I was formerly an ordinary believer in the Born Again Movement. Like most believers in the Lord, I had been longing to welcome the Lord’s arrival while I was alive, inherit His promises and blessings, and stay with Him forever. If my longings could have been realized, what a happy day that would have been! I had imagined many scenes of meeting with the Lord, but never had I imagined that the Lord has already come back quietly when I didn’t expect it, and that when the Lord knocked on my door I would have welcomed Him in such a way …

I enjoyed reading the Bible, and often read these verses: “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). Every time I read these words, I couldn’t help imagining the scene of the Lord’s second coming. He left to prepare a place for us, and after He prepared a place for us He would surely return on a cloud with great glory to receive us. … Every time I thought of this, I felt very happy and lucky to believe in the Lord. Because of this expectation, no matter what suffering, trials, and tribulations I encountered on the path to faith in the Lord, I could stand testimony for Him and glorify His name by praying to Him and asking Him to give me faith and strength.

Continue reading “We Can’t Only Wait for Jesus to Come Upon a Cloud” →

By Mengqi, Hong Kong

In August, 2012, my son was in hospital, and I was there to take care of him. During this period, under the Lord’s wondrous arrangement, I got acquainted with a preacher in the hospital. He enthusiastically preached the gospel of the Lord to me, and also told me many deeds of the Lord Jesus. He told me that when the Lord came to work, though His work was met with every possible kind of resistance, He still worked to save man, and even was crucified for the sake of redeeming mankind. Hearing that, I was moved by the Lord Jesus’ great love, and thereupon accepted Him as my Savior. Then I began to go to church to listen to sermons. For the sake of knowing more about the Lord Jesus, not only did I attend Bible study classes, but I often read the Bible and spiritual books, and even got on the internet to listen to some pastors’ sermons so as to equip myself. At that time, I was very fervent and striving, and my heart was always full of peace and joy.

Continue reading “Four Years Later, I Returned to God’s Family” →

By Yang En

My cousin and two sisters spread the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God to my wife and me. My wife accepted it. However, as a denominational leader reading the Bible much more than them, I didn’t think anything of them at all, nor did I want to hear their fellowship and testimony. Later, whenever they came to have a meeting with my wife, they would invite me to join them, but I made excuses to refuse. Once, I really couldn’t wriggle out of it, and thereby attended the meeting. However, when they said, “Only by keeping pace with God’s work of the last days, can we obtain everlasting life,” I couldn’t accept it. I thought: The Bible is the way of eternal life bestowed by God. As long as I hold on to the Bible, I then will obtain eternal life. From then on, I listened to their fellowship no more.

Continue reading “I Have Found the Way of Eternal Life (I)” →

Since I believed in the Lord, I have looked forward to His coming again to bring us to the kingdom of heaven at every moment for He ever said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). And the Lord also taught us to be able to hear the voice of God and joyfully welcome the return of the Lord Jesus like the wise virgins. Therefore, I was responsible and serious in every piece of service in the church. In order to attend the worship on the Lord’s Day, I always put aside all the pleasure of the flesh to devote all of my mind and body to the service. I led my brothers and sisters to worship God together on the Lord’s Day, received them and prepared meals for them. I did all the things I could with all my strength. Because of my zealous service, both the old and the young in the church all praised me for being devout, and I was also proud of these, thinking that I would surely be taken into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes back.

Continue reading “I Have Finally Received the Lord’s Return” →

Insistence represents persistence, means waiting, and even more is spiritual yearning…. But if the direction of our insistence is wrong, then won’t we go astray?

—Notes

One afternoon in June, it was stifling, without a breath of wind. At that time, I was resting on a bamboo chair at home.

Suddenly I heard someone call “Auntie.” I saw that it was my nephew Xiaofang, who was accompanied by one of his friends who dressed elegantly and looked affable. Then I welcomed them into the room. As I poured some water, I said, “Do you have reasons for coming here on such a hot day?” Xiaofang happily said, “I have a piece of good news to tell you. The Lord Jesus we’ve long yearned for has returned.” Upon hearing this, I was dumbfounded and thought, “Only Eastern Lightning is testifying that the Lord has returned. Could it be that they have believed in it? I often heard my pastor say that right now, there are some people who are saying that the Lord Jesus has returned and done the work of judgment and chastisement. He asked us not to listen to them and told us that it was enough to only believe that the Lord would come with a cloud.” So I said to him warily, “You say that the Lord Jesus has returned. Where is He? How come I haven’t seen Him? The Bible says, ‘Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him’ (Revelation 1:7). ‘Why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). Therefore, I think the Lord will return on a cloud and will be seen by us.” Then he said, “Auntie, we shouldn’t just rely on these verses to believe that the Lord will certainly come in this way. Actually, many parts of the Bible contain prophecies about the Lord’s arrival …” But before he could even finish speaking I immediately said, “Xiaofang, I’ve believed in God for longer than you have, and I know more than you do. So how could I not know the method of the Lord’s arrival? All right, you can come to see me, but if you try to get me to believe in Eastern Lightning, you should go back. If who they testify to is not the Lord Jesus who will descend with clouds, I won’t accept Him.” After that, his friend also fellowshiped to me, but I still did not listen, choosing to intentionally ignore him and began to do housework. Seeing that, they had to leave.

