Page 6 - Good News July 2015 paper

he surgeon sat beside the The Bible says He lives there. The year.” He stopped the recorder, months. Why?”
boy's bed. The boy's hymns all say He lives there. but there was more to be said. The Lord answered, “The boy, My
Tparents sat across from You'll find Him in my heart.” “Why?” he asked aloud. “Why did lamb, shall return to My flock, for
him. “Tomorrow morning,” the The surgeon had had enough. “I'll You do this? You've put him here; he has done his duty. I did not put
surgeon began, “I'll open up your tell you what I'll find in your heart. You've put him in this pain; and My lamb with your flock to lose
heart…” I'll find damaged muscle, low You've cursed him to an early him, but to retrieve another lost
“You'll find Jesus there,” the boy blood supply, and weakened death. Why?” lamb.”
interrupted. vessels. And I'll find out if I can The Lord answered and said, “The The surgeon wept...
The surgeon looked up, annoyed. make you well.” boy, My lamb, was not meant for The surgeon sat beside the boy's
“I'll cut your heart open,” he “You'll find Jesus there too. He your flock for long, for he is a part bed; his parents sat across from
continued, “to see how much lives there.” of My flock, and will forever be him.
damage has been done…” The surgeon left... here in My flock. Here he will feel The boy awoke and whispered,
“But when you open up my heart, The surgeon sat in his office, no pain, and will be comforted as “Did you cut open my heart?”
you'll find Jesus in there.” recording his notes from the you cannot imagine. His parents “Yes,” said the surgeon.
The surgeon looked to the surgery. “…damaged aorta, will one day join him here, and “What did you find?” asked the
parents, who sat quietly. “When I damaged pulmonary vein, wide- they will know peace, and My boy.
see how much damage has been spread muscle degeneration. No flock will continue to grow.” “I found Jesus there,” said the
done, I'll sew your heart and hope for transplant, no hope for The surgeon's tears were hot, but surgeon.
chest back up and I'll plan what to cure. Therapy: painkillers and bed his anger was hotter: “You [From Tears in my Heart, Collec-
do next.” rest. Prognosis...” Here he created that boy, and You created ted by James Collins, Xulon
“But you'll find Jesus in my heart. paused, “...death within one that heart. He'll be dead in press, USA, 2007]

n 1992, Bei Cun, considered to the truth.” remarkable story. He says that required to be a Christian in
be one of China's leading there are “sixty to eighty million China. Think about it - being a
Iavant-garde writers, did The passage leaves Zhang's Christians.” It's so large that “as member of the Communist Party
something that really shocked “intellectual assumptions in [he] travelled around China, [he] comes with real political and
his readers and admirers: He ruins.” Bei, just like his literary stopped being surprised by [his] economic benefits. Being a
converted to Christianity! But creation and hopefully his encounters with Christians.” Christian invites discrimination
given the explosive growth of readers, interprets it as pointing and even a knock on the door in
Christianity in China, it shouldn't out “the failure of relying upon These numbers are even more the middle of the night.
be all that surprising. mere human ideologies that astounding when you take recent
neglect God.” Chinese history into account. At So why the explosive growth of
If you haven't heard of Bei Cun, the time of the Communist Christianity in China? While a
that's okay. Neither had I, In an officially Communist State, takeover in 1949, there were an change in economic policies and
probably because his work hasn't this is an “explosive” thing to say! estimated five million Christians the individual pursuit of fortune
been translated into English. I The story ends with Zhang in China. could address China's economic
only learned of his story because embracing Christianity just as Bei problems, it could not provide
my BreakPoint colleague and did. The Communists, as Osnos tells people or the nation with a
friend Roberto Rivera recently us, set out to destroy China's old “sense of purpose.”
read a Philip Jenkins book, “The In China, intellectuals and the belief systems, including its small
New Faces of Christianity: avant-garde are running toward Christian community, and by the So what emerged was a “spiritual
Believing the Bible in the Global Christianity, while their Western time of Mao's death in 1976 had void.” For many Chinese, that
South,” which tells Bei's story. counterparts tend to run away largely succeeded. Even after void is now being filled by JESUS
from it, if they're not denouncing Mao's death, Christians are still CHRIST. This puts the Commu-
After becoming a Christian, Bei it. subject to harassment, arrest, nist Party, however, in a fix. On
wrote what Jenkins calls a and imprisonment for practicing one level, they know that
“Kafkaesque story” entitled “The It's not just intellectuals and the their faith. Christianity is good for China,
Marriage of Zhang Sheng.” In it, avant-garde. In his award-winning especially in the area of morals.
the protagonist, a scholar, opens book, “Age of Ambition: Chasing Yet there are now as many On the other hand, they are afraid
a Chinese-language Bible at Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the Christians as there are members of a movement they can't control.
Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of New China,” Evan Osnos writes of the Communist Party. By some However, extraordinary things
God is revealed from heaven that China is “in the midst of a full- estimates there'll be more are happening.
against all ungodliness and fledged revival.” While Osnos Christians in China than in the US - Eric Metaxas
unrighteousness of men, who by mentions Christianity mostly in by 2030. And this doesn't take into http://www.prophecynewswatch.
their unrighteousness suppress passing, his writings hint at a account the level of commitment com