Life of Faith

By Ming Li There was a time when all I thought about was money. Then, unexpectedly I got into a car accident, and in the midst of my helplessness and suffering, it was the word of God that showed me the reason behind why I had been living for money. At that point, I entered a new chapter in my life. I had no qualifications or skills, but even a little guy can have big dreams. I dreamed of one day becoming rich, of living the high life. I took a job as a foundryman in a factory in an effort to make more money than my peers. Though the money was good, the work was very damaging to my health. Most people can only work in a place like that for 3–5 years because over time people tend to get TB, asthma and other diseases. What’s more, the work was extremely dangerous: My workmates would often get their hands trapped and crushed in the machinery, eventually leaving them permanently disabled. But I put my safety out of mind in order to make more money, taking enormous risks every day to do the dirtiest, most tiring work. I risked my life for six years in that dangerous, punishing environment. My boss ended up forcing me to resign out of fear that I would become ill and he would be held responsible. Afterward, I started doing hard labor on construction sites to make some money. Come rain or shine, I always went to work so that I wouldn’t fall behind the others. Even when I felt exhausted and my back was sore and aching, I didn’t miss a day. As I watched more and more money coming in, I felt all the toil and tiredness were worthwhile. And then, my wife came to believe in God. She saw me always busily rushing around, struggling bitterly to make money, so she encouraged me to share her faith in God. However, I still believed that money was what mattered and that in this money-driven world, without money, nothing could be achieved. My wife saw that money had taken me captive and asked the brothers and sisters to preach me the gospel, but I had no time for that. On the pretext of needing to earn more, time and again I refused God’s salvation. Then all of a sudden, my car accident served as my rude awakening … One day in October 2014 at one o’clock in the afternoon, I noticed it was almost time to go to work, so I hurried to get on my motorbike and drove off. A truck came crashing into me as I was turning at a crossroads—I didn’t have time to dodge it, but just heard a thump. I was thrown five meters along with my motorbike. After falling unconscious for several minutes, I desperately summoned the strength to sit up, but my entire body was so numb that I didn’t even feel any pain. I couldn’t summon a single ounce of strength. I pulled up my trouser leg and saw that the bone of my right calf was broken; the bloody flesh barely held together by the skin. The back of my foot had been twisted around to the front. The people crowded around me were talking all kinds of nonsense. “He’ll be crippled after this….” “I’m afraid he’ll end up in a wheelchair.” Hearing this was as upsetting for me as if I had received a prison sentence. There was a buzzing sound in my head and the tears just came pouring out. I thought: That’s it, my life is really over. I spent half my life struggling to make money only to end up crippled. What use would all the money in the world be? How could I go on living if I was to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair? The more I thought about it the more upset I became, and I was overwhelmed with pain and suffering. It felt as if the sky had come crashing down. Around 20 minutes later and an ambulance came and took me to the county hospital where tests showed that my tibia was badly broken, and my fibulas shattered. I needed an operation as quickly as possible. By that time, my wife had also rushed to the hospital. I was quickly rolled into the operating theater. After the anesthetic from surgery wore off I was in agonizing pain. My wife quietly comforted me, saying: “I will pray for you. When you are suffering, call on Almighty God; God will help ease your pain.” She also had me listen to a hymn of God’s words, “Only God Loves Man Most.” I heard my wife say God would lessen my pain, so I listened to the hymn of God’s words again and again. Incredibly, my heart was suddenly soothed and my physical pain greatly eased. Every time my wounds hurt, I cried out from my heart, “My God! My wounds hurt so much, I can hardly bear it. My God! Save me!” What was amazing was that every time I called out to God, my physical pain greatly decreased and I could feel God helping me. At those moments I felt I had something to lean on. The brothers and sisters found out that I’d been in a car accident and they all hurried over to see me. They were even better than family even though we weren’t related. They warmly asked after my health, encouraged and comforted me, told me to have faith and to pray more. In this money-obsessed world where hearts are cold and compassion is rare, my brothers and sisters still cared for me this way—this love came from God. I was deeply moved. That night there was no one else in the ward, and my wife read me God’s word: “It is not humanity that holds the power of life and death, not some being in the natural world,…

