I Found the Mystery of God’s Name in a Different Sort of Meeting

By Xuelan, Australia

In the late 1980’s, while I was in university, I had the fortune to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Through having meetings and reading the Bible, I learned that God’s name was Jesus, that He created heaven and earth, that He is the one true God who rules over all things, that for the sake of redeeming mankind, He was crucified, that He is our only Savior, and that we must uphold the Lord’s name at all times, because the Bible says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Moved as I was by the Holy Spirit, I yearned to read more of the Bible and attend meetings. My heart was full of peace and joy.

God’s Utterance “God Himself, the Unique III God’s Authority (II)” (Part Five)

Do Not Miss the Opportunity to Know the Creator’s Sovereignty

The six junctures described above are crucial phases laid out by the Creator that every normal person must undergo in his or her life. Every one of these junctures is real; none of them can be circumvented, and all bear a relationship to the Creator’s predestination and His sovereignty. So for a human being, each of these junctures is an important checkpoint, and how to pass through each of them smoothly is a very serious question that all of you now face.

What Should I Do Regarding Desolation in the Church?

By Pengbo, US

Dear brothers and sisters of Christian Q&A,

Greetings! A question has been puzzling me for quite a while. I have sought the help of some pastors and elders, but even they have failed to resolve it. I am writing to share and discuss the matter with you, and hoping you can help.

I am a preacher. I used to have the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit when I read the Lord’s words, I never ran out of things to preach about, and the brothers and sisters of my church enjoyed my sermons and gained some benefit. But somewhere along the line, I no longer felt the Lord’s presence, my sermons became repeats of old topics, and I had nothing new to preach, so my brothers and sisters dozed off during our meetings. Preaching at meetings actually became something I was afraid of doing. Although I continued to preach and work, I was unable to practice the Lord’s words in my life, I didn’t have forgiveness or patience when I dealt with others, and most of my brothers and sisters became busy with business, work, and family. Their faith gradually grew cold and they were unwilling to attend the meetings anymore. When I see so few people coming to the church for the meetings, as a preacher, knowing that I can’t help my brothers and sisters in their spiritual lives makes me feel terrible and indebted to the Lord. We’ve tried to arrange meal activities, group fasting and prayer…but all to no avail. We still can’t feel the Lord’s guidance. So, I want to discuss this problem with you. Why our church has become like this? What should we do to bring the church back to its former self?

Xunguang

Required Reading for Christians: Trials—Another Kind of Blessing From God

As Christians, none of us are strangers to trials. The Bible says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, Jehovah is my God” (Zechariah 13:9). It also says in the Bible, “My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations” (James 1:2). From this, we can see that God wants to give refinement and trials to His chosen people and, through this, to perfect our faith and our love for God, to resolve our corrupt dispositions or the taints in our belief, to remedy our wrong views and to enable us to be purified. We can therefore encounter all kinds of environments that are at odds with our own notions. Examples of these environments may include sometimes encountering the refinement of illness, and sometimes our families may encounter misfortune, such as the suffering of a relative or our homes being burgled; sometimes we may encounter difficulties in our jobs or things in our lives that are not as we would wish; another example is what we decide to do when the interests of our flesh clash with the interests of the church. All these examples are, without a doubt, trials to us. So what approach should we take to the trials God sets for us? And when trials befall us, what is God’s will?

A Christian at Work: A Good Leader’s Management Method

By Rufu, Malaysia

When mentioning a “superior,” I think that quite a few people will think of the words “strict” and “demanding.” I also used to think that a superior should be strict with their subordinates, and their word should be law—I thought that was the only way to properly manage staff. But when faced with reality, I saw that was definitely not a good approach!

Staff Alienated by My Strict Management Style

Six months after I entered the world of work, I was promoted to be the general manager of the company’s Human Resources Department. I wanted to improve my team’s performance in order to prove my own management capability, so I demanded that my subordinates work very efficiently and quickly, otherwise I’d give them a talking to, no matter what the reason was. The daily reports they turned in also had to be entirely error-free; if one wasn’t up to my standards, not only would I chide them, but would have them go back and change it until I was happy with it.

One time, one of the employees didn’t do well on a report. I told her how it should be changed, but she still didn’t do it right. Finally, I threw out the entire notebook, saying: “Just forget about it, I’ll have someone else do it. I don’t have the patience to wait around for you.” She was trembling with fear from my behavior, but I didn’t care,  thinking that she was just lazy and wasn’t willing to expend any mental energy. There was another time when another employee asked me a question, and it sounded too simple to me, so I became really angry and scolded her: “How many times have I told you? When you have a question, think about it and figure it out yourself. Why are you asking me something so simple?” She hung her head and walked off, just saying “Oh.” Soon after that I heard that she had been in the restroom crying. I had a bit of a pang of conscience and a sense that my management style was too harsh, but then I thought: If I’m not strict with them how will they get their work done well? So, I didn’t take it to heart.

After a period of time, my strict management approach became very well-known around the company, and whenever new staff were hired they’d ask the manager not to be placed in my department. But since my department functioned efficiently, he kept assigning people to work under me. Everyone who joined the department was full of anxiety and trepidation at work, afraid of being rebuked by me if they made a mistake. They’d chat with each other in really quiet voices and if they saw me coming, they’d immediately go back to their own desk. Seeing that things were like that, I felt somewhat helpless. My staff gradually didn’t want to get anywhere near me and they wouldn’t speak to me unless it was necessary for their work. I started to feel lonely, and I knew that it was my management style that was making them afraid, but I thought that in order to manage the team well, I didn’t have a choice.