The Choice Between Life and Wealth

The Choice Between Life and Wealth

Zhuiqiu

It is said that man’s desire for wealth should have its limits. However, few can achieve this in real life.

There was a couple who used to be our neighbor. One year, their utility was going to build high-voltage transmission lines near their house. In the negotiation over compensation for seized land, the utility agreed to pay them 1 million yuan (about 145,000 dollars), a much larger amount than what was required then for official land purchases. But when the couple heard that another household got a better compensation as one of their relatives was a top executive at the utility, they then asked the company to pay more money for their giving up the land, or they would refuse to carry out the agreement to move. In the end, the construction of high-voltage transmission lines was completed, and yet the couple would rather be exposed to the radiation of the lines daily than move to another place. It can be seen from this that man’s greed for wealth is hard to satisfy.

In this money-mad era of great corruption, people all make endless efforts to earn money, trying to live a lavish life of materialistic enjoyment. Because once they have sufficient money, they can buy classy clothes, prized delicacies, luxurious mansions, supercars, even promotions, and get praise and adulation from others … Before man comes before God, they all live under the domain of Satan like this, bustling about and struggling in pain for wealth, fame, gain, position, and vanity. However, knowing that Almighty God has expressed all the truth to save mankind and done the work of judgment and purification, one receives His salvation in the last days and becomes certain in His word that He is the appearance of the Creator, the returned Lord Jesus, and understands the value and significance of pursuing the truth for man’s salvation. Afterward, his perspective of looking at things, his values and outlooks on existence will change, he will break free from the constraint and bondage of the worldly fame and gain, and money, he will get abundant life supply in the spirit and feel increasingly relaxed and free by reading God’s word and singing hymns to praise God daily. Whereas some new brothers and sisters are still entangled by fame and fortune and their families since they don’t understand the worth and importance of gaining the truth and life. Some of them are occupied working and making money, finding diverse excuses for avoiding meetings. Some betrayed God and abandoned themselves to the evil trends in society when a chance to make a big fortune came up. Some set their minds on their careers, neglect the pursuit of the truth and attend meetings occasionally, holding the riches tightly while dealing with God. Some always choose to satisfy their desires and greed first and give up their duties rather than maintain absolute loyalty to God when faced with the temptation of a tidy profit, though they are financially secure …

Almighty God says: “One exhausts a lifetime’s worth of energy fighting against fate, spends all of one’s time bustling about trying to feed one’s family and shuttling back and forth between wealth and status. The things that people treasure are family, money, and fame; they view these as the most valuable things in life. … when one has property, one thinks that money is one’s mainstay, that it is one’s asset in life …” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). “If I were to now place some riches in front of you and ask you to choose freely, knowing that[a] I would not condemn you, then most would choose the riches and forsake the truth. The better among you would give up the riches and reluctantly choose the truth, while those in between would seize the riches in one hand and the truth in the other. … between riches and duty, you again chose the former, even lacking the will to return to shore;[b] between luxury and poverty, you chose the former; … Many years of dedication and effort has apparently brought Me only resignation and your despair of Me. Yet My hopes for you grow with each passing day, for My day has already been completely laid out before every one. However, you continue to seek that which belongs to the darkness and evil, and refuse to loosen your hold. As such, what will be your outcome? Have you given careful thought to this before?” (“To Whom Are You Loyal?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

God’s admonition and expectation toward man are palpable. Money may allow man to enjoy a materially opulent lifestyle, yet it can never replace the value of the truth, be man’s life, even less decide man’s fate and destination. During the last days when God becomes flesh among man for the last time and does the work of salvation, regardless of people who are fighting for fame and fortune in the world, who are investigating God’s work of the last days, or who are fluctuating between fame and profit and the pursuit of truth, God wishes all of them to quickly come before Him and read His words more. So that they can see through Satan’s plot of exploiting money and fame to seduce man into straying from and betraying God, and know clearly that only the truth can be man’s life and save man while money and fame cannot. Only by submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements and gaining the truth as life can man have a good fate and destination, and avoid being taken captive by Satan and destroyed with it by God when the great disaster comes.

Now, God’s gospel of the kingdom is spreading rapidly to all nations through the Internet. More and more people who thirst for the truth and long for God’s appearance from around the world have come to investigate and accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. The Church of Almighty God has been established in dozens of major countries and regions of the world. “The everlasting gospel,” which is prophesied in the Book of Revelation, is expanding throughout the world on the Internet. God’s work in the last days is about to conclude with His glorification. As the great calamity approaches the human race day by day and God’s work of salvation is short-lived, God issues His unusual warnings to us: “My day has been laid out before your very eyes, and what you face is a new life and new starting point. However, I must tell you that this starting point is not the beginning of past new work, but the close of the old. That is, this is the final act. I believe you will all understand what is unusual about this starting point” (“To Whom Are You Loyal?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “The work of God is like mightily surging waves. No one can detain Him, and no one can halt His footsteps. Only those who listen carefully to His words, and who seek and thirst for Him, can follow His footsteps and receive His promise. Those who do not shall be subjected to overwhelming disaster and deserved punishment” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Footnotes:

a. The original text omits “knowing that.”

b. Return to shore: a Chinese idiom, meaning “turn from one’s evil ways.”