London Fire: Twelve People Confirmed Dead

London Fire: Twelve People Confirmed Dead

By 17:00 BST Wednesday, 12 people have been confirmed killed in a huge fire that has engulfed Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey residential block near Notting Hill in west London, and 18 people are in critical care after 79 injured were taken to hospital. Police say the death toll is expected to rise further as firefighters continue to search through the still smouldering tower block.

The fire broke out at 00:54 BST, when up to 600 people are believed to have been inside the building. Eyewitnesses said that they saw lights flicking on and off at the top of the block and trapped residents coming to their windows screaming for help as the blaze rapidly ripped up the building. A baby was seen dropped by its parents from the 9th or 10th floor, and a man on the ground ran forward catching the baby successfully.

According to London ambulance service, the firefighters were called at 01:29 BST and 20 crews rushed to the scene. Around 200 firefighters in 40 engines arrived within six minutes, along with a range of specialist vehicles, including 14 fire rescue vehicles.

While the cause of this appalling tragedy is not known, Prime Minister Theresa May said, “Once the scene is secure, once the recovery is complete, then an investigation will take place into the cause of the fire and if there are any lessons to be learned they will be.” She also stressed that the focus at this stage should be on ensuring smooth progress of the rescue efforts and prompt support to all those who had suffered as a result of this tragedy.

Anyone concerned about loved ones can call the emergency number set up by the police: 0800 0961 233.

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The Secret of Happy Life

The Secret of Happy Life

Xiangyi

An employed laborer, lately married, enjoyed a conjugal affection and had cute children. But he had to journey to and fro for supporting his family, feeling perplexed by the uncertainties of his life.

A white-collar worker, middle-aged, lived an affluent life, yet he still worked overtime and was busy with social activities for promotion and a pay increase, so he failed to go home on time after work. He was exhausted both mentally and physically and indescribably painful.
A wealthy man, having entered old age, was respectable in the presence of others. However, he had to face his children’s scramble for his property after returning home. He could hardly feel any happiness in his twilight years.

Different life situations bring man different life experiences, which are accompanied with different troubles and bitterness. Everyone longs for perfection, wanting both family togetherness and success in career, and hoping for not only fame and fortune but also the fulfillment in heart. With varied discontent and regret of life, one day, the three, encountered each other.
The employed laborer envied the white-collar worker’s stable job; the white-collar worker envied the wealthy man’s success in career; the wealthy man was envious of the employed laborer’s harmonious family. They, complaining of the disappointments of life, vowed to strive hard to change their fate by their own hands and gain the happy life.

More than ten years later, the employed laborer led a rich life but no longer returned home on time from work. Instead, he was engaged in the social occasions only concerned with eating, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure. The white-collar worker became a successful boss. Nevertheless, he had to be wary of someone’s scheming for his property all the time, always feeling empty and lonely in the depths of his heart. The wealthy man had passed away, with his children just placing flower baskets before his grave on the anniversary of his death.
Actually, aren’t many of us one of the employed laborer, the white-collar worker or the wealthy man? In the time of poverty, we yearn to live in comfort. After being comfortably off, we desire to be exceedingly wealthy. But after that, we fall into the deeper emptiness of the heart.

The swallow departs in autumn and still returns in spring. The grass withers in winter but grows again with the spring breeze. However, our life once lost is never regained. We attempt to change our fate within several years, over ten years or decades. In the limited time, we strive for money, position, emotion, or anything else, that, we think, will make us happy once we get it. But in the end, we have to admit: Money can buy the luxury material comforts but cannot buy the tranquility of the heart; position may temporarily satisfy our vanity but cannot conceal our inner loneliness; emotion may maintain our fleshly relationships for the moment but only can accompany us through our limited life.

One day, I accidentally saw these words on a spiritual book, “From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny….” “Regardless of whether you are able to recognize the deed of God, and irrespective of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate lies within the ordination of God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things.”

“When one has no God, when one cannot see Him, when one cannot clearly recognize God’s sovereignty, every day is meaningless, worthless, miserable. Wherever one is, whatever one’s job is, one’s means of living and the pursuit of one’s goals bring one nothing but endless heartbreak and irrelievable suffering, such that one cannot bear to look back. Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life, will one gradually break free from all heartbreak and suffering, shake off all the emptiness of life.”

