Podcasts about chinese bible

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Welcome to this special episode of China Compass, from Macau in the South China Sea. After mentioning my appearance this morning on Crosspolitic, I introduce a new series called “Wangyi’s Prison Pulpit” by looking at what he wrote regarding True Freedom during seasons of persecution: Wangyi wrote: “I hope God uses me, by means of first losing my personal freedom, to tell those who have deprived me of my personal freedom that there is an authority higher than their authority, and that there is a freedom that they cannot restrain, a freedom that fills the church of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.” Next, I share a few fascinating details about the little city-state of Macau: Macau: Las Vegas of the East, Reclaimed Land, Longest Bridge, Most Dense City, etc Third, I talk about “The Legacy of Pastor Lucky”, who died January 20, 2007: Read more at China Call Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/chinacall/p/the-legacy-of-pastor-lucky "Pastor Lucky has been obsessed with China all his life. No matter where he serves, he always has an unsolvable Chinese complex. When China just opened up in the early 1980s, he went to mainland China to preach the gospel to his own flesh and blood, build churches, and train preachers… Morrison was the first Christian missionary to come to China. He served in China for 27 years, translated the Chinese Bible, and later died in Macau. Pastor Ji often took his friends to see his cemetery because he felt that Morrison loved China. The scripture engraved on Morrison's tombstone comes from Revelation 14:13: "From now on, blessed are the dead in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, for the fruit of their works will follow them." I believe that Pastor Ji, who has worked silently for the gospel of China throughout his life, is also remembered by the Lord." Finally, I talk about China’s first missionary, Robert Morrison, and his book, The Memoirs of William Milne, which I released today on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJBRN3FB?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520 I first stumbled on the relatively unknown story of William Milne when researching Robert Morrison, one of the more famous missionaries in China's history. However, Milne was Morrison's equal in many ways. They served in many of the same places (Canton, Macau, Malacca). They seemed to share the same level of fluency in Chinese. Both were Bible translators, and they corrected each other's work. One possibility as to why Milne is lesser known is that he died so young, yet Morrison lived to see the Chinese Bible through to completion. When I found Morrison's edition of Milne's Memoirs, I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to both read and republish. In reality, people are more likely to read about Milne if Morrison commends him to them. The book also turned out to be an exciting window into the minds of both men. There is an intimacy to this work that cannot be reproduced in a normal biography. This book imperfectly (it is representative, not exhaustive, of his words and actions) tells the story of William Milne’s family and his sacrificial efforts to plant the Gospel in hostile soil by translating, printing, and shipping (literally) God’s Word far and wide throughout the Chinese diaspora. Ironically, Milne's one relatively well-known quote about the difficulty of learning Chinese is not found in these pages, and so I share it here. He stated that learning Chinese is. . . “a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!”

Welcome to this special episode of China Compass, from Macau in the South China Sea. After mentioning my appearance this morning on Crosspolitic, I introduce a new series called “Wangyi’s Prison Pulpit” by looking at what he wrote regarding True Freedom during seasons of persecution: Wangyi wrote: “I hope God uses me, by means of first losing my personal freedom, to tell those who have deprived me of my personal freedom that there is an authority higher than their authority, and that there is a freedom that they cannot restrain, a freedom that fills the church of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.” Next, I share a few fascinating details about the little city-state of Macau: Macau: Las Vegas of the East, Reclaimed Land, Longest Bridge, Most Dense City, etc Third, I talk about “The Legacy of Pastor Lucky”, who died January 20, 2007: Read more at China Call Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/chinacall/p/the-legacy-of-pastor-lucky "Pastor Lucky has been obsessed with China all his life. No matter where he serves, he always has an unsolvable Chinese complex. When China just opened up in the early 1980s, he went to mainland China to preach the gospel to his own flesh and blood, build churches, and train preachers… Morrison was the first Christian missionary to come to China. He served in China for 27 years, translated the Chinese Bible, and later died in Macau. Pastor Ji often took his friends to see his cemetery because he felt that Morrison loved China. The scripture engraved on Morrison's tombstone comes from Revelation 14:13: "From now on, blessed are the dead in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, for the fruit of their works will follow them." I believe that Pastor Ji, who has worked silently for the gospel of China throughout his life, is also remembered by the Lord." Finally, I talk about China’s first missionary, Robert Morrison, and his book, The Memoirs of William Milne, which I released today on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJBRN3FB?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520 I first stumbled on the relatively unknown story of William Milne when researching Robert Morrison, one of the more famous missionaries in China's history. However, Milne was Morrison's equal in many ways. They served in many of the same places (Canton, Macau, Malacca). They seemed to share the same level of fluency in Chinese. Both were Bible translators, and they corrected each other's work. One possibility as to why Milne is lesser known is that he died so young, yet Morrison lived to see the Chinese Bible through to completion. When I found Morrison's edition of Milne's Memoirs, I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to both read and republish. In reality, people are more likely to read about Milne if Morrison commends him to them. The book also turned out to be an exciting window into the minds of both men. There is an intimacy to this work that cannot be reproduced in a normal biography. This book imperfectly (it is representative, not exhaustive, of his words and actions) tells the story of William Milne’s family and his sacrificial efforts to plant the Gospel in hostile soil by translating, printing, and shipping (literally) God’s Word far and wide throughout the Chinese diaspora. Ironically, Milne's one relatively well-known quote about the difficulty of learning Chinese is not found in these pages, and so I share it here. He stated that learning Chinese is. . . “a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!”

