Pastor Peter Xu Audio now posted
We had more than 1200 in Sunday's Worship Services to welcome Pastor Peter Xu, the grandfather of the house church movement in China and kick off our 2007 Missions Conference. It was awesome to hear of God's work in China, when all seemed dark and the light of the Gospel dim in closed, communist China, in reality God was doing a mighty work.
Because each service was different and Pastor Xu shared different experiences we've posted all three service audios HERE.
We're also trying to locate and post the audio from the Sunday evening question and answer session where Pastor Xu shared the Back to Jerusalem vision. Stay tuned!
I just thought the whole day was a once in a lifetime experience.
What were your thoughts, feelings and reaction to hearing Pastor Xu's experience of suffering and persecution?
One reminder for me, was that God meets us in our suffering. His grace is sufficient for us. I think Pastor Xu clearly communicated that this was his experience.
5 comments:
Hi!
Great blog...cool to see what God is doing around SLO. I got your blog link from Bryan Stupar's.
Just a word, I don't know if you have heard that the Christian House Church Leaders in China have discredited The Heavenly Man book. :( I had it on my blog, too for awhile, then a Chinese friend in the country where I am a missionary tipped me to that news.
I checked out the website (in English) and was convinced that indeed that book was more than a little fiction. The reason was more than just their factual recounting of dates, places, etc. that didn't line up, but it was the humble, graceful, loving way in which they did it.
They didn't slam Brother Yun, they just said that some of those stories were true - but not his own - and that some were exaggerated, and some were false. They felt that Yun had simply gotten caught with wealth with influence from westerners and was tempted to stray from retelling the whole truth. Yun apparently lives in Germany or the Netherlands now?
Anyway, not to be negative or a downer, but I just thought you might want to know. I will try to find the website address again and send it to you, but I'm sure you can google it and find it.
God surely used that book, but I chose not to promote it based on the very valid seeming claims against it. You, of course, will make your own decision and I"m sure God will lead you.
Glad to see all that God is doing in SLO and at Grace! Keep the faith!
I googled "Heavenly Man discredited" and guess what I found?
An open letter from Paul Hattaway. In it, he responds to the claims mentioned above. It seems most of it stems from one person who lives in Germany, and for some reason, has it out for Brother Yun.
Here's the link to Hattaway's letter:
http://www.asiaharvest.org/pages/news050705OpenLetterBrotherYun.html
I really enjoyed seeing Pastor Xu speak both Sunday am and pm. It can be easy to fall into the line of (extremely faulty) thinking that somehow God is limited to our own experience/nation/culture, but hearing what Pastor Xu had to say reminded me of the vastness of God. I just finished reading "The Heavenly Man" yesterday and I am really excited about the many Chinese missionaries being sent out!!!
I really enjoyed hearing Pastor Xu on Sunday. I heard the sermon was different at each of the services and hope to listen to the other ones.
I have been interested in the controversy. I agree with what Brother Yun said in the book about it being so sad that in the West Christians are persecuted by other Christians. I think the accusations were worse for him than any torture he endured.
I found some interesting articles on the web about persecution and organ harvesting in China and a good debate about the book:
This discussion included the letter suposedly from the house church leaders. And it included posts from differing views inside China
http://scott.yang.id.au/2005/05/heavenly-man-challenged/
http://www.backtojerusalem.com/Heavenly%20Man%20-%20Still%20a%20Target%20for%20Persecution.htm
http://www.chinaaid.org/english_site/index.php
An interesting article on Pastor Xu
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3993857.stm
http://www.persecution.net/
http://www.prisoneralert.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,241057,00.html
There are so many Christians being persecuted in China and all over the world. It is difficult to want to think about it, but they need our prayers.
I was in contact with a prison guard in Guangdong China that did me the favor of getting brother Yun's prison records, over a hundred pages of them, and read to me the areas I was most interested in, the broken legs and his 74 day fast and his escape. It all was varified as stated in the book. By the way this young guard just wanted to know more about the bible and we read it together. He also followed my advice and had a wonderful Christmas 2013 program at his prison as he read the bible to the prisoners, mostly African, about the birth of Jesus. We met on Skype and had all our conversations there. I met brother Yun in person and we prayed together for my mother in law which only speaks Spanish. That was in Irvine Calif about a year ago. that was suspected of having lung cancer. Follow-up tests showed nothing. Praise God!
Any Questions contact me on Skype davidmdecker1
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