Spiritual Awakening: The “Subway” Is Heading Toward Spring

Spiritual Awakening: The “Subway” Is Heading Toward Spring

Yang Jing

On the subway, Xiaoran sat on her seat with a pensive and gloomy air, looking out of the window from time to time. She felt that her recent life and mood were gloomy like the tunnel. She reflected on her experience of the job interview from the beginning: Before the interview, she meant to ask for some interview techniques from her husband, who was an old hand at this sort of thing. But then she realized that most of those so-called techniques were actually tricks of teaching people to cheat others, and that as a Christian, she should not do that, for Jesus Christ taught us: “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). So she decided to practice God’s words—to speak honestly and not to cheat others. She thought that whether she would pass the interview was in God’s hands, and that if she failed, there must be God’s will in it.

Meditating on God’s words, she went to the interview. Facing many technical questions asked by the interviewers, she frankly answered them according to the real situations, even though she was aware that she was not the best one among the applicants. The interview was going very well, and when she felt that it was about to end successfully, an interviewer smiled and said, “We want to know one more thing: Why did you quit your job in the hospital?” Hearing the question, she was a little nervous because she knew that the interviewer intended to judge by her answer whether she had a bad record in her former workplace. After a short pause, she replied, “I’m getting old, and no longer want to do night duty. Besides … there’s more and more contradiction between doctors and patients now. It’s not easy to be a doctor. …” She, who had performed calmly, suddenly appeared to be hesitating, which made the two interviewers surprised. They exchanged suspicious looks, and asked her no more questions.

The announcement of the stop interrupted Xiaoran’s thoughts. She fretfully leaned back on her seat, and then couldn’t help recalling the incident happened several months ago….

On that night, Xiaoran was on duty in the hospital. After changing medicine for a serious patient, she returned to her office. It was 10:30 p.m. at that time. She had to finish a dozen progress notes of the patients, so she hurried to sit down in front of the computer. Around 11:30 p.m., a nurse phoned her and said, “The patient you have just changed the medicine for has a severe headache. He asks to change the ward or move out of the private ward.” Hearing her words, Xiaoran judged from experience that severe headache was the symptom of a patient in the acute stage of cerebral infarction, and that if he moved out of the private ward, he would be easily infected. For his safety, she refused his request. However, unexpectedly, when she finished the work in hand and went to see the patient, she found that the patient was in a state of clouded consciousness. After examination, it turned out that the patient’s condition had changed suddenly and he got a cerebral hemorrhage. Later, he died despite emergency treatment.

After that, the patient’s family demanded compensation from the hospital for Xiaoran’s missing the best time of treatment. Then the several cerebral specialists in the hospital studied and concluded that, based on the patient’s condition, Xiaoran could not delay the progress of disease for him or prevent him from dying even if she arrived on the spot earlier, for the sudden cerebral hemorrhage occurring based on former condition was beyond man’s control and rescue. Though it was the truth, Xiaoran still felt that it was her fault that she hadn’t arrived there immediately. For this, she felt self-blame.

Later, through negotiation, the incident ended after the hospital returned the hospitalization deposits of 30,000 yuan to the patient’s family. Not long after that, the personnel department of the hospital informed Xiaoran that her contract expired. Having experienced the incident, Xiaoran felt that she was tired with working under high pressure there and that she needed a change of scene. So her contract was not renewed.

Then Xiaoran’s thoughts drifted back to the interview again. Never had she thought that the interviewer would suddenly ask her the reason why she resigned when the interview was about to end; nor had she ever expected that she could hide the fact.

The subway train was proceeding rapidly. She stared at her reflection in the window, regret and remorse filling her heart. Suddenly she thought of God’s words: “Why do people engage in such deceit? To achieve their own aims, and to achieve the objectives they desire. And so they adopt certain methods, which shows that they are not upstanding, and that they are not honest. At such times, people’s insidiousness and cunning is revealed, or else their maliciousness and ignobility. With these things, you feel that it is especially hard to be honest; without them, you would feel that being honest is easy”.

