Exploring the Truth: Why People Risk Their Lives to Try to Challenge the Top of the World?

In this superficial society, many women feel distressed about their plain appearance. The author of this article used to feel inferior because of not having good looks. How did she finally regain confidence?

The dandelion may appear to be a very common plant, but it is both edible and highly valuable medically. In this tiny plant, we can discover God’s selfless love for mankind.

In this society, money talks, and everyone looks to money. Lots of people have become slaves to money—for the sake of earning money they’ve lost their health and even lives. Could the pursuit of money really be the value in living?

By Lisa, United States One afternoon, I was busy with my work on my computer. Just when I came to the key part of my work, my colleague Zhang, coming back after finishing her business, slumped into the chair beside me and started to delightedly talk with Wang about the process of the business today. Hearing their conversation, I thought: My work is in the critical moment. Why can’t you care about me as you talk? You have finished your business, but I haven’t finished my work yet. However, for the sake of saving face, I was embarrassed to say anything. Then I forced myself to quiet my heart. Unexpectedly, the more they talked, the more excited they were and the louder they spoke. Hearing their laughter and chatter, my heart couldn’t calm down anyhow. Being unable to finish my urgent work, I was full of complaints to them, thinking: Can’t you consider others’ feeling? You concentrate on talking, regardless of whether others are affected by you; Aren’t you too selfish? Angry, I wanted to disturb their talking several times, but I remembered that I was a Christian, and that the Lord teaches us to love others as ourselves, so I should be tolerant and patient. Thus, I silently prayed to the Lord, and asked Him to help me quiet my heart so that my eyes wouldn’t be fixed on them. After prayer, I calmed my heart down a little. Just when I was about to put myself into the work, the shrill voice began again, which upset me once more. I opened my mouth several times to remind Zhang, but when I thought I didn’t have the right to restrict their speaking for this was in a public place, not my personal space, I didn’t say a word. Moreover, I was a believer in God, so I couldn’t let my hot-bloodiness flare up even more. In the intense inner battle, I managed to finish my work with difficulty. I was morose. After getting back my shared house from work, I wanted to go online to fellowship with brothers and sisters about my condition. During our meeting, my roommates either turned on the water tap, or walked up and down, or sat down together to chat, not considering that I was gathering at all. Looking at them, I was very angry and resentful, thinking: It’s really awful to live with you. You are inconsiderate, and without any moral quality; you are too selfish. In the meeting, I couldn’t calm down owing to the noise around me, which made me more annoyed. I thought to myself: What was wrong today? I had a bad day in the company, and when back to my rented house, I was still frustrated. After encountering two bad things in succession, I had to come before the Lord to reflect on myself. At night, thinking back the occurrences of the day and my behaviors, I suddenly realized something: Why did I reveal so many thoughts of looking down on others? Why did I always think people around me were selfish? In my pursuits, I remembered the Lord’s words, “And why behold you the mote that is in your brother’s eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). The Lord’s words made me wake up from my confusion. When encountering the unfavorable people, things and matters, I merely thought from my own perspective: I was working or attending a gathering and so I needed a quiet environment, but people around me didn’t consider that. As I made demands of others, did I consider their feelings? When she had a new harvest and development at work, my fellow was happy and wanted to share them with others, but I, in order to not be affected at my work, wanted to restrict her to speaking. After work, my roommates were in their free time, and chatted with each other to relax, but because I thought they interfered with my attending the meeting, I was still impatient and even got to disgust and complain to them. While I complained them of simply considering themselves and not caring about others, I ignored that I was doing the same thing as them. The Lord’s words made me ashamed. I only saw others were wrong, while I didn’t see I was irrational; wasn’t this arrogant? The Lord Jesus asks us to be tolerant and forbearing in all things, and not to treat others based on our hot-bloodedness. However, I not only didn’t do that, but even judged them in my heart. Didn’t this betray the Lord’s teachings? After knowing this, I thanked God for arranging such circumstances to help me have some understanding of myself. I was willing to repent and confess to the Lord. Having understood the Lord’s will, I knew the way to practice the truth. When meeting this kind of environment again, I would first pray to the Lord in my heart, rather than rely on hot-bloodedness in my life. Besides, if someone really interfered with my work, I would calmly talk to him or remind him. When I practiced in this way, everyone started to consider others’ feeling. With an understanding and tolerance in the work environment and living space, I felt peaceful and steady. I knew this was the outcome of the Lord’s words in me. Thank the Lord!

