal the whole day. Therefore, no matter how busy our work lives are, we should go before God and pray to Him with a single-minded and sincere heart every day. This is not going by regulations and procedures but practicing quieting our hearts before God in order to associate with Him. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (Jhn 4:23). “But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret” (Mat 6:6). Why did the Lord Jesus ask us to pray in our closets? Because the Lord wishes for us to avoid all the people, things, and events around us, go before God, and pray with an honest heart. In prayer we should open up before God and speak from our hearts with Him about things that befall us or questions that we do not understand. For example, being busy working, we have no free time to work for the Lord. We feel like finding the time to expend and work for the Lord, however, when doing so, we, being pressed for time, want to finish the work as soon as possible to do our own work. Another example, faced with many family matters or complicated interpersonal relationships with our relatives, friends, or colleagues, we are distraught and do not know how to deal with them. As for all these problems that we often encounter in our daily lives, we can bring them before God and pray, tell Him what is on our mind, and beg Him to help and guide us, so that we can understand His will and find a practical path. By practicing like this, we’ll quiet our hearts before God.
2. Pondering in Our Hearts When Reading God’s Words
God says, “Begin with prayer: Praying quietly before God is most fruitful. After that, eat and drink the words of God, seek out the light in God’s words by pondering them, find the path to practice, know God’s purpose in speaking His words, and understand them without deviation.” If we want to frequently quiet ourselves before God, during our everyday spiritual devotions we need to ponder on God’s words more. We should not give God’s words a cursory read or only be satisfied with a surface-level understanding of them, but focus on understanding their esoteric meaning with sincerity. When reading God’s words, we should focus on seeking and contemplating what aspects of the truth they involve, what God’s intentions and requirements in them are, and how to satisfy God’s will. In this way, our hearts will gradually become quiet before God. For example, when we read the following words of God, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30), we should contemplate why God makes such a demand of us. From this verse, it can be seen that God knows that we have been so deeply corrupted by Satan that we work and expend for Him for the sake of our own intentions and objectives. Some people work for fame and status; some sacrifice some things so as to obtain blessings; some expend themselves in order to be looked up to by others. If we have these impurities, once we do not gain the things we want after sacrificing certain things and enduring some hardships for the Lord, our energy in working and expending for Him will be less and even completely gone. From this we can see that we make sacrifices and expend ourselves not for loving God at all but for our own interests, and that it is just conducting a transaction with God. This is the reason for God requiring us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, hoping that we can pursue to work and expend for Him with all our hearts and minds and without skating through or conducting a transaction with Him. The people who do so are the ones who God delights in. Just like Peter: He wholeheartedly sought to love God, could accept judgment and chastisement and also the poverty in his life, and did not even give free rein to his own preferences in food, clothing, and shelter. In addition, he did work and made sacrifices in order to satisfy God. In the end, God gave him the key of the kingdom of heaven. Through pondering God’s words seriously, we have some understanding of them, and we are willing to seek this aspect of the truth, enter into it, and strive for God’s requirements step by step. If we practice like this every day, we’ll quiet our hearts before God.
3. Often Giving Thought to God’s Love in Ordinary Times
God’s word says, “Ordinarily, it should be normal for you to be able to draw close to God in your heart, to contemplate God’s love and to ponder the words of God, without being disturbed by external things. When your heart has achieved a certain degree of peace, you will be able to muse silently and, within yourself, to contemplate God’s love and truly draw near to Him, regardless of your surroundings, until finally you reach the point where praise wells up in your heart, and it is even better than prayer. Then you will be possessed of a certain stature.”
To quiet our hearts before God, we need to make it a usual practice to meditate on and contemplate God’s love. However, most of the time, once we are free, we will think about matters of the flesh, such as how to make more money and how to enjoy our flesh even more, or we will be absent minded. As such, we can never achieve the result of quieting ourselves before God. So let’s practice more along this path. For example, when going back and forth to work by bus in the daytime or lying in bed before falling asleep at night, we can think about how God has led us to experience the things that have befallen us during the day. Furthermore, we can also think of all the grace that God has bestowed upon us and give thought to His love. For example, when we were in a bad state living in weakness, God sustained and helped us many times through brothers and sisters and His words also encouraged and comforted us, so that we broke free from our predicament and felt His love for us was so deep. When we give thought to God’s love like this, we will feel that our hearts are very close to Him, and we will be so moved by the Holy Spirit that we will feel indebted to God because of our stature being too small to put into practice many of God’s words. Consequently, we will thirst for God’s word even more and resolve to pursue the truth. Provided that we meditate on and contemplate God’s love this way several times during the day, we will be able to achieve the result of quieting our hearts before God and living before Him.
If we practice quieting our hearts before God every day, unknowingly our spiritual life will gradually grow. The above are three ways to quiet our hearts before God. I hope that they are helpful to all the brothers and sisters who pursue growth in life.
Bible Verse–1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Bible Verse–1 Chronicles 28:20
And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.
What Does John 3:36 Mean?
The Lord Jesus said: “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). Based on these two verses, many people believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of man and has the way of eternal life, and that those who believe in the Lord Jesus can obtain eternal life and will never perish. But some brothers and sisters feel confused: Though we have accepted the Lord Jesus’ redemption and done a lot of good deeds, we still live bound by sin. Can the servants of sin like us obtain eternal life? Next, let’s fellowship about how to gain eternal life.
