Three Principles for Practicing Being an Honest Person

Three Principles for Practicing Being an Honest Person

Li Jing

The Lord Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). God is faithful, so He loves the honest. If we want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must become honest first. Then how can we become honest like a little child? Now, let me share three principles for practicing being an honest person.

1. Speaking Honest Words When Praying to God

The Lord Jesus taught us: “And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men” (Matthew 6:5). “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). According to the Lord’s requirements, we should speak only the words that we have, and say what we think in our heart when praying, that is, we should speak the words of our true hearts and call a spade a spade. If we have nothing to pray from our heart but force ourselves to speak high-sounding words, empty praise, or great things to the Lord, if we pick out nice sounding words to say to Him for achieving our own aims, or if we make empty promises to Him, these kind of prayers are prayers that cheat Him. He doesn’t approve such prayers, much less listen to them.

In truth, we can innocently pray to God in our heart anytime and anywhere, as long as our heart and sprit have needs or we run into problems in life and in serving the Lord. There is no need to deliberately follow ceremony. But we can’t pray to the Lord with our own intentions and goals, unreasonably requiring Him to satisfy our selfish hearts and desires. If we do so, our prayers aren’t honest words no matter how sweet they are. However, if we pray to seek the truth and to grasp the will of God with a heart of singleness, He will hear us. Furthermore, if we understand how to do to be after His will and are able to act according to His words, then God will be pleased with us, perform work to lead us, and enlighten us to understand the truth that we should practice and enter into. At that time, we will feel especially free in our spirits.

2. Treating Others and Dealing With Things Without Lies in Mouth or Cunning in Heart

The Lord Jesus taught us, “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). In life, everyone will speak and work with others. Being corrupted by Satan, we frequently lie and deceive for safeguarding our own interests. Hence, if we wish to put being honest into practice and attain a state of not telling lies or practicing deceit, we must make strict demands of ourselves. First, we have to check, in our every word, whether our motivation is right and whether there is something impure from individuals. Then when finding our words contain impurities, falsehoods, or wrong purposes, aiming at safeguarding our desires, position, interests, we must be able to rebel against our mistaken intentions and not live for our own will or selfish desires. Likewise, once we tell lies to deceive others or do anyone any wrong in secret, we should have courage to lay ourselves open to others, to correct our lies, and to admit our faults, and we should respect the fact, seek the truth and correct our mistakes according to God’s requirements.

Moreover, we should treat brothers and sisters sincerely, present our true selves to them and not disguise ourselves. Also, we should follow the examples of the words of Job, “My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly” (Job 33:3). If we only project our good side to brothers and sisters while hide our corrupt and hypocritical side, then we, like hypocritical Pharisees, want people to look up to us and worship us. We are cheating people, and we are even more cheating the Lord. Consequently, we should present our true selves to others. Only in this way can we interact with others normally. In addition, it helps to increase mutual understanding between us and others. For example, whoever has problems, we can help him with a loving heart together; whoever reveals corruption, we can remind him in time and seek the truth to solve problems together. In this case, brothers and sisters will have a true spiritual interconnection, and be able to support each other and provide to each other. Living in this environment, everyone will feel relaxed and released.

Providing that we take our every word and action seriously, do not lie or deceive when speaking and acting, and treat people equally and fairly this way, we will have a normal relationship with others. Step by step, through practicing like this, we will begin to live out the likeness of an honest person in treating others and dealing with things.

3. Give Your Heart to God and Obey His Sovereignty and Arrangement

That we should give our heart to God and obey His sovereignty and arrangement is the practice of going deeper into the truth of being an honest person. The Lord Jesus said, “This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15: 8-9). “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22: 37-38). From the words of the Lord, we can see God doesn’t care how many praises of Him come from our mouth or how many letters and doctrines we can speak. Instead, what He cares about most is whether we can completely open up our heart to Him and whether we can worship and love Him with our heart, for our actions are controlled by our heart. The Proverbs says, “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The process of our heart opening up to God is the process of giving ourselves into His hands and submitting to His sovereignty and arrangement. Therefore, no matter what environment God arranges for us, we should come before the Lord to seek His will and obey His arrangement. And we should hand over to Him our service, life, work, marriage, and family and so on. We believe He will arrange everything for us according to our need.

