Christian Crosstalk | "Who Are the Wise Virgins?"

Introduction

Christian Crosstalk | "Who Are the Wise Virgins?"

Recommended ：The Gospel Movie from The Church of Almighty God: Spread and testify God’s kingdom gospel.

Source：The Church of Almighty God 

Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God

Today, as you seek to love and know God, in one respect you must endure hardship and refinement, and in another, you must pay a price. No lesson is more profound than the lesson of loving God, and it can be said that the lesson that people learn from a lifetime of belief is how to love God. Which is to say, if you believe in God you must love God. If you only believe in God but do not love Him, have not attained the knowledge of God, and have never loved God with a true love that comes from within your heart, then your belief in God is futile; if, in your belief in God, you do not love God, then you live in vain, and your entire life is the most lowly of all lives. If, throughout your whole life, you have never loved or satisfied God, then what is the point of you living? And what is the point of your belief in God? Isn’t that a waste of effort? Which is to say, if people are to believe in and love God, then they must pay a price. Rather than trying to act in a certain way externally, they should seek true insight in the depths of their hearts. If you are enthusiastic about singing and dancing, but incapable of putting the truth into practice, can you be said to love God? Loving God requires seeking God’s will in all things, and that you probe deep within when anything happens to you, trying to grasp God’s will, and trying to see what God’s will is in this matter, what He wishes you to achieve, and how you should be mindful of His will. For example: Something happens that requires you to endure hardship, at which time you should understand what God’s will is, and how you should be mindful of His will. You must not satisfy yourself: First put yourself to one side. Nothing is more abject than the flesh. You must seek to satisfy God, and must fulfill your duty. With such thoughts, God will bring especial enlightenment to you in this matter, and your heart will also find comfort. Be it big or small, when something happens to you, you must first put yourself to one side and regard the flesh as the most lowly of all things. The more you satisfy the flesh, the more liberties it takes; if you satisfy it this time, next time it will ask for more, and as this carries on, you come to love the flesh even more. The flesh always has extravagant desires, it always asks that you satisfy it, and that you gratify it within, whether it be in the things you eat, what you wear, or in flying off the handle, or pandering to your own weaknesses and laziness…. The more you satisfy the flesh, the greater its desires become, and the more debauched the flesh becomes, until it gets to the point when people’s flesh harbors even deeper conceptions, and disobeys God, and exalts itself, and becomes doubtful about the work of God. The more you satisfy the flesh, the greater the weaknesses of the flesh; you’ll always feel that no one sympathizes with your weaknesses, you’ll always believe that God has gone too far, and you’ll say: “How could God be so harsh? Why won’t He give people a break?” When people are too indulgent of the flesh, and cherish it too much, then they ruin themselves. If you truly love God, and do not satisfy the flesh, then you’ll see that everything God does is so right, and so good, and that His curse of your rebelliousness and judgment of your unrighteousness is justified. There will be times when God chastens and disciplines you, and raises up an environment to temper you, forcing you to come before Him—and you will always feel that what God is doing is wonderful. Thus you will feel as if there isn’t much pain, and that God is so lovely. If you pander to the weaknesses of the flesh, and say that God goes too far, then you’ll always feel in pain, and will always be depressed, and you will be unclear about all of the work of God, and it will seem as if God is not sympathetic to man’s weakness at all, and unaware of man’s difficulties. And thus you will feel miserable and alone, as if you have suffered great injustice, and at this time you will begin to complain. The more you pander to the weaknesses of the flesh in this way, the more you will feel that God goes too far, until it gets so bad that you deny the work of God, and begin to oppose God, and become full of disobedience. Thus, you must rebel against the flesh, and not pander to it: “My husband (wife), children, prospects, marriage, family—none of them matter! In my heart there is only God, and I must try my best to satisfy God, and not satisfy the flesh.” You must have this resolve. If you are always possessed of such resolve, then when you put the truth into practice, and put yourself aside, you will be able to do so with but a little effort. It is said that there was once a farmer who saw a snake on the road that was frozen stiff. The farmer picked it up and held it to his breast, and after the snake was revived it bit the farmer to death. Man’s flesh is like the snake: Its essence is to harm their lives—and when it completely gets its own way, your life becomes forfeit. The flesh belongs to Satan. Within it are extravagant desires, it thinks only for itself, it wants to enjoy comfort, and revel in leisure, wallowing in sloth and idleness, and having satisfied it to a certain point you will ultimately be eaten up by it. Which is to say, if you satisfy it this time, next time it will come asking for more. It always has extravagant desires and new demands, and takes advantage of your pandering to the flesh to make you cherish it even more and live among its comforts—and if you don’t overcome it, you will ultimately ruin yourself. Whether you can gain life before God, and what your ultimate end will be, depends on how you carry out your rebellion against the flesh. God has saved you, and chosen and predestined you, yet if today you are unwilling to satisfy Him, you are unwilling to put the truth into practice, you are unwilling to rebel against your own flesh with a heart that truly loves God, ultimately you will ruin yourself, and will thus endure extreme pain. If you always pander to the flesh, Satan will gradually gobble you up inside, and leave you without life, or the touch of the Spirit, until the day comes when you are completely dark inside. When you live in darkness, you will have been taken captive by Satan, you will no longer have God in your heart, and at that time you will deny God’s existence and leave Him. Thus, if you wish to love God, you must pay the price of pain and endure hardship. There is no need for external fervency and hardship, reading more and running about more; instead, you should put aside the things within you: the extravagant thoughts, personal interests, and your own considerations, conceptions, and motivations. Such is God’s will.