God’s words woke up her. She pondered that the reason why she did not tell the interviewers the truth was that she worried about her personal gains and losses. She feared that the dishonorable experience of her neglect of duty might affect the result of the interview and jeopardize her future career, so she evaded the fact subconsciously. At this thought, she felt pain in her heart. She had been eagerly wishing to be an honest person, yet it had never occurred to her that when her interests might be jeopardized, she couldn’t help covering up the truth by telling lies. She naturally revealed her crafty nature, something that was deeply planted in the bones of every person through Satan’s corruption. She had thought of herself as a very honest person before, yet actually it was an illusion. Only then did she realize that she was far away from being an honest person. She felt that she was too much in need of God’s salvation and of judgment and purification of His words.

After she got home, she read some words of God about being an honest person, and one passage said: “Against a certain background or in a certain environment, you felt it was wise, or that there was a good reason to do so, or that you had ample reasons to do so, and ultimately acted, after which you felt you were fully justified in doing so, and had nothing to be remorseful of. When evening came and you reflected upon what you did, or else one day when you gained enlightenment or were reproached, you then felt that the reason for saying those words at that time was not a reason, and that you should have behaved in another way. How should you practice at such times? For example, you did something to someone, you cheated them, or you spoke words that were either inaccurate or contained your own motivations, and so you should go and find that person to dissect what you did, and say: ‘The words I said at that time contained my personal motivations. If you can accept my apology, please forgive me.’ Thus you dissect yourself, and lay yourself bare”.

God’s words made Xiaoran feel relaxed and understand His will: To be an honest person, I should first resolve my intentions and ulterior motives when I speak and do things. Once I realize I have wrong intentions, I should not be anxious to speak or act, but should try to find out the root cause of my wrong intentions. And then I shall seek God’s will and requirements and what God thinks in this matter, and seek how I shall pray to Him for His help so that I can rebel against the wrong intentions and strive to reach the standard of being an honest person under His guidance. I believe if I continually practice like this, I will make ever greater progress in being an honest person…. Thinking about this, Xiaoran made a decision in her heart silently….

Several days later, Xiaoran attended a second interview. She stated to the two interviewers the reason why she quitted her former job and her true thoughts about it, which greatly surprised the interviewers and another doctor who was waiting to be interviewed. They could not imagine that in this society where everyone lived with a mask and everyone took advantage of any situation to benefit himself, there still existed such a person who could voluntarily admit that she was lying and reveal her dishonorable side. After they showed their surprise, Xiaoran noticed a sort of admiration from their expressions. At that moment, Xiao Ran felt that a big rock was removed from her heart, and she had a strongest feeling: It’s so good to practice being an honest person according to God’s requirements. To her surprise, she, though with mediocre qualifications, was hired by the company afterward, and her salary was higher than her expectation.

On the subway back home, Xiaoran reflected on her recent experiences, and she thought of the words of Jesus Christ: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house on a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell not: for it was founded on a rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). Xiaoran told herself inwardly: From now on, I will consistently practice God’s words. I believe that God will guide me to see more of His wonderful deeds and to know His faithfulness and loveliness. When I gradually obtain the truth as life, won’t it be like building the house on a rock? Having understood God’s will, Xiaoran smiled. The train was rapidly moving to the direction of her house, and she felt that her gloomy life was heading toward the bright and beautiful spring.

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International Refugee Freedom of Religion Professional Seminar—A Witness, Zhang Fu Released the Mournful Truth

【KNS Newsletter Reporter: Huang Ziyi】

(Photos after the International Refugee Freedom of Religion Professional Seminar)

On August 16th, Do Hee-youn, the head of the Citizens’ Coalition for the Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees hosted a seminar on International Refugees and Religious Freedom at the Korea Press Center. The religious suppression and persecution in China as well as solutions about guaranteeing freedom of religious belief and human rights have been discussed at seminar. Youngjae Kim, a professor from Dankook University headed the seminar. The participants watched a video first, Chronicles of Religious Persecution in China.

After watching this video, Do Hee-youn expressed sadness and said he had a similar experience, so he had deep experience with the hardship suffered by these Christians. Hearing this kind of things from a church leader earlier, it occurred to him to help these Christians report the situation, make more consultations and make effort to resolve their problems together.

