Because of faith, we are forgiven of sins; because of faith, we follow Christ till today. The website, Follow Christ, provides the latest information about the truth of Christ's return.
By Rayson, Kenya
Throughout our lives we will miss out on many things, such as a delicious meal, a date, a good job, an object of our affection, and so on. If we miss out on these things, we can get other things to replace them, but if we miss the last train to the kingdom of heaven, we will be left with eternal regrets. As a Christian, I was very lucky to have caught the last train for the kingdom of heaven.
By Xiaowei
The Old Testament records a king. He was once an ordinary shepherd but later chosen by God and became a beloved king of the Israelites.
When David was only 14-15 years old, he tended sheep in the fields. He was able to save the flock from the lion or other beast with his bare hands, because he had Jehovah God as his backup. His hymns that praise Jehovah God always echoed through mountains and fields. The intimate relationship between him and Jehovah God is enviable!
When the Philistine giant challenged the Israeli army, no one dared to meet him. Though thin and weak, David was willing to fight for Jehovah God’s army. He defeated the Philistine giant Goliath with only a sling. Then he became a brave soldier. Relying on Jehovah God, he won one battle after another, and protected the Israelites.
After David was anointed the king of Israel by God, he often played the lyre praising Jehovah God and didn’t forget God’s grace and blessings to him. Most importantly, he was determined to build a temple for God so that all the Israelites could worship Jehovah God in the temple.
Therefore, David became a man who was after God’s heart.
However, David, after becoming the king, framed and killed Uriah, took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba as his own. He offended God’s disposition and thus he was judged and punished by God: The first son of David and Bathsheba died young, the sword shall never depart from his house; his son raped his daughter, his sons killed one another for the throne … From the lessons of David’s failure, how should we know God’s disposition?
God says, “God is possessed of this kind of righteous disposition because He detests wickedness, darkness, rebelliousness and Satan’s evil acts—corrupting and devouring mankind—because He detests all acts of sin in opposition to Him and because of His holy and undefiled essence. It is because of this that He will not suffer any of the created or non-created beings to openly oppose or contest Him. Even an individual to whom He had once shown mercy or whom He had chosen, need only provoke His disposition and transgress His principles of patience and tolerance, and God will unleash and reveal His righteous disposition that tolerates no offense without the least bit of mercy or hesitation.”
From God’s words I understood: Regardless of whether a person that God has once shown mercy to or loved, so long as he resists and disobeys God and offends His disposition, he will be faced with God’s judgment and wrath, for God is beautiful, good, and righteous, and does not allow any filth to exist. This is God’s righteous disposition and it does not allow any offense. God’s righteous disposition is free of any other elements, it is holy and flawless. Although King David was confident and loyal to God and loved by God, when he sinned, God judged him according to His righteous disposition. God sent Nathan the prophet to reveal David’s sin and rendered His punishment upon him that the sword shall never depart from his house.
After this matter, David truly repented to God and made a resolution that he would never do evil things. When he was old and couldn’t keep warm, his servant asked a virgin to lie beside him to help him keep warm, he had no intimate relations with her. What’s more, after the matter of Bathsheba, he kept Jehovah God’s commandments more strictly, and guided the Israelites to worship God. God still had mercy on and cared for him and he was still the King supported by the Israelites.
From this we can see that God is like a loving mother as well as a stern father. When we sin against and resist God, God smites and disciplines us like a stern father; when we obey God and truly repent, God is like a loving mother giving us His mercy, care and blessings. Just as God says, “When God is angry with man, He hopes that man will be able to truly repent, and indeed He hopes to see man’s true repentance, in which case He will then liberally continue to bestow His mercy and tolerance upon man. This is to say that man’s evil conduct incurs God’s wrath, whereas God’s mercy and tolerance are bestowed upon those who listen to God and truly repent before Him, upon those who can turn away from their evil ways and abandon the violence in their hands.” “Only the Creator has tenderness toward this mankind. Only the Creator shows this mankind compassion and affection. Only the Creator holds a true, unbreakable affection for this mankind. Likewise, only the Creator can bestow mercy on this mankind and cherish all of His creation. His heart leaps and aches at every one of man’s actions: He is angered, distressed and grieved over man’s evil and corruption; He is pleased, joyful, forgiving and jubilant for man’s repentance and belief; every single one of His thoughts and ideas exists for and revolves around mankind; what He is and has is expressed entirely for mankind’s sake; the entirety of His emotions are intertwined with mankind’s existence.”
