Stories About Faith & Life

“Get out of the house if you still want to spread the gospel to me.”……This was what my father said to me when I spread the gospel of the Lord’s return to him. Once, faced with my hardened father, I felt negative, weak and sad. However, in my helplessness, it was God’s words that gave me faith and allowed me to resolutely spread the gospel.

Nowadays, a lot of people are sliding into decadence because of gaming addiction, some of whom even have abandoned their studies or careers and lost a normal human life. As a Christian, how did Siwen manage to free himself from such a degenerate life?

By An Hui, Myanmar Having an Inferiority Complex About My Plain Appearance I used to be a very inferior girl. Whenever I saw beautiful and elegant girls on TV or in magazines, I was consumed with envy. Then, looking at myself in the mirror: Ordinary appearance, normal figure, and yellowish teeth, all these caused the sense of inferiority to creep up on me. The Cruelty of Reality Made Me Unwilling to Be Mediocre At school, wherever beautiful girls went, they would become the center of attention. Standing together with them showed even more my mediocrity, and sometimes my classmates laughed at my teeth. This hurt me and brought about feelings of inferiority. I thought: “In this age where people value a good-looking face, could it be that those with average looks are meant to be laughed at?” I secretly swore an oath to myself: When I earned money, I would dress up beautifully. The reality, however, gave me another heavy blow. After entering society, I found several good jobs, but failed to be employed due to my plain appearance, and so I could only get an ordinary job. I felt that it was too unfair and  materialistic in the world, just like the popular saying, “A man makes a living through his skills, while a woman with her looks.” I couldn’t change the world, so I had to change myself. As people say, “Fine clothes make the man,” and “There’s no ugly woman but the lazy one.” Thus, in the following days, as long as I got my salary, I would be impatient to buy clothes and cosmetics online. I would also purchase the beautiful clothes I saw which women around me wore and clothes in new styles. Whenever looking at myself in various beautiful clothes in the mirror, I felt I became pretty, and my heart was brimming with pleasure. Frustrated Again by Failing to Become Beautiful Just when I felt I was becoming pretty day by day, freckles silently appeared on my clean face. During that period, upon seeing me, my colleagues asked me in surprise, as if discovering a new continent, “Are you married? Do you have a child?” After knowing the answer was no, they all found it hard to believe. Seeing their astonished expressions, I really wanted to find a place to hide away. Since then, freckles became my greatest enemy. In order to remove freckles, I started to search online for related products. As long as learning of some effective products, no matter how expensive they were, I would prefer to borrow money from my sister to buy them. As expected, for the first few months, my freckles started to fade away. This brought me an indescribable feeling of happiness. At that time, I thought, “No matter how much money I spend, as long as I can get my clean, fair face back, then it will be worth it.” But good times don’t last long. After a while, my freckles reappeared and grew darker than before. This failure in becoming beautiful caused me great pain, and I felt too ashamed to see anyone. Since then, at work I tried my best to avoid the crowd, and I daren’t look directly at others, fearing that they might ask me why there were so many freckles on my face. To cover the freckles, I began to use more cosmetics. Every time before going out, I would spend over an hour making myself up; while at work, I would often go to the restroom to fix my face, lest others see my freckles. Each time that I took off my makeup and saw my freckled face in the mirror, I couldn’t help but complain: Why do I still look like an ugly duckling no matter how great the effort? Could it be that I am unable to hold my head up high like this all my life? The more I thought about it, the more upset I got, and my heart felt extremely depressed. Recognizing God’s Sovereignty, Getting Released in My Heart Later, my friend preached the kingdom gospel of Almighty God to me. After going to church, I found that the church was completely different from society. When brothers and sisters got together, all they fellowshiped was God’s words, and everything they talked about was related to the truth, such as how to know their own corrupt dispositions, how to be an honest person, how to live out a meaningful life, etc. Furthermore, they didn’t look up to or belittle anyone based on their clothes, makeup, and appearance. Instead, they treated others equally, and whoever had difficulties, they would help them with a loving heart. In the church, I felt warmth and a kind of relaxation which I had never had before. Afterward, I saw these words from God, “Where a person is born, what family he or she is born into, one’s gender, appearance, and time of birth: these are the details of the first juncture of a person’s life.” “No one has any choice about these parts in this juncture; they are all predestined long in advance by the Creator. They are not influenced by the external environment in any way, and no manmade factors can change these facts that the Creator has predetermined.” After reading God’s words, I came to understand that my appearance and the family I was born into were both predestined by God. God is righteous, and His arrangements are always good. Though I was not beautiful, God didn’t cold-shoulder me. He allowed me to have the fortune to accept His kingdom gospel and hear His words, and gave me the chance to pursue the truth, cast off my corruption, live out the likeness of a real man, and attain God’s salvation. Wasn’t this God’s elevation and grace? Coming to this realization, I felt so lucky, was willing to obey God’s orchestrations and arrangements, and no longer complained about the situation. At that moment, my long-depressed heart was finally…

