Thank God for freedom.
(Photo: Flickr/Kalyan Chakravarthy)
(ChinaAid—April 7, 2021) Bob Fu, PhD, shares several stories of those who have experienced what one detained Christian described as “prison theology.” Bob Fu, PhD, reminds viewers to remember that we [Christians] have a God who is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow—forever. He also recounts that although God does not change, He changes hearts and lives of those who believe in Jesus Christ. In the house church, Dr. Fu notes, God changed Brother Chen Wensheng, once a Chinese “mafia” leader to become “a new creation in Christ, a follower of Jesus.”
At the first of this year, Brother Chen resolved to spend New Year’s Day in sharing the gospel in the public square/in the marketplace. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, however, arrested and sentenced him to 10 days administrative detention for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and urging fellow citizens to repent and accept Him as their Savior and Lord. In prison, a person will experience some tough times, perhaps even getting beat up by fellow prisoners. Brother Chen sees being in prison, however, to actually mean real freedom; that there he gets to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who were spiritually chained by sin. As the gospel of John 3:6 recounts, even before we know Jesus, He has already done his part. All we need is to have a beating heart and by faith accept what Jesus did on the cross….
Dr. Fu relates other examples of Christians standing strong in their faith and refusing to adopt the CCP’s dogma. Lessons Chinese Christians as well as the persecuted Church have learned may be good lessons for the church in the free world. Instead of complaining, being grumpy, or cursing, we would do better to just take every moment every day as a day of the Lord. We can not only sing the song, “This is the day that the lord has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it” —wherever we are. That’s the number one lesson of the lordship of Christ.
The smiling face of Brother Chan when he was dragged into the police station portrays the second lesson, the love of Christ. Even when officers interrogated him, Brother Chen still shared the gospel with his interrogators. He told them his testimony, how God had totally transformed him from a former mafia life to a guy full of sunshine and loving care for others. From the powerful penetrating power of the gospel of Jesus, with the spirit of forgiveness, God not only changes the lives of prisoners, but of prison guards as well as people who hear the gospel on the street from a freed “new creation” prisoner.
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For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
should not perish
but have everlasting life.
~ John 3:16 (NKJV)
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