PERSECUTION IS COMING

PERSECUTION IS COMING

            Hong and Esther Yang, a Chinese couple that is sponsored in part by our church came and spoke to us last night, having just returned from a trip to China. Hong reported to us that the persecution in China is the worst it has been in 40 years, or ever since Mao tse Tung was in charge of the country.

            Their new president has changed their constitution removing term limits, making himself leader for life and he aspires now to be the new Chairman Mao with one important upgrade. He will become the god of China and anyone who has any other allegiance, whether Muslim, Buddhist or Christian will be imprisoned and tortured and forced to renounce their allegiances or die.

            Hong reported that in spite of or maybe even because of persecution the underground is growing by leaps and bounds and the Christians there consider it a privilege to suffer for Christ.

            Hong as spent two different terms in prison, for his faith in Jesus. One time he was in line for persecution in which they were pushing cattle prods up their rectums and shocking their insides with 220 volts of electricity. Hong was next in line, when they discovered that he was a U.S. citizen, so they pulled him out of line and deported him. HE was kicked out of Chine for 7 years, but has recently gained a visa again and so he goes back to China every times he has put enough funds together to make another trip.

            When he lived in China the Christians sent Hong to Mongolia to minister there. He was there for seven years and raised up 1000 churches and some of them today have as many as 500 people in them and they are sending missionaries into places like Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

            A couple of our members made this recent trip to china with Hong including one of our youth (Isaac) who also came back and played the role of Jesus in our Resurrection day play. They reported that everywhere Hong went, in Taxis, Restaurants, hotels, or trains Hong witnessed to everyone he met and they found many people hungry to understand more about the Gospel.

            In the last couple of years over 2000 churches have been shut down and burned to the ground in just one province in China and the pastors cast into prison to be tortured and in many cases never heard from again.

            Hong and Esther Yang carry upon them a mantle of tough ministry rarely seen in today’s church. I got to visit with him for a few minutes after the service. He is a walking dynamo of love and passion. He said we need to spend less time on theology and more time on “kneeology” that we need to re-establish our love for the word of God.

            He said that in china anyone found with a Bible or a cross, is severely beaten and the Bible and the Cross burned and their jobs taken away and their property as well. They cannot hold positions of influence in China if they are Christian and that includes being nurses or doctors or dentists or teachers.

            It was also interesting to find out that our Christmas lights are being made for us by prisoners in concentration camps, by people being starved and tortured for their faith. In other words, these labor camps amount to free labor for the production of Chinese goods and the suffering is horrendous.

            We need to remember and pray for our Christian warriors on the battlefields of this world. In spite of the persecution the Chinese people seem hungry for the Gospel, for it provides hope from them beyond this present miserable existence. They know almost instinctively that there must be a God above all of this who cares for them and when they are presented by a God who actually died for their sins giving His life for them, they embrace Him with a tenacity no longer seen in America where times of ease have lulled us into a stupor.

            Our idea of Christianity has become so distorted that we have now made it me- centered… giving in order to get… and rock star worship   and a religion of comfort. Many who claim to be born again today, haven’t a clue concerning the bible, or obedience, or what the New Birth is really all about, or any concept of overcoming sin or walking by the Spirit of Christ having put to death the deeds of the flesh. So maybe a bit of persecution would help us to refocus and to come to Christ for the right reasons rather than the wrong reasons and maybe we would even spend less time arguing over doctrines and more time winning souls for the kingdom.

            At any rate, after listening to Hong and Esther Yang one walks away feeling like you have just had a brush with real Christianity.