What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

The Origins of Christmas

Every year, as Christmas approaches, shops on the street arrange a dazzling display of Christmas presents, with Santa Claus and Christmas trees, and so on. Festooned in trees and on buildings there are many-colored lights, and whole cities are decorated with lanterns and colored hangings, and everywhere there is joy and excitement. To Christianity, Christmas is a very special holiday, and several months before Christmas, many churches will begin to busy themselves preparing everything necessary for the Christmas holiday. On Christmas Day, the churches are filled, and brothers and sisters get involved in the celebrations, eating Christmas dinner, putting on performances and worshiping the Lord Jesus, and so on. Everyone’s face is flushed with happiness. However, when we get together in joyous gatherings to celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, do we understand the meaning of Christmas? Perhaps brothers and sisters will say, “The Lord Jesus was nailed upon the cross to redeem all mankind, and so as to remember and celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, Christians established Christmas. Though the specific day on which the Lord Jesus was born is not recorded in the Bible, Christmas gradually became a universal holiday in the wake of the expansion of Jesus Christ’s gospel.” We may have known this, but do we know God’s love and His will for us that was actually hidden behind the birth of the Lord Jesus? And how should we approach Christmas in a way that is after the Lord’s heart?

3 Methods on How to Pray So That God Will Listen

Brothers and sisters:

Peace to you in the Lord! Praying is an important way for us Christians to establish a normal relationship with God. This is especially the case during the morning and at night. That is why learning how to pray is extremely important. However, many brothers and sisters feel perplexed: Every single day, we pray both in the morning and at night; we also pray before we eat and after we finish eating as well as when we have gatherings; furthermore, each time we pray, we say a lot to the Lord and pray for a long time. However, we always feel as if God is not there; it feels as if we are just talking to ourselves when we pray, and our spirit does not feel peace or joy. Why does God not listen to our prayers? How should we pray so that we can receive God’s praise?

Actually, there are a few reasons why God may not listen to our prayers. I will share my personal understanding of this with everybody.

First, do we pray to God with a sincere heart?

The Lord Jesus said: “When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him” (John 4:23). God’s words have shown us how we should pray to worship God in accordance with His intentions. What God focuses on the most is whether we have a sincere heart when we are before Him and whether we speak sincere and true words to Him. As long as we have a reverent heart toward God and have a sincere heart when we pray to God, God would find our prayers acceptable. However, when we pray to God, we often are unable to quiet ourselves before God and use a true heart to pray to God. Our lips move but our heart is thinking about family or work and filled with anxious thoughts. Sometimes, our lips move but our hearts do not move. We do not have an honest attitude, and we are simply going through the motions and going over old ground, doing it perfunctorily. We even frequently say some dignified, pompous and empty words, words that merely sound good or some diluted words to deceive God. For example, we love our parents more than we love the Lord or we love our career more than we love the Lord, yet when we pray, we say, “O Lord, I love You! I am willing to relinquish everything and expend for You with all my heart!” When our families encounter some unhappy incidents, our hearts become negative and we complain to the Lord. Yet, when we pray, we give thanks to the Lord and say words of praise to the Lord…. Basically, in prayers, if one is not sincere and only goes through the motions, using some big and empty words, false words or if one disguises oneself before God and only says some pleasant-sounding words, he is deceiving God. God will not listen to prayers that are not sincere.

Second, do we pray to God with rationality?

Unveiled: The True Meaning of “It Is Finished” Spoken by the Lord Jesus on the Cross

Many brothers and sisters believe that what Jesus meant by saying “It is finished” when He was on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was completed. But was this really the case? What exactly did He mean by saying “It is finished”? The following article will uncover the true meaning of the words “It is finished” that the Lord Jesus spoke upon the cross. Please read on …

At seven o’clock in the morning, Wang Xue was hurrying to her daughter Hui Min’s house. Half an hour before, Pastor Zhang had come to Wang Xue’s house to tell her that her daughter and son-in-law had accepted Eastern Lightning. This came as a great surprise to Wang Xue, and she thought to herself: “The members of Eastern Lightning testify that the Lord Jesus has returned and that He is expressing His words and performing a stage of work to judge and purify man. And yet the Lord Jesus clearly said ‘It is finished’ when He was upon the cross, and this shows that God’s work to save mankind has already finished. How can the Lord possibly return to do a new stage of work? My daughter and her husband are quite familiar with the Bible, and they pursue the truth quite diligently; they are thoughtful and insightful people, so they won’t have made this decision blindly. How could they have accepted Eastern Lightning? What’s going on here?” Wang Xue was extremely baffled and she wanted to understand the reasons behind this as soon as she could, and so she hurriedly set off for Hui Min’s house.

Is There Any Biblical Basis for the Statement “Once Saved, Always Saved”?

The sun sank into the west, and the last light of the sinking sun spread across the world as I walked back home after a meeting, thinking of what the pastor had said: “Once saved, then we are always saved, for the Bible says, ‘That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Romans 10:9-10). As we believe in the Lord Jesus, as long as we believe in our hearts and acknowledge Him with our mouths, then we are saved, and if we are saved once then we are always saved. As long as we keep working and expending ourselves for the Lord and endure till the very end, then when the Lord returns, we will immediately be raptured up into the kingdom of heaven!” I gave an Amen to the pastor’s words: “Yes! The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross so that we could be redeemed, so as long as we call upon the Lord’s name, confess our sins and repent to the Lord, then our sins will be absolved and we will be saved by His grace—once saved, always saved, and afterward we will surely be raptured up into the kingdom of heaven.” Over the years of my belief in the Lord, I had always firmly believed that this view was correct, and never once doubted it.

Who Lets Him Walk Easily Out of the Wilderness Into Canaan

One evening, I was very happy I saw Brother Liu log onto Skype. I remembered that Brother Liu had believed in the Lord for many years and that in the past he was always doing service work in the church. But in the past few years the church had grown increasingly desolate and the faith of the brothers and sisters had chilled. He was passive and feeble, just busying himself with his engineering projects, and concerned only with his physical self. He had not come to church for a long time. It was something rare to come across him that day, so we quickly started chatting …

Without realizing it we got to talking about our own recent spiritual condition. I was going to tell him just like I used to about how my spirit was withered and dark, but something Brother Liu shared with me took me by surprise. He had a unique explanation for why the church had grown desolate, and what he said had lots of light. I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I was so impressed to see how much he had gleaned in such a short amount of time!