Monday, September 29, 2008

The Heavenly Man - God is at Work in China

I just finished reading The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun It is indeed a remarkable story of a living Christian Pastor and his life of persecution and witness in China. This story describes the incredible persecution that Brother Yun and many others in China still suffer because of their belief in the Jesus Christ of the Bible. It details the growth of the home churches in China and their impact on the lives of those who come to Christ.

I was amazed to read of the many miracles that Jesus did to show his power in Brother Yun's life. Just because we here in America don't see miracles doesn't mean that they are not occurring around the world. Jesus is the same (Heb 13:8) and is all powerful. He delights to answer prayer and through that answer to bring glory to himself.

I was also convicted to read how Brother Yun describes his experience in prison and how we should pray for persecuted Christians.

"The first time I went to prison I struggled, wondering why God had allowed it. Slowly I began to understand he had a deeper purpose for me than just working for him. He wanted to know me, and I to know him, deeply and intimately. He knew the best way to get my attention for a while was to give me rest behind bars.

Whenever I hear a house church Christian has been imprisoned for Christ in China I don't advise people to pray for his or her release unless the Lord clearly reveals we should pray this way. . . .

There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison. Perhaps it's so they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives. But if we use our own efforts to get them out of prison earlier than God intended we can thwart his plans, and the believers may come out not as fully formed as God wanted them to be.

I'm often asked about the rights of pastors in China. A pastor has no rights, except the rights of a slave! Everyone in this world is a slave. They're either slaves to sin, or slaves of Christ. Our "rights" are in the hands of Jesus. We must fall on our knees in complete dependence on him...

The World can do nothing to a Christian who has no fear of man."

This book is very interesting and well worth the read. Get The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun today and enjoy!

2 comments:

PoetLady said...

That IS a great book, absolutely amazing, I recommend it to everyone!

Your sis,
Maria

Anna Naomi said...

I read it last year around Christmas, and it is indeed a good book! It's a sobering reminder of how "good" we have it here in America, and how we should pray for our persecuted family in Christ around the world.