These thought-provoking words made me suddenly understand the secret of happy life: One’s birth, growing up, family and the occupation he pursues all rest in the Creator’s hand. No one can control his own fate and only God is the Master of our fate and our sole reliance. God has made suitable arrangements for everyone’s life. If we don’t worship God in our limited time but try to cast off God’s sovereignty and satisfy our own ambition and desire, we will just waste time and life, and what we will get are emptiness and bitterness. Then how can we have happiness?

Many Christians know the story of Job in the Bible. Job sought to know and worship God among all things of God’s creation during his lifetime, so God gave him good-looking children, great wealth, lots of servants and a mountain of sheep and cattle. However, comfortably as Job lived, he didn’t worry about the gains and losses of his wealth but almost devoted all his effort to worshiping God in his daily life. The Bible says, “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:5). Job worried that his sons had sinned and opposed God, so he urged them to offer sacrifices to God. From this we can see Job indeed practiced the right way of life of fearing God and shunning evil. Even though he was tempted by Satan afterward: He lost all his children and wealth; even his whole body was covered with sore boils; he suffered ridicule by his wife and friends, he still witnessed Jehovah God’s name, “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). From his words we know that the reason why Job continued to praise God as before when losing wealth, fame, gain, children, and even falling into the plight of nearly losing his life is because he firmly believed that “Human fate is ordained by Heaven,” and that in one’s life, his lifespan, being poor or wealthy are all ruled and arranged by God. Thus Job could face God’s sovereignty and arrangements calmly and didn’t think of blessings or disaster. As a result, after overcoming the temptations of Satan, he got twice as much blessing as he had before from God: He had better children, double property and prolonged life, and most importantly, he gained the peace and tranquility of the heart due to walking in the way of fearing God and shunning evil. Job spent the latter half of his life amid God’s care and blessings and was no longer attacked and disturbed by Satan, gaining freedom completely. This was God’s greatest blessing to him.

If you are still worrying and complaining about your less favorable life, have you ever thought: Once we who do not revere God in our heart or accept God’s word as our life have enough wealth to squander at will, can we control ourselves not to indulge in the trap of feasting and revelry? Money, beauty, fame, gain and various excitements of flesh will make us lost in the whirlpool of sin and unable to extricate ourselves. Similarly, if you exhaust all your efforts to jockey for position because you are unwilling to be ordinary, have you ever thought: Once we who do not have any place for God in our heart hold a high position and win attention and exaltation, will we not abuse power for personal gain or consider ourselves to be ones with a high and mighty position? Gradually, we will lose all our integrity and true friends, and around us are just all sorts of “masks,” only putting on a performance when the occasion arises. Is such life what we want?

In fact, everyone will face many of Satan’s temptations in the course of his life: money, fame, gain, knowledge, position and power. All can tempt one to depart from the way of truth of fearing God and shunning evil. The reason that many believers in God are often trapped in Satan’s temptations and esteem evil is because they lack the fear of God, that is, they do not regard it as the most important thing to believe in God, follow God’s words and practice the truth. Many believers only focus on outward labor or having good behaviors or observing religious rituals. However, very few people spend more time in quieting themselves before God, opening their hearts up to Him, earnestly pondering and practicing God’s words. In truth, if we, like Job, are really not entangled by money, fame, fortune and other external things from now on, and whatever comes along, we don’t do it blindly by our own preferences, desire and imaginations but pray to God to seek His will, accept His inspection and spend every day according to His guidance and the requirements of His words, then we will come to realize that living in accordance with God’s words and taking the truth as the foundation of our existence and our life, we will live more and more peacefully and confidently in righteousness, gain God’s blessings and satisfy Him. This is the secret of happy life.

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Treating Gains and Losses Composedly

Treating Gains and Losses Composedly

Ma Na    the United States

During a person’s life, facing success and failure is unavoidable. There are many people who are happy when they have success, and who are frustrated and pained when they face failure. There are even many people who stake all their efforts in wanting to reach a point at which all their hopes are fulfilled, but things are often not how people would like them to be. Because of this, many people think that this life is not as they want it to be. Previously, I also always relied on my own ability in the work I did, and all that I got from that was the pain of failure. But afterward, through experiencing some things, my perspective had a bit of a transformation: Tranquility in success, and calmness in failure—obeying the sovereignty and arrangements of God is the best, and one can also be liberated and free in life that way.