Several months later, Sister Liu and Sister Wang from my church also started to believe in Almighty God, and they also came to my house to preach the gospel of the Lord’s return. But no matter what they said to me, I still stubbornly insisted that the Lord would descend upon the clouds to take us into the kingdom of heaven, and afterward send the great disasters to destroy this old world. Holding on to my notions, when my nephew and my sisters from my church preached the gospel of the kingdom to me, I refused them all.

Continue reading “9 Years Later, I Reread the Verses of Jesus Coming in the Clouds and Welcomed the Lord’s Appearance” →

I began to believe in the Lord Jesus in 1992, and I read this in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In order to redeem mankind from our sins, the Lord Jesus was crucified upon the cross as a sin offering. Whenever I thought of that, my heart would feel much stirred. After I began to believe in the Lord, I enthusiastically attended church gatherings, and would read the Bible and pray whenever I had the time.

One day, my little sister brought two sisters I’d never met before to my home. As we talked, they said that God had returned in the flesh, and had appeared and was working in the form of a woman. When I heard this, I immediately refuted it, saying, “How can that be? It states clearly in the Bible, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). This only begotten Son mentioned in the Bible was surely male. So surely the Lord must return as a man as well? How can you say that God has returned as a woman?” Although they saw that I had adopted such an oppositional attitude, they were still full of compassion toward me and they said, “Sister, although God incarnating as a woman does not tally with our notions, we must know that God’s work does not change by our own will and we must not judge God’s actions by our own thoughts. When the Lord Jesus came to perform His work, for example, this surpassed man’s notions and imaginings; He was not born in a palace, but was instead born in a manger. Nor did He lead the Jews to overthrow the Roman authorities, but instead taught people to love their enemies and show tolerance and patience. Did not the Pharisees of that time resist and condemn the Lord Jesus because His work did not tally with their notions?” At that point, the door to my heart was closed, and no matter what they said, I would not listen to any of it. Instead, I just got up and went to do something else …

Continue reading “I Understand the Mystery of God’s Gender and I Welcome the Return of the Lord” →

Jedidiah Villan Philippines

In 1985, I was hired by an employment agency in Hong Kong. Soon after I began working, I met a lady, who introduced me to the International Christian Life Center in Hong Kong. It was the first time that I joined in the Lord’s Day meeting. That day, the pastor said to me, “If you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior, He will help you overcome all the difficulties. Men are all sinners, so the world is full of unfairness and unrighteousness. Only the Lord Jesus is the Savior of mankind. Because the innocent Lord Jesus was crucified to take on man’s sins, as long as we believe in Him, we will be forgiven of our sins and then enjoy His care and protection. Only by believing in the Lord Jesus and obeying His teachings can we be saved. Just as the Bible recorded, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ (John 3:3).” As I had experienced many vicissitudes of life, at that time I firmly believed that I was a sinner who needed to receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. Thus, I said, “I am willing to accept the Lord Jesus as my Savior.” Thanks be to the Lord! Just at that very moment, I felt the peace, comfort and joy that I had never had before. All my worries vanished at that instant. I felt I had found the direction of my life. Through the preaching and fellowshiping of the pastor, I tasted the Lord’s love more deeply and began to serve in the church.

Continue reading “Walk Out of the Wilderness and Enter the Good Land of Canaan” →

Max United States

In 1994, I was born in the United States. My parents are both Chinese. My mother was the classic example of a successful career woman. She is able to think for herself and is very competent. I love my mother very much. When I was in Grade 2, my parents brought me back to China to study so that I would be able to learn Chinese. It was also at that time that I started to get acquainted with the Lord Jesus. I remember one day in 2004, after I got home from school, there was a guest at our house. My mother introduced her and told me that she was a pastor from the United States. I was very happy because that was when I found out that my mother had believed in the Lord Jesus for some time. Before, she did not believe. Every Chinese New Year, she would burn incense and worship Buddha. However, after my mother started to believe in the Lord Jesus, I no longer had to smell the whiff of bueternal lifernt paper money and incense. That day, the American pastor told me a story about the Lord Jesus. Soon after, I was brought to the bathroom and before I could react, “plop,” the pastor had dunked my head into the bathtub and after a moment, pulled my head out. All I heard was my mother and the pastor telling me, “Welcome to the embrace of the Lord Jesus. We are all lost sheep.” In this way, I started a new life journey before I knew it. However, because the Lord was with me, my heart was very happy. Afterward, each Sunday, I would go to church to worship and listen to the pastor talk about Bible stories and read from the scriptures. I was very happy all along. My heart was steadfast and I felt that believing in the Lord Jesus was truly a good thing.

Continue reading “After Listening with My Heart, I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return” →