House Church Talk - Re: Thought For August 23rd

[Adamkwyhmed at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/25/04 12:26:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
robertlm at gvtc.com writes:

Thought  For August 23rd


A  high-ranking officer serving the Communist party under Mao Tse-Tung, 
entered a  village targeted for takeover.  Normally the officer observed to 
identify  the leadership, then executed them under false pretenses and seized  
control.  The officer saw a man pushing a wheelbarrow filled with manure  to the 
field and stopped him.  "Who is the mayor of this village", the  officer asked?  
The man replied, "I am the mayor.  May I help  you?"  The officer snapped 
back, "You're not the mayor.  Mayors  don't push manure to the fields."  The mayor 
calmly replied, "Well, they  do here, because we are Christians and in 
Christianity, the leaders serve  those who follow them."  What a novel approach in 
contrast to the  performance of contemporary Western leadership!

The officer was so shocked, that he dismissed the guard with him,  telling 
them he was going to stay and observe before taking any action.   The Communist 
Party believed many of the villagers were Christians, and that  was the 
primary purpose of the takeover, but this village seemed very  prosperous in the 
midst of poverty in the area.  The officer learned the  spiritual life in that 
village started when Watchman Nee shared the gospel  there and salvation came to 
all the villagers, and the Lord blessed  them.  This entire scenario was 
curious to the officer, and he began to  ask questions, which led to his 
salvation.  Following his new-birth, he  felt called to share the gospel with Mao 
Tse-Tung.

Mao didn't receive the officer's evangelistic witness well, and  the officer 
found himself in prison.  The prison administration pressed  him to renounce 
Christ and again confess that Mao was god, but the officer  refused.  His 
refusal infuriated Mao, who decided to make him an example,  because he was the 
highest-ranking officer in Mao's army to defect until that  time.

Mao first threatened to execute his  wife and children unless he renounced 
Christ and confessed that Mao was  god.  The officer refused and Mao carried out 
his threat.  The  officer had to watch his wife and children's execution.  
Then Mao brought  in the officer's nearest relatives under the same threat.  The 
officer  still refused to renounce Christ and watched as his parents, wife's 
parents  and all his near family was executed.  Mao then followed the same  
strategy with the officer's extended family and friends, and still the officer  
refused to renounce Christ.  Mao then ordered him into prison.  The  
Communists cast him naked into a 6' x 6' concrete cell with no bed, and only a  hole in 
the corner to relieve himself.  The orders required the guards to  beat him 
daily and only feed him soup once a day.

The officer survived the beatings, malnutrition and exposure to  the cold of 
winter, and over the course of twenty years, thinks he led  approximately 
ninety percent of the guards to Christ.  The guards began  to bring him pieces of 
the Scripture, which he memorized.  Following  Mao's downfall, the officer was 
released and he headed out across China as an  itinerate preacher.

An American involved in  exporting into China, as allowed to bring and 
distribute Bibles, and on a  business trip, encountered the itinerate preacher.  The 
two got  acquainted and the American businessman invited the preacher to 
America to  help raise funds for Bible distribution in China.  After having toured 
 the United States, the preacher was asked what impressed him most about  
America.  The preacher replied, "What you can do without God.  I  could be a 
wealthy man in China if I just collected the trash in any American  city and took 
it back home to sell.  In most of the churches I've spoken,  they just don't 
worship the same God I do.  Your god is a god of  convenience!"

What a stinging retort.   In closing, I would ask if your god is for your 
convenience, or do you serve  the True and Living God of the Bible, as did the 
Chinese itinerate  preacher.  No one I know has had their faith tested, as did 
he, but I  would ask if your beliefs were challenged as were his, could you 
stand the  test?



Hope you have/had a good and Godly  day.



Shalom,

Ken



All Rights  Reserved



"What is it to gain the whole world and yet lose your own soal?"
 
Dear Brother:
Thank you for reminding me of the simple, but powerful, message concerning  
Christ being my all in all.  The things of this world will not save us,  only 
Jesus Christ does.  In all that I have lost, if I still hold onto  Jesus, even 
if it just the hem of His garment, I still have more than I will  ever need.
 
Sincerely and may His Shalom be with you too,
A Fellow Bond Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Persecuted  Church,
Adam K Waggoner