I used to be a preacher in a house church. I have worked for the Lord for many years, and have been looking forward to the return of the Lord Jesus. In 1996, I heard someone say that The Church of Almighty God was bearing witness that the Lord Jesus had returned in the flesh, and was doing the judgment work. However, in my opinion, the Lord should return as His resurrected spiritual body on a cloud, appearing to us openly. Since we haven’t seen anything like that, how could anyone say He’s come back? So, I never listened to the sermons of The Church of Almighty God.

Early this morning, my friend came to my home and read the Bible with me. We read John 9:1-39:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:1–3).

“When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:6–7).

Recently, the pandemic has flared up again in many countries. The situation is particularly severe in India: It has recorded the highest one-day tally of new Covid-19 cases anywhere in the world, and the death toll is growing rapidly. The pandemic is completely out of control. The epidemiologists in India warned that the triple mutation (B.1.618) has been detected in many states in India, and that it’s more infectious than other strains. Many people live in panic and fear and are at a complete loss, worrying that they and their family members will be infected, and even more afraid of dying or losing their loved ones. Besides this, various countries around the world are seeing increased famines, earthquakes, floods, and wars. Facing the ever-greater disasters, people can only call continuously to the Lord for His care and protection. However, have we ever thought about the following? What exactly is God’s intention when disasters strike? How can we survive the disasters? Let’s fellowship about this issue today.

Revelation 3:11 says: “Behold, I come quickly….” Many brothers and sisters in the Lord read this verse and believe that when the Lord returns, He shall still descend among His sincere believers in the image and clothes of a Jew because He ascended to heaven in a Jewish image. Just as the Bible says: “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). We have waited for so many years, and now in the last days, prophecies of the return of the Lord have come true. However, none of us see the Lord Jesus arrive among us in the image of a Jew. We can’t help but wonder: Will the Lord really appear to us in a Jewish image when He returns? We ought to clarify this issue for this indeed, is with regard to the great matter of whether we can welcome the Lord’s return. Let’s look back on what kind of images God took when He appeared to man.

April 11, 2017

Sunny

Recently, I felt that there was no light at all when I read the Bible. Although I had kept praying every day all along, there was no moving in my spirit, and I felt as if the Lord hid His face from me and didn’t heed me. For in the past over ten years, my greatest wish was to be taken into the kingdom of heaven by the Lord when He returned; I feared that I would be abandoned when the Lord came.

Previously, I saw Matthew 24:30 and 26:64 and Mark 13:26 all said that the Lord would come upon a cloud. Especially when I read Revelation 1:7: “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. Even so, Amen,” I was certain that the Lord would descend on a cloud when He returned, and that all men would see Him. Therefore, I often prayed for this, asking the Lord not to abandon me when He came upon the cloud to take His believers. Several days before, I read Matthew 25:6: “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.” It could be obviously seen from this verse that Jesus would come at midnight. Then I was somewhat worried in my heart: We might all fall asleep at that time, so how will we be able to know it when Jesus comes with clouds? I asked a sister next door, “In what way can we be watchful so as not to be abandoned by the Lord?” “The only way is to pray,” she replied. I was a little disappointed after hearing her words. I said to her, “I just want to know whether there’re other ways except praying.” She blinked and said nothing more.