By Yiyi, United States Teenagers are sentimental, especially when in love; and I was not an exception. But as a Christian, how should I approach puppy love? One day, I got a QQ message from a boy I knew, “Are you online?” “Yes,” I replied. Soon he sent another message, “Yiyi, I … I think I’m falling in love with you.” At the sight of these words, I was so surprised and simply couldn’t believe my eyes. Goggling at them over and over, I knew I didn’t misread them. “How could it be possible? He and I are only acquaintances at school. How come he has feelings for me?” Out of curiosity, I asked, “What part of me attracts you?” “All of you,” answered he. “But I have plenty of faults.” “I don’t care. Everyone has shortcomings.” Pleased by his words, I couldn’t help thinking, “Maybe I can make friends with him first and see what he is like.” So, I started to interact with him. During our interaction, I found that he was not only handsome, but also nice to me. He often patiently helped me with my homework; every day he showed great concern for me, always saying, “Take care of yourself and go to bed early,” or “Don’t study too hard; take a break when tired.” I felt warmth and happiness, as if I were the heroine in a soap opera, fussed over by the hero every day. Gradually I fell in love with him and often imagined how happy we would be in the future. Not long after, he asked me if I was willing to be his girlfriend. Hearing this, I was very happy, thinking, “Should I say yes? He’s so nice to me and cares about me so much; I’ll be happy with him.” But then I had a second thought, “I’m not old enough to date. If I start a relationship with him, it will certainly affect my studies, and I’ll be in no mood to attend gatherings or read God’s words. What should I do?” After a struggle, I refused him and decided to remain my friendship with him. However, things were not as simple as I had imagined. He started to come into my life. He often actively chatted with me online. Sometimes, when I was doing my homework, he sent me a message and I would stop to chat with him, thus failing to focus on my studies. I couldn’t even settle down to read God’s words in the evening, because what he said to me always floated into my mind; gradually, instead of reading God’s words, I started chatting with him until late into the night. At that time, I often wondered, “Is he my Mr. Right? Should I start a relationship with him? If I’m with him, I’ll be very happy. What’s more, many students are in a relationship, so it’s normal that we date each other.” Thus, I agreed to be his girlfriend and indulged in puppy love. As a result, I not only was in no mood to study but also got further and further from God. Though I knew it was not good for me to experience puppy love, I couldn’t extricate myself from it and indulged in chatting with him every day; whenever I had a free moment, my mind would be occupied with him. In those days, I often came before God and prayed, “Oh God! Now I’m in no mood to study or read Your words, but indulge in his sweet words every day. I know I shouldn’t fall in love at this age, but I enjoy it, unable to extricate myself from it. What should I do? Oh God! Please help me.” One day, he texted me, “Now we’re freshmen in high school. As the saying goes, ‘Lovers will embrace in freshmen year, will kiss in sophomore year, and in senior year …’ You know what I mean.” At the sight of his frivolous words, I felt a little disgusted and didn’t want to chat with him. Unexpectedly, he then sent another message, “If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll get it by force.” Upon seeing this, I lost my affection for him and felt very angry that he actually disrespected me. Never did I expect that behind his concern and care was his evil motive. It was then that I knew teenagers’ love is just an impulse without any sincerity and that most times their purposes are to fulfill their own selfish desires. Later, one day, I talked with a sister about this matter. After hearing what I said, she fellowshiped with me, “Nowadays it’s a common phenomenon that teenagers are indulging in puppy love. This is caused by the evil trends of society. Satan uses various methods to deceive and corrupt us. We don’t have the truth or discernment, so we will follow the evil trends of Satan, thinking that it is normal to have a relationship at a young age. This is Satan fooling us.” Then, she sent two passages of God’s words to me: “For example, if you were watching a television show, what sort of things in it could change your view? Would what the performers said, the words themselves, be able to corrupt people? (No.) What sort of things would corrupt people? It would be the core thoughts and content of the show, which would represent the director’s views, and the information carried in these views could sway people’s hearts and minds.” “One after another, all these trends carry an evil influence that continually degenerates man, causing them to continually lose conscience, humanity and reason, and that lowers their morals and their quality of character more and more, to the extent that we can even say the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity, neither do they have any conscience, much less any reason. … For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is…