I feel God’s true love for mankind in His earnest teaching. No matter how He works on us, He hopes that we can truly repent to Him, totally forsake the evil way and be a person after His heart. We have been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years, lost conscience and sense, and the original image of man. No matter what wrongs we have committed or how much we have transgressed, as long as we truly repent, God’s all emotions will change according to our attitude toward Him, and He will give us mercy and tolerance again, and guide us onward.
I couldn’t help thinking, when I first believed in God, I just wanted to enjoy God’s grace and blessings. Once I did something that disobeyed and resisted God and then God’s discipline came upon me or when I caught sight of His severe words of judgment, I would misunderstand Him: “Does God still love me? Why does He treat me this way? Is God revealing me through this?” But now I understand: When God’s righteous disposition comes upon us, it’s also His salvation for us. When I have a revelation of corrupt disposition or show resistance toward God, He disciplines me, deals with me and punishes me, but He doesn’t mean to eliminate or forsake me. Instead, He judges and saves me through it so that I can know my satanic nature and essence, break free from corrupt disposition, and walk the right path. God’s disposition is not only compassionate and loving, it is also righteous and majestic. No matter what God does, all that He does is love and salvation for us. God has eagerly looked forward to our sincere repentance and casting off the shackles of Satan. At any time, God’s heart to save man will never change. This is the most lovable part of God, and also something that we should cherish and treasure the most.
From: Grow in Christ
Now disasters are becoming more and more serious. Only if we truly repent to God can we gain God’s guidance during disasters so that we can have a way forward and be raptured into the heavenly kingdom. Many believers in the Lord have such confusions: We often confess our sins and repent to the Lord in tears, but we still live in a cycle of sinning and confessing, unable to extricate ourselves. Is this true repentance? Can we who often sin and do not truly repent be qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven? Here we select Bible verses about repentance and related content to help brothers and sisters who are truly waiting for the Lord’s return find the way to escape sin, achieve true repentance, and enter the kingdom of heaven.
When encountering setbacks and failure, and persecutions and tribulations in our lives, we often feel distressed and helpless, and even negative and weak to the extent that we lose faith in the Lord. Read these Bible verses for encouragement and you will understand God’s will and find the path to cast off hardship.
Continue reading “14 Bible Verses for Encouragement to Give You Hope”Matthew 11:12 – How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
– Matthew 11:12
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
If we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we should work hard. This is Jesus Christ’s demand of us. How to work hard so as to enter the kingdom of heaven? Some people may say: “We always imitate Paul, forsake everything and labor for Jesus; we devote all our lives to Jesus, never marry; we endure ridicule and abuse while spreading the gospel; we are arrested and imprisoned by the CCP and continue to serve Jesus after being released, and so on. We’ve paid a lot, doesn’t it represent that we work hard?” Does this viewpoint accord with Jesus’ will? I remembered Jesus once said, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). From Jesus’ words we can see that when Jesus return, there will be many people who spend and preach in the name of Jesus who will not be praised but regarded as evildoers by Him. It can be seen that those who can sacrifice and labor in the Lord’s name are not equal to obeying the will of the heavenly Father. Once I saw a passage in a spiritual book: “So then what really is doing His will? It mainly refers to being able to love God in your heart, to honor Him as great, fearing God and shunning evil, being able to put the Lord’s words into practice, obeying His commandments, frequently exalting and bearing witness to God, genuinely expending yourself for Him, remaining free of any deals or requests, being able to stand witness for God during trials, and obeying God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Only this is doing God’s will. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “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. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat 22:37-39). So, all those who do God’s will are those who have cast off evil and achieved purification. They are all people who can put the truth into practice and genuinely obey God. They are all able to frequently put the Lord’s words into practice and keep His commandments, and they all love God in their hearts, and are able to live relying on the Lord’s words. If someone doesn’t love God in their heart, they try to make deals with God while working and preaching, they also frequently resist God and rebel against Him and are unable to put His words into practice, how can this person be called someone who does the heavenly Father’s will? And how could anyone say that they have already cast off sinfulness and achieved purification?” From God’s words and this fellowship, we can clearly know that only by working hard to become someone who does the will of the heavenly Father can we enter the kingdom of heaven. No matter how great our suffering, if we don’t practice Jesus’ words and become people obedient to Him, we are not qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. When seeking the truth, we must be clear about God’s will, find the correct purpose and direction before we get going. If we treat God’s requirements according to our notions and imaginations, we are running counter to God’s demands regardless of how hard we work. Thus, we will easily miss the chance to enter the kingdom of heaven.
