I share a testimony here. One day during the lunch break, I took a walk indoor. I passed by a door, saw a beggar, he opened the door to let people pass, and asked for money. I found this beggar a bit different, he opened the door for people to pass. I had a feeling I should give him one dollar. Later another day when I passed by, I gave him two dollars. then another day, I was thinking to give him seven dollars.
Before I gave him seven dollars, I prepared the coins. I have one two dollars coin and three one dollar coins, that is five dollars, for the rest two dollars, I started adding with five cents first, after all the five cents were added, then I started adding dimes (ten cents), then added quarters (25 cents), I had four quarters, and then I counted again and found that I got five cents more, that is, seven dollars became seven dollars five cents.
I put aside five cents coin, I also put aside five dollars bigger coins, and counted it again, it was still seven dollars 5 cents, and then counted it again, this time it became seven dollars. I continued counting, it became seven dollars and ten cents, then again became seven dollars, later became seven dollars 15 cents, then became seven dollars again, then I mixed all coins together, counted a few times, it was still seven dollars.
I think this is the surprise the Lord gave me. I gave the beggar seven dollars and the Lord gave me a surprise. Thank the Lord for the surprise to encourage me.
Then another day I decided to give the beggar 70 dollars, and I went to the bank to withdraw 70 dollars. After I got the money and went down the escalator, I saw that beggar passing by, and I gave him 70 dollars. He wasn’t at the door, he might want to go home, I saw him passing by and I gave him the money 70 dollars.
There was also another surprise, that day or another day, my wife went to the bank to withdraws money, she usually withdraw more money and gave me some, that day she gave me 80 dollars. It happened that the total amount of money I gave the beggar was 80 dollars. I joked with my wife that I gave out 80 dollars and got 80 dollars back . Thank the Lord. He gave me another little surprise. 😊🙏
Message from this, there is miracle for small coins, there is no miracle for bigger coins. Poor will experience Lord’s provision, the Lord moved my heart to give to the poor. Small and humble will experience the Lord, the Lord gives grace to the little, to the humble.
Proverbs 19:17 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
Luke 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
God is kind, merciful to the poor, including beggars. I gave money to a beggar, and God gave me little miracle to encourage me. Thank God for the surprise.
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the humble, blessed are the little, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In my working place, I need to take an English exam. I prepared for the exam, I did the sample test. I found it quite difficult. I didn’t know whether I can pass. If I cannot pass, I have to prepare and take the test again. I trust that the Lord will let me pass so that I can spend time to pray and share the gospel. When I got the result, it was a surprise to me. The passing mark for both written and oral test are 65%. I got 67.5% for the written test, more than 80% for oral part. Thank the Lord; I don’t need to take it again.
After I attended the church for some time, I found it difficult to believe that Jesus is God. One day I was walking on McGill campus (next to our church), someone passed me a gospel track. I read it and found the verse:
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Then I believe that Jesus is God, He is God manifests in the flesh.
Last Sunday. I talked with a pastor in our church concerning trinity, then I went back home with my wife by walk. We continued talking about trinity, I also talked about the experience I had at McGill campus, interestingly, we were walking on the McGill camp at that moment, the place the sister used to pass me the gospel track is very close to us, only a few meters away. Thank the Lord for the experience in the past and also in the present.
Not long ago, I was thinking to post a song on WeChat called “The Lord is my strength”. It is interesting that the wife of the pastor in our church also chose the same song “The Lord is my strength” during song worship. When I chose the song, I didn’t know that she chose the same song. thank the Lord.
Later, a sister in China asked me to send her the song “The Lord is my strength”. She used to live in Montreal and attended our church, her family now works in China. I also sent her another two songs, one called “I look up to the mountains”, this song also mentioned that the Lord is my help; the other song called “Blessed is he that is trusting the Lord”.
While I was brushing my teeth the next morning, my wife told me that a brother posted a message about the Lord is my strength and help, which is exactly the same message I sent with songs to that sister, that is, the Lord is my strength and help, thank the Lord!