A truly meaningful life is inseparable from the trials and tribulations God arranges for us in every stage of our lives! As long as we rely on God’s guidance and use our hearts to undergo and experience them, we will surely reap a harvest that beats all others!

By Chen Xiaoling, United States In my hometown, people grow many cockscombs. Every time when I saw the full-blown cockscombs beside the road, I always enjoyed stopping my feet to appreciate their beauty. The cockscombs in bloom don’t give off heady scents; however, by contrast with the luxuriant green leaves their pink stems and colorful flowers look particularly enthusiastic and passionate. Clusters of flowers stand erect, looking as beautiful as the combs of the crowing cocks. There are various kinds of cockscombs with different colors such as purplish red, pale yellow, golden yellow, faint pink, flaming red, reddish brown, salmon pink, and so on. They are too colorful and amazing. Cockscombs not only have high value of appreciation, but also are a kind of wonderful herbal medicine. When I was a child, once I suddenly got a bloody nose, and then I ran before my mom in fear and trepidation. My mom said nervously: “Alas, you’ve got a bloody nose. What’s the problem?” As she said, she let me pinch my nose and insert a small ball of soft paper into my nostrils. And a few minutes later, my nose stopped bleeding. But in several days, I got a bloody nose again. My mom was very worried about my condition and felt it was necessary to find a curative method. So she inquired about the methods of curing nosebleed everywhere. Finally she got a folk prescription: Stewing the mixture of cockscombs with lean pork and then drinking the soup and eating the lean pork, in which way nosebleed can be cured. After my mom got this good news, she couldn’t wait to cook for me. That figures. After I drank the soup and ate the lean pork several times, I really no longer got bloody nose. All my family were very happy. Afterward, through inquiring we came to know that cockscombs not only can stanch bleeding and cool blood but can also cure gynecopathies, hematemesis, hemoptysis, bloody stranguria, and so on. It is indeed too wonderful.   Not merely do cockscombs have the effect of medicine, but many other insignificant flowers and herbs all have wonderful effects. When I was in my junior year of high school, I had serious anaemia. The deeply dimpled grain appeared on my fingernails; my head also felt a dull pain often and, taking one step, I would feel as if my head were stroked by a hammer; and, even worse, my memory declined quickly. Thus I worried that my academic record would be affected. During that period of time, I forced myself to study and felt weary in body and mind, not knowing how long I could hold on. Later on, my uncle, a senior doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, made up a prescription with the use of several kinds of Chinese herbal medicines and decocted them together over a low flame till they gave off the smell. I drank the medicine for several days in a row and beyond expectation, the symptoms of anaemia gradually disappeared. And I no longer had anaemia after that. In a blink, I went to university. Due to the heavy study, I needed to read books often and sometimes I reviewed my lessons in the dim light. Little by little, I was shortsighted and my eyes were quite uncomfortable. When I told this thing to my mom, she asked me to go to the courtyard to pick some young leaves of Semen Cassiae and then cook them to eat. After I ate several times, unknowingly my eyesight became much better. Apart from improving eyesight, Semen Cassiae seeds can ease the bowels, remove liver-fire, and lower blood pressure, and even can tranquillize liver yang. My family also use Semen Cassiae seeds as fillings to make pillows. Laying our heads on them in summer, we can feel pleasantly cool and exhilarated, and can have a sound sleep. During the process of my growing up, different herbal medicines brought too many benefits to my body and mind. If I got some illnesses at ordinary times, such as stomachache, sore feet, physical injury, and even troubles of the internal organs, I would not readily go to hospital but first consult the seniors and my uncle. They could skillfully tell me to find and decoct related herbal medicines to drink. I often pondered in my heart: How can these herbal medicines be so useful? Who bestowed the functions upon them? Not until I believed in God did I know this mystery. One day, I saw a passage of God’s word says, “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning. In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary. Doesn’t it show that when God created the heavens and earth and all things, His considerations were better thought out than those of mankind? When you see all that God has done, are you able to feel God’s practical side? God worked in secret. When man had not yet come into this world, before coming into touch with this mankind, God had already created all of this. Everything He did was for the sake of mankind, for the sake of their survival, and for the consideration of mankind’s existence, so that mankind can live in this rich and plentiful material world God prepared for them, and so that they can live happily, not having to worry about food or clothes, and not lacking in anything.” After seeing God’s word, I felt so touched and saw that God loves us mankind so much. In order to let us mankind live better, God carefully prepared all kinds of plants to supply and nourish us. God knows that we will have various illnesses, so in order to reduce our suffering, He created some herbal medicines to specially resolve our illnesses. These herbal medicines have different kinds of effects, such as promoting blood circulation and relieving blood stasis, inducing diuresis and removing edema, relieving pain, stanching bleeding, promoting digestion, providing anesthesia, and so on. They were discovered by the ancients under God’s guidance, and then were handed down for generations. This makes me truly feel that God is like a kindly mother, who has prepared the necessaries of life before the baby is given birth, such as nursing bottle, clothes and shoes, cradle, and other things used in eating, dressing, and sheltering. God’s considerations for us are very thoughtful. He does things in secret and supplies us with all the necessaries in obscurity. He prepares various kinds of herbal medicines and food so that we can grow healthily, but He has never boasted what a great thing He has done for us. God is too great! His care and cherishing of us are meticulous. Time flies like a shuttle and keeps rolling on. These herbal medicines supply and nourish one generation after another. Most of them look insignificant, but in our lives they can show the important value of their existence. Pondering carefully, we can find all things created by God have their own value and meaning of existence. God’s deeds are too wondrous!