From: Grow in Christ
We believers in the Lord all hope to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord returns in the last days and enjoy the beautiful life there. So where is the kingdom of heaven? What people can enter it? How can we enter it? These selected Bible verses about entry into the kingdom of heaven and related content will show you the way.
The Lord has come back. Want to know how to welcome Him and be raptured before the disasters? Click here to discuss with us.
Editor’s note: 2000 years ago, the Lord Jesus prophesied, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). When the world becomes like it was in the days of Noah, the Son of man will come. How should we seek the appearance and work of God? Read this article to learn more.
The whole of mankind now lives under the domain of Satan and is becoming more deeply corrupted with each passing day. Positive things are condemned, negative things are held in increasingly high esteem by the people of the world, and mankind is now a great proponent of evil. In particular, all across any big city one can see karaoke bars, restaurants, and dance clubs, each and every one brimming with wickedness and promiscuity. People revel in eating, drinking, merrymaking, indulging in physical lusts, and they have lost their dignity and integrity. There is no love between people, and everyone is incredibly selfish and despicable. For money or for profit, people vie with each other, scheme against and cheat one another, and even come to blows. Even brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and relatives are like this, falling out with each other far too much for the sake of profit. And it is not only the unbelievers who act like this. There are many brothers and sisters who believe in the Lord who cannot keep the Lord’s teachings, who follow the trends of the world, and who pursue fashion, covet wealth, and jockey for position. Some believers simply do not attend church gatherings, and when they do, many come just to be a part of the fun, to hawk their wares, to find a romantic partner, to make contacts, and so on—the church is slowly being assimilated by the world. Now in this world which advocates evil and which turns the truth on its head, no one loves the truth or takes the initiative to seek God’s work and appearance, and no one thinks about how to be honest and to walk the right path in life in accordance with God’s words. Instead, everyone covets wickedness, they abandon themselves to vice, and they act without restraint.
Continue reading “The Days of Noah Have Come: How to Welcome the Lord’s Return”And saying, Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
– Matthew 3:2
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
“Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” said the Lord Jesus when He came to do His work. There’s a very important message: He hopes us to repent and enter the kingdom of heaven. However, there’s still many people paying no attention to it on hearing this news. So what’s the reason? Maybe they don’t understand the importance of repentance or the meaning of entering the kingdom of heaven. Let’s think about it.
God prepared beautiful living environment for us when He created us humans in the beginning. He hopes we humans can be compatible with Him, and live under His blessings and protection. But after mankind was corrupted by Satan, what man did was full of evil and corruption, and against His demands. God wants to save the deeply corrupt mankind, so He did a lot of work, hoping us humans to live in His light. Those who have changed are qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, we should grasp the last change to repent in the last days.
Repentance means to turn to God and turn From Evil. Each of us should know our corruption and truly repent to God and no longer do evil, and then we can be qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. For God is holy, those who are filthy are incapable of seeing the face of God. God’s words say, “For I cannot bring My enemies and people reeking of evil on the model of Satan into My kingdom, into the next age.” From this we can understand God’s demands. Everyone who yearns for entering the kingdom of heaven should act according to His requirements.