Because I stood out in the realm of sports, there was one time that I represented my school in participating in a city-wide sprinting competition. Before, when I took part in sports at school, I always won every gold medal in the sprint event. So I was full of confidence about this race, and showed disdain for all others just as if I were some great sports hero. In my training before the race, I was undisciplined, and thought to myself: Anyway, with my ability it’s all but guaranteed that I will win the trophy, and the race is simply running, that’s it. But mom always said to me: “The most important thing isn’t what place you get; what’s most important is learning to rely on God and being able to experience God’s work. Entrust everything to God, for only by obeying God’s sovereignty will you be able to be calm and liberated. If you rely on yourself, you will certainly fail.” In theory, I knew that what my mom said was right, but I thought in my heart: “God is the one true God who created the universe and everything in it. Does God need to be bothered about a competition as small as this?” Besides, the result of this competition isn’t of any concern at all, since the prize was essentially something I could have just reached out my hand and taken.”

In the blink of an eye, the day of the competition had arrived. I strode into the stadium and saw athletes who had come from a variety of school districts, each of them rubbing their hands together with anticipation, eager to give it a shot. Looking at their professional and matching uniforms, and the orderly and disciplined way they did their warm-up movements, it made me nervous about a competition for the first time. This was especially so when I saw there were some physiques which were clearly far beyond those of the athletes in our age group, and just their legs were a great deal more developed than mine. When I found out that I was to compete together with them, the confidence that “I have the power to pull up the mountains and the might that surpasses the world; I will bravely seize first place and will not give up” as well as the “primeval power” stored in my body vanished without a trace in an instant. But at that time I already could not back out, and I could only summon up my resolve and enter the playing field. There were eight teams altogether in the men’s 100 meters sprint, and in the first round only the top two members of each team would qualify to go to the semifinals. Finally, the eight athletes with the best results would compete for the trophy, for second place, and other prizes. I was placed in group seven, and looking at the other athletes in my group, they all had dark skin and a sturdy build, and this made me feel the greatest kind of pressure for the first time. The first six teams had already finished running, and soon it was our turn to take the field. With a nervous heart, I took my place on the track. At that moment, I realized that in doing my warm-up exercises I still had not stretched. Flustered, I quickly stretched a few muscles, but there was already not enough time for me to get ready, so I put my feet into the starting marks, and stretched my palms out over the line, and waited for the referee to call out. “Everyone…on your mark…get set…” In the few seconds waiting for the sound of the starting gun, it was like a century had passed. The sun was scorching my skin and my fingers were aching from supporting my body, but what I felt most deeply was the unforgettable anxiety and sound of my heartbeat. My coach once said that anxiety before a match can help one’s performance, but I felt like this kind of anxiety would be fatal for me. It was as if the whole world was calm, and the only thing I could hear was the beating of my heart as it went “thump thump, thump thump…” At last, the starting gun sounded, and instinctively I shifted my legs, moved my arms, and charged forward. But somehow, a tendon in my left thigh seemed to be intentionally making things difficult for me. I clearly felt that my steps lacked that grace and fleet-footedness that I had had before on the racetrack. Soon I saw in my field of vision that two athletes alongside me had passed me by several lengths, and I quickly became agitated. I sprinted forward with all my might but I couldn’t catch up to them. Usually, I was the only one passing people, so how could it be that there were others beating me? In that moment, the confidence I had before the match collapsed and disappeared in an instant. Looking back, I have no idea how I finished running the remaining few dozen meters. I just remember that after running I immediately gathered up my things and left the field.

