The Heavenly Man
I finished reading the The Heavenly Man
The book is about Brother Yun, a Christian house church evangelist in communist China. The book reads a lot like the Acts of the Apostles, with Brother Yun traveling from one church community to another evangelizing, teaching and encouraging the believers as the government chases him. Several times, he does get caught, tortured, and imprisoned, but Brother Yun's witness is consistently strengthened by his suffering.
After the whole James Frey fiasco, every time you read a book like this, you have to wonder about the truthfulness of the story. Of course anyone who claims that God does miracles today is going to be challenged by certain factions within the western church. A quick internet search confirms the controversy. I believe Brother Yun is truthful. His arrests are well documented as are the conditions of the house church movement in China. God's method of aiding his suffering church is well documented in the Bible. Many of us in the west are not privileged enough to suffer, so we begin to doubt. The God that we read about in Acts is alive and well, and has not changed. Paul Hattaway has a detailed rebuttal of the criticisms on the asiaharvest website.
Brother Yun's teaching is biblical, challenging, and inspirational. In the west we have so much. I have 5 or 6 bibles at home, several more available on demand 24/7 through biblegateway.com. In Spokane, I can scan my AM/FM radio dial and find pastors preaching on 3 or 4 channels pretty much 24 hours per day. I have hundreds of churches I can choose to go to, and can find services at a time that is convenient to me. Brother Yun and many other Christians in China often have none of this. They have the ability to pray. If they are very lucky, they can get their hands on a bible. They can covertly meet with other believers, at the risk of imprisonment and torture. Despite this massive imbalance, I believe that their faith is often much healthier than ours.
Brother Yun describes how well meaning churches sent literature along with bibles into china, and their denominational teachings caused a great rift between the different house church movements. Sometimes less is more. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." - 2 Corinthians 12:9
There are some very admirable things about Brother Yun's character exposed in the book. Whenever he was able, he would memorize a chapter of the bible every day. When he was in prison, he had a massive collection of God's word available right in his heart.
In every situation, he was looking for a way to be a witness for Christ. He rejoiced in his suffering, and his cellmates and other people that he was in contact with took notice.
He acknowledges his failures in the book as well. When he wasn't in prison, he would work until he was totally burnt out. He would neglect his family. He is thankful for the suffering that God used to remedy his disobedience.
Because of disobedience and disrespect for the Lord, my wife, and my co-workers, I went to prison for a second time. The Lord saw I was exhausted in the ministry, so he graciously allowed me to rest in him behind bars for a while and learn about inner spiritual life.
I highly recommend this book. It is quite an inspiring and challenging.
