My name is Zhen Cheng.
In 2001, I started an appliance repair shop.
In the beginning,
I just wanted to be a decent person and run an honest business.
I didn't want to rip anyone off.
I felt that it would bother my conscience.
But after being busy for a time,
the money I earned was enough to cover family expenses, but not any savings.
Sometimes my monthly income was no better than an average worker,
and so my wife often gave me a hard time about that.
We depend on trade for money,
but when it's time to get money from customers you only think of them.
If you won't ask for more money from them,
who's going to put money in your pocket?
Hey, Cheng,
you've got a lot of really great skills, you can fix things,
but it's your fault if you're not making much.
Now, I'm telling you—
people always have money inside of their pockets.
And if you rob them, then that's illegal.
But if you find a way for them to voluntarily hand over their money,
that's called being skillful and smart.
You fix things with your skill,
you should understand your "skill" and how to apply it.
"A man without a second income will never get rich."
We live in the age of money;
you can do anything with enough cash.
Money doesn't solve everything, but without any, you'll solve nothing.
That's right.
People without a skill have a hard time scraping by.
You have a skill.
Why not apply yourself and make more money?
You're too set in your ways.
Jiaming, nudge him in the right direction.
I contemplated my wife's advice and my brother-in-law's "brilliant" idea.
They really had a point!
I was skilled but not making more money.
Was I just good for nothing?
But I was still dead set against ripping off customers,
because my conscience would never get past that.
There was an electronics repair shop run by Mr. Qian near my store.
He didn't have much of a grasp on repairs
and could only fix very simple problems,
but he always placed huge ads in front of his shop.
The ads said, "We fix all kinds of appliances; our skills are top notch."
It all seemed very impressive.
In this manner, many people had been fooled by him.
As he worked, he handled the easy stuff on his own.
But the tough jobs he sent to other repair shops,
making a tidy profit as a middleman.
He made a lot of extra income doing this.
One time, Mr. Qian and I were eating in a small restaurant.
We chatted about how to be successful in business.
Cheng, you and I both have repair shops,
but I'm making more than you.
And do you know why that is?
If the TV's high voltage connector cap was burned out,
how much would you charge to replace it?
That's an easy one. Twenty or thirty yuan would be enough.
Twenty or thirty yuan?
You can't do business that way!
No wonder you're not making more money.
I see you're a good guy, so I'll be honest with you.
For this sort of problem,
I'll swap out the entire high voltage assembly.
But the high voltage assembly is fine. (I'll swap it out anyway.)
It's not necessary! (I'll swap it out!)
If you don't swap out some parts,
how are you going to charge more money?
If you swap them out,
you can charge an extra tens or hundreds of yuan.
This trick goes a lot further than just technical skill, you know?
It is just a diversion.
Customers don't know our skill. They'll never know.
It's up to you to decide if you want them to pay you more.
This is a quick way to earn money,
but isn't it ripping off our customers?
I can't have that on my conscience!
Conscience?
How much will you get for a pound of conscience?
No one talks about conscience now.
Will conscience fill your belly?
Can you spend it like money?
You know, Zhen Cheng, you're not seeing the ways of the world.
Ours is a cash society.
"Money is everything."
Everyone focuses on making money.
The communists even believe this now,
"No matter if it's a cat white or black,
as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat."
So whoever's earning money is therefore worth their salt.
If you can't make any money,
being a good person won't get you anywhere.
No one will respect you.
Without money, everything is more difficult.
But with it, you just say the word,
everyone is more than happy to help.
So what do you think, am I right?
You're right!
After hearing Mr. Qian's "enlightening" views,
I thought deeply about it.
This is the type of world we live in now.
People run all kinds of scams to make a quick buck,
and no one talks about integrity.
What good would it do if I were the only honest one?
What's more,
my being honest in pursuing my business has not been advantageous.
People who are in the same business as me are living a good life.
Their families all live comfortably, eat well, and wear nice clothes.
It seems I have been too set in my ways.
I have to start thinking of ways to make more money,
to make life better for my family.
Okay, Mr. Qian,
one day I'll drop by your place and see how you do it.
From that point on,
I began to study the "success" others had experienced in my line of work.
I had my misgivings,
but in order to make more money, I couldn't dwell on so many things.
I just had to bite the bullet and put "theory" into practice.
One day, a customer came in to have an appliance repaired,
and when I took apart the piece that wasn't working,
I also opened up some parts that were working fine.
I did this in order to misdirect the customer
and to make her think that "So many things were wrong with it."