Oh God, I’m a filthy and corrupt man, but You’ve still done such great work of salvation to feed and nourish me, so that I can understand Your will, and live the likeness of a real man. I’m grateful to You and praise You. May You do more work on me, judge me and cleanse my corruption. Amen!
From: Grow in Christ
The Lord has come back. Want to know how to welcome Him and be raptured before the disasters? Click here to discuss with us.
Nowadays, disasters around the world are getting worse. Earthquakes, famines, and wars frequently occur. Besides, the four blood moons have appeared. These fulfill the prophecies of the Lord Jesus’ return in the last days, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7-8), and “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, see, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood” (Revelation 6:12). So many brothers and sisters raise such questions: The prophecies of the Lord’s return have basically fulfilled, has the Lord come back? If so, why haven’t we welcomed the Lord? Where can we find the footsteps of the Lord?
Disasters have become more frequent in recent years and the prophecies in the Bible concerning the coming of the Lord have now been fulfilled. So why have we still not seen the Lord descending on a cloud? Has the Christ returned or not? How exactly will the Lord appear to man when He returns, and what can we do to greet Him? Read on and all will become clear.
By Zheng Xin
Over these last few years, in order to rejuvenate the church and bolster her brothers’ and sisters’ faith as well as her own, Lin Ke has fasted and prayed so many times that she has lost count. Despite all this she hasn’t been able to feel the Lord’s presence and guidance this entire time. She did not understand why God was not listening to her prayers—could it be that she wasn’t devout enough in her fasting and prayer?
Lin Ke was sitting in a lakeside pavilion staring blankly into space, perplexed over this issue of fasting and prayer when her coworker Xiao Jing shouted at her twice before she finally heard it.
The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood but is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself. Be it His humanity or divinity, both submit to the will of the heavenly Father. The substance of Christ is the Spirit, that is, the divinity. Therefore, His substance is that of God Himself; this substance will not interrupt His own work, and He could not possibly do anything that destroys His own work, nor would He ever utter any words that go against His own will. Therefore, the incarnate God would absolutely never do any work that interrupts His own management. This is what all man should understand. The essence of the work of the Holy Spirit is to save man and is for the sake of God’s own management. Similarly, the work of Christ is to save man and is for the sake of God’s will. Given that God becomes flesh, He realizes His substance within His flesh, such that His flesh is sufficient to undertake His work. Therefore, all the work of God’s Spirit is replaced by the work of Christ during the time of incarnation, and at the core of all work throughout the time of incarnation is the work of Christ. It cannot be commingled with work from any other age. And since God becomes flesh, He works in the identity of His flesh; since He comes in the flesh, He then finishes in the flesh the work that He ought to do. Be it the Spirit of God or be it Christ, both are God Himself, and He does the work that He ought to do and performs the ministry that He ought to perform.
Continue reading “The Substance of Christ is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father”
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” (Matthew 18:3). Christian Cheng Nuo is a doctor. In her life, she strives to be an honest person according to the Lord’s words. Once, during a dispute over a patient’s treatment, she honestly discloses the hospital’s mistakes to a deceased patient’s family members. This in turn impacts the hospital’s reputation, and she is dismissed by the hospital on the grounds of medical malpractice. Her “bad track record” causes Cheng Nuo to be repeatedly rejected during her search for a new job. She battles fiercely with herself: Telling the truth is the reason she can’t find a job, but not telling the truth violates God’s word…. How should she follow the Lord’s words and be an honest person? Through seeking, she finally finds a way to practice the truth and be an honest person, and unexpectedly receives God’s blessing in the process …
We believers in the Lord all hope to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord returns in the last days and enjoy the beautiful life there. So where is the kingdom of heaven? What people can enter it? How can we enter it? These selected Bible verses about entry into the kingdom of heaven and related content will show you the way.
The Lord has come back. Want to know how to welcome Him and be raptured before the disasters? Click here to discuss with us.
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