The Heavenly Man - Book Review

The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun

I was totally in shock as I was reading this book. I think you will be too.

In the Western world where I live, in the world of prosperity and comfort, many of us have settled more or less for lukewarm churches, stagnant growth of believers, and lack of the genuine power of God working among people's lives. When we read of the time of the early churches in the New Testament, with unbelievable miracles, reformations, and persecutions, we might feel that those times are something of the past. We raise our eyebrows and are tempted to question if they even happen anymore in the 21st century.

However, they do!

Even more amazingly... in communist China.

This book will open your eyes to the wonderful work that God is doing in this day to get people ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus. The gospel is really going to all nations, tongues, and people. Yes, even now, while many of us who have much light may be sleeping. Not only that, but in such powerful ways we never would have thought of. Let me give you a small taste of the beginning of Brother Yun's journey.

His story starts in 1974, when Bibles were extremely rare in China, and if anyone was caught with one, the owner's family would be beaten and the Bible would be burned. However, after the miraculous healing of his father from cancer, Brother Yun's family go through a revival and dedicate themselves to God. Brother Yun earnestly longs for a copy of the Bible, and decides to pray every day for one. After a month, nothing happens, so he starts months of fasting and prayer, in which he eats nothing during the day and eats only one bowl of rice in the evening. His parents worry about his sanity, but after months of difficulties, prayer, and weeping, he receives a vision, in which there is a kind old man with two other men, and they give him a red bag with bread inside, and when Brother Yun puts it in his mouth, it turns into a Bible! Brother Yun wakes up from his dream, searching all over the house for the Bible because the vision had been so real. But it's not there, and he begins to weep loudly, waking his parents in the middle of the night. His parents think that their son, after all those months, has lost his mind, and they all cry together, kneeling on the floor...
when they hear a knock on the door.

A voice calls his name, and Brother Yun rushes over and replies, "Are you bringing the bread to me?" The soft answer is, "Yes, we have a bread feast to give you." He opens the door and realizes that the two men are the same two men he saw in his vision! He receives a red bag, which has a Bible inside.

Later, Brother Yun finds out that the two men came from a far village, where an elderly evangelist was about to bury a Bible in the ground, maybe to dig it back up when times were better. Three months before Brother Yun gets the Bible, the evangelist was shown by God a specific young man in a certain house in a certain village to give that Bible to. However, the evangelist had suffered so much and almost died in his long years of persecution, and it was a few months before he obeyed and sent the two men to deliver it.

From then on, Brother Yun fully trusts God's Word and begins the work of spreading the gospel in China. Find out the rest of his story from the book, filled with tortures, changed lives, heart-warming moments... all the way to the part where he miraculously escapes from prison and from the country! I definitely recommend it. :)

Episode 1—Creation/Evolution (part 1)—What’s it all about?

A general introduction to the creation/evolution controversy and how it relates to science, moral issues and the central teachings of Christianity. Far from being a side issue, this is the ‘issue of issues’ for the church today.

Episode 2—Creation/evolution (part 2)—What’s it all about?

A continuation of a general introduction to the creation/evolution controversy and how it relates to science, moral issues and the central teachings of Christianity.

Hudson Taylor - Book Review

Here is my book review on a great autobiography that I would really recommend.

It would be a fateful day in the life of young Hudson Taylor. With nothing else to do and to pass some free time, Hudson sat down in his father's library perusing through books and pamphlets that might be of interest to him. Absentmindedly, he picked up a gospel track, thinking he would read the nice little story in the beginning and skip past the sermon at the end, for as far as he knew, he had no interest at all in spiritual matters, and of course, definitely not in the salvation of his soul.

Little did he know, that about seventy miles away, his mother keenly felt an earnest desire for the conversion of her only son. Feeling strongly impressed to pray for Hudson's salvation, she determined not to leave her room until God answered her prayer. Hour after hour, she poured out her heart to God until she could pray no more, but at last she felt the joyful assurance that God indeed had accomplished that very work.

Meanwhile, as Hudson read the track titled "The Finished Work of Christ," conviction began to run through his soul. Light began to flash through his heart. The Spirit powerfully worked in his heart until that very same afternoon that his mother was praising God, he was led to joyfully accept his Savior and give his life to God.

Thus began the work of Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. In this book you will discover amazing miracles, radical faith, awesome experiences through difficulties and persecution, but most of all a powerful testimony of one man's life that was dedicated to the service of the Almighty God.