This way, I could use that as an excuse to charge her more.
The old saying "Guilty consciences make men cowards" is completely true.
At first I was nervous, my heart was beating very fast,
and I was worried that the customer would see through me.
I thought:
If she figures out that I've pulled such a stunt, and exposes it on the spot,
where would I hide my face?
I'd have to crawl to a little hole.
Customers don't know our skill. They'll never know.
It's up to you to decide if you want them to pay you more.
I forced myself to stay cool.
After I swapped out the "bad" parts, I plugged the device in and tested it.
It worked fine.
When the customer asked me how much for the repair,
I thought to myself: I can't be as soft-hearted as I was before.
And then, with hardened heart, I charged 50% more than before.
After saying that, I thought to myself:
Will she complain that I asked for so much money?
If she haggled over the price,
I'd give her all the reasons why the price went up.
If that didn't work, I'd give her a discount.
I never thought the customer would say nothing
and just hand the money over to me.
Only after the customer had carried away the appliance
could I finally let out a sigh of relief.
I realized that my face and back were covered in sweat.
The first time cheating a customer, I felt an indescribable sense of unease.
But when I saw that I had made more money,
that feeling of unease was replaced with the joy of "success."
From then on,
I thought of every possible tactic to pull the wool over my customers' eyes,
to get more money from them.
At first, even though I felt some blame in my conscience,
I nonetheless quietly urged myself onward:
"A small mind makes not a gentleman
and a great man must be ruthless at times."
If I want to earn more money, I would have to use strategy.
Besides, everyone does this.
One more wouldn't make a difference.
Over time, with the "enthusiastic" help from others in my line of work,
along with my own "hard work,"
my "skill" and "technique" in earning money became more and more refined.
I learned how to read people and make adjustments to my "technique" on the fly.
Depending on the type of customer I saw,
I would employ various "techniques."
If they looked like they were rich,
then I would flatter them.
I'd say whatever was needed to satisfy their vanity.
This was how I set up the basis for asking them for more money.
If customers waited in the shop for their appliance to be repaired,
I'd make a big to-do about looking busy with a difficult repair,
and draw out the time a bit.
This way they would often pay more of their own volition.
At times I had to work a little harder for the shrewd customers.
I would have to use special "techniques" to deceive them.
In most of those cases,
I'd think of ways to get them to leave their appliances at the shop
to pick up on another day.
Then I could just fix the bad part and be done with it,
and when they came to pick it up,
I'd explain that there were several things wrong with it.
I was not only making more money, I was also at ease.
So tell me, what kind of problems did you find?
Can you fix it today?
My grandson's waiting to watch TV.
Oh, yes ma'am.
The motherboard is bad, and I cannot fix it in a short time.
Why not pick it up tomorrow?
And so on.
This is the way I plotted and schemed to cheat customers and earn more money.
Even though I was making more money than before and I was living better,
I was nonetheless rather unhappy.
When I thought of all the debased and shameful things I had done,
I felt awful inside.
I felt empty and ill at ease.
Sometimes I thought: Go back to being honest.
Don't keep playing these shameful tricks on people.
As the saying goes, "What goes around comes around."
One should avoid getting in too deep lest consequences arise.
But once I thought of the easy money,
I lost all of that resolution.
And just as I fell deeper and deeper into a quagmire of sin,
God's salvation came to me.
One day, my sister came in to share the gospel.
She explained how heaven and earth and all the creatures in it were created by God,
and how humans were also created by God,
how when God first created humanity people had a heart and a spirit.
They had normal humanity, with a conscience and reason,
and they were able to listen to God's word and fear Him.
They had God's care and protection and dwelt in His blessings.
But afterward, they were tempted by the devil Satan
and turned their backs on God.
Thereafter, mankind no longer listened to God,
and they became estranged from Him, and they denied Him.
God was no longer with them, and they fell into darkness.
For several thousand years, Satan kept corrupting mankind.
Mankind became worse and worse and fell deeper into evil.
It became easier and easier for them to adapt to this evil society.
Even though people had enough wealth,
their consciences, reason, dignity, and integrity disappeared little by little.
Mankind's spirit became ever more empty,
and all kinds of suffering arose.
In the depths of people's hearts they yearn for a good life,
and they hope to break away from the depravity, suffering, and emptiness of their lives,
but they are unable to.
They have no choice but to remain trapped in this world.
They live an empty life year after year,
wasting away their own life for nothing.