Because I got third place in my team, there was no way for me to continue on to compete in the semifinals. I was enveloped in frustration and dismay, and sat alone on the bleachers lost in thought, thinking back over every scene of when I entered the field. I complained to myself about why I hadn’t prepared better and had been beaten by them like that. At the same time, I also blamed God somewhere deep in my heart, and thought: “God! Why, when I believe in You, did I not receive any special care from You? How did You let me be eliminated in the first round? …” After feeling depressed for some time, I suddenly thought of what my mom had said to me that morning: “The result isn’t the most important thing; what is most important is to learn to obey God…” Yes! God requires people to obey Him in their faith. Now, my reproachful heart faded away in a flash, and I sat on the bleachers thinking: I didn’t get any of the prizes I had originally expected, so hadn’t I come here today in vain? Actually, that’s not entirely so. Looking at it from another perspective, being able to come and participate in the municipal track and field competition broadened my perspective and gave me some more life experience. Wasn’t all of this arranged by God, and wasn’t it God who added character to my journey in life? What’s even more important is that this experience caused me to understand the true meaning of God’s statement: “If you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure.” Isn’t all of this quite a rare benefit? Isn’t it all God’s blessing for me? So I whispered to God in my heart: “God! Even though this result today went against my expectations, and I suffered a bit of a loss, I’m still grateful to You and want to obey You. I know that everything You arrange is good, and it is only because I don’t know You that I came up with misunderstandings and complaints about You. I was wrong.” In a few short phrases, even though it wasn’t in the form of a prayer, it still made my heart tranquil and there was a great deal of calm and steadiness in my heart.

The fantastic thing was that when my heart was willing to obey, the environment around me also changed, and God’s words truly came to fruition: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”). Before long, a student ran by and said to me, “Your name showed up on the semifinals board.” After I heard it, I simply didn’t believe it. I hurriedly ran over to see the results. I discovered to my surprise that I had broken through third place on the team on an exception and entered the semifinals! (Later, I learned that the athlete who got first place had participated in another competition, he had been disqualified from taking part in the semifinals.) I was very tranquil in my heart, because I became clearly aware that all this was ordered by God. In the following races, I learned to look up to God and entrusted the results of the match to God. I obeyed God’s sovereignty and in the end obtained fifth place.

At that time, the results of the competition already were not the most important thing to me. What was important was that after the experience my faith in God increased greatly. I clearly came to know that if a person relies on one’s own strength in his struggles, he is bound to face defeat. The sovereignty and arrangement of everything is in the hands of God. As long as one maintains dependence on God and keeps inside himself a heart that obeys God in all that he does, he can remain calm and tranquil in the face of success and defeat. He can also receive God’s blessing. It is just as God’s word says: “Because people do not recognize God’s orchestrations and God’s sovereignty, they always face fate defiantly, with a rebellious attitude, and always want to cast off God’s authority and sovereignty and the things fate has in store, hoping in vain to change their current circumstances and alter their fate. But they can never succeed; they are thwarted at every turn. This struggle, which takes place deep in one’s soul, is painful; the pain is unforgettable; and all the while one is frittering away one’s life. …when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). Looking back on myself before and after the competition, when I didn’t know God’s sovereignty and wanted to rely on my own strength to strive for first place, there was a disparity between what I expected and the results that showed up. I had an indescribable pain in my heart; but when I realized that God is the sovereign of everything, and when I wanted to obey God, I understood God’s intention by seeking to figure it out and my viewpoint also changed. I no longer lived within the pain of losing the prize and the glory, but instead had a real understanding and experience of God’s word through this defeat. I gained something that was true, and obtained relaxation and liberation in my heart. After this, I practiced obedience to God in many matters, and discovered more and more that when I myself obey God, even if sometimes things didn’t actually turn out how I wanted, I still had in my heart a totally different kind of feeling of tranquility and liberation. Even more so in victory and defeat, I tasted God’s authority and sovereignty for myself and saw God’s marvelous deeds. I felt deeply that obeying God was truly precious!

The word of God says: “At all times God wields His authority, shows His might, continues His management work as always; at all times He rules all things, provides for all things, orchestrates all things, just as He always did. No one can change this. It is fact; it has been the unchanging truth since time immemorial! … 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” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).

