Bible verse: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. - Proverbs 22:6

When we have children, training up our children is the first major event. Especially in this tempting and dangerous world, leading children to walk the right path need to be taken seriously by every parent. As Christians, we should take the Lord’s teachings as the principles of our actions. Pursuing to know God and relying on Him in this evil age, fearing God and shunning evil are the most meaningful aim in life. Hence, leading children into the presence of God, teaching them to walk the right path with His words, teaching them to discern good from evil and shun evil, are the best way to train up children. God says, “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk the bright, right road through life; only through God can you know the meaning of life, only through God can you live out a real life, possess the truth, know the truth, and only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer: This is determined by the essence of God. Only God Himself saves you so selflessly, only God is ultimately responsible for your future, for your destiny and for your life, and He arranges all things for you. This is something that nothing created or non-created can achieve. Because nothing created or non-created possesses an essence of God such as this, no person or thing has the ability to save you or to lead you. This is the importance of God’s essence to man.”

We can understand the essence of God is holy from His word. He can guide us to know what is positive thing and how to discern good from evil. Only God takes responsibility for everyone’s life. And only we bring our children before Him can we break free from Satan’s disturbance and bondage; can we learn what is the meaning of life. After that, we are certain that training up children with God’s words is the best way to lead them to walk the right way. Thanks for God’s guidance, may Him be the head of our house so that we can worship Him with children and live out a meaningful life.

Bible verse: The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will. - Proverbs 21:1

When reading this verse, I can feel the authority by which God rules all things. He examines our heart and spirit, deeply knows the thoughts of every one of us. Also, I can see God’s sovereignty and arrangement in our daily international relationships or our behavior and conduct. Just as God says, “The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” Hence, every time when we have a conflict, complaint and misunderstanding with people around us, we should come before God to seek His will. Just as His words say, “If you believe in the dominion of God, then you must believe that the things that happen every day, be they good or bad, don’t happen accidentally. It is not that someone doesn’t get on with you or opposes you on purpose; it is actually all arranged by God and He orchestrates everything. What does God orchestrate everything for? It is not to reveal your shortcomings for everyone to see or to expose you; exposing you is not the final aim. The aim is to perfect you and save you. How does God perfect you and save you? Firstly, He makes you aware of your own corrupt disposition, your own nature and essence, your own shortcomings and what you lack. Only by knowing these things and understanding them in your heart can you cast them off—this is a God-given opportunity. You must learn to seize this opportunity and know how to seize it; don’t lock horns and don’t resist. If you are always competing with the people, events, and things that God has arranged around you, if you are always trying to extricate yourself from them, always feeling dissatisfied, always harboring a disagreeable mentality and always misunderstanding, then you will find it very difficult to enter into the truth. Through obeying, seeking, praying more, retreating to your spirit and coming before God then, unbeknownst to you, a change will happen in your inner condition. When you are having a change, the reality of the truth is being wrought in you, and you will then progress and will see a change in the conditions of your life. When you have this change, and this kind of reality of the truth, then you will have stature, and with stature comes life.”

From God’s word we can see that, the people, matters and things around us are arranged by God. The goal is to have us learn some lessons and know our shortcomings and deficiencies, then we practice on the basis of God’s words, this will satisfy His will. No matter what happens, we will surely gain the most practical profit when we understand His will, have true knowledge of Him, and know ourselves. Having a normal relationship with God also naturally results in normal relationships with other people. This verse is of great importance and reminds us to accept things from God and come before Him.

Bible verse: Then shall you call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. - Jeremiah 29:12

God asks man to pray and call out to Him frequently. It’s the best way to communicate with Him in spirit. That makes us understand His will. When we encounter difficulties or various circumstances, we should pray to God and rely on Him in heart. Through this, we can see the deeds of God. Just as God’s words say, “After God created mankind and gave them spirits, He enjoined them that if they didn’t call out to God, then they would not be able to connect with His Spirit and thus the “satellite television” from heaven would not be received on earth. When God is no longer in people’s spirits there is an empty seat left open for other things, and that’s how Satan seizes the opportunity to get in. When people contact God with their hearts, Satan immediately goes into a panic and rushes to escape. Through mankind’s cries God gives them what they need, but He does not ‘reside’ within them at first. He just constantly gives them aid because of their cries and people gain hardiness from that internal strength so that Satan dare not come here to ‘play’ at its will. This way, if people constantly connect with God’s Spirit, Satan dare not come to disrupt. Without Satan’s disruption, all of people’s lives are normal and God has the opportunity to work within them without any obstructions. This way, what God wants to do can be achieved through humans.” From these words, we get a fix on the effect that man communicate with God in spirit. If we often pray and call out to Him, and quiet our hearts before Him, Satan dare not disturb us. Then our conditions will get better and better and we will frequently gain the guidance and leading of God.