After I had heard my sister's fellowshiping several times,
I felt that what she said was factual.
She had described humanity's circumstances exactly,
and I was deeply moved.
I was inspired,
and the more I listened, the more I became interested.
Things will become much clearer after we read a few passages of God's word.
Sis, this is really profound stuff!
That's right! Indeed, I have never heard it before.
Okay, let's watch two video readings of God's words,
so we can understand them better. (Great!)
Zhen Cheng, Xiao Jing,
after hearing Almighty God's word,
do you know a bit more about how Satan corrupted mankind,
and do you understand why the world is so evil and so dark?
Yes, we know a bit more. (A little more.)
For thousands of years,
Satan has been using atheism, the theory of evolution,
materialism, and other evil doctrines
to deceive and poison man.
This made them blindly believe and worship all kinds of devils and great people,
and apply these people's fallacies and lies to their lives.
Fallacies and lies?
It's just like the sayings
"There is no God; there is no Savior,"
"Man's fate is in his own hands,"
"Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,"
"You can do anything if you have the cash,"
"A man will do anything to get rich,"
"A small mind makes not a gentleman,
and a great man must be ruthless at times."
After mankind became acquainted with these fallacies and lies,
they began to deny God's dominion
and to believe there was no God.
Mankind became terribly egotistical, selfish, lawless,
greedy, crooked, and deceitful.
They worshiped at the altar of money and power,
and began to pursue anyone or anything that involved money.
People became slaves to money.
They deceived and fought each other for money, fame, and status.
They did anything to achieve their ends,
and even committed all manner of evil to do so.
Mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, even husbands and wives,
deceived and betrayed one another.
They lived by their corrupt satanic disposition.
No one spoke of conscience or reason.
No one talked about being honest.
Society fell into deeper decay day by day, as did morality.
People were vicious to each other.
You see, when we live in such a dark world,
how could we have true happiness?
Could we be happy? (No.)
Man is distant from God and has rejected Him,
and is unable to be happy.
Mankind is only deceived, corrupted, and trampled by Satan.
This is the source of the suffering we experience in our lives.
That's right!
So now, God has come to do His salvation work.
He utters the truths which shall cleanse and save mankind.
If we truly accept God's work and read His word every day,
then we can understand the truth.
We will see through Satan's tricks that corrupt humanity
and will not be deceived by it.
If we live by God's words,
we can escape the suffering Satan has brought
and walk the true path of life.
Gaining God's praise and blessings is the only way to have a truly happy life.
That kind of life sounds a lot more relaxing and happy. (Yes!)
Sis,
hearing Almighty God's word and what you just told us
has really moved me!
In the last few years, I have made more money in my business. (Yes.)
Materially, we're doing better than ever before,
but in my heart I have felt ever more empty and pained.
Yes.
But … that is because I relied on Satan's rules to live and I didn't believe in God.
Thinking back to when I first opened my shop,
I held to the standards of being a person— using my conscience to earn money.
But over time, the influences of society began to seep in.
As time passed, I felt that
having a good conscience couldn't bring money or make me rich.
I believed in sayings like
"Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,"
"A man with one income will never get rich.
A horse starved of hay won't gain weight,"
and "A small mind makes not a gentleman,
and a great man must be ruthless at times."
In this way, I gradually lost sight of my own conscience,
and set aside my own guiding principles.
I see I've made money on that,
but when I think back on the mean and shameful things that I did,
I feel uneasy inside.
Sis, it's exhausting to live this way!
But today I understand
that it was Satan who was harming me! (Yes.)
Were it not for Almighty God's word
revealing the root of mankind's corruption and degeneration,
I would have never known the truth of my corruption by Satan!
Things will become clearer after we read God's word.
In the following days, I read a lot of Almighty God's words
and attended meetings to fellowship on the truth.
It gave me an understanding of Almighty God's work of the last days.
I came to understand that
this work was based on the foundation of the Lord Jesus' redemption work,
and it was a higher stage of His work.
In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did the redemption work,
limited to forgiving mankind of its sins.
It did not include the thorough cleansing and salvation of mankind of the last days.
Almighty God has come to issue forth all the truths
that will cleanse and save mankind.
He has revealed the truth of mankind's corruption and the substance of their nature.
He will change and cleanse mankind's corrupt disposition.
In the end, He will completely save mankind from Satan's domain
so that mankind will be gained by God and allowed entry into His kingdom.
When I came to understand these truths, I vowed:
I must properly follow Almighty God and pursue the truth,
and I must seek to change my disposition
and live like a real man to satisfy God!