A couple of weeks later, during Sunday worship Pastor’s wife chose the song “Blessed is he that is trusting the Lord”. She did not know that I posted this song on WeChat a few days earlier. Thank the Lord! 😄🙏
One day I took a day off from work and stayed at home, it was cold outside but sunny. I didn’t turn on the heating at home, because of the warm sunshine. I would like to find a song to share on WeChat, then I came across this song — “See the love of God”. The first sentence of the lyrics is: I see the love of God in the warm sunshine. It is interesting, it is sunny outside, I found the song about seeing the love of God in warm sunshine. Thank God. 😄💝
There is a chat group in WeChat, group members consist of some brothers and sisters in our church and some brothers, sisters and friends who used to attend our church and now work in different places. A few days ago I would like to post a song in the group called “May the Lord’s love be with you”. we used to sing the song “May the Lord’s love be with you” in the church, when we said farewell to brothers and sisters in the church. Now we still sing occasionally when we don’t say farewell to someone. That day when I was thinking to post it, the Lord reminds me the picture on the right side with water running down forming love “shape”. Interestingly the lyrics of the song also talked about Lord’s love like water running down, and the picture on the right hand side was downloaded some time ago. Thank the Lord for His encouragement. 😄💝
Not long ago, I would like to post a song on WeChat, and I would like to choose a song about God’s love. The songs I choose recently come from a list of songs of a WeChat official account. That day as soon as I opened the songs list, the second song in the list is “Jehovah is Love”. I would like to choose a song about God’s love, and I found the song right away. thank the Lord.
God’s love wants everyone to repent and turn to Him. After a person believes and is baptized, the Lord’s presence is with the person, and the life with the Lord’s presence is an abundant life. After the person is baptized, he or she needs to continue drawing near to God, so that God will draw near to him or her. Lord Jesus said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10), Here the thief refers to Satan, and Lord Jesus came to destroy the work of Satan.
Here it says that in all your ways submit to Him, that is to trust the Lord in everything, trust the Lord everyday. Every day, We need to seek His face, seek His presence, be together with Him, ask for His leading, and ask for His help, not reline on our own, not do things on our own, not rely on our own wisdom, if we rely on our own, we will waste time and not be productive.
I also use social media to share the gospel, for that social media, I did posting twice a week, I post some songs, hymns, testimony, messages, videos, etc. Not long ago, I was thinking to post a song on God’s love, recently I chose songs from that social media’s Hymns account, there is a list of good songs, that day I opened the list, the second song is “Jehovah is love” in Chinese, the list is updated every day. So it is interesting, I would like to share a song on God’s love, then when I opened the song list, the second song is “Jehovah is love”. When I post something in that social media, I seek the Lord’s leading. When we rely on the Lord, He will help us.
When we put the Lord first, put His work first, then commit to Him the things we need to do daily, He will help us. Last week I needed to solve a computer problem, I spent some time working on it, but could not solve the problem. Yesterday, I asked the Lord for help and I found the solution very fast. Thanks the Lord for His help.
The Lord always knows what is best for us. We just sit at His feet, listen to His words, communicate with Him daily, and He can make our path flourish.
But we are often busy in a bunch of trivia, such as sending children to school, attending a business meeting, making a sales plan, and so on. The same is true in the church. There are many things to deal with – to help the poor, to find the lost, and to heal the sick. But do you know? This kind of trivial matter will be looked after by the Lord, as long as we put Him first, sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His teachings.
How did Jesus respond to Mathar’s complaint that her sister only knew to sit at His feet and not help her to serve the Lord? “Martha, Martha, you are bothered by many things. But there is only one thing is needed, Mary has chosen the good part, it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)
However, many of us are like Martha. We are worried about many things. We are too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus, communicate with Him, and listen to His teachings. When we don’t rely on Him, we can only rely on our own strength and wisdom to solve problems. But your plan can never be better than God’s plan.
My dear friends, when you make a decision, do you want God’s wisdom and plans to get involved? Then, like Mary, choose the good part, spend time with Jesus, draw near to Him, seek His presence, listen to Him. You will find that the Lord will take care of your problems, teaching you and guiding you to the path of righteousness.
Acts 2:38 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Here we see that when a person repents and be baptized, the person will receive the Holy Spirit. When a person receives the Holy Spirit, he or she is born again. This is general case.
There is a special case when Peter preached the gospel the first time to the Gentile (Acts 10), to the Cornelius household. People received the Holy Spirit first before baptism, when the Gentile received the Holy Spirit, people realized that Gospel is not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles, then they baptized them.
Another special case is in Acts 19:2, Paul asked them “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed”, they said no. They only received John’s baptism of repentance, they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit, later they were baptized in the name of Jesus to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the case of receiving the Holy Spirit after the baptism.
So in general a person receives the Holy Spirit at baptism, but there are special cases.
John 2:1-11 Jesus Changes Water Into Wine
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b]7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Here we see that Lord Jesus performed His first miracle by changing water to wine. Lord Jesus was not intended to perform the miracle, but He did it because Mary requested it. If Mary didn’t request it He won’t do the miracle. Here we see the importance of prayer.