We are familiar with the story of Job. After his property was stolen and calamity befell his children, he still said, “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). When he was laughed at by his wife, he answered, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job did not guard against or question God. He simply and honestly believed God’s heart is most kind and everything God does is good. He thought his duty was to give his heart to God, give his life to God, obey God’s sovereignty and arrangement, and praise God’s righteousness. Thus Job gained the approval of God and afterward received double blessings of God. This shows: During the time of God’s salvation of us, if we pursue the truth, , then the environments God arranges for us are not to punish us or put us to death but to test our faith and cleanse our corruption. So, however great sufferings and trials we will experience, we should be an honest person, give our heart to God and hold on to our faith and obedience to Him. And then we will receive His blessings and grace for sure.

We believe that, as long as we abide by all these three principles for practicing being an honest person, we will certainly receive the guidance of God, progress deeper into various aspects of the truth, and enter the path of being saved, of being raptured.

Recommended:

God’s Word “Concerning The Practice Of Prayer”

Regarding A Normal Spiritual Life

On Quieting Your Heart Before God

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Why We Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees

Why We Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees

Liu Zhi

“… Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6).

In what context did the Lord Jesus speak the words? The Scriptures provide the following account, “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said to them, O you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves, because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:1-12).

In this record of the Bible, we can clearly see that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, as we all know, were the high-level people in the church at that time, but why did the Lord Jesus teach His disciples to beware of them? Let’s come back to the age of the Lord Jesus’ work and take a look at what they had done.
When working in the world of man, the Lord Jesus, with the intention of letting man better know Him and accept His redemption, made the blind see, the lame walk, the demon-possessed healed, even the dead raised, and so on. He performed many miracles. At that time, the Jewish people enjoyed a lot of grace and blessings from Him and saw a great many of His wondrous deeds, so they followed Him and listened to His preaching. While those Pharisees and Sadducees, seeing many people follow the Lord Jesus, wished to still keep their positions and jobs. Therefore, they continuously fabricated lots of rumors against the Lord Jesus and slandered and condemned Him. However, the foolish Jewish people, after hearing the rumors, had no discernment and couldn’t maintain a firm stance. They followed the Pharisees and the Sadducees to deny and judge Him. In consequence, there were overwhelming claims of condemnation of the Lord Jesus in the whole Judaism. Under that background, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6).

The disciples of the Lord Jesus, from His work and word, recognized that He was the Messiah who had been predicted to come; they believed that His ability to heal the sick and cast out demons was from God’s authority; they saw through various fallacies and rumors of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and followed the Lord Jesus steadfastly. While the Jewish people, because of being deceived by the rumors of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, followed them to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross, becoming those who resisted and condemned God. In the end, the entire nation suffered the destruction.

The Bible has already prophesied, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie” (Revelation 22:12-15). From these verses, we can learn that many things like making up lies will still happen when the Lord Jesus returns in the last days. Then how should we beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees in order not to follow in the footsteps of the Jewish people? This is the truth that every brother and sister who has sincerely been expecting the Lord’s return should understand.

Tomorrow, in the daily reading column, we will continue to share how to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and be a wise Christian.

Recommended:
The Lord Jesus Has Returned; Do You Remain Stubbornly in Religion Like the Pharisees?
Have You Welcomed the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus?2
Take a Firm Stance in Welcoming the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

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Daily devotion

Daily devotion

Do you know the first command of God to man since He created man? Maybe when you know the answer, you'll dismissive and think: I have read the verses countless times. But have you thought? Though we know the letters of the scripture, we may not understand God's will behind it. Do you know what God's expectation is contained in this word of God? Have you felt God's love to mankind from it?