By Chen Yan Editor’s note: By saying that the poor can be happier than the wealthy, I do not mean that I am resentful to the rich, and it’s just my understanding from the following experiences of Chen Yan, the author of this article. Everyone has reasons to struggle for their living throughout their life. To put it another way, these reasons are, as we often have talked about, life goals or lofty ambitions. Among them, the most common ideal is to become rich. So, how much time and energy do we need to invest in achieving this goal? Is a person who becomes rich really happy? Next, Chen Yan will use her personal experiences to tell you. Selling socks was a method for me to become rich. I was proud and arrogant and from an early age and I was determined to strive hard to make money to live a better life than others. As the saying goes: “If one wishes to succeed, one has to take great risks.” After getting married, in order to earn money, I borrowed over 100,000 yuan from my relatives to buy machines to produce socks. From then on, I started a business selling socks. I devoted all of my mind and body to my career being full of great aspiration. Every day, I got up early and went to bed late, working overtime whenever I could. Even though I was so tired that I had a sore back, I was unwilling to take a rest. Seven months later, unexpectedly, my husband and I made more than 100,000 yuan, which made me very jubilant. Therefore, I decided to expand the factory to make more money, and eventually I increased the amount of machines from 10 to 40. Subsequently, the stress kept mounting. For example, in order to sell socks, I had to invite clients out for meals; otherwise, my business would quickly be stolen, or I would have to lower the price. So, I worried about how to sell socks every day. Once, one of my customers needed 500,000 pairs of socks. After I signed a contract with him, in order to ensure the quality and quantity of products, I supervised the work in the workshop day and night. Who would have thought that after I delivered the goods, the customer actually said the socks had quality problems. As a result, three months of human and financial resources were wasted, which caused me to lose over 100,000 yuan. This loss hit me hard; I wanted to cry but no tears came. No matter where I went, I always sighed and groaned, feeling deeply pained in my heart. Seeing that I lived such a tiring life, my younger brother led brothers and sisters to preach God’s work in the last days to me. I knew it was good to believe in God and I had several meetings, but because there was much more work for me to do in the factory, I didn’t take faith in God to heart. Afterward, the government reorganized factories on a large scale and my factory was forced to close down. After that, through the introduction of a big client who came from Northeast China, my husband and I went there to do business. After arriving there, we were total strangers, and on top of that, the temperature was forty degrees below zero, so it was so hard for us to endure this. But, in order to make money, I clenched my teeth and persevered no matter how painful or exhausting it was. After the factory opened, I watched after two machines by myself and put in sixteen hours’ work a day to save money. Being heavily overloaded with work, five months later, I became only skin and bones. However, when seeing the money I had earned, I felt that all of my efforts were worthwhile. But a good situation didn’t last forever. Originally, this client promised us that he would settle the account each month, but later, he unexpectedly welshed on us and refused to give us the money. My husband and I did the math and discovered that only electricity bill was over 20,000 yuan a month. Therefore, my husband removed a portion of the goods from the factory. After finding out, the client actually said that he set up the factory and hired us to manage it. Not only did he refuse to give us the months of processing fees, but also he seized our machines. Afterward, although through investigation it was confirmed that those machines belonged to us, the money that we had invested was thrown away. Finally, we were compelled to come back to our hometown. The dream of earning money made me get further and further from God. After returning home, I, dazzled by money, still refused to give up. I always thought: “Could it be that my hard work all these years has been in vain? The huge debts need to be paid off. If I try again, maybe I’ll have money.” As a result, I started to raise money and busy myself setting up a factory again. After the brothers and sisters in my hometown heard I had come back, they came to see me and communicate God’s will with me. They invited me to attend meetings and read God’s words, but I always looked for excuses to refuse them. After a number of setbacks, my factory finally opened. Who would have known that the socks which I spent several months producing couldn’t be sold. In the end, I lost almost 300,000 yuan. This failure was a heavy blow for my husband and me. My husband suffered from depression, while I, due to the excessive work for a long time, was unable to straighten my waist, and could only drag myself to trudge forward; besides, I got uterine fibroid. On top of that, my relatives and neighbors all came to my house