It Is So Important to Change Our Viewpoints on Things

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9 It Is So Important to Change Our Viewpoints on Things

Xiaojie    Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province

We have believed in God and followed God for many years, but even today our views and viewpoints on many things are still no different from the world’s and are not in harmony with God at all. For example, we think that those who do not steal or rob, who do good without letting anyone know, who take pleasure in helping others, or who do not oppose our believing in God, are good people.

     We think that those who can do some good things, who can help others solve problems, and who are willing to give alms to the poor, have good deeds. We think that if we have a satisfactory job, enjoy a comfortable life, have a happy marriage, and have son and daughter, our life will be very happy. We think that God’s love is to give us rich grace and bless us so that our families can be kept safe and live happily every day. We think that even in God’s family we should have a glib tongue and that those who do not know how to fawn and flatter will be unpopular. And so on. These viewpoints are all the evil, unrighteous, and absurd viewpoints within us, which are not in harmony with God’s word. However, many times we do not take them seriously, thinking that they are merely some thoughts and have not affected our believing in God and performing our duties. So we have not taken resolving them as an important matter.

That we can have such a state shows that we have not realized what dangerous consequences will be brought to us if our viewpoints on things do not change. In the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, it says: “Man’s various kinds of absurd viewpoints on things are extremely harmful to him. Man can disobey God and resist God and can form notions about and pass judgment on God’s work, and all these are directly related with man’s viewpoints on things.” “If there is no truth in one’s viewpoints on things, he is certainly a person who resists God. No matter how zealously he believes in God, he will never be in harmony with God. If most of a person’s viewpoints on things go against God’s word, then it can be said that he has no truth at all and has no reality at all. If a person has believed in God for a few years but does not have the slightest entering in and his viewpoints on things are still the same as the unbelievers’, surely he is one who does not pursue the truth and one to be eliminated.” “Now is the period of God’s doing the work to save man. If man has no truth, his viewpoints on things are surely absurd, he surely has no principles when performing his duty and handling things, and everything he does is meaningless. This kind of people will only end up being eliminated.”

As the man’s fellowship says, if our viewpoints on things do not change, it will do us a great harm. If our viewpoints on things do not change in the slightest and are still the same as the unbelievers’, this is sufficient to show that we have no truth at all, we are still the ones filled with satan’s philosophies and viewpoints, and we will surely be ones to be eliminated. These absurd viewpoints on things seriously hinder us from pursuing the truth and being saved by God, cause us to be often passive and weak and even disobey God, resist God, and blaspheme God, and will eventually cause us to betray God and completely lose the opportunity to be saved. For example, we think that belief in God is just for receiving blessings and that if we cannot receive blessings, it will be meaningless to believe in God. This viewpoint is the worldly viewpoint of barter, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, once our desire for gaining blessings is not satisfied or we feel that we have been corrupted so deeply and our transgressions are so many that we have no hope of receiving blessings, we will become passive and weak and leave God. We always think that only the easy life with a harmonious marriage and a perfect family is a happy life. This viewpoint is the worldly viewpoint of living for enjoying fleshly ease and comfort, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, we will be unwilling to expend ourselves for God and pursue a meaningful life, but will follow God passively. If our flesh feels a little tired when we perform our duties away from home, we will feel it is so hard to believe in God and will be unwilling to pursue but want to go back home to enjoy the “happy life.” We always think that having a position means having a good future, so we rack our brains and stop at nothing for the sake of fame, gain, and position; we even feel that if we have no position, it will be meaningless to believe in God. This viewpoint is the worldly viewpoint that fame, gain, and position are supreme, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, we will be in danger of falling and forsaking God because of position at any time. We always think that having money means having everything and that money is omnipotent. This viewpoint of ours, influenced by mammonism, is the worldly viewpoint that money is supreme, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, we will believe in God just for obtaining more money, and what concerns us most every day is how to make more money. Therefore, we are not interested in pursuing the truth at all, feeling much restrained in God’s family, and always want to return to the world to go all out to make money. We always think that all our family members who do not oppose our believing in God are good people, so God should keep them. This viewpoint is the viewpoint of serious egoism, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, once they are taken seriously ill or suddenly die by accident, we will be full of notions about God: How can such good people get such illnesses? How can they have died? God is unfair! Thus, we will fall into a passive state and will not believe in God anymore. We think that since people believe in God, God should bestow upon them rich material blessings and peace and joy. This viewpoint is a self-seeking viewpoint of barter, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, once God puts us in a circumstance and strips us of what we have, we will be full of complaints and even shout abuse, deny God’s existence, and leave God. We think that God’s family is as dark as the world. When we are eliminated for doing all kinds of evil, we not only do not think that we are eliminated because we are too corrupt and because we do not take the right way, but on the contrary, we think that in serving God, “keeping God’s company is like living with a tiger.” Or in the matter of God’s family arranging for some people who perform their duties in other places to go back to their hometowns, we do not seek God’s intention, but on the contrary, we say that God’s family “kills the donkey the moment it leaves the millstone” and think that there is no love in God’s family. This viewpoint is the typical hypocritical, crafty, contemptible, and evil talk of distorting the facts, which the great red dragon habitually resorts to, and there is no truth in it at all. If we hold this viewpoint, it will be a serious blasphemy against God. If we do not correct it, we will easily take the path of antichrists and completely forfeit the opportunity for us to be saved. From these we see that if our absurd viewpoints on things do not change, we will always view and measure everything from the evil and unrighteous standpoint, and will, like satan, confound black and white, confuse good and evil, advocate evil, and distort the facts. No matter what we encounter, we will measure, analyze, and research it according to these evil and absurd viewpoints, and will even evaluate and pass judgment on God’s work, living in our imaginations and regarding ourselves as self-right. Once God does something that does not match our notions, we will be full of complaints and will pass judgment casually and do things that offend God’s disposition at any time. If our absurd viewpoints on things do not change, no matter how long we have followed God, we are still unbelievers and our views on person, matter, thing, life, career, and future, etc. will be as absurd as the world. Then we will not have a right direction in our life and will not take the right path of belief in God, not to mention being saved. If our viewpoints on things do not change, it proves that we do not understand the truth, do not have the slightest knowledge of God, satan’s nature of resisting God is still deep-rooted in us, and satan’s philosophies, knowledge, notions, and imaginations within us have not been destroyed at all. As a result, we have no truth in doing things, and no matter what we encounter, we will still go against and oppose God and disobey and resist God, being on the verge of danger at all times. If our viewpoints never change, we will only end up being eliminated and destroyed. Therefore, the change of the viewpoints on things is absolutely not a trifling matter that is of little account as we consider it to be.