1. God’s Command to Adam

(Gen 2:15-17) And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

Did you get anything out of these verses? How does this part of the scriptures make you feel? Why was “God’s Command to Adam” extracted from the scriptures? Do each of you now have a snapshot of God and Adam in your minds? You can try to imagine: If you were the one in that scene, what would the God in your heart be like? What emotions does this image make you feel? This is a moving and heartwarming picture. Though there is only God and man in it, the intimacy between them is so worthy of envy: God’s profuse love is gratuitously bestowed upon man, surrounds man; man is naive and innocent, unencumbered and carefree, blissfully living under God’s eye; God shows concern for man, while man lives under God’s protection and blessing; every single thing man does and says is closely linked to and inseparable from God.

You can say that this is the first command God gave man since creating him. What does this command carry? It carries God’s will, but it also carries His worries for mankind. This is God’s first command, and it is also the first time God worries about man. That is to say, God has had a responsibility toward man since the moment He created him. What is His responsibility? He has to protect man, to look after man. He hopes man can trust and obey His words. This is also God’s first expectation of man. It is with this expectation that God says the following: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” These simple words represent God’s will. They also reveal that God’s heart has already begun to show concern for man. Among all things, only Adam was made in God’s image; Adam is the only living thing with God’s breath of life; he can walk with God, converse with God. That is why God gave him such a command. God made it very plain in this command what man can do, as well as what he cannot do.

In these few simple words, we see God’s heart. But what kind of heart do we see? Is there love in God’s heart? Does it have any concern in it? God’s love and concern in these verses can not only be appreciated by people, but it can also well and truly be felt. Isn’t that so? Now that I’ve said these things, do you still think these are just a few simple words? Not so simple, right? Could you see this before? If God personally told you these few words, how would you feel inside? If you are not a humane person, if your heart is ice cold, then you wouldn’t feel anything, you wouldn’t appreciate God’s love, and you wouldn’t try to understand God’s heart. But if you are a person with a conscience, with humanity, then you would feel differently. You would feel warmth, you would feel cared for and loved, and you would feel happiness. Isn’t that right? When you feel these things, how will you act toward God? Would you feel attached to God? Would you love and respect God from the bottom of your heart? Would your heart grow closer to God? You can see from this just how important God’s love is to man. But what is even more crucial is man’s appreciation and comprehension of God’s love. In fact, doesn’t God say a lot of similar things during this stage of His work? But do the people of today appreciate God’s heart? Can you grasp the will of God I just spoke of? You can’t even discern God’s will when it is this concrete, tangible, and realistic. That’s why I say you don’t have real knowledge and understanding of God. Is this not true? That is all we will communicate on this section.

from Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

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Search No More

Search No More

Zhuang Hong

When I was young and ignorant,

there were so many puzzles in my mind:

Why does man come into this world and then pass away?

Why can one never endure the pain of parting forever instead of another one?

What makes the birds flying in the air carefree?

Why do the geese so regularly depart in this winter and still return in the next spring?

How come the homing pigeons are capable of delivering messages between different sites?

I thought about the chicken-and-egg question, which was equally baffling;

I racked my brains over a rainbow after the rain time after time;

Why were there so many mysteries that could never be revealed by humanity?

Unceasingly, I searched and searched.

As I grew older,

atheism gradually took root in my heart,

the theory of evolution told me all things formed and moved on their own,

and those great, famous people taught me to strive to excel.

So, I followed trends, worked earnestly, and struggled in pain.

However, I could not find a foothold in this society full of swindles,

nor a genuine confidant in this world brimming with deception and fraud.

The setbacks in career, the abandonment of family and friends …

so many frustrations in life.

The fickleness in the world and the depravity of man’s heart perplexed and confused me.

How should I continue this bitter life?

Anxiously, I searched and searched.

By happenstance,

my friend gave me a book—The Word Appears in the Flesh.