Bible Verse: Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. - Lamentations 3:41

Prayer is the most important practice through which we are communicating with God in believing in God. Every day, we pray a lot. Regardless of whether it is prayer of thanksgiving, prayer to seek God’s intentions when encountering matters, morning prayer, bedtime prayer, or prayer before a meal, it is an experience of communicating with God genuinely. From this verse, we can see that we should have a sincere connection with God and pay attention to quieting our heart before God. So, how to make an effective prayer? God’s words say, “Prayer is not a case of going through the formalities, or following procedure, or reciting the words of God, which is to say, prayer does not mean parroting words and copying others. In prayer, you must give your heart to God, sharing the words in your heart with God so that you may be touched by God. If your prayers are to be effective, then they must be based on your reading of God’s words. Only by praying amid God’s words will you be able to receive more enlightenment and illumination. A true prayer is shown by having a heart that yearns for the requirements made by God, and being willing to fulfill these requirements; you will be able to hate all that God hates, upon the basis of which you will have knowledge, and will know and be clear about the truths explained by God. Having the resolution, and faith, and knowledge, and a path by which to practice after praying—only this is truly praying, and only prayer such as this can be effective. Yet prayer must be built upon the foundation of enjoying God’s words and communing with God in His words, your heart being able to seek God and being at peace before God. Such prayer has already reached the point of true communion with God.” We can find the ways to practice through God’s words. The key point in prayer is to communicate with God with our heart, to be based on God’s words, strive toward God’s requirements so as to receive the work of the Holy Spirit. Only after such a prayer can we be steady and enlightened and have ways to practice. Thank God for His inspiration and guidance. Let’s enter together, so that we will make an effective prayer.

Bible verse: Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:23-24

Every day we need to pray to God with a true heart and have God observe our heart, so that we can be quiet before God more often. When the wrong intentions come out, we even more need to pray to God, allowing Him to remove the mixture in our heart, so that we can act according to God’s words and obey His orchestrations and arrangements and be kept by God. Just as God’s words say, “To be a believer in God means that all you do must be brought before Him and made subject to His observation. ... All that you do, every action, every intent, and every reaction must be brought before God. Even your daily spiritual life—your prayers, your closeness with God, eating and drinking of God’s words, fellowship with your brothers and sisters, living the life of the church, and your service in partnership—must be brought before God and observed by Him. It is such practice that will help you mature in life. The process of accepting God’s observation is the process of purification. The more you accept God’s observation, the more you are purified, and the more you are in accord with God’s will, so that you will not hear the call of debauchery and dissipation, and your heart will live in His presence. The more you accept His observation, the more ashamed Satan is and the more you are able to forsake the flesh. So, the acceptance of God’s observation is a path people must practice. No matter what you do, even during fellowship with your brothers and sisters, if you bring your acts before God and seek His observation, and if your intent is to obey God Himself, what you practice will be much more correct. Only if you bring all you do before God and accept God’s observation can you be someone who lives in the presence of God.”

“Whenever you do anything, you must examine whether your motivations are right. If you are able to act according to the requirements of God, then your relationship with God is normal. This is the minimum criterion. If, when you examine your motivations, there emerge those that are incorrect, and if you are able to turn your back on them and act according to the words of God, then you will become someone who is right before God, which will show that your relationship with God is normal, and that all that you do is for the sake of God, and not for yourself. Whenever you do or say anything, you must put your heart right, be righteous, and not be led by your emotions, or act according to your own will. These are the principles by which believers in God conduct themselves.”

I hope that we can receive more of God’s observation, so that our daily situation will be better and better and we will not be disturbed by Satan, have normal relationship with Him and practice and experience God’s word in the real life.

