Through their blows, the persecutors and the persecuted came to know one another. This is an important gain for both of us, as we continue to walk through persecution. This is what it means when we Chinese say: “Out of blows, knowledge grows!”
There will always be conflicts for people who grow up in a traditional Chinese education, because a Chinese education is an atheistic education. But I never doubted the existence of God. The existence of God was as natural to me as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. It was as natural to me as getting up in the morning.
I am a subversive patriot because, despite the progress we have made as a nation, America is not my best hope for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." My ultimate allegiance is to a King who gave up his own life, liberty, and happiness to redeem us from the tyranny of sin.
There are now nearly 1.4 billion people in China. In the 40 years since the end of the Cultural Revolution, how many have been saved? The church in China has been “kept back by idleness”! God has given us this unreached ground. We can be missional and go to the minority peoples, but we need to understand that there are more than a billion lost souls, most of them right before our eyes in the cities! Do urban churches see this path that must be followed?
Read MoreA [Communist] Party county secretary met brothers from our church and said, “You were truly our benefactors. Although the surrounding villages all have infections, our village does not, thanks to the masks you delivered.” For the first time in ten years of preaching the gospel, we saw a change in the attitude of citizens toward our evangelistic efforts.
Read MoreAs a Christian, I must first think about whether my concept of success is the same as the success Christ talked about. If it is, then I am able to think and act according to the standard of the kingdom of heaven, and enter into the success of the heavenly kingdom. Otherwise, we live within a distorted reality. We are attempting to fit into the kingdom of Christ, and trying to find success in both his kingdom and in the kingdom of this world.
Read MoreA great turning point happened after my Biblical counseling class. I began to humble myself, to see the ugly side of myself. Even though I was able to see the ugliness within, it is still hard to walk away from my irritable tendencies. Throughout this process, my wife continued to be patient and forgiving. Later, I began to apologize to her about the ways that I have wronged her. This was our turning point, although we are still in the process of learning how to apologize and forgive each other. We need time to grow in this area.
Read MoreHopefully we will keep on planting churches over the next three to five years. My long-term vision is that in ten years, the city of Shanghai will have a church planting center to help people plant churches. At least we can be a model and continue planting churches. I am against the mindset that a church needs to be healthy enough to plant. I think planting churches is the biblical way. In Scripture, there is no church that is healthy enough to plant another. Instead, continuing to plant churches makes the church healthy.
Read MoreEvangelism is not just telling people that Jesus saves them. It is not that simple. We need to do a lot of work to open eyes, because people are blinded. In China, we opened the door to outsiders for about thirty years. People have just built connections with the world. Now they are cutting all the connections. The door has already closed ninety-eight percent of the way; only two percent is still open. The church should share the gospel by helping people know the truth. We face a population that does not care about truth. They care about feelings.
Read MoreEvangelism is always more relational in China. In China, people worship money, and devote their all to trying to make more money. This pursuit of money has destroyed families and friendships. People have an instinctive distrust of strangers. Even good friends must take their time and avoid money so they can share the gospel in a pure way.
Read MoreWhen we think of Jesus’s kingdom, power and glory worldwide, we are conditioned to say that we must bury our fathers; say farewell to our families; and see to our business interests. If this is the case, our lives are nothing more than bustling about for personal gain. If we are not excited about the great things Jesus did in distant places and sorrowful about the bondage of our distant and strange relatives, our dreams are no more than a struggle to move to a better ZIP code.
Brothers and sisters, I love you and pray for you, not for food, clothing, nor a peaceful life. I pray that none of you fall into the traps of this life and end up being more pathetic than those of the world. That would be like owning the sky but dying in the mud. We have a Father who rules the universe, but you turn him into a "tribal" and "industry god.”
Read MoreI long for our church to live out a different testimony here within Xiamen: to follow the command of Christ, to live with a missional mindset, to sincerely care for others—for their lives, but most of all for their relationships with God. I long for the lives of believers to be focused not on attaining houses and money. Instead, may we live with true assurance and eternal hope in the midst of the hardships we face. May the gospel be our way of life, and may we view all things with a holistic, biblical worldview. I hope that the sinners of this city will sense the love and acceptance of the church. I hope that the intellectuals of this city will receive the answers for which they long and that they will be challenged by the truth. I hope that people of all ages and all walks of life will receive, in the church, the care and the help they need—and this includes the government workers who are persecuting the church.
Read MoreValley of Vision directs people to a theologically sound knowledge of God and his work, and that knowledge is the basis for right feelings and right doings. This devotional work is balanced in motivating people in these three categories: right thinking, right feeling, and right doing…I hope this work will first edify Chinese pastors and workers, then they can use this book to influence their congregations. I hope this book will help Chinese Christians know God better, love God more deeply, and follow God forever.
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