He said, it holds the truth, the way, and the life.

With curiosity, I dusted off my confusions,

and opened the book …

These words unveil the mystery of God’s six-thousand-year management plan;

These words illuminate the value and meaning of human life;

These words are full of God’s eager desire to save mankind.

Holding this book of God’s word, I reminisced about my childhood;

Holding this book of God’s word, I reflected on my suffering in adulthood:

only to discover what I’d been desperately searching for was God.

At that point, I was moved by God’s love, tears pouring down my face.

Starting from then, I pondered Almighty God’s words carefully.

I learned that God created all things and set down the laws for their existence and movements,

that man is only a creature, a free-floating body,

that it is God’s provision of life

that enables man to live and multiply,

that there is no denying that human fate is subject to God’s sovereignty,

that man falls into emptiness and distress as the very result of Satan’s harm,

and that God comes among man to bestow upon us the truth for our purification.

God’s words awakened me from the fog;

I gradually kept away from the worldly strife, fame and fortune,

and realized the value and meaning of man’s existence lie in worshiping God.

To repay God’s great love and salvation,

I’ve been performing my duty as a creature.

I exalt and bear testimony to God with the brothers and sisters,

having God’s words as our weapon to defeat Satan.

We preach God’s kingdom gospel of one heart and mind,

and offer up everything regardless of the cost.

Almighty God is the truth, the way, and the life.

I’ve found my only One in this life.

From now on, I will search no more.

Source: Find the Shepherd

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Why Does God Mourn For Mankind?

Why Does God Mourn For Mankind?

Han Xue

Ever since I believed in the Lord Jesus, I had enjoyed much grace from Him, often living in the peace and joy bestowed by Him. However, I always felt distressed in my heart whenever I saw the Bible say, “And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). I called to mind: When the Lord incarnate came to work, He, having no place to lay His head, was born in a manger. Since the three wise men came to meet Herod the king, He had been hunted closely by the rulers, living a life on the run. When He started to work and preach, what He faced were still man’s sneers and slanders, along with the government’s persecution and the religious Pharisees’ resistance and condemnation. The Lord Jesus was forced to drift about with nowhere to lay His head, and in the end, was even cruelly nailed onto the cross. Thus, my heart frequently ached for the Lord Jesus’ sufferings which I believed were the worst for Him. Only after I read God’s words did I know there was a world of difference between my imagination and God’s true thoughts.

God’s word says, “There are some people who often sympathize with Christ’s plight because there is a verse in the Bible that says: ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head.’ When people hear this, they take it to heart and believe that this is the greatest suffering that God endures, and the greatest suffering that Christ endures. Now, looking at it from the perspective of the facts, is that the case? God does not believe that these difficulties are suffering. He has never cried out against injustice for the difficulties of the flesh, and He has never made humans repay or reward Him with anything. However, when He witnesses mankind’s everything, the corrupt lives and the evil of corrupt humans, when He witnesses that mankind is in Satan’s grasp and imprisoned by Satan and cannot escape, that people living in sin do not know what the truth is—He cannot bear all of these sins. His loathing of humans increases by the day, but He has to endure all of this. This is God’s great suffering. God cannot fully express even His voice or His emotions among His followers, and no one among His followers can truly understand His suffering. No one even tries to understand or to comfort His heart—His heart endures this suffering day after day, year after year, time and time again. What do you see in all of this? God doesn’t require anything from humans in return for what He has given, but because of God’s essence, He absolutely cannot tolerate mankind’s evil, corruption, and sin, but feels extreme loathing and hatred, which leads to God’s heart and His flesh enduring unending suffering. Could you see all of this? Most likely, none of you could see this, because none of you can truly understand God.”

Every word of God struck my heart. Although I had believed in the Lord for many years, never had I ever known God’s heart. Today when God is incarnated to speak to us personally, then I come to realize that the true suffering of God is not that of the flesh, about which He never makes any complaint. All His sufferings are for the sake of us. When He sees us living in sins, unable to extricate ourselves from them and incapable of distinguishing that which is positive and negative, what He likes and what He loathes…, these are what make God suffer most.

