By Zhongshun
In January of 2013, my relative preached the gospel to me. I knew believing in God was a nice thing and could make us walk on the right path, so I accepted it and participated in church life. Three months later, when I saw my neighbor went to other parts of the country for work and made more money, I was tempted, thinking that only after making a lot of money could I live a good life. Thus, I decided to work away from home. In a meeting, I talked that thought. After listening to it, brothers and sisters fellowshiped with me, “Now you can attend meetings as you work in our hometown. If you work away from home, the workplace will be unfixed and thus you will be unable to participate in church life. We should be responsible for our own lives. No matter how much money you have, if your life suffer losses for that, and then what meaning will this have?” But I didn’t regard their words, and I still went to a brick and kiln factory in another part of the country for work. At the beginning, I could remember brothers and sisters’ words: In your spare time, read God’s words and pray to God more. When you encounter a problem, rely on and look to God. But as some time passed away, I put my mind to making money, and then I read God’s words or pray to God less, becoming further and further from God.
On the night of December 18, my boss Mr. Zhang treated a few staffs of us to dinner. At table, he said, “Next year, you work hard, and I’ll give all of you a pay raise.” Hearing his words, we all answered happily, “Okay!” After our meal, Mr. Zhang asked the driver to drive us back to our factory dormitory. One of my colleagues and I sat in the back seats of the car, and the driver and Mr. Zhang’s son sat in the front seats. On the way, we were talking happily. Just then, the driver’s phone rang. He answered the phone and said, “We’re almost there. Don’t you know phone calls are dangerous in driving?” Just when the driver put down his cell phone, a car suddenly came up from the opposite direction. My colleague said, “Oh, no! Where does the car come …” Before he could finish, with a thud, I felt very hurt in my neck and then passed out.
When coming to, I found I was leaning over the back of the front seat. Dizzy, I straightened up staggeringly, seeing that all were in a mess inside the car, and that even the seat was askew. I was extremely scared, thinking: We had a car accident. I am a stranger here. What should I do? At the moment, I suddenly remembered: Am I not a believer in God? Then I called out to God in my heart: Oh, God! Tonight I got into a car accident in the wilds. I don’t know what I should do. Oh, God! May You save us.” After praying, my heart quieted down little by little. Then I saw my colleague lying there, with his face bleeding. I called him several times, but he was still not responding. The driver slumped over the steering wheel, without a movement. It took me some time to wake him up. I said to him hurriedly, “We had an accident. Quickly, make a phone call to ask others to save us.” When I turned to another side, I saw the seat was upturned over Mr. Zhang’s son. I hurriedly moved the seat, and supported him. I called him but he didn’t respond. I thought: Is he dead? Thinking of this, I was even more scared.
In a short time, Mr. Zhang and some people came to the spot and first sent his ten-year-old son to the hospital. When I got out of the car, I noticed that because of hitting a concrete block, the head of the car was already out of recognition. And I couldn’t find my shoes. After a while, we were sent to the hospital as well. Because of serious injury on the head, my colleague had a major operation that very night, with a loss of an eye. It took him over a hundred thousand yuan to be saved. Mr. Zhang’s son died despite rescue measures. The driver had several stitches on the back of his head. Among us, only I was slightly injured, merely with a little bruise on the face.
Several days later when I went to work, the boss Mr. Yang asked me, “The car ran into a concrete block, and even the head of the car was destroyed while you were safe. How lucky you were! Which seat did you sit then?” I answered, “The right one on the back.” “According to common sense, you should also be seriously injured, but you were the only one that was slightly injured. How unbelievable!” I thought: Thank God! It’s God that kept me.