Bible verse: Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life. - John 5:39-40

Through reading the Bible we come to understand that God is the Creator of all things and we begin to recognize His wondrous deeds. This is because the Bible is a testimony to the first two stages of God’s work. It is a record of the words and work of God and the testimony of man during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. So, the Bible is very important to our faith. Think about it, if not for the Bible, how would man come to understand the Lord’s word and know the Lord? How else would man witness God’s deeds and begin to develop true faith in God? If man does not read the Bible, how else will he witness the real testimony of all the saints throughout the ages obeying God? So, reading the Bible is essential to the practice of faith, and no believer of the Lord should ever go astray from the Bible. You could say, he who goes astray from the Bible could not believe in the Lord. This is verified in the experiences of saints throughout the ages. No one dares deny the value and meaning of reading the Bible in the practice of faith. So, saints throughout the ages and believers all view reading the Bible as a very important matter. Some would even go so far as to say that, reading the Bible and prayer are as essential as our two legs are for walking, without either we fail to move forward. But Jesus Christ has said, “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life” (John 5:39-40). Some people are confused, they think, given that the Bible is a record of God’s word and man’s testimony, reading the Bible should give man eternal life. Then why is it that Jesus Christ said there is no eternal life in the Bible? Actually, this is not such a difficult idea. As long as we understand the inside story and the substance of God’s words and work during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace as well as the effect achieved through these words and work, then we’ll naturally come to realize why it is that one cannot receive eternal life through the reading of the Bible. During the Age of Law, Jehovah God’s words were chiefly concerned with promulgating laws, the commandments and ordinances for man to follow. His words were mostly a kind of guide for humanity, which was still in their infancy, to live on earth. These words did not involve changing man’s life disposition. So God’s words during the Age of Law were all aimed at making people abide by the laws and the commandments. Though these words were truth, they represent the very rudimentary truth. During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus’ words and work were focused on the work of redemption. The words He issued addressed the truth of redemption and taught people that they ought to confess their sins and repent and refrain from sinning and evildoing. These words also taught people the proper way to pray to the Lord and demanded that man should love the Lord with all their heart and soul, love their neighbor as themselves, be tolerant and patient, and forgive others seventy times seven times, etc. These are all included in the way of repentance. So, through reading the Bible, man can only understand the work of God during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. They come to realize that all things are created by God and learn how to live on earth and how to worship God. They understand what is sin, who are blessed by God and who are cursed by God. They come to know how to confess their sins and repent to God. They learn humility, forbearance, and forgiveness, and know that they ought to take up the cross to follow the Lord. They see for themselves the unlimited mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ, and realize that only by coming before Jesus Christ in faith will they enjoy His abundant grace and truth. The words and work of God during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace as recorded in the Bible were the truth spoken by God according to His plan of saving mankind and the needs of mankind at that point in time. These truths were completely incapable of changing man’s life disposition and allowing man to attain purification, salvation, and perfection. Thus, the words issued by Jesus Christ during the Age of Grace can only be called the way of repentance, but not the way of eternal life.

So what is the way of eternal life then? The way of eternal life is the way of truth which allows man to live forever, which is to say, it is the way which allows man to cast off the binds and restraints of his sinful nature, change his life disposition, and allows him to gain the truth as life, thoroughly break free of Satan’s influence, and become compatible with Christ. It allows man to understand, obey and revere God so as to never again sin to oppose or betray God. Only that which can achieve this effect may be called the way of eternal life. Man, dies as a result of sin. If man attains the truth as life and solves the problem of sin, God will bless him with eternal life. So, only by receiving the salvation of God in the last days can man enjoy the way of eternal life which God grants to humankind. Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). This is sufficient to prove that mankind’s life and death is in the hands of God; this is God’s authority and no man can change their own fate. Only those who achieve salvation by accepting the work of God in the last days and gaining truth as their lives can obtain eternal life; this is absolutely certain. Therefore, after the redemption work of Jesus Christ in the Age of Grace was completed, He promised to return, and at that time Jesus Christ said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:12-13). The truth expressed by the returned Lord Jesus is the only way of eternal life. This is sufficient to prove that Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. Why doesn’t the Bible contain the way of eternal life? It is primarily because the Bible records God’s previous two stages of work, but it does not contain the truths expressed by God in the last days of cleansing and saving man. Therefore, there is no way of eternal life within the Bible. However, this does not diminish the Bible as a testimony to God or the effect the Bible has on its readers. In fact, it is precisely because God who is testified to in the Bible is real, that God creating heaven and earth and all living things is true, and that testimonies of generations of saints submitting and being loyal to God are true that the position of the Bible in man’s heart has never changed. One could say that generations of saints matured due to the edification they received from the Bible. Even though the corrupt disposition of mankind persists and Satan’s nature still exists and a true cleansing has not yet been gained, nonetheless the saints’ faith in and loyalty to God has never wavered. In fact, many have been martyrs for the Lord, all of whom have made a beautiful and resounding testimony to the Lord. These are the results of God’s work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. We can all clearly see that those with faith in the Lord are countless in number, and even though they have not been cleansed, their life disposition has not changed, and they do not have a true understanding of God, nonetheless their faith is true. God has not forsaken these people and He merely waits for the second coming in the last days where they will be raptured before Him, they will be cleansed by Him, made perfect. In this way, all who have true faith in the Lord and who love truth will gain the way of eternal life that is given by God in the last days. Now we should be clear on the issue of why the Bible cannot grant eternal life, right?