In the seminar, Do Hee-youn, the head of the Citizens’ Coalition for the Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, lawyer Myung-Sup Byun from Sooin Law Firm, Kim Jeong-min, an expert of the International Relations Institute of National University of Mongolia, Kim Jeong-Ae, an author and a North Korean defector, Linda Wang, a former Chinese lawyer, also one of the spokesmen of refugees of the Church of Almighty God made speeches.

As the first spokesman in this seminar, lawyer Myung-Sup Byun talked about the necessary legal conditions, credibility and consistency of the statements for people present who failed to get refugee status. He also introduced the asylum process in detail. And he added human rights of people of religious world and in special social groups should be protected, provided they suffer persecution.

Kim Jeong-min was the second spokesman. He had some understanding of religious suppression and had spoken to the relevant people, noting that China’s neighbors were all affected by Chinese government.

(Speakers of the International Refugee Freedom of Religion Professional Seminar are discussing and speaking)

The third spokesman was Linda Wang, a representative of the Church of Almighty God. She felt grateful to attend this seminar. And she said China was powerful outside, but it stretched out its evil hand to everywhere. She also said because of religious suppression in China, her mother was detained and her father committed suicide because he couldn’t bear the persecution of the CCP. After experiencing these sufferings, she had seen clearly the substance of the CCP. She said, “China just respects the freedom of belief on the surface, but it uses ‘keep the social order’ as an excuse to suppress religious belief. The CCP designates Christianity as evil cult, expels preachers, arrests and imprisons Christians and even kills Christians without the least hesitation.”

The fourth spokesman was Kim Jeong-Ae. This author talked about her hard life in North Korea, and her mood after fleeing North Korea because of the current situation of dictatorship in North Korea.

Many mournful truth had been released at the second part of the seminar. After hearing Zhang Fu’s speech, who suffered religious suppression and persecution in China and then escaped to South Korea, all people were plunged into grief. At last, Mr. Zhang made a speech focused on his own experiences which had been reported in a program of a certain TV station, The Reporter.

(The last speaker Mr. Zhang Fu.)

“My name is Zhang Fu, I was persecuted by the CCP due to believing in God in China. I have to suffer the pain of being parted with my wife and son and flee to South Korea to seek asylum. Unexpectedly, after I fled China, the CCP stretched its evil hand overseas and tried every possible means to force me to go back to China. Now I will talk about what I have gone through.” “I believed in the Lord Jesus in 1998 with my parents. After stepped into the society, bitter and drifting working life made me see the darkness and evil, depravity and corruption of the world. I felt extremely empty and sad, perplexed and helpless, and was unable to find the direction of life. In 2005, when the brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God testified about Almighty God’s work of the last days to me, I got to know the Lord Jesus had already returned. Almighty God is exactly the returned Lord Jesus. From Almighty God’s words, I understood how to be a real man, how to walk on the right path of the human life. My wife neither believe in God nor oppose my belief. However, good times didn’t last long. One day in 2010, my wife saw rumor condemning and slandering the Church of Almighty God when she read news online. She believed it and started to constrain me in my belief in God. From then on, there was no peace in our home anymore. Especially since the CCP used the May 28 McDonald’s Murder Case to frame the Church of Almighty God in 2014, my wife has been increasingly deceived by the CCP’s rumor. She opposed my belief even more and discouraged me from reading God’s words and attending meetings. She asked me to keep my cellphone on 24 hours so that she could know my whereabouts any time. Once I didn’t answer the phone in time, she would quarrel with me, and even forced me to give up my belief many times with her death. I felt extremely painful and oppressed. Never did I expect that the rumor spread by the CCP could make my wife hysterical. Seeing my wife was poor and deeply deceived by the rumor spread by the CCP, I could only always pray for her.”

“During the Spring Festival in 2015, some of the brothers and sisters in my church were arrested in succession. I faced the danger of being arrested any time. I had no choice but to leave my 2-year-old son and my parents who were in their 70s. After many setbacks, I fled to South Korea for asylum. I thought I could enjoy the freedom of believing in God in South Korea, a liberal democratic country. However, I never expected that I was still unable to flee from the persecution of the CCP.

