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.
Influenced by fundamentalism, as well as traditional moral culture, the teachings of the traditional church emphasized suffering and personal piety. All pastors were projected to be spiritually strong men without greed, selfish evil desires, or weakness…
What is the gospel? The gospel is salvation. No matter how strong I am, I am still a sinner in need of salvation.
Read MoreChinese and American churches need each other, not just because of my theological understanding of the global reality of the Bride of Christ, but because the young need the old to offer their wisdom earned from experience, and the old need the young to refresh their sense of purpose and vision. If we want to see revival in America, then we must hear from and listen to those currently witnessing it.
Read MoreWhichever discipleship model we choose needs to be supplemented with an eschatology of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ so that we may understand the times in which we are living.
Read MoreJesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl, which a man bought after selling all that he had. We often soften this message. If we preached like this, who would follow Jesus? But if you understand who Jesus is and what he has done, you will sell everything. You should weigh things in light of the kingdom of heaven.
Read MoreJesus liberated those who lived their whole lives in fear of death. If you truly understand what he did, it is not that you will not be afraid of death, but rather that death no longer has the final say because we have already died in him. We have been set free.
Read MoreYou cannot be a disciple all by yourself. If one person is missing, the whole is incomplete. Jesus says the last day will not arrive until the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world. Only when all the elect people have been gathered together will they be fully remade.
But this is not all. The universe will also be restored. Eschatological discipleship is spiritual formation in the kingdom of heaven. The reason we are able to follow Jesus is because the kingdom of heaven has come. Thereafter, we are citizens of it.
Read MoreDiscipleship concerns restoring the image of God and becoming more and more like the second person of the Godhead in our appearance, behavior, and emotions. Jesus’s call to discipleship is radical and extreme. But at the same time, it is achievable, because he sent the Holy Spirit and created the church.
Read MoreIt is important for us as Christians to discern, in this age and in the context where God has put us, how we could best serve the people around us and live out goodness, justice, and mercy, which I believe is our top priority right now.
Read MoreFor the contemporary, urban house church in China, suffering remains integral to its identity; but unlike in the West, there are no sharp divisions between political suffering and the suffering that has been brought to this world through the Covid-19 pandemic. In the theological legacy of Wang Mingdao, the house church generally believes that suffering and walking the way of the cross is integral to our union with Christ. Precisely because the Chinese church believes suffering is a foundational part of Christian discipleship, it does not make persecution by the state a bigger deal than it is.
Read MoreThe church is a place where you can find personal freedom (for we have been set free in the Lord Jesus), but the church is also an intimately connected community. Gospel-centered discipleship put the individual and the collective in their correct places, and bring us back to God’s original will for creation.
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