collecting their debts. All this made me feel my life was meaningless and want to die to end this painful torment. Failures made me examine anew the path of life. Just when I could not see a shred of hope for my life, my brothers and sisters read a passage of God’s words to me: “‘Money makes the world go round’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among the whole of mankind, among every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been imparted to everyone and is now affixed in their heart. People went from not accepting this saying to growing used to it so that when they came into contact with real life, they gradually gave tacit approval to it, acknowledged its existence and finally, they gave it their own seal of approval. Isn’t this process that of Satan corrupting man? Perhaps people do not understand this saying to the same degree, but everyone has different degrees of interpretation and acknowledgment of this saying based on things that have happened around them and their own personal experiences, right? Regardless of how much experience someone has with this saying, what’s the negative effect that it can have on someone’s heart? (People would esteem money.) Something is revealed through the human disposition of the people in this world, including each and every one of you. How is this interpreted? It’s the worship of money. Is it hard to get this out of someone’s heart? It is very hard! It seems that Satan’s corruption of man is thorough indeed!” God’s words laid bare the source of my pain. I lived by Satan’s poisons, such as “Money makes the mare go,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” and “Whoever gives me money is my father; and whoever feeds me is my mother.” Because of this, I wanted to make more money in order to lead an aristocratic lifestyle. Recalling these years, in order to earn money, I worked hard, and even though I was so exhausted that I had a sore back, I would still be completely willing. No matter when my factory went out of business or when I was deceived by my client and lost money in Northeast China, I did not awaken from my failures, but stubbornly wished to use my own effort to earn more money and live a life where people would look highly upon and admire me. In the first few years, I indeed made some money, but who could know my heartbreak and suffering behind it? Now, from God’s words I saw clearly it turned out that the reason why I was in so much pain was because I accepted those erroneous views Satan had instilled in me and thus deeply got sucked into the vortex of making money with no way of extricating myself. As a consequence, I not only was exhausted physically and mentally and disease-ridden, but I wasn’t inclined to worship God, and thus grew further and further apart from Him and was completely carried off by Satan eventually. When I returned home and wanted to make a comeback, God still used my brothers and sister to try to persuade me with sincerity many times and communicate His will to help me. However, I was too stubborn to listen to what they said and persisted in opening a factory to make money. In the end, I fell ruined and suffered extreme pain physically and mentally. This was the outcome of my holding wrong views on pursuit and taking the wrong path. I also read in the word of God: “The sadness of man is not that man seeks happy life, not that he pursues fame and fortune or struggles against his own fate through the fog, but that after he has seen the Creator’s existence, after he has learned the fact that the Creator has sovereignty over human fate, he still cannot mend his ways, cannot pull his feet out of the mire, but hardens his heart and persists in his errors. He would rather keep thrashing in the mud, vying obstinately against the Creator’s sovereignty, resisting it until the bitter end, without the slightest shred of contrition, and only when he lies broken and bleeding does he at last decide to give up and turn back. This is true human sorrow.” “After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you, try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to have no choice, and to become a person who worships God.” The revelation in God’s words made me feel remorse. Weren’t these words exactly a true portrayal of me? Before I believed in God, I desperately wanted to earn money to change my fate. After believing in God, although I had known the fact that God rules the fate of us humans, I still did my utmost to fight against my destiny according to Satan’s poisons in order to make money and live a better life than others. As a result, I didn’t have meetings regularly and became far away from God. Finally, I brought myself endless heartbreak and suffering and was tormented to the point of exhaustion. Now, I truly experienced that man’s future and destinies really are controlled and predestined by God and that I couldn’t change my fate at all by relying on myself. So, I was unwilling to struggle by myself, unwilling to hurt God’s heart, rebel against or shun Him; on the contrary, I was willing to read more of His words, attend meetings, fellowship about His words with brothers and sisters, living in the light of Him. Besides, I was also willing to leave my life, work and future under the control of God, submit to God’s orchestration and arrangement, and