[00:00:15] Samuel Chiang: When I was probably 11, maybe 12 years old, I told my grandfather I wanted to be like him.   He was a lawyer, and he immigrated to Canada after us. And he was a specialist in the Canadian government when he arrived in Canada, because he knew Chinese law.  When I said to him, I want to be like you, he said to me, your English must be impeccable. And I said, okay. He said, but I wouldn't want you to practice as a defense lawyer. I said, why? He didn't answer the question right away. He said, you may want to be a corporate lawyer. That always stuck with me. And then he said, you don't want to be a defense lawyer because sometimes you could be defending somebody, and then in the midst of a trial, they confess to you everything. [00:01:16] Samuel Chiang: And you're stuck. He said, it's very painful to handle that type of thing in the midst of a trial. ++++++++++++++= [00:01:24] Tommy Thomas: Our guest today is Samuel Chiang. Samuel has a diverse and accomplished background that significantly influenced his leadership. He was born in Taiwan and later moved to Canada where he grew up and began his professional career. He graduated from the University of Toronto when he began his career at Ernst & Young in Canada. In addition to Ernst & Young, Samuel has served in senior leadership roles with The International Orality Network, Trans World Radio and Partners International. He also served as the president and CEO of The Seed Company, a Bible translation organization within the Wycliffe family. Under his leadership, the organization focused on making scriptures available in oral and written forms for unreached and Bibleless peoples. Along the way he gained a great appreciation for using technology in the workplace. And he pioneered the use of AI in both the private and non-profit sectors.  He and his wife Robbi make their home in the Dallas Metroplex. Let's pick up on the conversation with Samuel Chiang. [00:02:46] Tommy Thomas: What's your happiest memory of childhood? [00:02:51] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, it depends on which segment. I remember, in my early teens, playing my violin. Whether it was solo, whether it was ensemble, whether it was orchestral, that was very special, that I remembered. I remember playing tennis, teaming together in tennis. [00:03:11] Samuel Chiang: It was great. You might not know this about me, I'm a five-time immigrant, and so my immigrant experience, even when I was younger, first arrived from Taiwan to Canada, everything was new. That was a wonderful memory. [00:03:28] Tommy Thomas: At what age did y'all come to Canada? [00:03:31] Samuel Chiang:   I was a little bit over 10 years old. And, so everything was new, yeah, all the senses were new. I only had the alphabet and seven phrases of courteous language, thank you, excuse me, will you please, those types of languages.  And that's how I started in Canada. [00:03:54] Tommy Thomas:  Do you remember how long it took you to get reasonably fluent in English? [00:04:01] Samuel Chiang: Oh, my goodness, it was quite a long time. Let's just say, you're grade five, grade six, grade five, in Canada. Probably I did not become fluent until I was nearly 16. [00:04:15] Tommy Thomas: Wow. So, what's the greatest gift that your parents gave you? [00:04:24] Samuel Chiang: I think immigrating to Canada.  They're both Christians. They said to us, we don't want you to be conscripted into the military in Taiwan. And so, we want to give you and your brother a chance to experience things very differently. And I believe the gift of Canada in that immigration and the growth in that environment was the greatest gift my parents gave to us. [00:04:55] Tommy Thomas:   What was high school like in Canada? [00:05:00] Samuel Chiang: I went to a high school that was 66 percent Jewish. And I knew the sons and daughters of literally captains of industries. And I watched how they grew up in a very unique setting. Jewish people, by and large, love the arts, are great contributors to society as a whole, from history to research, etc. And when they love the arts, their sons and daughters are top in their forms in terms of music, et cetera. So it was, they pulled me along. I was a learner. I thought I was good at playing my violin, but these other students were even better than I am. And they pulled me along. [00:05:45] Tommy Thomas:  You decided to go to university.  Did you consider a lot of colleges and universities, or did you pick one and say, I'm going there? [00:05:55] Samuel Chiang: My goodness. in Canada, it's interesting in Canada, you get to pick three. I did. And then it was ultimately my parents saying to me, if you went to this university and lived at home, we'll pay for everything. I accepted that and actually stayed home and went to University of Toronto, and studied economics and finance and accounting and it was good. It was good to be in Toronto. [00:06:23] Tommy Thomas: How did you get into the econ and finance and accounting field?  