"Heavenly Man" - Ch3 - Our Work & God's Power

Another chapter and once again more miraculous events transpire in the life of Brother Yun.  Again, while the miraculous – or at least the obvious movements of God if it be improper to label some as “miraculous” – are exciting, there are also several concrete things we can both learn and apply to our lives from this chapter.  Among them are a commitment to God’s Word (memorizing and sharing it), seeking the Holy Spirit, obedience when God directs, as well as the undeniable truth that our Theology (which is, perhaps in more ways than we realize, impacted/shaped by the songs we sing) ought to impact our lives..

These themes are important because in this chapter the “miraculous” happens (or God simply moves) in relation to what His people do.  It is relatively easy to pray and hope for “miraculous” things; it is quite another to live your life in such a way that God will “show up” in order to validate His people and therefore glorify His name.  

An amazing example of this (our work and God’s power) occurs after Yun had his long sought for Bible.  He read it daily, in spite of having only a third grade education, until he had read it cover to cover.  Yet God did not miraculously enable him to read despite his low literacy skills.  Rather, Yun had to look up most words (which are made up of characters in the complicated Chinese language) as he progressed through the Bible.  Then after having read through the Bible he started to memorize a chapter a day; after 28 days he had memorized Matthew.  Next he read the other three gospels quickly and then started to memorize the book of Acts. 

All of that is “our work” – what we can do.  Sadly, too often it seems we think we “own” the Bible just because we have purchased it, have received it as a gift, or can put it down and stop reading whenever we want.  Yet more accurately the Bible is the subject and we are the object…it pokes and prods our lives and we are to conform to it.  This is made abundantly clear in what happens a bit later in the chapter. 

Basically, Yun is told by God to go and be His witness.  God directs Yun to people who had been praying and fasting for him to come after they heard how he miraculously received a Bible.  They wanted Yun to teach them, but he did not know how to preach.  So Yun did what he could; he recited Scripture – as in the whole book of Matthew.  Yun did what he could, and what did God do?  After Yun recited all of Matthew, with his eyes tightly shut, the Holy Spirit led him to sing Scripture-based songs Yun previously did not know.  After finishing and opening his eyes he saw the people kneeling in repentance with tears running down their cheeks.   That is clearly the work of God…yet it came about as a man did what he could. 

As far as songs influencing our Theology, we will cover them in the next post.  Until then, may continue to grow in our understanding of how to appropriately handle God’s word.  

"Heavenly Man" - Ch2

It is a struggle to not share all the miraculous accounts Yun tells us about in chapter two.  After all, we are often drawn to the spectacular.  Yet as with any miracle, the issue is not the miracle itself but what it communicates and how we should therefore respond. 

In a land of plenty it is easy for us to take the Bible for granted.  Many homes have more than one, quite often churches have some ready for guests, and bookstores have rows of them on their shelves.  Yet when Yun came to know Jesus (itself involving a miracle) at the age of 16 back in 1974, Bibles were scarce.  In fact, Yun wanted to know more about Jesus so he asked his mother if any of His teachings remained.  She replied, “No. All his words are gone. There is nothing left of His teaching.” (p26).  What she meant was due to oppression no one had Bibles anymore (or at least if they had them, they were hidden). 

For all intensive purposes Bibles were non-existent in China.  In fact, of those in Yun’s village, only a few old believers could recall even seeing a Bible many years in the past.  A former pastor in a relatively nearby village was rumored to have one, but out of fear he would not let the young and eager Yun (still known as Zhenying) see a page of it. 

So, how did Yun get a Bible?  Well, it was miraculous, but that account will have to wait for the next time. 

Yet between now and the next time I encourage you to spend some time reading in this amazing book we call the Bible.  Sadly, we live in a culture that is too easily pacified and amused.  We are often like little children running toward the empty desserts and other unhealthy things of a smorgasbord…leaving ourselves malnourished for the task of winning the world for our King – Jesus. 

Let’s face it; we need food to survive physically.  Can we say the same about the Word of God in our existence as His children?    

Oh God, give us – give me – a hunger for Your Word.  May we long to devour it like a hungry child devours food.