Zhen Cheng, please keep reading. (Yes, OK.)
I'll read the next passage. (Yes, OK.)
Why does God want us to be honest people?
Zhen Cheng, Xiao Jing, do you know why?
Why don't you tell us?
God's word is very clear about this.
I'll read it out loud.
Here.
God possesses a faithful substance,
so God likes honest people and hates the deceitful.
We can see from God's word and His work
that God's words are deeply heartfelt and honest words at all times,
and that everything God does is very real.
His sincerity and earnestness is free from any false pretense or deceit.
God has this life substance, and this is what He has and is.
Therefore, God asks that we be honest people, speak honestly and true.
He also asks that we live as an image of truth.
This is the great love and salvation that God grants us!
That's true.
I remember what the Lord Jesus said,
As little children?
That refers to the purity and honesty of children.
Yes.
The Book of Revelation says:
Almighty God also says:
Zhen Cheng, Xiao Jing,
do you understand what God is saying here?
It is critically important to be honest people.
It has a direct connection to our final home and conclusion!
God is holy and righteous, and wants to gain honest people.
People that often lie and cheat, that carry a satanic disposition and resist God,
they will be targets for elimination.
God will absolutely not allow any crooked or unrighteous types of people
to enter God's kingdom.
Therefore, in order to achieve salvation and entry into God's kingdom,
we must accept God's judgment of His words and pursue truth.
We must cast off our corrupt disposition
and be cleansed by God to become honest people.
This is the only road to salvation.
Right.
Almighty God's words have clearly stated
the significance of being honest and how to be honest.
Looking back at my own life,
I conducted myself and lived based on satanic philosophies.
I lied and deceived without even knowing it.
Basically, I didn't know how to be a real person.
I lived just for my reputation and vanity.
No matter what I did,
I had always put my own interests before others'.
With others, I practiced the principle of "if there's nothing in it for me, why bother."
Many times I cheated and lied merely to satisfy the needs of the flesh.
Even as I spoke, I put my intent and purpose in it.
On the surface, everything sounded very nice,
but inside I was guarded and calculating.
It's something to think about,
how our interpersonal relationships are carried out
as if we are wearing a mask and no one knows what the other is thinking.
Even relatives are taking advantage of one another and cheating one another.
No one is trustworthy.
Yep. That's the way it is.
It's like the Bible says:
What do you say about this kind of life?
Is that what being a person is about?
Oh, no, it really isn't! (That's right.)
The Bible also says
that the devil always lies and that lies are always of the devil.
So when we see someone who often lies,
if it's not the devil, what could it be?
I often look back on these things:
Why are we able to lie and cheat so much?
That's right, why is that?
It's because lying is in our human nature.
We can't control our lying, even if we wanted to.
This satanic nature of lying is imbedded deep inside of us.
If someone tried their best not to lie, they'd still fail.
There's nothing we could do. (That's right.)
So how do we solve this problem of lying to become honest people?
On this issue, God's word has already shown us the way.
Only by accepting God's judgment and chastisement
can man's cunning, lying nature be thoroughly cleansed.
It's the only way to resolve mankind's problem with cheating and lying.
Only by experiencing God's judgment
can we meet the standards of being an honest person.
It is very clear in our hearts
that only an honest person is a real person.
Being honest is the only way to meet God's intention.
God asks that we be honest people,
but crucially, we must give our hearts over to God.
We must live for God and live for truth.
We should speak with honesty and act with honesty in our real life
and be forthright in our actions.
Living in this way is the only way to be happy, at peace, and straightforward,
the only way to have good character,
the only way to get God's praise.
When we have experienced God's judgment,
we definitely undergo some change.
We begin to be like an honest person.
This is the effect of experiencing God's work. (Amen!)
I am so grateful that Almighty God has led us on the right path of life!
We can see clearly now that being an honest person is the way to be a person.
Zhen Cheng, Xiao Jing …
In reading God's words and hearing their fellowship,
I recognized the deep significance of being an honest person.
Only an honest person can be a real person!
In the following days,
I saw brothers and sisters at church fellowship with open hearts
as they discussed their own conditions.
They laid bare the corrupt things they had revealed,
the lies they had told,
and the things they had done that were deceitful to God.
They fellowshiped how to experience God's judgment.
If a brother or sister had done something that hurt someone else,
the others would fellowship based on God's word in order to help them
and help them understand the source of the problem, know God's intention,
and seek the right principles and approach they should take.
