We Americans might sometimes think ourselves persecuted for our Christian faith. Someone might look at us disapprovingly or denounce a comment or say something disparaging about us and our beliefs.
On a 1 to 10 persecution scale, that doesn't even rate a 1, if the top of the scale is what the Chinese Christians have endured in the last few decades. Even a short reading of The Heavenly Man by Paul Hattaway makes that clear.
Briefly, Liu Zhenying, better known as "Brother Yun," or "The Heavenly Man" is a Chinese pastor who has worked hard to spread the Gospel around Communist China. There are many pastors like him, and as a result of their sacrifice, the message of Jesus is becoming well known in China. Brother Yun is unusual because of the extent of his suffering -- even in a land where this is common -- and because of the miraculous signs that have followed him.
The book reads, in part, almost clinically. Yun matter of factly tells about beatings, electric shocks, needles under the fingernails, starvation, cold, wet, and rejection. But those are not the point of the book. Those things just happened along the way.
The point is that because of his faithfulness, the Kingdowm of God has been extended powerfully where he has worked in China. Today, the Church is growing as rapidly in China as anywhere else on the planet.
It's a powerful testimony to what the Lord can do with committed servants.
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