In the last days, it is our greatest hope to receive the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. To help all the people who yearn for God’s appearance to welcome the return of the Lord Jesus Christ soon, our blog will update the latest message on the return of the Lord.
Since I believed in the Lord, I have prayed to God in the name of “Jesus” in everything. One day, I found that the Israelites all called upon God’s name “Jehovah” in the Old Testament. The believers began to pray in the name of “Jesus” in the Age of Grace of the New Testament. Moreover, Revelation prophesied that people will call God by the name “the Almighty” at the time of the holy city coming down. Until then did I know that God can be called by another name the Almighty besides the names of Jehovah and Jesus. Then I thought: Now that God has three names, which name should I pray in? Feeling confused, I went to see a pastor. He said to me: “In Acts 4:12, it says, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’ So we must hold on to the name of the Lord Jesus, pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, and not call on other names. …” Hearing what the pastor said, I thought: Isn’t it recorded in the Bible that God also has the names of Jehovah and the Almighty? If we can’t call on other names, then aren’t we denying the two names?
Editor’s Note: It is prophesied in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” How will the Lord Jesus knock on our doors in the last days? Read this article to learn this mystery.
Cheng’en said: “We all thought that the Lord Jesus would return coming with clouds and would knock on our door. Now it’s right before our eyes that disasters are becoming greater and greater—the prophecies of the Lord’s coming have basically been fulfilled, but we have yet to welcome Him. I’m pondering: Maybe He has appeared somewhere, but we just don’t know it. …”
Xiangyang couldn’t even wait for her to finish before cutting in: “That’s so true. This has also been on my mind over these few days. It’s said that in the last days, with great glory the Lord will return with the clouds and that every eye will behold Him. However, since every man will see Him, need He knock at the door? The more I think about it, the more confused I feel. How on earth will He knock?”
It’s been a long time since I wrote to you last time. How are you going lately? I think you also desire greatly to know my current situation in Canada. Thank God! My job is very stable, and all aspects of my life are very good. Please be reassured.
How is your church recently? Are the brothers and sisters still weak? Dad, I often heard you moan and groan when I was at home. Since you have preached for more than 20 years, working hard for the Lord and supporting the church wholeheartedly, the Lord should approve you and bless your church. Why has your church become more and more bleak? Have you discovered the reason? You often say that the Lord will come back soon and He will judge all nations and all peoples at His coming, punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. You told us to adhere to the way of the Lord, run about more, spend and dedicate more, and do more good deeds and volunteer work so that we could enter the kingdom of heaven because of our righteous conduct when the Lord comes to do the work of judgment. I asked you, “How will the Lord judge people when He returns?” You turned to the Book of Revelation and said, “‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works’ (Revelation 20:11-12). When the Lord comes a second time, He will sit upon a great white throne in the sky, and judge people according to all they have done one by one; the believers in the Lord will be taken up into heaven; subsequently He will send disaster to destroy the unbelievers. This is the judgment before the great white throne.” The brothers and sisters were all confident that they would be taken up into heaven; nevertheless, I felt it was unbelievable and questioned it, “How will the Lord judge us one by one when He comes to take us up into heaven?” Nobody was capable of saying clearly how God will judge man specifically when He comes. Dad, do you have any new understandings about the judgment? It can be seen from the various signs of today that the prophecies of the Lord’s return have already been fulfilled. Then, why haven’t we seen the judgment? Isn’t it worth thinking deeply about?
Lately, many friends have messaged us like this: “Great disasters have begun to fall, and the prophecies of the Lord’s return have been fulfilled. I really hope to greet the Lord soon. How can I welcome Him?” So let’s explore this important topic today: The Only Path to Greet the Lord. The Lord Jesus once said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). It can be seen that the Lord would speak to the churches upon His return in the last days and use His words to knock on our doors. Therefore, to welcome the Lord, the key is to listen to God’s voice. Once we recognize God’s voice from the words of the Lord returned, we accept and obey it, then we will have greeted the Lord.
Introduction: The most regrettable thing in life is to obtain a treasure, only to throw it away. I welcomed the Lord in the last days but because I was bound by my own notions, I passed God’s salvation by and was left wallowing in my regrets. However, thanks to the Lord’s mercy I was able to regain the salvation that I had lost and had the good fortune to meet with the Lord again.
The Church Becomes Desolate, No Sermons Left to Preach
I used to be a preacher. The Lord Jesus healed my wife’s illness, so I was incredibly motivated to give things up and expend myself to repay His grace. During the first few years of preaching I was blessed with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and everyone could benefit from my sermons. But then starting in 2000 I felt that I no longer had the Lord with me—my sermons became dry and lacking in light, and fewer and fewer people attended. Some younger believers in the church started longing for worldly things and went off to work and earn money, just leaving a few old brothers and sisters who would attend services when they pleased. On top of that, the believers were largely living in a cycle of sinning and confessing. Seeing all of this engendered a deep confusion that I couldn’t put words to—why was the church so desolate? Could it really be that the Lord had cast us aside?
Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.
-Matthew 24:44
Thoughts on Today’s Bible Verse:
Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus said, “And, behold, I come quickly” (Rev 3:11). All those who truly believe in the Lord obsessively hope that they can be raptured into the kingdom of heaven when He comes again. Everyone firmly believes that the Lord will come again in the last days, but how will He come and how will He appear to us?
The skit The Lord Is Knocking explains how, in the last days, the Lord knocks at the door of our hearts with His words, and that wise virgins can hear God’s voice and feast with the Lamb.
Pastor Chang Shoudao has always awaited the Lord’s return, but when Brother Zhen testifies to him that the Lord has already returned, he stubbornly sticks to his own notions and imaginings, believing that the Lord will return on a cloud, and keeping the door of his heart closed to the true way. This time, however, Brother Zhen discusses passages of the Scripture relating to the Lord’s return with him, and he discovers that the Bible contains prophecies that in the last days the Lord will return in secret, in incarnate flesh, to speak new words and purify man, and only afterward will appear publicly to reward good and punish evil. At the same time, he comes to understand the true meaning of the Lord knocking at our doors, and that the key to welcoming the Lord’s return is being able to hear God’s voice. When he finally hears the voice of God in Almighty God’s word, he finally opens the door to his heart and welcomes the Lord’s return.
One day when I was browsing the web, I saw a short story The Frog in the Well Knows Nothing of the Great Ocean. Although I had read it from the textbook as a child, when reading it again I still couldn’t help laughing: The frog was so shortsighted and ignorant. If it jumped out of the well to broaden its outlook, it would certainly be able to see a vaster sky and a wonderful world. At this thought, it suddenly occurred to me that in the past when I believed in God, I was also shortsighted and lived within my conceptions and imaginations. Thank God for His gracious gift. It was after I attended the feast of the Lamb that I gained a bit of true knowledge of God and His work. Looking out of the window, I thought back to the past unconsciously.
In 2011, I came to America alone. I was quite strange to everything here and felt perplexed about my future. By a chance opportunity, Brother Luo preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus to me. Then I started to go to the church to have meetings. I originally thought that I would understand more and surely be more knowledgeable of God in this way, but never did I expect that the fact was contrary to my imaginations. Although I attended meetings at the church for more than half a year, there was no enjoyment in my heart. What the pastors and elders preached was just empty Bible knowledge, which couldn’t solve my practical problems that I confronted in my life or help me in knowing God. Moreover, while the pastor was preaching on the pulpit, the believers sitting in the congregation would just play on their phones or doze off. The brothers and sisters all talked about a life of pleasure when they gathered. Worse still, many advertisements of letting house and jobs were released in the church … I felt very disappointed to see those, and so I didn’t go to church gradually.
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.
Peace to you in the Lord! Today, our topic of fellowship is “the three problems we must resolve in prayer.” May the Lord guide our fellowship. We brothers and sisters all know that prayer is the path for establishing a normal relationship with God. It’s just as important as breathing. We all hope that our prayers are heard and accepted, but today many brothers and sisters are troubled by the fact that their prayers aren’t heard and accepted. So, how should we pray according to God’s will, and what problems must we resolve in our prayers so that the Lord hears them?
Welcome the Lord Jesus Christ's Return 