God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

Wang Yan

The last days are here, the prophecies in the Bible have basically all been fulfilled, and brothers and sisters all look forward to the Lord coming to receive us into the kingdom of heaven. But many brothers and sisters in the Lord are asking: Although we go to church every week to give worship, and we often read the Bible and we expend ourselves and work for the Lord, we are always committing sins in the daytime and then confessing in the evening, living in this vicious spiral, and we can never free ourselves from the bonds of sin. If things carry on this way, will the Lord really forgive us, and receive us into the kingdom of heaven? How exactly does the Lord treat sinners?

Do You Know the 4 Key Elements of Christian Prayer?

By Yang Yang, China

Brothers and sisters, we all know that praying to God is the most direct way for Christians to communicate with God. This is why, aside from morning and evening prayers, we pray at many other times such as when reading the Bible, when in gatherings, observing the Sabbath, or when we encounter difficulties. But are our prayers in line with the Lord’s will and will He lend us an ear? This is something that is important for every brother and sister to understand; otherwise, no matter how many times we pray or for how long, these prayers will not gain God’s approval. In fact, the Lord Jesus gave us these answers long ago. Let’s seek together on this aspect of the truth!

7 On How to Achieve Results in Reading God’s Word

Lu Ming  Nanyang City, Henan Province

When God is incarnated in the end time, he does the work of the word, and through the word, he conquers man, perfects man, and gains man. If we want to be saved and gained by God, the most fundamental thing is to read God’s word. However, now most brothers and sisters are still unable to achieve the due results in reading God’s word, so they are slow in life entering in. Although they have believed in God for several years, they have not understood much truth, even less gained the transformation of their life disposition. Then, how can we achieve results in reading God’s word?

4 It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

Kang Rong  Anqing City, Anhui Province

Now, brothers and sisters generally have such states: Those who lead the church only care to go around the church without being idle; those who preach the gospel only pay attention to gaining people; those who do general affairs only busy themselves with doing them properly; those who do hosting only think of hosting the brothers and sisters properly; those who cannot perform duties just keep attending meetings regularly without leaving God’s family. In short, those who perform duties only desire to get things done, and those who cannot perform duties are content merely with attending meetings; none pays attention to eating and drinking God’s word, to pursuing the truth, and to their personal life entering in. People all think in their notions that pursuing the truth is not important, and that as long as they perform their duty properly and do not leave God’s family, they can be saved and left.

2 Why We Should Pay Attention to Knowing Ourselves

Gan’en  Luoyang City, Henan Province

In the course of our believing in God, many of us brothers and sisters pay attention only to working and performing duties, and very few of us pay attention to knowing ourselves. Many times when we fellowship in a meeting about the topic concerning knowing ourselves, some brothers and sisters have questions and resistance in their heart: Since we believe in God, we just believe in God. If I am assigned to do hosting, I will do hosting; if I am assigned to preach the gospel, I will preach the gospel. I will do whatever I am assigned to do and practice in whatever way I am required to practice. I submit to the arrangements of God’s family and also perform my duty. Isn’t it good enough if I do not make mistakes in performing my duty? Why always fellowship about knowing ourselves? What is knowing myself to do with my believing in God? Can I do well in believing in God if I know myself? Even some leaders also think: The work arrangements have stated the principles of all aspects of the work very clearly. Isn’t it good enough if we do not work against the work arrangements but carry out the work according to the requirements in them without changing them? Why must we know ourselves?

22 It Is Very Important to Know the States of the “Hidden” Passivity

Wu Ming    Heze City, Shandong Province

We often have some passive states within us. For example, some people become passive because they are short of money; some become passive because the day of God has not come after so long a time; some become passive because they achieve no results in their work; some become passive because they have been pruned and dealt with; some become passive because they see that they remain unchanged; some become passive because they have serious transgressions and are worried that they cannot be saved; and so on. All these are common passive states in us. As to such obvious passive states that can restrain us from performing our duties properly, usually most of us can realize them and can pay attention to looking for the roots and resolving them through eating and drinking the relevant words of God. However, we also have a kind of extremely harmful passivity, the hidden passivity, in us, which seriously hinders our life entering. With such passivity, we appear to be in a normal state on the surface, and it does not seem to restrain us from performing our duties, nor does it cause us to do things of obviously resisting God and rebelling against God. Thus, we cannot discover it easily, nor can we discern it very easily. We can say that, for those who do not pay attention to the detailed experiences, who do not treat their life entering seriously, and who do not measure and examine themselves strictly against God’s word, it is very difficult to discern such an abnormal state. As it is said in the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers: “Another kind of passivity cannot be discerned easily. They seem to be in a normal state. On the surface, they have the normal church life, perform their duties properly, and can eat and drink God’s word. But they treat nothing seriously, being content with their present situation, and follow the general trend. A careful observation will find that they do not have many elements of progressing positively. This is the hidden passivity. People who live in such negativity are slow in entering into the truth and can hardly achieve the transformation of their disposition. They appear to be in a normal state, but their progress is too slow, so it is still abnormal. Besides, their unconcerned, careless, and indifferent disposition is what God loathes. Such people do not seem to have great difficulties, but actually many things are hidden within them. Without careful observation, they cannot be discovered easily. The people who live for long in the hidden passivity also suffer great harm.” Therefore, it is very crucial to know and resolve the hidden passivity within us.

18 It Is So Important to Pray Genuinely

Zhuiqiu    Jiuquan City, Gansu Province

Doctrinally most believers in God know that prayer is very important and we should all pray genuinely. But in our real life, we do not pay attention to praying genuinely. Most of the time, we pray to God perfunctorily and deceitfully. For example, many times we rest content with praying several times a day without caring whether we have achieved results, and sometimes we even do not know what we have said in our prayer. Sometimes we do not feel like praying, but when we see that other brothers and sisters are praying, we also kneel down and say something carelessly. When we encounter difficulties, most often we weep them out to God in prayer, asking God to help us get things done in any way. When we are in a good state and achieve good results in our work, we pray to God to keep us always in such a state and let us always achieve good results. When we are dealt with and feel aggrieved, we air our grievances before God: “O God, you are almighty and you know the truth of the matter best. I am really not as the leader said….” None of such prayers is genuine prayer.