I felt that living like this is to truly be free.
There were no more secrets or lies between people.
You didn't have to be so guarded around people,
or worry that they were plotting against you.
In the church, the more honest you were,
the more respect you got from the other brothers and sisters,
and the more you were promoted.
If someone was deceitful, a cheater, and never expressed regret,
and if they disturbed the church life,
they would be abandoned by God's chosen people and expelled from the church.
This is quite the opposite of life in the world!
In the world at large,
people who are honest and sincere are just not popular.
Instead, whoever is the most shrewd and the most deceitful will prosper.
The more crafty and underhanded people are,
the more money they make, and the more power they have.
But in God's house the opposite is true.
In God's house, Christ carries authority, along with righteousness and truth.
Only honest people can receive God's approval,
gain His salvation, and be led by God into His kingdom.
Now I know that God likes honest people,
I should give my heart over to Him and accept God's scrutiny.
I would not lie to people and I would not deceive God.
I would be an honest person based on God's requirements.
This is the only way to receive God's praise.
God's word is indeed the truth,
and people should put it into practice.
However,
if I do business as an honest person, I'll lose quite a bit of money.
But if I keep pulling all of my usual tricks, cheating customers,
this does not meet God's intentions.
So what should I do?
Should I … compromise somehow?
When I interact with people in my life, I am an honest person,
but in my business life, I still act as I acted before.
One day, a man came into the shop with a color TV,
saying that the image was too dim.
I checked it out
and saw that the color picture tube was old and needed to be replaced.
However, I didn't tell him that.
Instead, I just upped the filament voltage in the picture tube.
This way it would work fine for a while,
and I could swap out the tube later if problems arose.
I could make 30 extra yuan in repair fees.
Two weeks later, sure enough, the TV had problems.
The man said I hadn't fixed it right
and brought it back for me to fix again.
I told him that the tube was old and that it needed to be swapped out.
I never thought that the man would see through my trick.
He paid me after I replaced the tube,
but reduced the payment by 30 yuan.
He called me out and said,
"Hey buddy, you've got to be honest. Don't be so greedy!"
I saw that my little trick had been exposed,
and I felt a little ashamed at that.
But I didn't give it much thought and went on with my life.
A while later, a lady came in with a broken microwave.
After inspecting it, I saw that it was just a minor part that was bad.
First, I thought I'd just repair it and take an appropriate repair fee.
But I thought about how well her family was doing financially.
It wouldn't be a big deal if I asked her for a bit more money.
Why waste an opportunity!
But I never expected that the jig would be up in a few days' time.
Hey! Hello, ma'am, still going to the park in this rain?
Oh, it's Mr. Zhen.
Well, you took a pretty penny to fix that microwave of mine.
You should pay attention to your conscience.
Heaven can see all that a man does.
Grandma, Grandma, let's go, let's go. (Okay, we're going now.)
I felt really disgusted with myself when I heard her criticism.
And I thought of the man from the other day who also called me out.
In my heart,
I clearly felt that God's judgment and chastisement came upon me.
At the time, I hadn't felt the full impact.
Afterward, I read God's word:
After reading God's word,
I really felt that God's Spirit was scrutinizing me.
Everything I had thought and pondered, things I'd never share with anyone,
were revealed to me in great detail by God's word.
He is a true and living God!
I now understood from God's word
that God asks us to give our hearts to Him
and be conscientious in how we treat every truth.
Matters in God's house or in our private affairs
should be handled in accordance with God's requirements.
In the process, we should turn our backs on our incorrect intents,
and accurately put the truth into practice.
This was the way to meet God's intentions.
But I was inconsistent and arbitrary in practicing truth in real life.
When I saw that being honest in the church pleased God and the brothers and sisters,
I wanted to do so.
In my business,
I felt that being honest would mean I made less money, my profits would be hurt;
I wasn't willing to do that.
I was always thinking of myself and anything that would harm my interests,
and so I put truth, God's intentions, and God's requirements off to one side.
I let my own will have its way and did whatever I wanted.
Could I even be considered a believer?
How was I different from an unbeliever?
God is holy and righteous.
In order to cleanse and change me,
God used the customers to expose me.
This allowed me to examine myself and understand my deceitful nature.
I saw that all I had done would not meet God's scrutiny.
All I'd done was to deceive God and cheat people,
and was despised by God.
God had set this up to teach and to discipline me.
He made me understand the corrupt nature within me
and also understand Him.
This was the most practical way for God to save me!
Oh, Almighty God!
