I recently finished reading a truly amazing book dealing with a slice of history from the Chinese house church movement called, The Heavenly Man. It had an impact on my life like perhaps no other book other than the Bible itself. To see how God worked in the lives of individuals through the Holy Spirit there in the midst of severe persecution is staggering. I was inspired by the way God led people to find their very own copy of His Word many times through miraculous means, and then spread that Word house to house, door to door, and individual to individual through beatings, imprisonment, cruel torture and worse. Two things that I gleaned from the book that I found powerful were:

1. Inspite of (or should I say due to) the persecution, China’s population of real, dynamic Christians is estimated to be over double the entire human population of my native country, Canada!
2. A quote from Brother Yun: “It is not those in prison for the sake of the gospel who suffer. The person who suffers is he who never experiences God’s intimate presence.” So true.

Read it for yourself. It will affect you deeply. In fact, you’ll have a hard time putting it down before you reach the end of the book.

Technorati Tags: christianity, chinese house church, Brother Yun

Posted on January 8th, 2007 by Josh Champagne
Filed under: Book Reviews