That we do not pay attention to changing our viewpoints on things also shows that we do not know how important the change of our viewpoints on things is to our pursuing the transformation of our disposition and pursuing to be saved by God. God says: “You do not have the truth, and your viewpoints on things are still old, even the same as those of the unbelievers. Your values and outlook on life still have not changed, and you do not even have the fear of God that you should at least have. This falls far short of the transformation in disposition.” In the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, it says: “Those who have experience of God’s work have clearly seen that if one’s viewpoints on things have not changed fundamentally, he has not truly understood the truth, and that if one’s ridiculous, erroneous and absurd viewpoints on things have not been resolved, he is an unsaved man, still a man who resists and rebels against God. … Only if man’s viewpoints on things have fundamentally changed and have fully conformed to the substance of God’s word, that is, have agreed with Christ’s, will he be said to have truly understood the truth. The first result brought about by man’s understanding the truth is the change of his viewpoints on things, and the next is the transformation of his disposition. If man’s viewpoints on things have not changed fundamentally, it is enough to prove that he has not gained the truth and even less gained the transformation of his life disposition. The main fruit of man’s experiencing God’s work is the understanding and gaining of the truth, and what it brings about is the fundamental change of his viewpoints on things and the transformation of his life disposition. All those saved by God are the ones who have truly understood the truth and the ones who have had a fundamental change in their viewpoints on things. Those perfected by God are the ones who have truly gained the truth.” From God’s words and the man’s fellowship, we clearly see that the change of people’s viewpoints on things is closely related to the transformation of their disposition and to their being saved. Whether people’s viewpoints on things have changed is a criterion for judging whether they have truly understood the truth and whether their life disposition has been transformed. If a person’s viewpoints on things do not change in the slightest, it proves that he does not understand any truth and does not have the slightest transformation of his life disposition; this means that he has not been saved by God. We all know that after men were corrupted by satan, many satanic poisons had been injected into men’s nature, and their nature had thus become the nature of resisting God and rebelling against God. All of their reactionary and evil viewpoints on things come from their satanic nature of resisting God and rebelling against God and are altogether from satanic poisons. The ultimate result that God achieves by expressing many truths in his end-time work is to let people understand the truth and gain the truth. God purifies all satanic poisons inside people with the truth, so that all their ideologies and viewpoints on things are changed, thereby bringing about the transformation of their life disposition and causing them to be saved by God and made perfect by God. Thus, if a person’s viewpoints on things have changed fundamentally, then he must have understood many truths, have had some true knowledge of God, and have gained some transformation in his life disposition. For people will do things in the way they view things. If they view things according to satan’s philosophies, they will do things according to satan’s logic and viewpoints. If they have gained the truth from God’s word, they will view things according to God’s word and do things according to God’s word. In this case, their disposition will be transformed greatly. For example, in the past, we always thought that spending all our lives in this way as to make more money, worry not about food and clothing, and have a harmonious family was a meaningful life. But through the exposing of God’s word, our viewpoints on things have changed, and we have realized that such a life is a decadent and rotten life, and that only following God and pursuing the truth, performing our duties properly as created beings, and living for loving God and satisfying God is a meaningful life. Thus, we will give up everything and pursue to live out a real meaningful life as our viewpoints on things change. Isn’t this a big change? Again, for example, in the past, we always admired the position and pursued position, and thought that only by being a leader could we be made perfect. But through the judgment and chastisement of God’s word and under the exposing of God’s word, we have realized that pursuing position does not have the slightest value, and that no matter how high our position may be, we cannot be saved without the transformation of our life disposition. We have also realized that God perfects people not according to whether their position is high or low, but according to whether they pursue the truth. All those who pursue the truth, whether their position is high or low, can be made perfect. That we have gained this knowledge shows that our viewpoint on this aspect has changed. Governed by this new viewpoint on things, we have dropped our pursuit of position and can spend effort pursuing the truth and the transformation of our disposition and advance toward the right track of believing in God. Likewise, as to how to treat money, fame, gain, and knowledge, etc. to be in accordance with the truth, these should also be resolved through God’s word. If we know these things through the exposing of God’s word and treat them according to God’s word, our views on these things will be changed, and then our disposition will be progressively transformed. We will have less and less disobedience and resistance when encountering things in the future, and even if there are some things we do not understand, we will first obey God’s manipulation and arrangement and firmly believe that whatever God does is beneficial to people. Thus, what we live out will have the conscience and sense and the fear of God that a normal person should have. From these we see that only those whose viewpoints on things have completely changed are the ones who have received the truth and gained the transformation of their disposition, are the ones who have truly known God, and are the ones who have experienced God’s work and thus have been saved by God. Because our viewpoints on things have changed, when chastisement, judgment, suffering, or refining comes upon us, we will not misunderstand or complain about God, and we will know that God wants to expose and purify our disobedience and corruptions, and it is God’s love that has come upon us. When our viewpoints on things have changed, we can see through the essence of the problems according to the truths of God’s word, become rich men in God’s family, and be gradually made perfect by God. When all our viewpoints on things have changed fundamentally and been in harmony with God, we will view and do everything in God’s word and live by God’s word. Then we will gain the transformation of our disposition and be in harmony with God, we will have no notions about God, and we will not resist God and rebel against God anymore. Only at this point will we truly obey God and worship God. Therefore, the change of our viewpoints on things is so important to our being saved and being made perfect.