Even though I believe in You, my heart has no place for You.
I do not put Your words into practice.
I'm still living based on Satan's rules.
Oh God, I want to repent to You.
I want to be conscientious about being an honest person.
No matter what, I am willing to put Your words into practice.
Oh God, please examine me and guide me!
One afternoon,
a couple of young folks brought in a monitor that needed to be repaired.
While doing my repairs, I heard them outside the shop whispering.
If I knew that place would be no good,
I shouldn't have brought it there.
That's right.
I think this guy might do a good repair job.
Right.
They've wasted two days of my time. You know?
When I heard them talking I thought to myself:
In this situation,
other repairmen would really take these guys for a ride.
After doing my repair,
it would be no problem getting an extra 20 or 30 yuan from them.
It would be a shame not to grab the money that was there for the taking.
I could just be an honest person next time.
If I didn't put truth into practice this time,
God wouldn't really be bothered.
But I thought about the vow I had made before God,
and I remembered God's word:
I felt that this was God's warning to me.
If I intentionally did the wrong thing again
and kept refusing to put truth into practice, as well as lying and cheating,
then I would be cast off and I would be eliminated by God.
Under the guidance of God's word,
I made a vow to be an honest person.
I could not fail as a witness again by bringing shame to God and offending Him.
After I was finished repairing the monitor,
I charged them the normal fee of 30 yuan.
When I saw the happy smiles on the customers' faces,
I felt a sense of peace of mind.
I felt that being straightforward like this
was the only way to live as a genuine person.
This was the first time I had felt that happiness that comes with being an honest person.
In the days following that, I kept being honest.
Surprisingly, I didn't expect that I would gain from doing so.
Here you go, have a drink of water. (Oh, thank you!)
Could you set it to the side please?
I'll drink it in a bit. Thank you. (Oh, sure, I'll set it there.)
Ma'am, (Yes?)
the speaker is working well now.
How much for it?
Fifty-one yuan.
Fifty-one yuan? (Yes.)
Oh, here's 100, keep the change.
Oh, that's so much.
Hey, that's really too much.
Well.
I'll tell you about it.
Two days ago, I had asked someone else to come here and to fix it.
He told me that the circuit board was bad,
and asked me to spend 400 yuan for him to swap it. (Oh.)
I thought it over and decided not to swap it out.
Later on, a friend referred me to you,
saying you run an honest shop, and you are very conscientious,
and you don't try to scam money from people.
And today, I see this was all true!
When I heard her words, I thought:
It's not because I'm a good person;
it's because God's words have changed me,
and it was His word that made me more like a real man should be.
The more I practiced being honest according to God's word,
the more my outlook became so much different than before.
The suffering I felt and my depression gradually went away,
and my mood got better and better.
In the blink of an eye,
I have been a believer in Almighty God for 4 years.
I have experienced so many things that showed me the value of being an honest person.
When I first became a believer,
I felt that being an honest person was incompatible with being a business person.
I thought that way I'd not only not make any money,
I'd end up losing money, too.
But when I experienced the judgment of Almighty God's word,
and after I understood God's intention and practiced being honest,
not only did I not post any losses,
on the contrary, my business gradually grew with more customers.
Some even came from far away to come to my shop.
They said they were referred to me by friends or acquaintances.
It was only because I pursued being an honest person in accordance with God's requirements.
I tried to be trustworthy, conscientious,
no longer cheated customers,
no longer took money that went against my conscience.
Instead, I gained my customer's trust.
These were the blessings that God gave me!
I saw this in God's word:
Now I clearly see God's requirement
is for us to be honest people and live by God's words.
This is the only way for us to be real men!
Only by living in accordance with God's words and with His truth,
at all times and in all places,
will we conduct ourselves with honor and magnanimity.
In the past, I lived according to Satan's rules,
I tricked and cheated people in order to take their money.
That sort of life is so debasing,
and isn't how a person should be.
I had experienced life without truth,
and it offered only suffering.
People without truth are pitiful indeed.
I have now experienced God's work, and I know some truths.
I have a new way to live.
It is based on being an honest person in accordance with God's requirements
and on striving to put God's word into practice.
This allows me to gradually leave Satan's logic behind,
no longer shackled by its rules.
I no longer live for money or for the flesh.
Instead, I pursue truth to satisfy God.
In church, I do my duty as a being of creation.
My spirit is happy, at ease, and I'm free.
I walk the right path of life.
Thanks be to Almighty God! Glory be unto Him!