A Small Blade of Grass That Grew Among the Brambles（3）

The pastor asked me when I first started believing in the Lord, and then talked about many things to do with faith in the Lord. Then he asked me: “Do you know about The Church of Almighty God? Are you still in touch with them? …”
Then he said many things that blasphemed Almighty God and falsely incriminated The Church of Almighty God. I got angry listening to him, and said: “Why is it that The Church of Almighty God that you are talking about is nothing like the one that I have been in contact with and know something about?

We have all seen the stuff online. What I’ve seen are the words of Almighty God and the films and videos produced by The Church of Almighty God, as well as the written testimonies of the brothers and sisters. I’ve also looked at some of the negative propaganda, but all I saw was a lot of baseless rumors and lies. No matter which rumor it is they are unable to produce a shred of believable evidence to back it up. They either make things up from scratch or take an existing falsehood and embellish it and then spread it around more. These are all Satan’s lies, so I don’t believe them and have absolutely no interest in them. How is it that you only believe negative rumors but never even look at the words of God on The Church of Almighty God’s website? None of you read Almighty God’s words, nor do you investigate God’s work of the last days, but you just condemn it as you please. Is that the right thing to do?” The pastor didn’t answer my question directly but instead said: “The Church of Almighty God has expanded very quickly, and they’ve been actively going to other churches to steal their members. If you insist on believing in Almighty God, then we won’t be nice to you. We’ll tell all of the brothers and sisters in our church that you now believe in Almighty God, so the next time you come to our congregation they’ll think you’ve come to steal them away and they’ll give you the cold shoulder.” He then tried to use some false testimonies to scare me but nothing he said affected me. In fact, I felt even more emboldened and said: “This stuff that you’re talking about, did you personally see it happen? Or have you done a thorough investigation and got solid evidence? What proof do you have that the members of The Church of Almighty God did all this? Where’s the evidence? You’re just taking the rumors and false testimonies spread by the CCP and religious community to condemn Almighty God and falsely incriminate The Church of Almighty God. Aren’t you worried that you’ll be condemned by the Lord, just like the Pharisees were?”

I also said: “The Lord Jesus predicted this about His return, ‘But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luk 17:25). What does this mean? At present, the whole religious community and the atheist Communist government of China are trying their best to resist and condemn Almighty God’s work of the last days. Doesn’t this fulfill the Lord’s prediction? Isn’t the resistance to and condemnation of Almighty God the same as the Jewish Pharisees’ resistance to and condemnation of the Lord Jesus? The Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus and denied that He was the returning Messiah, but the Lord’s disciples were able to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the prophecies and so they followed Him. In our time, we have the same situation. The pastors and elders don’t accept Almighty God’s work of the last days, and even resist and condemn Almighty God, but the good sheep in the various denominations are able to recognize the voice of God in the words of Almighty God. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, but how is it so? The Lord Jesus said that God’s sheep are able to hear God’s voice, and that God’s return would separate the sheep from the goats. I’ve only believed in the Lord for a short time, and I don’t understand the Bible all that well, so I don’t know how the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats. Pastor Liu, you’ve been to seminary and have been a pastor for many years now. Perhaps you’d be so good as to explain it to me?” Pastor Liu looked at me angrily, because he clearly didn’t know how to explain this to me. All he said was: “We believers gain eternal life because we have been baptized.” So I said: “What? Gaining eternal life is that easy?! So everyone who has come to your church and been baptized will enter the kingdom of heaven? Does that accord with what the Lord said? Are they all people who treat the Lord with true hearts? Do they all abide by the will of the heavenly Father? Every sermon in the church mentions giving offerings, but the Lord never said that giving offerings is the same as loving the Lord. So what is loving the Lord?” Pastor Liu replied: “Reading the Bible a lot, praying a lot is loving the Lord.” Although I didn’t know what truly loving the Lord meant, I knew that it was a load of baloney to say that reading the Bible and praying is loving the Lord. The Pharisees read the Bible and did plenty of praying, but can it be said that they loved the Lord? If they loved the Lord, then why did they blaspheme and condemn Him, and nail Him up on a cross? It seemed to me that the pastor didn’t understand what loving the Lord meant at all. Pastors may well understand biblical knowledge and theological theories but that doesn’t mean that they understand truths! But I could only blame myself for not previously having enough discernment and holding them in too high esteem.