“That you can submit to each day’s environment that God prepares and each day of life He gives you, letting Him lead you, that you can most happily and peacefully live in His presence, allow Him to lead you, and are able to submit to His sovereignty. If you have this kind of attitude, you will then come to see without conscious effort that all this is under God’s command” (“A Person Can Live Life With Dignity Only by Submitting to and Revering God”). The more I experienced, the more I have learned that obeying God is a most excellent endeavor, much better than all subjects in school. It is what is most worthy of every person learning and entering into carefully. No matter if the things a person encounters are great or small, they are all under the sovereignty of God’s authority. No matter if you can feel it, God is with us controlling everything. As long as we can have faith in God’s sovereignty in everything we encounter, and can obey all that God controls and arranges, we will be able to see that everything God arranges for us is for the best. We will be able to calmly confront all people and things that we are faced with, and live happily in the presence of God. Thanks be to God! All honor and glory be unto God!

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What Is the “Hidden Manna”?

What Is the “Hidden Manna”?

Li Lan

The word “manna” is familiar to all believers in the Lord, and each of us has some knowledge of it. Here I want to share with you my understanding of “manna.”

The Bible records: After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they stayed in the wilderness for forty years. During that time, God sent manna from heaven to feed them every day. Although the Israelites misunderstood and blamed God at the time, He didn’t treat them according to their ignorance, but still granted them His mercy and graced them—sending down manna to feed them. This makes me see God’s almightiness as well as His great tolerance and love for mankind. If not for God’s mercy and grace, at that time none of the Israelites in the wilderness would have survived. In those days, the manna sent by God from heaven was material food and also what the Israelites needed most to survive.

When the Lord Jesus came to do the work of redeeming mankind, He said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:51), and “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The Lord Jesus said that what He brought to man was the living bread, from which we can see what God supplies to man is not only his material needs but even more the life in the spirit. During the Lord Jesus’ three and a half years of working among man, He spoke many words in accordance with the needs of man in that age. And “the living bread which came down from heaven” at that time no longer meant material food; it meant the Lord’s word.

Jehovah God also said: “And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3). These words clearly tell us that God’s words are vitally important to us mankind. We do not live by the material food alone, but are in more need of the provision of God’s words. However, when we are following the Lord, we mostly enjoy His grace, yet have no true experience of these words of God: “man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.”

I noticed these words in Revelation: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna …” (Revelation 2:17). And the words “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” are said seven times. Since they are especially emphasized in Revelation, that means what the Spirit said to the churches must be very important, and that God wants everyone to hear His utterances. But here it is said: “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna.” Now that the Lord Jesus’ words have been revealed to all of mankind, they cannot be the “hidden manna.” Then what does the “hidden manna” refer to?

In John 16:12-13, 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.” After reading these two verses, I realized: When the Lord returns, He will speak again, bestow more truths to us mankind, and reveal all the truths and mysteries we don’t understand in the Bible. And these truths are exactly what we need in our spirit and will allow us to genuinely appreciate that the words “man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live” are real.

Now the church is in desolation. We feel very thirsty and hungry like being in the wilderness. Yet we are not physically hungry like the Israelites but thirsty in spirit, and what we need is the work of the Holy Spirit. Even though we have prayed to the Lord many times, it is to no avail. If this keeps up, we will have no way to go and end up dying of hunger. Now we are in this kind of circumstance. So, what is God’s will? Is He using the desolation in the church to warn us that we should not sit and passively await destruction anymore but should actively search for His new words—the hidden manna, so that we can receive the supply in our spirit?

If you have any question, please click the online chat button to chat with us. We look forward to your message.

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Once Saved Always Saved? – Daily Bible Reading

Zhang Ying

Meditations on Being Saved

Every brother and sister who genuinely believes in the Lord thinks they have been saved through their belief in the Lord Jesus, because the Bible records, “For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10:10). So, many brothers and sisters in the Lord believe that “saved by faith” means they are saved forever. Then, does this view agree with God’s words and with truth? Next, let’s fellowship about what exactly the real being saved means.

