Gao Zhinsheng
May 22, 2009
Recently the Chinese government has re-arrested Gao Zhinsheng. His crime is publicizing the kinds of abuses the Chinese government regularly inflicts on its own people. A website named “Free Gao” has published information about Gao including a video re-enacting Gao’s first imprisonment. As you watch the video consider that this is the kind of reality that believers in many parts of China face each day. They know that following Jesus may lead them into this kind of torture and yet they continue to evangelize passionately knowing that Jesus is the only hope for China. Older believers even teach the younger ones how to escape the police and how to endure persecution when caught.
For most of us, China is a little unreal. It is a place very far away possessing a culture we find unusual. Sadly, China in the America mind is often merely a collection of labor and factories producing all our consumer goods at cheap prices. It is the country that we both love and hate. We love its low prices and efficient industry even as we decry the fact that it’s “cheap” and “communist.”
In the church, we often hear of Chinese Christians but their experience is also more of a detached reality for us. Take a few minutes and allow God to knit your heart together with the Chinese, not only enjoying their stories of evangelistic success, but also sharing in their pain.
Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. – Hebrews 13:3 (NLT)
Visit the Free Gao site and take a moment to learn more of what happens behind closed doors in China. Remember, the saints there are part of our family.
Here’s the link: http://www.freegao.com/ .