become a person who truly worships God. When I thought like this, I felt particularly at ease and my mood improved a lot. I made such a choice when facing the temptation of money. One day, my aunt, who was in another part of the country where she did business, came back and said to me with a drawl: “It is a money-centered society now. You are still young and have the opportunity to make a comeback. Selling socks is easier this year than last year. You have many years of experience in business, so you should go back to your old work. After one year, your debts will be repaid soon. Relying on working for others, you won’t be able to turn your life around forever. Listen to me, go back to your old work.” What she said struck me right where it hurt and I was tempted. I thought: “Yes, if I can open a factory again and make a comeback, won’t I be able to live a good life? Not only will I clear my debts, but I will also be able to hold my head high. It won’t be like now—no matter who I meet, I feel I’m inferior.” At that time, seeing that it was as if I had absorbed my aunt’s words, my mother hemmed. I suddenly realized that if I did what my aunt had said, wouldn’t I simply return to the painful life I had led in the past? Then, I immediately called out to God in my heart and asked Him to keep my heart, so that I could make a choice in accordance with His will. After praying, I thought of God’s words: “Don’t many people see getting money as being worth any cost? Don’t many people sacrifice their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Don’t many more people lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Isn’t this a loss for people? … Isn’t this the philosophy and corrupt disposition of Satan taking root in your heart? If you do this, hasn’t Satan achieved its goal? … Satan corrupts man at all times and at all places. Satan makes it impossible for man to defend against this corruption and makes man helpless to it. Satan makes you accept its thoughts, its viewpoints and the evil things that come from it in situations where you are unwitting and when you have no recognition of what’s happening to you. People fully accept these things and take no exception to them. They cherish and hold these things like a treasure, they let these things manipulate them and toy with them, and this is how Satan’s corruption of man becomes deeper and deeper.” Through enlightenment from God’s words, I understood God’s intentions and saw through Satan’s tricks. I waved after hearing my aunt’s words today—this was because I didn’t truly discern and despise Satan’s rules for survival. I was deeply poisoned by its life philosophies that were as follows: “Money makes the mare go” and “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” They had already become a part of my life, making me a slave to money. Satan used this to make me abandon the true way, betray God and thus completely lose the opportunity to be saved by God. I thought of the past when I lived by these thoughts. They brought me nothing but heartbreak and suffering, and made me grow further and further away from God. I gave thanks for God’s protection that allowed me to see through Satan’s tricks. Then I told myself inwardly: “I can’t take my old path. This time, I will stand on the side of God. My future life can’t be planned by me; no matter whether I will be poor or rich in the future, it is in God’s hands. I am willing to obey God’s control and arrangements.” Therefore, I said to my aunt: “Fate is determined by Heaven. During our lifetime, whether we humans are poor or rich can’t be controlled by us. Let nature take its course in all things.” When she heard me say this, she looked at me, shook her head, and said nothing more. A correct decision brought me a blessed life. Afterward, my husband went out to work and paid off a part of our debts. Following that, there wasn’t a lot of pressure in my life. As I looked after my child at home, I attended meetings, sang hymns and praised God with my brothers and sisters, and moreover, I performed my duties in the church. I felt very grounded and happy. Also, thanks to God’s blessing, my health improved dramatically: I gained my weight back and the uterine fibroid was miraculously treated. After experiencing this, I am more confident in God’s work of saving mankind and have a much better understanding of His love. In retrospect, when I failed and lived in pain in the process of pursuing money according to Satan’s philosophies, God used His words to enlighten me to make me walk out of misery and live a carefree and happy life. I am deeply aware that all of this was God’s grace and blessing for me. Now, although I’m not rich or live a life admired by others, I fortunately have believed in God in the last days and gained His salvation, living, at ease and meaningfully. I’m even happier than the rich. I am thankful to God for saving me. All the glory be to God!

Everybody dreams of leading a life of material wealth, and I am no exception. I was once someone who worked tirelessly to have an affluent life. However, once I had obtained such a life, I found myself living in torture, feeling sick and empty inside. Truly, I experienced what is said in the Bible: “Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2–3). Reflecting now on the path I took, I am filled with regrets.