The Heavenly Man

I bought this book from Salvation Bookstore some time before little boy came out. The plan to read this book was put on hold when little boy came and turned our lives upside down.

Yesterday, finally, I got to read the book. I started intending just a few sips of the early pages, and ended up gulping the whole book overnight. What time did I sleep? Well, at the time when the Chinese Christians wake up to pray. Bad bad bad, was yawning away while cutting out someone's baby.

The book tells of the 'remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun'. Well, more like his life testimony about being a Christian during the repressive times in Communist China. Brother Yun became a Christian in 1974 at age 16. There were few believers then. He soon grew to be a preacher, a husband, a pastor, a father, a house-church leader, a prisoner, a convict-on-the-run, a missionary trainer, a cripple, an exile... Wherever he went, he faced persecution and suffered for standing firm to his faith; but there were also miracles that accompanied him, reaffirming him that the God that he followed is real, personal, and powerful.

Currently based in Germany (which granted him refugee status), he directs a "Back to Jerusalem" movement, which aims to unite the house churches in China, to equip and send out Chinese missionaries to the unreached nations between China and Jerusalem: Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia; Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan; Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, (hey you forgot Malaysia), Myanmar, India.

To quote some of his words:

I have a problem with the "prosperity" teaching prevalent today, which tells us if we follow the Lord we'll be safe and comfortable. This is completely contrary to the Scripture as well as to our experiences in China. In addition to serving years in prison, I've been arrested about thirty different times for the sake fo the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My family lived in a rickety old home, which was falling apart. We wore old clothes and my children had holes in their shoes. We always believed the best of our possessions, time and money should go to training the workers so they could go to the poorest and most needy places.

Suffering had broken down all denominational walls in the Chinese church...
However, after a few years these same mission organizations started putting other books at the top of the bags of Bibles. These were books about one particular denomination's theology, or teaching that focused on certain aspects of God's Word. This, I believe, was the start of disunity among many of China's house churches.

We once again saw that nothing is impossible for God - absolutely nothing. He holds all our lives in his hands and not a thing will happen to one of God's children unless it is part of his plan and will for our lives.

We have also come to understand that the past thirty years of suffering, persecution and torture for the house churches in China were all part of God's training for us. The Lord has perfectly fitted us to go as missionaries to the Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu worlds.

We never pray against our government or call down curses on them. Instead, we have learned that God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under. God has used China's government for his own purposes, moulding and shaping his children as he sees fit. Instead of focusing our prayers against any political system, we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God.

Don't pray for the persecution to stop! We shouldn't pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure! Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects his love and power.

We're totally committed to planting groups of local believers who meet in homes. We have no desire to build a single church building anywhere! This allows the gospel to spread rapidly, is harder for the authorities to detect, and allows us to channel all our resources directly into gospel ministry.

In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don't rise up and walk in Jesus' name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there's nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord.

When I'm in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don't need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival.

Many Christians have also asked me why miracles and signs and wonders are so prevalent in China, but not so evident in the West. In the West you have so much. You have insurance for everything. In a way, you don't need God.

In China, the greatest miracles we see are not the healings or other things, but lives transformed by the gospel.

The Lord wants us to embrace suffering as a friend. We need a deep realization that when we're persecuted for Jesus' sake it is an act of God's blessing to us.

The people who really suffer are those who never experience God's intimate presence. The way to have God's presence is by walking through hardship and suffering - the way of the cross.

There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison. Perhaps it's so that they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives.

Now that my family is together outside China, it doesn't mean we'll stay away from our homeland forever. We didn't flee the country by our own efforts in a bid to live an easier life. We left China because God clearly told us to do so. He then confirmed it by opening a door for us to leave. If God tells us to go back to China one day, we will. It's as simple as that. We're not called to live by human reason. All that matters is obedience to God's Word and his leading in our lives. If God says go, we'll go. If he says stay, we'll stay. When we are in his will, we are in the safest place in the world.

So, have I stirred you to get a read at this book? I bought it from Salvation at RM19.80. Mr PenaRajawali offered to buy it from me at half price after I've read it. Sorry la bos, it is going into my collection.