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.
As Christians, we are to have knowledge, but we do not stop there. We are to be honest, but we are also to have the wisdom to discern and respond. We need to be equipped with information, and also to manifest these things in a clearly defined life of faith occurring amid specific historical events.
Read MoreThe Bible clearly teaches, “a man shall leave his father and mother, and they shall become one flesh.” My wife and I are different from my parents. We try to respect and care for them to the best of our abilities, but I struggle determining the boundaries.
Read MoreThis rope of love has a beginning and end, and for Li, the rope passed through the valley of the shadow of death of Jiabiangou [a labor camp]. What is left in our lives is not a chronicle of suffering, but rather a journey of grace. It should also be our vow when faced with suffering: we will follow the loving and faithful Savior into the depths of the waters. This is a journey of perseverance and of grace.
Read MoreThe Bible tells those of us who are now alive that we must be crucified. Yet the gospel becomes comfort to those who are hopeless in this world and those who are prepared to die. God says, “Let those who are hopeless in this life, live.” This is the dangerous gospel I bring to each of you.
Read MoreWhether or not you like it, every Christian who has something to say to the world ought to hold him or herself to the standards of an evangelist. If you go online, you must be a “missional Internet user.” If you talk about the gospel, you must be a committed and discipled Christian. If you start a Weibo account which you use to post daily sermons, then you ought to consider applying for a seminary certificate program.
Read MoreAt a time when the American evangelical church is greatly divided over a host of issues, missional church partnering for ministry in China offers great riches in the form of expanding the horizons of the body of Christ. Such partnership can rally the church together behind an important vision. American churches unfamiliar with the church in China can begin to learn from first-hand testimonies about the challenges and victories of our brothers and sisters on the other side of the globe. This serves to strengthen the congregation’s scope and understanding of the world-wide body of Christ, while also casting vision for the next generation of young missionaries in our U.S. congregations.
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 MoreLast weekend, Sunday was a work day. Next door to a church is a law firm, which would be working during the service. Our church wants to be a good neighbor, and not be too loud to affect their work. I also had fears about whether they would report us. I needed God’s wisdom. Our church changed locations last weekend; we moved, in the same building, to the company of a church member to hold the service. Every day I have to make these kinds of choices. Every decision needs to be driven by the gospel, instead of by fear, even if the result seems the same.
When our church was small, when there were only twenty people, I had fears about financial sufficiency; now we have 130 to 150 people each Sunday, and I have a fear of too many people.
Read MoreWe will encounter hardships in these early stages of church planting. The barriers of our likes and dislikes will be broken down as we go out of our comfort zones and encounter many other obstacles. It is even possible that we may not see any changes for some time; this is the case when sowing seeds. But the Bible promises that if we do what is good, abiding by the Scriptures and what is pleasing to God, that in the appointed time what we sow will bear fruit. The day of reaping will indeed be a time of joy for us.
Read MoreThe pandemic has taken away most things that we consume in our churches: our valued relationships, the social circles we enjoy, convenient transportation via the subway, and now we cannot even gather physically for Sunday worship. Have you ever thought how you would react if God has removed our current worship space from us forever? What would you do if external circumstances become more and more difficult and we were no longer able to freely use our current place of worship?…What is left of the church in the midst of the pandemic? Jesus, the gospel, God’s word, prayers, and the recordings of past hymns.
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