In face of each of God’s heartfelt words, I perceived that God is great and holy, while we human beings are so insignificant that we just see the part that our mind can reach. Yet, what God reveals is determined by His substance. Regardless of His care for us human beings, or His mercy or hate, these are all perfect manifestations of God’s disposition and contain God’s love for us humans. God says, “The pleasure of God is due to the existence and emergence of righteousness and light; because of the destruction of darkness and evil. He takes pleasure because He has brought the light and a good life to mankind; His pleasure is one of righteousness, a symbol of the existence of all that is positive and, most of all, a symbol of auspiciousness. The anger of God is due to the existence of injustice and the disturbance it causes that are harming His mankind; because of the existence of evil and darkness, the existence of things that drive out the truth, and even more so because of the existence of things that oppose what is good and beautiful. His anger is a symbol that all things negative no longer exist and, moreover, is a symbol of His holiness. His sorrow is due to mankind, for whom He has hopes but who has fallen into darkness, because the work He does on man does not reach His expectations, and because the mankind He loves cannot all live in the light. He feels sorrow for the innocent mankind, for the honest but ignorant man, and for the good but ambivalent man. His sorrow is a symbol of His goodness and of His mercy, a symbol of beauty and of kindness. His happiness, of course, comes from defeating His enemies and gaining the good faith of man. Moreover, it comes from the expulsion and destruction of all enemy forces and mankind receiving a good and peaceful life. The happiness of God is unlike the joy of man; rather, it is the feeling of receiving pleasant fruits, a feeling even greater than joy. His happiness is a symbol of mankind breaking free of suffering and entering a world of light.”

Through God’s word, I sincerely felt God’s greatness and His true love for us mankind. Whatever He does is for the sake of us, and every part of His emotions centers around us, representing His love for us. In retrospect, after God created man, He used skins to make clothing for them with His own hands; what God revealed then was that He treated them as His family as well as His children, and took care of every detail of their lives. When the Israelites lived under the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, God used Moses to guide them out of Egypt step by step and then into the good land of Canaan. When we mankind lived in sins, God came personally as flesh and was willing to be crucified as our mankind’s sin offerings. Today, in order to thoroughly save us man out of Satan’s camp, God is incarnated again and comes into the tiger’s den—China which is under the reign of atheism and regards God as the enemy. God incarnate is confronted with swords and spears, as well as those believers of the religious world who claim to believe in Him yet refuse His salvation again and again, but He never complains in the slightest. During the course, no man understands His heart, nor appreciates His sorrow and pain, but instead misunderstands, complains against Him and has numerous notions about His work, but God has always been enduring all these silently, waiting for someday when we mankind will awaken and comprehend His thoughtful kind intention.

The more I ponder over God’s words, the more I feel myself so fortunate to hear His personal utterances and hear Him express His heart’s voice, which is truly the exaltation of God. Had God not personally become flesh, I would never be aware that the God I believe in is so great and holy and that His love for us is so selfless, much less would I find myself so small. It is God incarnate that grants me the opportunity to know God and to understand the heart’s voice of God, and even more, an opportunity to open my heart to God and appreciate His heart. Today, if we want to know God, the only path is through God’s own utterances and through experiencing His work. Only then can we know God and finally become confidants of God. At this moment, I cannot help remembering the Hymn of God’s word “God’s Love and Essence Has Always Been Selfless”: “God always gives His best side and the best things to mankind while quietly bearing all the suffering Himself. God never openly discloses these sufferings. Instead, He endures them and waits in silence. God’s endurance is not cold, numb, or helpless, nor is it a sign of weakness, but it is that God’s love and essence has always been selfless. This is a natural revelation of His essence and disposition, and a genuine embodiment of God’s identity as the true Creator” (Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs).

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