On May 18, 2016, my wife took my son and my elder sister to Jeju Island and contacted me. In the evening of May 22, I was very excited when I met my family. I felt heartbreaking when I thought my young kid had suffered the pain of being parted with his father, and I held my son and wept. If the CCP hadn’t persecuted me, how could I bear to part with my son, making him lose father’s love at such a young age? How could I be willing to leave my home? Wasn’t it the CCP government who destroyed my happy family?

When I was immersed in the happiness of reunion with my family. Never did I expect that this meeting was a scheme plotted by the CCP itself. On the afternoon of May 23, I went out for a walk, and returned to the hotel at about 5pm. As I entered the room, I saw a man dodging into the toilet swiftly. The man noticed I had seen him, so he came out and sat down, pretending to be calm. He dared not look into my eyes. I asked who he was. He said he was Xiaohan, my wife’s colleague. A few seconds later, he suddenly went out of the room without notice. At that moment, I suddenly noticed my cell phones had been tampered and my passport was gone. I asked my wife who took away my passport. My wife urgently explained that she called the police for she thought I had run away, and it was the policeman who took away my passport. I felt it strange. How could it be possible for me to run since my luggage, my passport and my cell phones were left in the hotel? Obviously, my wife was lying. I felt disgusted about that and she apologized to me. Later she contacted a policeman surnamed Cheng through WeChat. Mr. Cheng said he was a police officer of the Public Security Bureau of Shanxi Province, and had already dealt with over 2,000 cases of the Church of Almighty God. He then said so much words to coax me to go back to China. About half an hour later, Xiaohan entered our room again. He said it was good for me to talk with Mr. Cheng. I asked whether he knew Mr. Cheng. He blurted out that Mr. Cheng was his teacher. Later, Xiaohan tried hard to pry into the information of our South Korean church, which made me realize that Xiaohan must be a CCP spy.

That very night, my wife and elder sister went out in turns. Every time they came back, they pressed hard on me for returning to China. I told my wife again about my situation and the reason why I could not go back to China. I hoped she and my child could stay and live in South Korea. ‘No way! You must go back with me.’ she said. At last, seeing me have no inclination to go back, they took away my wallet, credit card and the only 700,000 KRW on me and stole my cellphones while I was sleeping soundly at night. In the morning of May 24, my wife said I must go back to China with her and even threatened me with death. After much effort, I finally escaped with another cell phone on me. About a quarter after I arrived at the Jeju Island airport, my sister suddenly appeared behind me to snatch my cell phone while I was editing the message to her, hoping that she could leave my passport to me. I snatched it back and turned around to run away. At this moment, I saw my wife was in front of me and Xiaohan was at my right side. They three had surrounded me. I immediately dashed to the crowd. ‘Stop, stop, Zhang Fu stop!’ Xiaohan then shouted at me and rushed to me. I ran desperately and dared not stop for a second, fearing of being caught up by them. I kept running through streets and alleys of Jeju Island for over 4 hours. The fear in my heart was beyond words. Thank God for His protection that I escaped narrowly.

In August 2016, the CCP incited my wife to South Korea again. As soon as she got off the plane, she was accompanied by someone. She obviously knew where I was, but she did not contact me. She followed some unidentified people to call a press conference in the name of searching for her husband and made troubles at the Church of Almighty God, vilifying the Church by saying that the Church coerced her husband so that her husband could not go back to China. She used South Korean news media to wildly make public opinions, attempting to force me back to China and achieve the purpose of discrediting the Church of Almighty God. My wife was just an ordinary housewife. Without the CCP’s instigation, plot and involvement, how was she able to do it? I knew she was used as a tool by the CCP. The CCP had not only deprived me of the right to freedom of religion, ruined my family, but also made use of my wife’s tears and child’s crying to deceive those who were unaware of the fact, which framed the Church and also caused the public to lay the blame on the Church of Almighty God. It was the evil intention of the CCP.