When I realized this, I didn’t see the point of continuing to debate with Pastor Liu, so I stopped talking. But the pastor had more to say: “Do you know that they say that the Lord has returned incarnated as a female to do the work?” On hearing this I felt that I had to reply: “What form the Lord takes when He returns and incarnates to do the work is God’s business. We are just tiny, tiny beings created by God, so how can we make rules for God’s work? In the Bible it says: ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor?’ (Rom 11:34). Almighty God’s words say: ‘Man should not define the work of God; moreover, man cannot define the work of God. In the eyes of God, man is smaller than an ant, so how can man fathom God’s work?’ (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). God is the Creator of all things and God’s wisdom exceeds everything, so however God does His work He doesn’t need to check in with us humans first!” Seeing that they didn’t have the slightest interest in seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days, but only wanted to nitpick and look for chances to attack and blaspheme God and prevent me from accepting God’s work of the last days, I decided not to continue the conversation. My final question to them was: “Did you ever think about how your coming to the salon today would affect my work here?” To my utter surprise, the pastor lied to my face: “Your boss doesn’t know what this conversation is about.” If I’d heard him say that before I would have been very shocked that this pastor—a man who preaches and instructs people and knows the Bible so well—could tell such bare-faced lies. But after having just heard them make up lies that blasphemed God, I wasn’t at all surprised. It was obviously quite normal for them to tell lies. I couldn’t help but think of the Lord Jesus’ words: “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Jhn 8:44). In my heart I said these words to God: “Thank You, God! You have allowed this event to happen to me today so that I can see that they have no understanding of the truths. You have let me see that they are liars who brazenly spread falsehoods and deceive people. They’re hypocritical Pharisees.” I had nothing more to say to them and wanted to leave immediately.

Seeing that I was in no mood to continue the conversation, Sister Yun said to me: “Yixin, you should think about your children and parents.” I replied: “They are all doing well and we all feel peaceful and secure. I believe in the one true God, the Creator of all things. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. God is the God that loves and saves people, and with God’s blessings and leadership my family will do better and better.” The pastor and Sister Yun wanted to pray for me, but I refused. So Pastor Liu finished off with a warning: “If you don’t leave The Church of Almighty God then you’ll be ostracized from our church!” I thought: “And what is the church like these days? It’s like the temple when the Lord Jesus first started His work: a den of thieves. The gatherings don’t provide any spiritual sustenance, so what is there for me to miss?” I’ve already accepted God’s work of the last days, and I’ve followed the footprints of the Lamb and come before God’s throne. I’m being provided with the living water of life issued by Christ and I’m enjoying face-to-face nurturing and shepherding from God. Nobody is more fortunate than me, and The Church of Almighty God is now my true home.

Almighty God’s words say: “Everything that has been arranged now is for the purpose of training you so that you may grow in your lives, to make your spirit keen and sharp, to open your spiritual eyes and recognize the things that come from God” (Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning). I’m grateful to God for taking pity on me and using the disturbance of religious forces to make me develop discernment. I saw how full of lies those pastors are, how they resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, how they don’t have a shred of fear or reverence for God. I saw how their congregations cling to their sinful ways, how they blindly follow the trends and fashions of the material world, how they deceive each other, and how lacking in piety they are. All this convinced me that the religious community no longer had the work of the Holy Spirit, that it was smothered in darkness and under Satan’s control. At the same time, I was able to see that the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God are seeking truths and knowledge of God through the guidance in God’s words. When they encounter difficulties, they seek to use God’s words to resolve their problems and then it is wholly the truth, God’s words, and the Holy Spirit wielding power. Almighty God’s words cannot be taken back, and what is said will be done. Nobody can stand in the way of what God wants to accomplish, and this is an undeniable fact! Almighty God’s words are indeed truths, and Almighty God is the manifestation of the Lord of creation. I’m now willing to follow Almighty God for the rest of my life!