Good Morning from England! This needs no introduction. Special Blessings to you all, PK x A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE IN CHINA (from original story in Asia Harvest newsletter) It was the greatest miracle that ever happened to Brother Duan, and he would not have experienced it had his bus not broken down. Travelling from a northern province of China one chilly December day, he happened to be passing through Henan province when the engine of the bus expired in its futile battle with the cold. On a whim, Duan trudged off through the fields, leaving the other passengers huddled inside the bus. He was a house church leader in northern China. Now 77-years-old, he still had no home to call his own. The truth is, he was deeply depressed. He was on his way to mediate a dispute among the church leaders and was weary of all the infighting that seemed to be harming the house churches. And he was lonely. As he crossed the frozen field, Duan thought longingly of his beloved wife who had died years earlier. He wished she was alive to listen to him and give her sweet counsel. And then the thought of his little son came into his tired mind, and an even darker cloud settled over his heart. He found a village and knocked on a door. A little cross was notched on the doorpost. “Is there anyone here who loves the Lord?” he asked. “I would love some fellowship tonight.” The door was opened by a man in his fifties, and Duan was warmly welcomed inside. His feet were washed in a basin--the custom of welcoming a stranger to their home, and he was fed hot congee and steaming vegetables. He noticed that the family members were excited. It turned out they would be travelling to a neighboring town to hear a dynamic Bible teacher from a large city. “What’s his name?” asked Duan, “Brother Wang”, they replied. As they made their way to the meeting, they told Duan stories about this mysterious Brother Wang. It was clear they loved him dearly, and one of the men explained why. “We once held a training seminar here and heard the police were coming to arrest us. Brother Wang helped everyone escape, except our main pastor. When the police arrived, Wang dared to bargain with them. He offered to go to prison if our pastor, whose wife was eight months pregnant, would be allowed to go free. The officers accepted his terms, and Brother Wang spent the next three years in prison.” “How old is Brother Wang?” Duan asked. When told he was in his early 40s, Duan’s face showed great pain. “What’s the matter?” he was asked. “Are you ill from your trip?” “No, I’m not ill,” he replied, “just very sad. I once had a son, whom I knew for just two months. He’s dead now, but if alive he would have been 42 today. My wife called him the ‘Christmas Child’ since he was born at Christmas time. I called him ‘Isaac,’ because we had despaired for so long of having a child.” There was silence as they rode in the open cart under the stars. Brother Duan told the incredible story of how he and his wife had been evangelists in the 1950s. They refused to join the government-approved Three-Self church, and an unbeliever named Wu kept accusing them of political and criminal offences. It was only a matter of time before they were imprisoned or killed, but what would happen to their baby boy? One night, Duan’s wife heard a strong voice in a vision, saying, “Give your son to your enemy.” Knowing nothing about this, Duan read Genesis 22:2 the following morning: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Sharing their impressions, the couple decided on a course of action that had caused Duan to wince in pain every day since. They gave their baby boy to Wu and his wife--who was childless--even as Wu arranged for the couple’s arrest. It wasn’t until 1978, when Duan was released from prison, that he learned what had happened to his wife and son. She had died in the terrible famine of 1958, and his son had disappeared along with the Wu family under the rubble of a devastating earthquake in 1975. Said Duan as the rickety cart approached the meeting place, “God judged me for being so irresponsible with my little son.” As they arrived at the place where the evangelist was to speak, a crowd of over 200 people were already packed into the house. Like many others, Duan had to sit in the courtyard and listen to the teacher through the open window. When Brother Wang began preaching, Duan felt a terrible shock. It was like hearing himself! He began to tremble with fear. Even the phrases the teacher used sounded familiar. confused, he staggered up to the window to see the preacher, causing a commotion as he fell over people. The preacher stopped, and there was a moment of shocked silence as the two stared at each other. The crowd was hushed as they realized the amazing physical likeness between the two men. “I’m sorry for interrupting your excellent message,” Duan began. “You see, I had a son who be your age now. If he had lived, he would have looked and sounded just like you.” Brother Wang began to tremble violently. Suddenly, his legs buckled beneath him, and he had to be caught before he fell to the floor. Clutching his pounding chest, he sobbed, “Are you Daddy Duan?” Everyone wept as father and son were reunited. The preacher told how he had indeed been brought up by Wu, who was so impressed by Duan’s selfless act that he had become a strong Christian. “I’m not your father,” Wu used to say to him, “Your real father is a great man of God, full of grace and love. He gave you to me, and I give you all my love and the encouragement to put God first, just like your real dad would have done.” Wang’s adopted parents had moved away from the earthquake zone before the tragedy, but both had died of cancer in their 60s. Wang became an evangelist and tried to find his real father, but Duan had changed his name so many times to avoid arrest that he had proved untraceable. As father and son continued to hug and weep, the elder of the church stood up and declared, “It’s December. We have seen our sermon tonight: Christ came into the world to save sinners [John 3:16, ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”]--that is the essence of Christmas. Just as Duan handed his only son into the care of his enemy, so God handed over His only Son to us sinners [enemies, Romans 5:8, ”But god proved His love toward us in that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.”]. Let us rejoice in their reconciliation and ours, too.” [Romans 5:10, ”For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His own Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”] Have you given your heart and your life to Jesus? If not, please pray now. Ask Jesus to forgive all of your sins and come into your heart to take control of your life. If you are a believer already, please think of the incredible sacrifice God made so that you can have life. May we not be unthankful like nine of the ten lepers who didn’t bother thanking Jesus after he healed them of their horrible disease (see Luke 17:11-19). Regardless of how difficult our lives become, we should never forget to thank the Lord Jesus for His countless blessings--we should even thank him for the very air we breathe. Can you imagine what the world, and your life, would be like if God had never sent His beloved Son to rescue our broken and evil world? [that’s rescue “us” from this broken and evil world, Galatians 1:3-4, ”Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”] To God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, to whom be the glory for ever and ever . AMEN. SO BE IT. Maranatha, Lord Jesus!
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 07:12:06 +0000
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