All Is Achieved by the Word of God

God speaks His words and does His work according to different ages, and in different ages, He speaks different words. God does not abide by rules, or repeat the same work, or feel nostalgia for the things of the past; He is a God who is always new and never old, and every day He speaks new words. You should abide by that which should be abided by today; this is the responsibility and duty of man. It is crucial that practice be centered around the light and words of God in the present day. God does not abide by rules, and is able to speak from many different perspectives to make plain His wisdom and omnipotence. It matters not whether He speaks from the perspective of the Spirit, or of man, or of the third person—God is always God, and you cannot say that He is not God because of the perspective of man from which He speaks. Among some people there have emerged conceptions as a result of the different perspectives from which God speaks. Such people have no knowledge of God, and no knowledge of His work. If God always spoke from one perspective, would man not lay down rules about God? Could God allow man to act in such a way? Regardless of which perspective God speaks from, God has His aims for each. If God were always to speak from the perspective of the Spirit, would you be able to engage with Him? Thus, sometimes He speaks in the third person to provide His words to you and guide you into reality. Everything that God does is fitting. In short, it is all done by God, and you should not be doubtful about this. Provided that He is God, then no matter what perspective He speaks from, He is still God. This is an immutable truth. However He works, He is still God, and His substance will not change! Peter so loved God and was a man after God’s own heart, but God did not witness him as the Lord or Christ, for a being’s substance is what it is, and can never change. In His work, God does not abide by rules, but employs different methods to make His work effective and increase man’s knowledge of Him. His every method of working helps man know Him, and is in order to make man perfect. No matter which method of working He employs, each is in order to build up man and make man perfect. Though one of His methods of working may have lasted for a very long time, it is in order to temper man’s faith in Him. Thus you should not be doubtful. These are all the steps of God’s work, and must be obeyed by you.

The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word

In the Age of Kingdom, God uses the word to usher in a new age, to change the method of His work, and to do the work for the entire age. This is the principle by which God works in the Age of Word. He became flesh to speak from different perspectives, enabling man to truly see God, who is the Word appearing in the flesh, and His wisdom and wondrousness. Such work is done in order better to achieve the goals of conquering man, perfecting man, and eliminating man. This is the true meaning of using the word to work in the Age of Word. Through the word, man comes to know the work of God, the disposition of God, the essence of man, and what man ought to enter into. Through the word, the work God wishes to do in the Age of Word is brought to fruition in its entirety. Through the word, man is revealed, eliminated, and tried. Man has seen the word, heard the word, and become aware of the existence of the word. As a result, he believes in the existence of God, in the omnipotence and wisdom of God, as well as in God’s love for man and His desire to save man. Though the word “word” is simple and ordinary, the word from the mouth of the incarnate God shakes up the entire universe; it transforms man’s heart, notions, and old disposition, and the way the whole world used to appear. Through the ages, only the God of today works in this manner, and only He speaks thus and comes to save man thus. From this time forward, man lives under the guidance of the word, shepherded and supplied by the word. All humanity has come to live in the world of the word, within the curses and the blessings of God’s word, and there are even more human beings who have come to live under the judgment and chastisement of the word. These words and this work are all for the sake of man’s salvation, for the sake of fulfilling God’s will, and for the sake of changing the original appearance of the world of old creation. God created the world with the word, leads men from all over the universe with the word, and again conquers and saves them with the word. Finally, He shall use the word to bring the entire world of old to an end. Only then is the management plan wholly complete. Throughout the Age of Kingdom, God uses the word to do His work and achieve the results of His work; He does not work wonders or perform miracles; He merely does His work through the word. Because of the word, man is nourished and supplied; because of the word, man gains knowledge and true experience. Man in the Age of Word has truly received exceptional blessings. He suffers no physical pain and simply enjoys the bountiful supply of the word of God; without needing to go seeking or journeying forth, from the midst of his ease he sees the appearance of God, hears Him speak with His own mouth, receives what He supplies, and watches Him personally doing His work. These are things that men in ages past were unable to enjoy, and these are blessings that they could never receive.

The Word of Christ of the Last Days | "God Himself, the Unique VI: God's Holiness (III)" (Excerpt 1)

Introduction

The Word of Christ of the Last Days | "God Himself, the Unique VI: God's Holiness (III)" (Excerpt 1)

Only Those Who Know the Work of God Today Can Serve God

To bear testimony to God and shame the great red dragon you must have a principle, and a condition: In your heart you must love God, and enter into the words of God. If you do not enter into the words of God, then you will have no way of shaming Satan. Through the growth of your life, you renounce the great red dragon and bring utter humiliation upon it, and only then is the great red dragon truly shamed. The more you are willing to put the words of God into practice, the greater the proof of your love of God and loathing of the great red dragon; the more you obey the words of God, the greater the proof of your longing for the truth. People who do not long for the words of God are people who are without life. Such people are those who are outside the words of God, and who belong to religion. People who truly believe in God have a more profound knowledge of God’s words through eating and drinking the words of God. If you do not long for the words of God, then you cannot truly eat and drink the words of God, and if you have no knowledge of the words of God, then you have no means of testifying to God or satisfying God.