We all know, in the Age of Law, before God asked Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, all Israelites were slaves to the Pharaoh of Egypt and suffered great torture, living a life of no freedom, to the extent that their painful cry reached Jehovah God’s ears. Jehovah God didn’t have the heart to let them be mistreated by the Pharaoh. Thereupon He called Moses to lead them out of Egypt and enter Canaan. As for the Israelites, when they were saved by God from the Pharaoh and broke free from the tyranny of the Pharaoh, they were saved. But it cannot be said that they no longer need the salvation of Jehovah God. Hence before they entered Canaan, Jehovah God issued the law through Moses, making them know how to fear Him, how to serve Him and know how to practice righteousness, how to gain His blessings, what the evil deeds were, and what’s behavior would be cursed by Him, as well as how to get along with others and how to live and so on. God’s work in the Age of Law put the life of the Israelites onto the right path gradually. Their life was not chaotic any more. Especially with the law, the Israelites knew what sins were and how to offer sacrifices to God to be free of their own sins. As for the Israelites, they were saved again.

Does “Once Saved” Really Mean “Always Saved”？

However, at the end of the Age of Law, people failed to keep the law and lost their reverence for God, to the extent that they sacrificed the blind or lame animals on Jehovah God’s altar. If that continued, they would face the danger of being condemned and executed by the law. In order to free man from the threat of death, God was incarnated on earth to do the work of redemption and was crucified as a sin offering for man. As long as man prayed to the Lord Jesus to confess and repent, they would be forgiven of their sins. As such, the sinners under the law were redeemed from Satan’s hand and would not be condemned and executed by the law, living in the grace bestowed by the Lord Jesus. For people under the law, this meant that they were saved again. Just as the Bible says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Romans 10:9). Here, “no condemnation” refers to not being condemned by the law; “you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart, you shall be saved” here means that when people believe in the Lord Jesus and accept His salvation of the cross, they won’t be executed by the law anymore for being unable to keep the law. That is, we won’t be condemned because of believing in the Lord Jesus and God doesn’t remember our transgressions. This is what it means to be saved. However, we should know that although our sins have been forgiven, yet it does not prove that we have no sins. All believers still live in the cycle of sinning each day and confessing each night. Our deep-seated root of sin within our nature has not been resolved. Satan’s poisons such as arrogance, self-righteousness, greed, jealousness, hate, evil and selfishness still accompany us every day, so that we live in sin in spite of ourselves. Even though we often confess our sins to the Lord, our sins have not been reduced but constantly increased. And most Christians cannot live out the glory of the Lord even at home and they make a fuss with relatives owing to some trivial matter. Furthermore, in the church, the co-workers always raise jealousy and strife among themselves. Meanwhile, the believers are often lured by the world and then pursue the evil worldly trends and hanker after fleshly enjoyment, living in sin. These phenomena suffice to show that we have not been saved completely. That is to say, we’re only forgiven of our sins by the Lord Jesus. But He never did the work of thorough rooting out man’s sinful nature, therefore, we have not achieved true sanctity.

Thus, “Once saved, always saved” is people’s notion and imagination and does not conform with the truth at all. What’s more, never did the Lord Jesus say that. His work of redemption is only to teach man how to be patient and humble and how to confess and repent, which only involves some change in man’s outward behavior but not the transformation of man’s nature. So we have not been truly saved according to our current condition.

How Can We Be Truly Saved?

With regard to this issue, I’ve studied many verses. Thank the Lord. I finally found out the answer in the Bible. The verses record, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). “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” (Hebrews 9:28). “He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). The Book of Revelation prophesied, “And I looked, and, see, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14:1-5).

From these verses above, we can see God will do a new work in the last days. Moreover, this work is different from the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption and probably refers to the work of judgment mentioned in the Bible. Through the judgment, man’s sins will be cleansed and eventually they will break free from the bondage of sins. Just as the prophecy says, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Is it not the symbol of man’s being purified? We can possibly get rid of sinful nature thoroughly at that time. It seems that whether our sinful nature can be purified is related to the work God does. The work Jehovah God and the Lord Jesus did is not the work of removing our sins, but is only the work of knowing our sins and confessing sins. So no matter how we practice, we are unable to escape the bondage of sins. Therefore, we cannot be fully saved. Only if God does the work of purifying man in the last days can we have the opportunity of fully being saved. Just like the Bible prophesies, “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” (Revelation 22:14). Thank the Lord for His enlightenment. I understand what the real being saved is and the way to be ultimately purified.

Brothers and sisters, that’s all for today’s fellowship. If you have any different understanding or suggestion, please contact us at any time. May all the glory and praise be to God! Amen!

