Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Heavenly Man


I have been reading a book called Heavenly Man, about/by a leader in the underground house churches in China named Brother Yun. It is making me search my life in a way perhaps no book has. I am humbled and rebuked by the unfamiliarity of his God--my God. The way he knows Him is so distant and foreign to me. I am bursting with excitement to find, to pursue this God, to Know Him in such a way, though I am brought low to see in perspective how I have been starving, thinking I knew what it was to have faith, to rely on Him and to see the ways I have been pursuing other gods. His faith rebukes me, scares me, and Gives me a taste of freedom and Life that I am thirsting to get more of. I want to know the reality of the God he knows but I also see now more than ever I think, how it would mean such a new way of life, I can tell it is freedom beyond what I can imagine but I wonder how possible such a faith, such a relationship, such a reality even is within this society, where it is so easy to be a christian and hard and incredibly hard to be a disciple of Christ.
Still, I want to know God as Brother Yun does; as my life blood and sustainer in all things; as a God present and all powerful in each moment; present in daily abundance, contradicting the limits of this world and over coming its hopeless poverty in any situation. The God who works daily miracles in abundance for His people, no matter the boundaries.
I want to be broken and transformed by Brother Yun's story. I need to pursue This God no matter how much it tears down my life as I know it. I have faith that God will be faithful to his promises of fuller life and abundance in his time as I pursue Him.

I recommend this book to everyone as a testament to the living God in ways most of us in the western world can't imagine. Our eyes have been blinded to His power and the reality of His promises.

2 comments:

Aaron said...

I know exactly what you're talking about. Ben showed me several parts of that book while he was reading it. It's tragic that our culture and, therefore, our own minds are simply not receptive to many of the things that God can (and does) do.
Accepting a lot of the stories about that man requires paradigm shattering.

Ben said...

ya, i read the beginning of this book and it started me on a road that changed and continues to change my faith in awesome ways. i really want to finish the book and would love to have someone to challenge me in my growth that is encouraged by Brother Yun's example.