A few days ago, I happened to see a piece of news that the CCP wanted to repatriate 5 North Korean defectors forcibly, which caused the 5 North Korean defectors to commit suicide by drinking poison. I was enraged at this news and grieved for the 5 North Korean defectors who longed for a free life. There are still many North Korean defectors being arrested by the CCP government and confined in prison in China. Thousands of Chinese Christians are still struggling hard under the suppression and persecution of the CCP government. I wish more people with noble aspirations can stand up and call upon for the North Korean defectors and the persecuted Chinese Christians to expose the CCP’s evil deeds in abusing human rights, and denounce the CCP for its inhuman persecution on the North Korean defectors and Christians.”

At that day, the conference disclosed an open letter from Mr. Willy Fautré, the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers. The letter called upon the South Korean authorities to grant those 41 Chinese Christians political asylum. Those 41 Christians were forced to leave China to escape religious persecution of their Church. Their Alien Cards were withdrawn by the South Korean Immigration Office, among which twenty-seven people received the Departure Order and fourteen people received Disapproval Notices on the extension of their sojourn period.

(The open letter from Mr. Willy Fautré, the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers)

Original source: http://www.kns.tv/news/articleView.html?idxno=343158

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The Lord’s Burden Is Light, Then Why Is My Life So Tiring?

The Lord’s Burden Is Light, Then Why Is My Life So Tiring?

Hello, Brothers and Sisters of Loving Stage!

Now I have a difficulty and I’d like to seek your advice. I’m tightly bound to my family and can never let my children go, which causes me to lead a very tiring life. My eldest daughter-in-law has just given birth to a baby and I need to look after her. My younger son is old enough, but he hasn’t started a family. Moreover, we borrowed money and bought an apartment for him and now we have to repay the bank loan every month. Having these things on my mind all day long, I often cannot quiet my heart to read the Bible or pray. Even though I have prayed to the Lord, I receive no release in the spirit. Every evening when I come back home, I feel extremely exhausted both physically and mentally. Sometimes I’m so tired that I suffer a headache and even feel that my life has no meaning. The Lord once said: “Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. … For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). I believe that the word of the Lord is faithful. And I also want to act in accordance with His word, put aside these worries and troubles, and live a free and liberated life. How come I can’t put it into practice but even live more and more tiredly?

Baijie

Hello, Sister Baijie!

We quite understand your situation, for each of us once had different sufferings. Before we can live by the Lord’s word, it can be said that we are all bound and troubled by the family entanglements. It is like a net enmeshing us so that our hearts are always occupied and controlled by it. It is really miserable. The Lord Jesus said: “Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. … For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We believe that the Lord’s word is faithful, but why can’t we gain true release even though we have prayed to God and relied on Him? To answer this question, let’s read a passage of word.

This is what a book says: “Though man allows God to look within his heart, this does not mean that he is capable of obeying the orchestrations and arrangements of God, nor that he has left his fate and prospects and his all under the control of God. Thus, regardless of the oaths you make to God or your attitude toward Him, in God’s eyes your heart is still closed to Him, for you only allow God to look upon your heart but do not permit Him to control it. In other words, you have not given your heart to God at all, and only speak nice-sounding words for God to hear…. Which is to say, God has the right to observe, but He does not have the right to control. In the subjective consciousness of man, man does not want or intend to leave himself to the mercy of God. Not only has man closed himself off to God, but there are even people who think of ways to wrap up their hearts, using smooth talk and flattery to create a false impression and gain the trust of God, and concealing their true face out of sight from God. Their aim in not allowing God to see is to not allow God to perceive how they really are. They do not want to give their hearts to God, but to keep them for themselves. The subtext of this is that what man does and what he wants is all planned, calculated, and decided by man himself; he does not require the participation or intervention of God, much less does he need the orchestrations and arrangements of God. Thus, whether in regard to the commands of God, His commission, or the requirements that God makes of man, man’s decisions are based on his own intentions and interests, on his own state and circumstances at the time. Man always uses the knowledge and insights that he is familiar with, and his own intellect, to judge and select the path he should take, and does not allow the interference or control of God. This is the heart of man that God sees” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II”).