Afterward, I saw God’s words, “Almighty God the practical God! You are our strong tower. You are our refuge. We huddle under Your wings, and calamity cannot reach me. This is Your divine protection and care.” In the past, I didn’t understand the true meaning of these words. However, through this experience, I really experienced how God cared for and kept man. Then I saw more of God’s words, “He is not willing to sacrifice or lose a single soul. People do not care about their own fates, therefore, who on this earth loves you the most? You don’t love yourself, you don’t know to cherish your own life, and you don’t know how precious it is. It is God who loves mankind the most. Only God loves mankind the most.” After reading God’s words, I was really moved. It turned out that God is standing beside me at every moment, protecting and keeping me. Recalling the time when I decided to leave home to work, brothers and sisters advised me genuinely: Don’t continue aspiring after money anymore. We should be responsible for our own lives. Ignoring their advice, I came here for making good money, but I couldn’t participate in church life, and even read God’s word and prayed to God less, there being almost no place for God in my heart. I believed in God, but I didn’t treasure God’s salvation. For such deeds of mine, God, didn’t abandon me but protect me in the crisis, being responsible for my life. The more I thought about it, the more I felt I was too indebted to God. In self-blame, I secretly resolved to do my best to believe in God and follow God in the future.
In late that December, I started my journey home. After getting home, I contacted brothers and sisters and led the life of the church again. Once, when I was practicing spiritual devotion, I saw these words of God: “‘Money makes the mare go’ is the philosophy of Satan and it prevails among every human society. You could say that it is a trend…. What does this saying and trend bring to people? 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? (Yes.) Isn’t Satan sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Isn’t this a malicious trick? … To what degree has this saying affected you? You might know the true way, you might know truth, but you are powerless to pursue it. You might clearly know the word of God, but you are unwilling to pay the price, unwilling to suffer to pay the price. Instead, you would rather sacrifice your own future and destiny to go against God to the very end. No matter what God says, no matter what God does, no matter how much you realize that God’s love for you is deep and great, you would still stubbornly stay the course and pay the price for this saying. What this means is that this saying already controls your behavior and your thoughts, and you would rather have your fate controlled by this saying than give it all up.” Through God’s words, I finally knew that these are evil points of views instilled in us by Satan , such as: “Money makes the mare go,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” “Money is first,” and so on. Under the influence of these views, we advocate money and put money above all else, living for and dying for it. Looking back, in order to make money to enjoy a better material life, I didn’t take believing in God seriously and ignored the love of brothers and sisters. At that time, everything I thought was how to make money, so that I was further and further from God. How stupid and ignorant I was! In this accident, my colleague had a major operation on his head, spent a lot of money and suffered a loss of an eye; as to Mr. Zhang, he was rich, but his wealth didn’t save his son’s life. When the car accident befell us, money paled into insignificance and appeared useless. Without God’s protection, no amount of money can buy life. Thus, we could see that “Money makes the mare go,” “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” “Money is first” — these viewpoints are the heretical fallacies of Satan deceiving and deluding us and the lies of Satan corrupting and fooling us, and even more the stings that deceive us and distance us from God.
Later, I saw another passage of God’s words, “So what exactly does God give to man? Does He only give you a little care, concern and consideration when you are not paying attention? What has God given to man? God has given life to man, given man everything, and bestows on man unconditionally without demanding anything, without any ulterior intention. He uses the truth, uses His words, uses His life to lead and guide man, bringing man away from the harm of Satan, away from Satan’s temptations, away from Satan’s seduction and allowing man to see clearly through Satan’s evil nature and its hideous face. So is God’s love and concern for mankind true? Is it something that every one of you can experience? (Yes.)” From God’s word, I understood: God created us humans, and has continued to provide what we need for our lives and care for us day and night; what’s more, He endows us with the truth for His substance is selfless. Although I rebelled God, in the critical time, He still protected me. His love for me was real and true. Through this experience, my wrong outlook on life was corrected. I deeply experienced that it’s most precious only that we follow God and pursue and gain the truth. Only under God’s protection and care can we live a peaceful and steady life. I made up my mind: From now on, I am willing to pursue the truth and perform the duty of a created being to return God’s love to me.
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