Since the concept that “once saved, always saved” is wrong, how could we be saved forever and attain the way of eternal life? Where should we go to look for the path of salvation? For more recommendation of articles, please click:

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What Does the Name “Jesus” Mean?

What Does the Name “Jesus” Mean?

Focus on God’s Names: Mystery Series of Jehovah, Jesus and the Almighty:
Episode II—What Does the Name “Jesus” Mean?

In the last fellowship, we shared the origin and meaning of God’s name “Jehovah.” Afterward, we received letters from some brothers and sisters in the Lord enquiring: “Since the name of Jehovah God will endure forever, it should be perpetuated onward. But, why did God’s name change to ‘Jesus’ in the Age of Grace? Is there any deeper significance that lies herein?” Presumably most brothers and sisters want to seek the truth of this question. So, today let’s fellowship about the reason why God took the name of Jesus instead of Jehovah in the Age of Grace and the meaning of the name of Jesus.

As is known to all, God’s deeds are immeasurable. Neither any of God’s names can represent God fully, nor can it express what God has and is. God originally has no name and He is called God. It is because God needs to guide, redeem and rescue mankind and He does different works that He takes different names in different ages. As we all know, the Old Testament of the Bible records that Jehovah God decreed the laws and commandments to lead man in their lives. So that they realized that God would bless them if they abided by the laws and commandments, or they would be condemned and cursed by God. Jehovah God expressed the disposition of wrath and curse. At the end of the Age of Law, people couldn’t keep the law, so they were in the danger of being condemned and executed under the law. In order to redeem the entire human race, God was incarnated for the first time to do the work of redemption under the name of the Lord Jesus. Provided that man prayed to Him to confess their sins and repent, they could be forgiven of their sins and enjoy the abundant grace bestowed upon them by God. The New Testament of the Bible records that the Lord Jesus was full of love and mercy, which precisely represents the disposition God expressed in the Age of Grace. It can be seen that when doing different works, God expresses His different dispositions and His names change accordingly, which is the principle of His work that is always new and never old.

For example, when someone works as a teacher in a school, people call him teacher. When he has a new job in a factory one day, others will be unfit to call him teacher when they encounter him. For teaching is his former work and teacher is his former Appellation. So it is most suitable to call him a master worker in accordance with his present work. Therefore, with God’s work always progressing forward, His disposition and what He has and is are unceasingly revealed to us. At the same time, God’s name changes according to the needs of His work.

However, no matter how God’s name alters, His disposition and substance will never change, much less the aims of His work. Like a passage of God’s words says: “‘Jehovah’ is the name that I took during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites (God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. ‘Jesus’ is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man. He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age of Grace, and can only represent one part of the management plan. That is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so in the current age, all the Israelites apart from the tribe of Judah worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar, and serve Him wearing priests’ robes in the temple. What they hope for is the reappearance of Jehovah. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind. He is the sin offering that redeemed mankind from sin. Which is to say, the name of Jesus came from the Age of Grace, and existed because of the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. The name of Jesus existed to allow the people of the Age of Grace to be reborn and saved, and is a particular name for the redemption of the whole of mankind. And so the name Jesus represents the work of redemption, and denotes the Age of Grace. The name Jehovah is a particular name for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. ‘Jehovah’ represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel. ‘Jesus’ represents the Age of Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed during the Age of Grace” (“The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in the Word Appears in the Flesh).

Now we are more able to comprehend that God’s name in each age has the extraordinary significance, containing His disposition, the principle of His work and the work He does in that age. If people cannot understand the meaning of God’s names, they will be unlikely to have a knowledge of God, and then they will merely have a confused kind of faith. Belief in God means neither receiving grace and blessings from the Lord nor sacrificing and giving up things for God. What is important is that man should have a knowledge of God, knowing how God has led and saved us step by step since His creation of the world. Only in this way can we somewhat read God’s intention of saving mankind and better welcome the return of the Lord Jesus. When people know that God’s name in one age represents His work and disposition in that age, do they still have any misgiving about what name the returned Lord Jesus will use?

Please watch the next episode—What is the Name of the Returned Lord Jesus in the Last Days?

Recommend:
God’s Name Has Changed!
God’s name—Do You Know the Origin of Name “Jehovah”?

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