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.

The Word of God “Three Admonitions”: How to Be a Loyal Servant of God

AlmightyGod says, “As a believer in God, you should be loyal to none other than Him in all things and be able to conform with His will in all things. Nevertheless, although everyone understands this doctrine, these truths that are most apparent and basic, as far as man is concerned, cannot fully be seen in him, thanks to his sundry afflictions, such as ignorance, absurdity, and corruption. Therefore, before deciding upon your end, I ought first to tell you a few things, which are of the utmost importance to you. … In your lives I see much that you do that is irrelevant to the truth, and so I am expressly asking you to become servants of the truth and not be enslaved by wickedness and ugliness. Do not trample on the truth or defile any corner of the house of God. This is My admonition to you.“

Coming Back to God, She Got Rid of the Life of Working Desperately Hard for Money

By Lianxin

After a tempest blew over, the air was so pure. Lianxin was sitting by the window of the light spacious bedroom reading God’s word, with a happy smile on her lips. She knew it was due to God’s love and salvation for her that she, who once struggled to make money and fell ill from constant overwork, could rid herself of the life of working desperately hard for money and thus live healthily and in the light.

What Is Faith and How to Have True Confidence in God

 By Shen Mingxin

What is faith? Many brothers and sisters in the Lord think that as long as they acknowledge God’s name, persist in reading the Bible, meeting and praying, and furthermore are able to sacrifice everything and labor, they are believers who have faith in God. But, this understanding is one-sided. In fact, true faith means that when our mind and body endure great suffering during refinement or adversity, we still don’t misunderstand or complain about God, but instead can obey God and persevere in believing in and following God.

From Biblical records we see: When Job was tempted by Satan, his livestock was robbed from him by bandits, his servants were killed, calamity befell his children, he got sore boils all over his body, and his wife laughed at him and asked him to forsake the name of God. Facing these sudden misfortunes, he endured pain in both his body and spirit. However, he didn’t complain about Jehovah God’s taking away from him, but said, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). He bore a strong and resounding testimony for God, which shamed and defeated Satan. Seeing Job’s faith in Him, God blessed Job doubly, bestowing upon him more cattle, sheep, and beautiful children. And finally Job died, full of days. Job is the model of faith and he is worthy of emulation by each of us believers in the Lord.

From the testimony of Job, we can see that when God blessed him, he believed that everything man has is due to God’s blessings, so he thanked God and worshiped God; when God’s trials befell him, though he didn’t understand and felt pain inside, he still obeyed God and didn’t have any complaints. Only this is true faith in God, and is also the sincere heart of man toward God. Just as God’s words say, “What does faith refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work is not in line with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of. People are in need of faith during times of hardship and refinement, and along with faith comes refinement. These are inextricable.”

Then, how can we develop true faith in God? This needs us to practically experience and appreciate God’s work in our daily life. When we are able to see God’s mastery, orchestrations and arrangements for our life and God’s authority and deeds, and have a genuine understanding of God through them, then no matter how God’s work doesn’t conform to our conceptions, we will still be able to maintain our faith in God. Just like Job: He only heard of God but he had never seen God. However, he could know God’s sovereignty and see God’s righteousness among all things. For example: Man’s fortune and misfortune, how much money one would possess, and how many children one would have in life—he knew all these were under God’s sovereignty, despite man’s own plans and calculations. He saw who were evil and punished by God, who were kindhearted and received God’s grace and blessings, and so on. Because of these understandings of God, he developed true faith in God. So when Satan’s temptations came upon him, although he was miserable, he knew all the things he enjoyed had come from God and had not been earned through his own hard work, and that if God wanted to take them back, he shouldn’t complain about or misunderstand God but should obey God. Thus, he made no demands of God, and accepted and obeyed God’s orchestrations and arrangements, giving a resounding testimony to God before Satan and being accepted by God. Another example is Moses. He stayed in the wilderness for forty years. There was nobody there, and his only companions were sheep during the day and stars at night. At last, he survived the forty difficult years by relying on God. Through his experiences, he truly appreciated that everything is orchestrated by the hand of God, and that there is nothing God cannot do. Such understanding of God helped him develop true faith in God. Thus, when God asked him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he prostrated before God and accepted His commission without hesitation. He didn’t worry about how to defeat the Egyptian army singled-handed but simply obeyed, because he believed that all things are in God’s hands and are orchestrated by God. In the end, by relying on his true faith in God, he succeeded in leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

