Tuesday, August 28, 2012

"Heavenly Man" - through Ch1


About two years ago, a good friend (Shane J. Wood) introduced me to the story of “Brother Yun”.  Shortly after hearing some about Yun I promptly ordered “The Heavenly Man,” which is basically his story.  I have already read the book once, but am reading it again and will share some reflections as I progress through the book this time.

The book’s title uses the nickname affectionately given to Yun, whose given name is Liu Zhenying, by brothers and sisters in China as a result of an incident back in 1984.  While under arrest Zhenying refused to endanger his fellow believers by giving his name while being interrogated.  As he yelled “I am a heavenly man! My home is in heaven!” local believers were made aware of the danger so they could flee and avoid arrest (p13). 

The first chapter gives a brief history lesson of governmental control in Yun’s home province of Henan.  The chapter tells of atrocities committed against Christians during the Communist government takeover in the mid 20th century.  While these accounts are awful, it is often hard for us to relate to such hardship.  However we should not ignore them.  In fact, it seems we ought to be led to ponder if a lack of hardship in America is for the good or ill of The Church here.  Granted, this may not be a popular question, yet it is worth considering.  Another way of posing it could be, “Is God more concerned about our comfort or the advancement of His Kingdom?”  Or is that too direct or inaccurate?    

1 comment:

  1. I would say that of course God is more concerned with advancing His Kingdom than He is about our comfort.

    In the movie "Blue Like Jazz," Mother Theresa is quoted as saying something to the effect of, "The physical poverty of India [or the East] is nothing compared to the spiritual poverty of the West."

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