Bible verse: He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. - Psalm 23:2-3

These verses remind me God's words, "God desires to seek, seek your heart and your spirit. He wants to bring you food and water and to awaken you, so you are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back."("The Sighing of the Almighty")

"What God wants to see is that man’s heart can be revived. In other words, these ways that He uses to work on man are to continually awaken the heart of man, awaken man’s spirit, letting man know where they came from, who is guiding them, supporting them, providing for them, and who has allowed man to live up till now; they are to let man know who is the Creator, whom they should worship, what kind of road they should walk, and in what way man should come before God; they are used to gradually revive the heart of man, so man knows God’s heart, understands God’s heart, and comprehends the great care and thought behind His work to save man. When man’s heart is revived, they no longer wish to live the life of a degenerate, corrupt disposition, but instead wish to seek out the truth in the satisfaction of God. When man’s heart has been awakened, they are then able to make a clean break with Satan, no longer to be harmed by Satan, no longer to be controlled or fooled by it. Instead, man can cooperate in God’s work and in His words in a positive way to satisfy the heart of God, thus attaining fearing God and shunning evil. This is the original purpose of God’s work." ("God Himself, the Unique (VI) God’s Holiness III- Part Three")

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Bible Verse: Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. - Psalm 119:105

It remind me the verse, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4) We can't live without God's word, as God's words said, “God’s words are the forever unchanging truth. God is the supply of life for man and the only guide for mankind. The worth and meaning of God’s words are not determined by whether they are recognized or accepted by mankind, but by the substance of the words themselves. Even if not a single person on this earth can receive God’s words, the value of His words and their help to mankind are inestimable by any man. Therefore, when faced with the many men who rebel against, refute, or are utterly contemptuous of God’s words, God’s stance is only this: Let time and facts be God’s witness and show that His words are the truth, the way, and the life.” （“God’s Words Are the Forever Unchanging Truth”）

Bible verse: Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. - Proverbs 3:7

"'Fearing God and shunning evil' and knowing God are indivisibly connected by a myriad threads, and the connection between them is self-evident. If one wishes to attain to shunning evil, one must first have real fear of God; if one wishes to attain to real fear of God, one must first have real knowledge of God; if one wishes to attain to knowledge of God, one must first experience God’s words, enter into the reality of God’s words, experience God’s chastening and discipline, His chastisement and judgment; if one wishes to experience God’s words, one must first come face to face with God’s words, come face to face with God, and ask God to furnish opportunities to experience God’s words in the form of all sorts of environments involving people, events, and objects; if one wishes to come face to face with God and with God’s words, one must first possess a simple and honest heart, readiness to accept the truth, the will to endure suffering, the resolution and the courage to shun evil, and the aspiration to become a genuine created being…. In this way, going forward step by step, you will draw ever closer to God, your heart will grow ever more pure, and your life and the value of being alive will, along with your knowledge of God, become ever more meaningful and wax ever more radiant." ("Knowing God Is the Path to Fearing God and Shunning Evil")

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Bible verse: Yes, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? - Isaiah 43:13

As God's words said, "We trust that no country or power can stand in the way of what God wishes to achieve. Those that obstruct God’s work, resist the word of God, disturb and impair the plan of God shall ultimately be punished by God. He who defies the work of God shall be sent to hell; any country that defies the work of God shall be destroyed; any nation that rises up to oppose the work of God shall be wiped from this earth, and shall cease to exist. I urge the people of all nations, countries, and even industries to listen to the voice of God, to behold the work of God, to pay attention to the fate of mankind, thus making God the most holy, the most honorable, the highest, and the only object of worship among mankind, and allowing the whole of mankind to live under the blessing of God, just as the descendants of Abraham lived under the promise of Jehovah, and just as Adam and Eve, who were originally made by God, lived in the Garden of Eden.

The work of God is like mightily surging waves. No one can detain Him, and no one can halt His footsteps. Only those who listen carefully to His words, and who seek and thirst for Him, can follow His footsteps and receive His promise. Those who do not shall be subjected to overwhelming disaster and deserved punishment" ("God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind").