By Chen Guang
As the saying goes, “Blood is thicker than water,” relatives are families connected by blood. Therefore, I was keen to keep close with my relatives. No matter what they needed, I would try my best to help. As a result, my rented house, just like a hotel, was crowded with relatives all year round. After being wined and dined, they always promised: “Whatever difficulties you will encounter, just come to me. We are a family.” I always felt so warm when I heard these words. Though, sometimes I would even spend all my savings entertaining them, I was still happy to do so.
That year, when I urgently needed a place to settle down, my cousin helped me to buy a house of her mother-in-law at a low price. At that moment, I was very grateful to my cousin, and thought in my heart: We are indeed close relatives! A few years later, the land in the area where I had lived increased in value. My cousin’s mother-in-law suddenly went back on her words and wanted to get the house back. I felt she was really absurd as we had signed the contract. My cousin promised that she would always be on my side, which made me feel happy and relieved.
After a while, I suddenly got a summons from the court. It shocked me that my cousin’s mother-in-law had sued me. Then I thought: Their family is powerful and they must have bribed all the officials concerned before suing me. My family has no power at all. If I lose the lawsuit, I will lose my house. At once, I told my cousin my concern, and then she promised: “I will bear witness for you with my conscience!” Her words comforted me a lot so that the sorrow in my heart turned to joy. However, unexpectedly, two days later, my cousin came to ask for 230 thousand as a condition of helping me, otherwise she would safeguard the interests of her mother-in-law. At that moment, I was very shocked. The cost she charged me was even a few more times higher than the price of the house. I pled with her, but she even said: “How much is conscience worth?” The word of my cousin shocked me again. I never expected to gain such results since I had made an effort to maintain family affection these years. I couldn’t reconcile myself to this fact, so I continued to go to all the other relatives for help, believing they would be fair and speak for me. However, what disappointed me again was that they all refused to help me by saying, “We are all relatives and we cannot do you a favor.”
The court date was getting closer and closer. I had to face it by myself since all my relatives couldn’t help me. A few days before the trial, suddenly I received calls from my relatives one after another. They all persuaded me to give up the lawsuit and return the house to my cousin’s mother-in-law. Hearing these words, I got angry: “Why? Obviously I am the victim, but how come they put the cart before the horse? They don’t help me, but instead stand on the side of my cousin’s mother-in-law. What’s the reason?” I thought for a while and realized: Oh! My cousin’s husband’s family is powerful. In this mercenary era, all relatives want to associate with ones who are of power and authority, and they don’t want to offend them. As a result, they became so ruthless. The family affection has gotten so vulnerable before benefits.
Holding the court’s verdict, I stumbled home. At that moment, anger and sadness welled up in my heart. What pained me was not the loss of the house, but rather the treachery of the relatives. I couldn’t help but ask myself: Was this the so-called family affection?
I lost the lawsuit and the relatives didn’t visit me anymore. My new rented small place became desolate. In countless nights I cried alone and complained: Why is the world so fickle? Why does the family affection become so cold in the face of interests? Gradually, I became more and more haggard and didn’t know how to face such family affection.
The winter came and the first snowflakes fell. Watching the snow dancing in the air, I felt as if my heart was falling apart. I became more and more depressed. In this long and cold winter, I was forgotten by people without any comfort for my lonely heart.
At this moment, God heard my cry and His mercy came to me. He opened His warm arms to me and led me into a clean world without lie. My broken heart was comforted by His words. I happily accepted God’s salvation. Following God, I joined the big family with people from all over the world. After brothers and sisters knew what had happened to me, they all gave me care and attention, and also read to me God’s words: “Man’s corrupt disposition stems from his being poisoned and trampled upon by Satan, from the egregious harm that Satan has inflicted upon his thinking, morality, insight, and sense. … Because he has been corrupted by Satan, man’s conscience has grown numb, he is immoral, his thoughts are degenerate, and he has a backward mental outlook. Before he was corrupted by Satan, man naturally followed God and obeyed His words. He was naturally of sound sense and conscience, and of normal humanity. After being corrupted by Satan, his original sense, conscience, and humanity grew dull and were impaired by Satan. Thus, he has lost his obedience and love toward God.” “‘Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost’ is a well-known satanic saying that has been instilled into everyone and become the human life. There are some other words of life philosophy that are also like this. … There are still many satanic poisons in people’s lives and in their conduct and dealings with others—they are almost without a shred of truth—for example, their life philosophies, their maxims for success, or their ways of doing things. Every person is filled with the poisons of the great red dragon, and they all come from Satan. So, what flows through people’s bones and blood are all things of Satan.”
After reading God’s words and listening to sisters’ sharing, I understood: We have been corrupted by Satan and lost our normal humanity. In the face of interests, family affection and friendship are all gone. Most people live according to Satan’s life philosophies. The satanic saying “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost” has become our motto, which makes us more and more selfish, mean, greedy and evil. For personal purposes, we can give up conscience, personality, dignity and become ruthless. There is deception and mutual exploitation going on among relatives. And we can even turn against each other and lose our moral baseline in the face of interests. There is no trust among people. That the relationship between my relatives and me got so awkward is all because of Satan’s corruption. At that moment, the resentment toward my relatives in my heart lessened, because I knew that we were all victims corrupted by Satan, and Satan really was the culprit. My grudges over the past a few days had finally been resolved and released.
Because I had been harmed so badly by the lawsuit, I didn’t believe anymore that there was true love in this world. Therefore, my heart was closed tightly, and I contacted with brothers and sisters cautiously for fear of being harmed further.
However, my heart was opened by the sincerity of brothers and sisters. A sister always came to visit me from far away and read God’s words to me. She cared about me and offered great help in all aspects of my life. I always felt I owed her a lot. When I expressed my thanks to her with gifts, I didn’t expect that she rejected them firmly and seriously said: “You should give thanks to God. I just did what I can do.” I was surprised that there were people who offered only.
Once, I had to go out for a few days for business and didn’t know how to deal with my kids. A sister offered to look after my kids. When I was ready to express my gratitude to her, she interrupted me and said: “Don’t thank me. We are family.” The word “We are family” made my heart warm. Then I began to open up to others bit by bit.
Gradually, I contacted with brothers and sisters more and more often. They treated me like family. No matter what difficulties I met, they not only comforted me, but also helped to solve the problems. And they also patiently read God’s words to me and helped me to understand God’s will. My broken heart got comfort, and I walked out of the shadow of my past soon, accepting the love and help from brothers and sisters from deep in my heart. I was relaxed and free and felt it was God’s warm and powerful words that bonded us together firmly.
Winter was gone and spring came. All things were rejuvenated and I was also in a good mood. When I was the most lost and helpless, my relatives stayed away from me, while brothers and sisters whom I had never met helped me get through the difficulties. In my heart, there was always a glimmer of gratitude and apology to brothers and sisters, and I always felt I owed them something. However, they always said: “Thank God. We are family.” And they also read God’s words to me: “These relationships aren’t established on the flesh, but on the foundation of God’s love. There are almost no interactions based on the flesh, but in the spirit there is fellowship as well as love, comfort, and provision for one another. This is all done on the foundation of a heart that satisfies God. These relationships aren’t maintained by relying on a human philosophy of life, but they are formed very naturally through the burden for God. They don’t require human effort—they are practiced through the principles of the word of God. … A proper relationship between people is established on the foundation of giving their heart to God; it is not achieved through human effort. Without God, relationships between people are merely relationships of the flesh. They are not proper, but are indulgent of lust—they are relationships that God detests, that He loathes.” God’s words enlightened me. I realized: “Oh, I have already been used to the survival methods of bartering with people. Such relationship is full of transactions and interests but no true love, which is detested by God. No wonder every time when I express my appreciation to brothers and sisters, they always say, ‘We are family. We shall not thank men but thank God in everything. We just did what we should do.’ Satan’s life philosophies don’t work in this big family. In the church, God’s words are the guidelines for brothers and sisters to act. They practice according to God’s words and try to consider and satisfy God in everything. They help each other based on God’s love rather than life philosophies. Everyone is honest and gets along with each other harmoniously.”
I started to fully integrate into this big family. Gradually, I truly felt: Only through the leading of God’s words can our conscience and sense return to normal. In this way, we can love each other and live out the likeness of a true human. When I encountered difficulties during performing my duties and I tried to escape, brothers and sisters would help me with love, reading God’s words, fellowshiping about God’s will, and talking about the purposes and meaning of performing duties with me. Therefore, I could realize my shortcomings and deficiencies and also regain confidence to cooperate with God. When I didn’t perform well in my duties and got upset, brothers and sisters would read God’s words to me and patiently fellowshiped about God’s love again and again. They helped me understand God’s good intentions of saving us and solve the practical problems, so that I could slowly walk out of the negative situations. When I achieved some good results during performing duties, and became haughty and self-congratulatory, brothers and sisters would point out my corrupted disposition and let me realize the serious consequences of my behavior. As a result, I could turn around in time and walk the right track of believing in God. At this time, brothers and sisters and I all felt God’s true love. There were quite a few of experiences like this in my faith in God. Like God’s words say: “In the dispositions of normal people there is no crookedness or deceitfulness, people have a normal relationship with each other, they do not stand alone, and their lives are neither mediocre nor decadent. So, too, is God exalted among all, His words permeate among man, people live in peace with one another and under the care and protection of God, the earth is filled with harmony, without the interference of Satan, and the glory of God holds the utmost importance among man. Such people are like angels: pure, vibrant, never complaining about God, and devoting all their efforts solely to God’s glory on earth.”
Without the leading of God’s words, we all live under the influence of Satan without any human likeness. Living by Satan’s life philosophies, we have done all kinds of shameless activities driven by interests. The relationships among people are so ugly and embarrassing. Now, we are living under the guidance and supply of God’s words: We all try our hardest to pursue the truth and put it into practice; we behave and do things according to the principles of truth; we love one another and are honest to each other without lies, deceit and flattery. … Although we are not connected by blood, we are much like a big family. In God’s family, I find the true love and happiness, and the path of practice to get along with people. Meanwhile, I also find the way to be saved by God and see the real destination of life. Because of God’s mercy and care, I have walked on the right way of life.
Recommended: If Eastern Lightning is the true way, then what is the basis of your confirmation? We believe in the Lord Jesus because He redeemed us, but what do you use to verify that Eastern Lightning is the true way?
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