1. The Lord Jesus Didn’t Bestow the Way of Eternal Life Upon Man
The Lord Jesus said: “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” “[T]he water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Undeniably, these words of the Lord are truths. If we give it careful thought, we can understand their true meaning. Actually, the Lord said these words to testify to the fact that He is God Himself and has the way of eternal life. And only those who believe in Christ can attain life and God’s salvation. God reveals the mystery that Christ is the only way to eternal life, so that we can understand that only Christ can give man the way of eternal life and then can follow Christ. This is not to say that man can receive eternal life upon accepting the Lord Jesus’ way. We can understand this through the Lord Jesus’ words and work. The Lord Jesus said: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). “For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Through these verses we can know that the Lord Jesus brought the way of repentance and did the work of redemption. At that time, the Lord Jesus taught man to confess his sins and repent, to love his enemies, to love others as himself, to forsake house, parents, brothers, and wife, to bear the cross to follow the Lord, and so forth. In addition, the Lord bestowed on man an abundance of grace, healed the sick and cast out demons, made five loaves and two fish enough to fill five thousand people, etc. Finally, He was crucified for the sake of redeeming mankind. As long as people practice according to the Lord’s words, they won’t be convicted and executed by the law, and so they are qualified to pray to God, enjoy His grace and blessings, and receive peace and joy from Him.
Although we have been forgiven through our belief in the Lord, have some good external behaviors, and can labor and sacrifice for the Lord, we still sin frequently and are unable to put the Lord’s words into practice because we are under the control of our satanic dispositions. List just a few examples: We will lie or cheat for our own face or interests; when our families act in a way that we don’t like, we’ll lose our tempers and scold them; when working together with our co-workers in service to God, we will vie with them for fame and gain, and engage in jealous disputes; our belief in God is solely for the sake of obtaining blessings and grace, and the moment unfortunate things, illness or setbacks befall us and our families, we will blame and misunderstand God, or even deny and betray God; even though we believe in the Lord, we are steeped in and influenced by the evil worldly trends and still cling to the world, wealth, fame and fortune. The list goes on. How can we, who haven’t achieved true repentance, obtain eternal life? God says: “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). “[Y]ou shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). God is holy, and only those who have been purified and are without filth can enter God’s kingdom. Today, we often sin and are still slaves to sin, so we aren’t qualified to enter into God’s kingdom and haven’t obtained eternal life. It can therefore be seen that in the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus only performed the work of redemption and brought the way of repentance, but did not bestow the way of eternal life on mankind. The true way of eternal life is the way of truth which allows man to live forever, which is to say, it is the way which allows man to cast off the binds and restraints of his sinful nature, change his life disposition, and allows him to thoroughly break free of Satan’s influence. It allows man to know, obey, and revere God so as to never again sin to oppose or betray God. Only that which can achieve this effect may be called the way of eternal life. Only people who gain the way to eternal life as their lives, cast off their corrupt dispositions and are purified, are those who have eternal life. That is to say, no matter how much good behavior we have, we cannot obtain eternal life just by believing in the Lord Jesus and experiencing His work.
2. How Should We Believe in the Son So That We Can Obtain Eternal Life?
At this point, perhaps some people are confused: The Lord Jesus said plainly, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” Is the Lord Jesus not the Son of man? Why is it that we cannot obtain eternal life just by believing in the Lord Jesus? With regards to this question, let’s look at several Bible verses. The Lord Jesus said: “Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you think not” (Luke 12:40). “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24–25). The Lord Jesus told us that the Son of man will come in the last days and will suffer many things and be rejected. The words “the Son of man” mean that when the Lord returns He will be incarnated in the flesh. Only the incarnate God who appears among mankind can be called the Son of man. If it were the spiritual body of the resurrected Lord Jesus appearing to mankind, He couldn’t be called the Son of man. In addition, people would feel afraid at the sight of the spiritual body and no one would dare resist Him. If so, He wouldn’t suffer many things.
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). “And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man” (John 5:27). And there’s Hebrews 9:28: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation.” From these verses, we can see that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will express the truth and perform the work of judging and cleansing man with words to entirely resolve our sinful natures. In other words, when God comes back, He’ll appear among His believers as the Son of man, express all the truths needed for man to attain salvation, to enable man to be free from the bonds of sin, so that they may become people who revere God, obey God and know God, and so that they may enter the heavenly kingdom and obtain eternal life. It is clear that if we want to obtain eternal life, just undergoing the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption is still not enough. More importantly, we must accept the judgment work of casting away sins done by the returned Lord in the last days.
At this point, we can understand that the words of the Lord Jesus, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life,” don’t mean that believing in the Lord Jesus can gain us everlasting life. Rather, we should believe in the incarnate Son of man in the last days, receive His work of judgment by the word, and be purified of our corrupt disposition, and only thus can we gain eternal life. If we only believe in the Lord Jesus but do not accept His return, we are not people who truly believe in the Son and cannot obtain everlasting life, and our faith will be spoiled halfway. Only those who accept God’s return are people who follow the footsteps of the Lamb, and are qualified to receive the way of eternal life.
Bible Verse–John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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