How Can My Young, Brash, and Arrogant Self Get Along With My Grandmother?

                                               

                                                   

My name is An Qi. Before the age of six, I was living at my grandmother’s house. At the time, my grandmother was the person with whom I felt closest to. Each day when I went to the kindergarten, my grandmother decided which clothes I would wear and how I would comb my hair. I felt that my grandmother did these things the best. Gradually, I grew up and I started to disapprove of some of the things that my grandmother did. My grandmother also started to disapprove of me as well. Each time I went to her house, she would scold me. If she wasn’t nagging me on one thing, she would be nagging me about something else. I felt very upset.

Realizing I’ve Been Walking the Path of the Pharisees

Wuxin Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Something we have always discussed in previous communions is the paths walked by Peter and Paul. It is said that Peter paid attention to knowing himself and God, and was someone God approved, while Paul only paid attention to his work, reputation and status, and was someone God despised. I have always been afraid of walking Paul’s path, which is why I normally often read God’s words about Peter’s experiences to see how he came to know God. After living like this for a while, I felt I had become more obedient than before, my desire for reputation and status had dimmed, and that I had gotten to know myself a little. At this time, I believed that even though I was not completely on Peter’s path, it could be said that I had touched the edge of it, and at least it meant I was not heading down Paul’s path. However, I would be shamed by the revelations of God’s word.

The First Utterance

Praises have come to Zion and God’s dwelling place has appeared. The glorious holy name is praised by all peoples, and is spreading. Ah, Almighty God! The Head of the universe, Christ of the last days—He is the shining Sun, and has risen over the majestic and magnificent Mount Zion in the entire universe …

I See the Path to Knowing God

Xiaocao Changzhi City, Shanxi Province

One day, I saw this following passage of God’s word in the piece “How Peter Came to Know Jesus”: “Over the time he followed Jesus, Peter observed and took to heart everything about His life: His actions, words, movements, and expressions. … From his time in contact with Jesus, Peter also realized that His character was different from that of an ordinary man. He always acted steadily and never with haste, never exaggerated nor underplayed a subject, and conducted His life in a way that was both normal and admirable. In conversation, Jesus was elegant and graceful, open and cheerful yet serene, and never lost His dignity in the execution of His work. Peter saw that Jesus was sometimes taciturn, yet other times talked incessantly. He was sometimes so happy that He became agile and lively like a dove, and yet sometimes so sad that He did not talk at all, as if He were a weather-beaten mother. At times He was filled with anger, like a brave soldier charging off to kill enemies, and sometimes even like a roaring lion. Sometimes He laughed; other times He prayed and wept. No matter how Jesus acted, Peter grew to have boundless love and respect for Him. Jesus’ laughter filled him up with happiness, His sorrow plunged him into grief, His anger frightened him, while His mercy, forgiveness, and strictness made him come to truly love Jesus, developing a true reverence and longing for Him. Of course, Peter only gradually came to realize all of this once he had lived alongside Jesus for a few years.” After reading this passage I thought: No wonder Peter could achieve knowledge of God! Turns out it was because during the time he lived alongside Jesus day and night, he personally witnessed Jesus’ every word and every move, and from that he discovered more of God’s adorableness. Now is also the era of when God becomes flesh to personally descend upon the world of man to work. If I could also have the fortune of being able to come into contact with God and spend time together like Peter had, then wouldn’t I also know God better? Oh! It’s a shame that now I can only read God’s word but cannot see the face of Christ. Then how would I be able to gain true knowledge of God?

Awake in the Tribulation of Persecution —A Seventeen-year-old Christian’s True Experience of Being Persecuted

Wang Tao    Shandong Province

I’m a Christian in the Church of Almighty God. Compared with the kids at my age, I’m the luckiest, for I was uplifted and selected by God and accepted the end-time work of Almighty God with my parents at the age of eight. At that time, although I was young, I was very willing to believe in God and read God’s word. As I constantly read God’s word and listened to the fellowship of the uncles and aunties, over the years, I understood some truths. As I grew older, I saw that the brothers and sisters all pursued the truth and practiced being honest and lived in harmony, without intriguing against each other as between my classmates at school. I felt that it was my happiest and most joyful time to stay with the brothers and sisters. Later, I heard these words in Fellowship and Preaching About Life Entering In, “To believe in God and pursue the truth and follow God in Mainland China, one has to tie his head to the waist of his trousers, which is absolutely true….” At that time, I didn’t understand the meaning of those words. Through the fellowship of the brothers and sisters, I knew that believers in Almighty God would be arrested by the police because China is an atheistic country without freedom of belief. But at that time, I didn’t believe those words. I thought that I was just a child, and even if I was arrested by the “policemen,” they wouldn’t hurt me. Not until later I personally experienced the police’s arrest and affliction did I see clearly that the “policemen” in my mind are actually a gang of devils!

Rise Up in the Dark Oppression

Mo Zhijian    Guangdong Province

I was born in a poor remote mountain village. People there burned incense and worshiped Buddha for generations. Temples were everywhere, and each household burned incense. No one believed in God. In 1995, my wife and I believed in the Lord Jesus in another place. After returning home, we began to preach the gospel. Later, the number of the believers gradually increased to over one hundred. Because more and more people believed in God, the local government was alarmed. One day in 1997, the police asked me to go to the local police station. The director of the County Public Security Bureau, the director of the County Bureau for State Security, the director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs, the chief of the local police station, and some policemen had already been waiting there. The director of the County Public Security Bureau questioned me, “Why do you believe in God? Who do you get in touch with? Where do you get the Bibles? Why don’t you go to the church to have meetings?” I answered, “The constitution stipulates explicitly that the citizens enjoy freedom of belief. Why don’t you allow us to believe in God freely?” The director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs said, “There is a scope for the freedom of religious belief. It’s just like a bird in a cage. Although its wings and feet are not bound, it can only move around in the cage.” Hearing his fallacy, I was very indignant. I said angrily, “Then the government is deceiving the common people!” Hearing my word, they knew they were in the wrong, so they had nothing to say and could only let me go home. At that time I had no knowledge of the CCP government’s substance of persecuting people in believing in God. In 1999, I accepted Almighty God’s end-time work. Only through reading God’s word and experiencing the crueler persecution of the CCP government did I see clearly that it is exactly the embodiment of satan the evil spirit and is God’s enemy. It is just as the Bible says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.” (Revelation 12:9)

God’s Best Protection for Mankind

Kuiqian Rizhao City, Shandong Province

My station in life, or status, was something I could never let go of, and when God created an environment that exposed me, I was only negative, complaining, and despairing. Only through refinement after refinement did I come to understand God’s good intentions, and that His testing of me was not to torment me. Rather, it was to cleanse me and make me perfect, to allow me to understand that believing in God for the sake of a station can only ruin me, thus allowing me to let go of improper views of pursuit, and to have a proper goal to pursue.