These words are very true. Though we pray to God, we never really intend to leave our life under His control. Instead, we want to rely on our own abilities to arrange and plan for our children’s life. We always try to plan and decide everything by ourselves, and often expect that the course of events will conform to our thoughts and imaginations. However, only God can rule the fate of each and every one of us, because only He is possessed of such power and authority. We are just creations and have no authority or power to control the fate of ourselves or others. So we naturally feel distressed, worried, and lost when we don’t attain our goals after putting in a lot of effort or the results of things are not in line with our notions and imaginations.

In fact, if we really want to entrust our difficulties to God, we must truly give our hearts to God, accept and obey His sovereignty and arrangement over our life and fate.

Here we’d like to share a passage of word with you. We think it gives us a path of practice. It says: “When confronting real-life problems, how should you know and understand God’s authority and His sovereignty? When you do not know how to understand, handle, and experience these problems, what attitude should you adopt to show your intention, your desire, and your reality of submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements? First you must learn to wait; then you must learn to seek; then you must learn to submit. ‘Waiting’ means waiting for the time of God, awaiting the people, events, and things that He has arranged for you, waiting for His will to gradually reveal itself to you. ‘Seeking’ means observing and understanding God’s thoughtful intentions for you through the people, events, and things that He has laid out, understanding the truth through them, understanding what humans must accomplish and the ways they must keep, understanding what results God means to achieve in humans and what accomplishments He means to attain in them. ‘Submitting,’ of course, refers to accepting the people, events, and things that God has orchestrated, accepting His sovereignty and, through it, coming to know how the Creator dictates man’s fate, how He supplies man with His life, how He works the truth into man. All things under God’s arrangements and sovereignty obey natural laws, and if you resolve to let God arrange and dictate everything for you, you should learn to wait, you should learn to seek, you should learn to submit. This is the attitude that every person who wants to submit to God’s authority must take, the basic quality that every person who wants to accept God’s sovereignty and arrangements must possess. To hold such an attitude, to possess such a quality, you must work harder; and only thus can you enter into the true reality” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).

As a created being, we should learn to wait, seek, and submit through the people, events, and things we encounter every day. This is the behavioral principle of us Christians, and it is also most able to illustrate whether we have true obedience and reverence for God. In the process of practice, we’ll have some knowledge of how God rules over and supplies all things, and see that the more the people, events, and things we encounter are incompatible with our conceptions, the more it contains God’s good purpose. It is through these people, events, and things that God wants to test our faith in Him and see whether we have His place in our hearts. He wants to test whether we can willfully do what we like and whether we try to change the life and even the fate of our family and ourselves with our own two hands. And the result of the test is: When the course of events is disagreeable to us, we’ll live in pain and distress, feeling that our life is full of untoward things and disappointments, and even live in silent resistance and complaint toward the Lord. Outwardly, we say nothing, while in our hearts, we misunderstand the Lord and complain why He doesn’t bless us so that we can live easily and comfortably since we have believed in Him. Little do we know that it is not that the Lord doesn’t bless us. Actually, it is because we don’t believe in or submit to God’s sovereignty that we can’t give our prospect and fate to God or submit to His orchestrations and arrangements. If we have no true faith in the Lord, then we cannot sincerely come before God, much less can we receive the comfort and satisfaction that comes from having God with us. When we find that we indeed have failed to practice truth to satisfy God, it will impel us to examine our relationship with God and inspire us to seek God’s will and practice truth. Today you wrote to us to pour out your distress of living in pain and confusion and actively seek God’s will. We believe that under the guidance of God and His words, and through our communication, you’ll have a deeper understanding of God, see how God rules over our destiny and supplies our needs, and how He reveals to us the pain caused by us changing our fate with our own hands, and see it is all because we don’t like the truth and don’t give our hearts to God. After realizing these, you will understand God’s earnest intention in His arranging such an environment for you, and also find a proper way of practice. If you, when fulfilling your responsibility and obligation as a mother, can let God lead your everyday life, and learn to let nature take its course and act according to God’s word, He will surely help you out of troubles and worries. May God lead you and enable you to receive release and freedom soon and live in His light. Amen!

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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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