Then, how can we have the ridiculous and absurd viewpoints on things within us changed and be in harmony with Christ? In the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, it says: “The truth comes from God. The incarnation is the embodiment of the truth. All that God has and is is the truth, and all of God’s words are the expression of the truth. Only those who sense God’s meaning in God’s word, who understand what God says and does, and who know what God is and has, are the ones who have the truth. Only by gaining the truth from God’s word and having the true knowledge of God can our viewpoints on things be in harmony with God.” “The change of man’s viewpoints on things is obtained entirely through his pursuing the truth. His understanding one certain aspect of the truth means that his absurd viewpoints on that aspect are resolved. All the absurd viewpoints within man can only be resolved by his pursuing the truth. The more truths man understands, the fewer absurd viewpoints he has. If he understands all the truths God has expressed, then all the absurd viewpoints within him will be resolved.” From these we see that to be in harmony with God in the viewpoints on things, we must spend effort in reading God’s word and understanding the truth and pay attention to resolving our absurd viewpoints on things within us with God’s word. God has expressed in his word the truths of every aspect and made clear his views on various kinds of things and his attitudes toward various kinds of people, such as what the true human life is, what the substance of the fleshly family relationship is, how to treat the unbelieving family members, how God views money, fame, gain, position, and emotion, and how God views those famous figures, great men, officials, and those in power, and so on. If we exercise to view things according to God’s word, seek the truth in God’s word, and understand how God views everything and what attitudes God has toward various kinds of people, matters, and things, from which to know God’s disposition and know what God likes, what God hates, what kind of people God saves, what kind of people God eliminates, what kind of people God destroys, and so on, then we will be able to correct and replace our absurd viewpoints on things with the truth and distinguish what are positive things and what are negative things. For example, what are good people? If we view this according to God’s word, we will understand that no matter how good the people in the world are, if they do not worship God, they are the devils, satans, the ones resisting God, and by no means good people. Only those who possess the truth and humanity after being purified and made perfect by God through experiencing the judgment, chastisement, dealing, and pruning of God’s word, can be called good people. Again, for example, what are good deeds? When we view this according to God’s word, we will understand that giving alms and helping others willingly cannot be called real good deeds. Real good deeds are done without deals or demands, but are done simply for practicing the truth, performing man’s duty properly, and satisfying God. Again, for example, in the past, we thought that God’s love was God’s grace and blessing. If we view it according to God’s word, we will see that God’s love is not only to bestow upon man blessing, peace, and joy, but it also contains chastisement, judgment, suffering, and refining. This is the truest and most real love that God has for man. In short, our understanding one certain aspect of the truth means that we have discerned the things on that aspect and will have our ridiculous and absurd viewpoints on that aspect changed. The more truths we understand, the less absurd viewpoints we will have. When we have truly understood the truths of every aspect and gained knowledge of God, our viewpoints on things will be changed and will be in harmony with God.

May we all realize the importance of changing our viewpoints on things, cooperate with God actively on our own initiative, come before God more, seek the truth in God’s word, view everything according to God’s word, so that our viewpoints on things which come from satan can be changed fundamentally, and we can therefore be in harmony with God and be saved by God as soon as possible.

Source:A Collection of Sermons for Supply

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