Therefore, if we want to develop true faith in God as Job and Moses did, we must practically experience God’s work in our daily life. Especially when some hardships and distressing situations befall us, we should first intentionally obey, and then look to God, pray to God and seek God’s will. When we, through this, achieve true obedience to God, we will surely see His wondrous deeds and develop true faith in Him. At this point, I am reminded of a new sister’s experience. Not long after she accepted God’s new work, an illness befell her. Later, it got worse and worse, and she was even in danger of getting bell’s palsy. At that time she was very weak and in great pain. However, through praying and reading God’s words, she came to understand that Satan was using the illness to disturb her. That illness was Satan’s temptation and was also God’s test. After understanding God’s intention, she prayed to God, saying that she was willing to give herself to God and was determined to stand witness. After that, amazingly she recovered very quickly. Thus, she not only didn’t leave God because of that illness, but she actually strengthened her resolution of following God even more after seeing God’s marvelous deeds. There’s also a brother. When he first started believing in God, he was very passionate. However, later he was hunted by the CCP because of his faith in God, so he had to leave home and lead the life of vagabonds, of the homeless. That was extremely hard, so he became weak. Afterward, only through reading God’s words did he realize his own impurities in believing in God, and that his faith in God was in order to receive God’s blessings and grace. So, he turned his incorrect views on faith in God around. After that, because he, in harsh environments, relied on God at every moment to fulfill his duty spreading the gospel, so many times he managed to escape from under the CCP’s nose. From this, he personally experienced God’s marvelous protection and also saw God’s almightiness and wisdom. Hence, he had more and more faith in God.

These practical experiences allow us to see that in our real environment, as long as we carefully experience God’s guidance, support, help, or chastening and discipline, we will understand that what God does in us is all His love and salvation for us. Then we will have true understanding of Him, appreciate His almightiness and wisdom, and even more know that His righteous disposition is inviolable by man. When that time comes, we will have a heart of reverence for God and subsequently we will develop true faith in God.

Walking Down the Bright Path of Life

Xieli, America

I used to be someone who would chase after the trends of the world, I wanted to abandon myself to a life of pleasure, and I just cared about the pleasures of the flesh. I would often go with my friends to KTV all night long, I would go for joyrides in the middle of the night, would go fishing out on the ocean, and travel all around in search of fine foods. I’d see others around me, and they too were all striving to eat well, wear nice things, and enjoy good things. I felt that these were the things that a man must work for in his life, that this is why a man must work hard to earn money, that this is the goal in life that everyone should have. Only with these things would life not be in vain. In order to obtain these things, I didn’t care what distance I had to travel, so I crossed the ocean to come to America, and after struggling for several years, I opened my own business. I had my own car and my own house. I was living the blessed life that I had dreamed about. Every day I would eat, drink and pursue pleasures until I was full and my heart was content. I thought that it was only by living in this way that life had any meaning, and that is until I received the work of Almighty God in the last days. Only after experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God did I become aware of what a truly significant life is, and then I set out walking down the bright path of life.

Q&A About the Way of Eternal Life-Question 3

Question 3: You say only those who obey the will of the Father in heaven receive the way of everlasting life. Since we believed in the Lord, we’ve suffered much and paid much to spread the Lord’s gospel. We’ve shepherded the Lord’s flock, taken up the cross and followed the Lord, practiced humbleness, patience, and tolerance. Are you saying we haven’t been following God’s will? We know that if we continue, we will become holy and be raptured to the kingdom of heaven. Do you mean our understanding and practice of God’s word is wrong?

Q&A About the Way of Eternal Life-Question 2

Question 2: The Lord Jesus and Almighty God are one God, but do different work in different ages. Jesus did the work of redemption and preached the way of repentance. But now, Almighty God does the work of purifying mankind and brings the way of everlasting life. Here I have another question: What is the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life?

Answer: There is but one God, and His work of saving mankind cannot be done in one or two stages, because there are three stages of work in God’s management plan. The truth expressed by God in each stage is different, and gradually deepens so that it reaches perfection in the end. God does different work across the ages based on the needs of man at the time, so the way God gives to man in every each age is in fact different. What’s the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life, which is a crucial question. It is a truth every true believer in God must understand, because it’s related to how man knows the truth and gains eternal life.