By Jiali, United States My young heart deeply hurt for my short stature. I was small when I was a child, so the elders around me often said to me, “You should eat more, or you won’t get taller if you lack nutrition.” “You see the daughter of So-and-so is tall and pretty. It’s so worthy of envy.” Gradually, I became more and more self-abased, feeling that I was looked down upon by others for being short, as if I was shorter than other people by a span. This made me feel very miserable. After I went to school, I was the shortest one in my class. A boy who sat in front of me often laughed at me, and even gave me the nickname “Apple,” whose English pronunciation was very similar to our dialect pronunciation of “dwarf.” Once, he made fun of me in front of the whole class, saying, “Apple, how small you are!” His words were like a knife piercing my heart, so I sadly ran out of my classroom. When I got back, he blocked the door and didn’t let me in. I, who had always been unwilling to cause any trouble, no longer suppressed my anger so I fought with him. Despite this, my inner distress had become an indelible imprint. Every time I was laughed at by this boy, I would feel it was because I was short that I was bullied like this, and that if I got a bit taller, he wouldn’t dare to treat me in this way. Because I was short, not only was I laughed at by my classmate, but I wasn’t fostered by my school. For example, I was very fond of sport. I actively took part in every school sports and practiced hard, hoping that I could be a candidate for training. And I won many championships in women’s long-distance running in my school. But I never thought that just because I was short, I failed to be chosen in the selection of long-distance runners to be nurtured in my school. Hearing the news, my heart was in so much pain, tears of grievance pouring from my eyes. Moreover, I loved dancing very much and had a gift for it. And I had very flexible joints. However, because I was short, my only portion was standing on one side as an audience when my school selected students for choreography. Getting taller being hopeless, I suffered great agony. I was incredibly envious whenever I saw the tall figures of the contestants in beauty contests on television. I often focused on the high technology products and medicines that could help people get taller on TV commercials. Looking at the models’ tall figures in advertisements, I seemed to see hope. Just when I was about to try to buy some products and medicines, I learned that a very rich man in my village ate many health supplements and took much medicine, but failed to get taller. I also heard the friends around me say that some people, in order to get taller, underwent operations, but ultimately became disabled. At that point, I felt very discouraged and disheartened for my only hope was dashed. I thought to myself, “Could it be that I’m doomed to be a dwarf in this life?” I felt my life was gray, full of a haze of pain. After stepping into the world, I found many jobs that I liked had a height requirement, for example waitress, company receptionist, even saleswoman, and so forth. They all required applicants to be taller than 1.6 meters. So I could do nothing but feel helpless and impotent. When I reached the age of marriage, I found a husband who was very tall. After we got married, he was very nice to me. But every time others said that the difference between my height and my husband’s was too great, I really didn’t feel any sense of happiness inside. In order to seem to be a good match when standing with him, I didn’t even hesitate to spend much more money buying high heels of various styles. Through the summer and the fall, each time I went out to play with my friends, I would wear high heels. And thus at the end of the day, I was footsore. I frequently thought: I have clear skin and big eyes. If I get a little taller, I must be remarkable. If I was five centimeters taller, I would rewrite my life and would not be in this situation. Guided by God’s words, I broke free from my years of suffering. Later, I believed in God and led a church life. Through interacting with brothers and sisters, I felt they didn’t laugh at me in the slightest. Here, everyone was open and honest, and treated others with sincerity. I was moved by their sincerity. Once, I told them about the suffering in my heart, which was the first time I released my repressed feelings within my heart all these years. After hearing my suffering, a sister read a passage of God’s words to me, “Since the creation of the world I have begun to predestine and select this group of people, namely, you today. Your temperament, caliber, appearance, stature, family in which you were born, your job and your marriage, the entirety of you, even the color of your hair and your skin, and the time of your birth were all arranged by My hands. Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly. What I allow you to enjoy today is a share that you deserve, and it was predestined by Me at the creation of the world.” After listening to these God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, I understood: Every person’s family, appearance, and…

“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…

She used to be troubled by cleaning the shared house at one time. But later she found a way to resolve this problem, and her trouble was gone.