Did you know somebody that had been a CPA or an economist? [00:06:32] Samuel Chiang: No, numbers were always of interest to me. And, let me rewind the conversation a little bit, for myself. When I was probably 11, maybe 12 years old, I told my grandfather I wanted to be like him. He was a lawyer, and he immigrated to Canada after us. And he was a specialist in the Canadian government, when he arrived in Canada, because he knew Chinese law and when I said to him, I want to be like you, he said to me, your English must be impeccable. And I said, okay, he said, but I wouldn't want you to practice as a defense lawyer. I said, why? He didn't answer the question right away. He said, you may want to be a corporate lawyer. That always stuck with me. And then he said, you don't want to be a defense lawyer because sometimes you could be defending somebody, and then in the midst of a trial, they confess to you everything. [00:07:42] Samuel Chiang: And you're stuck. He said, it's very painful to handle that type of thing in the midst of a trial. And I listened to that. And so, I thought, do I want to be a corporate lawyer? But reading was not my strong suit. Not yet at that time. And then I love numbers. And so, that's the way I went into accounting, finance and economics. [00:08:12] Tommy Thomas: So, what was your favorite part of college? [00:08:21] Samuel Chiang:   At University of Toronto, there were two things. One was in social sciences, sociology, and then the other one was actually computer science which surprised me because in high school, I never took computer science, but at University of Toronto, at that time still had to use those card decks where you punch holes and all that, and we used that to solve problems.  That was solving problems and I loved it. [00:08:50] Tommy Thomas:   You and I would be from that age. Yes. We took Fortran and COBOL, and we had those big, big boxes of cards. And, yes, I remember those days. What is something that people are always surprised to find out about you? [00:09:13] Samuel Chiang: They would say to me, even most recently, they would say, oh, you speak English so well. I don't know what to say about that. That's a surprising thing. Actually, the world over, I have had people saying that to me. [00:09:30] Tommy Thomas: Think back to your first management job when you actually had some people that you were responsible for.  What do you remember about that? [00:09:40] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, I remember very specifically at Ernst & Young that even when I have people reporting to me, even though I was maybe really green in my experiences, people were just very respectful. They were very accepting and very professional. [00:09:58] Samuel Chiang: That just made me feel like they were helping me to do what I needed to do. And even though I might not even have much experience in doing any supervision, I always remember the way that people accepted me. They were very professional, very respectful. [00:10:21] Tommy Thomas: Each of us probably has times in our life where in the South, we would say our metal has been tested. I'm not sure what the Canadian equivalent with that, or the Chinese equivalent for that would be, but have you had times in your life when your metal was tested? And if so, how did you come out of it? [00:10:39] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, so very specifically, I remember in high school, in one of the violin pieces in the ensemble, I worked hard to get the lead part in that ensemble, very specifically for a competition. I didn't get it. Another student who was a great younger got it. And yeah, my heart was crushed. But that was one of those sorts of moments. I had to really console myself to say, okay, this is the Bach triple violin concerto. So, there are three leads. I got none of those, but I'm still the lead for the entire ensemble. And that's a role to play. So, I better play it well. And so that was the first time. The second time was, that I recall very specifically, was in an organization. On the one hand, being interviewed to be the CEO of the organization. On the other hand, I had a whole group of people complaining about me and they were doing an examination about my ministry practices and procedures and all that stuff. [00:12:02] Samuel Chiang: And, I remember during the interview that the board chair said, I just hope that examination piece will go away soon so that we can interview you properly. As it turns out, that examination piece did not go away anytime soon. It took nine months, but it was great. It was a wonderful experience with the Lord. I would never trade it for anything else. Because I was in that situation, they decided not to interview me further for the candidacy of CEO for that organization. That was crushing, but between the two, I would never trade the experience with the Lord going deep with him, and don't even want to come out of the water, if you will, we're out of the ocean, if you will, and just want to stay longer. So that's a heart matter that was very deep within me. [00:13:06] Tommy Thomas: You've built a lot of organizations over the years, been CEO, founded companies. Let's talk about hiring for a minute. When you're hiring at the cabinet level in general, what are you looking for? [00:13:18] Samuel Chiang: At the cabinet level, the C level, I often look for their EQ, the emotional quotient, that's pretty important to me, their character, their culture. And then their competency, character and culture. Those are non-negotiables competencies, you could throw that where you could delegate some of it away, but their emotional quotient, their culture, their character. [00:13:50] Tommy Thomas: What's your favorite or most effective interview question? [00:13:57] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, I think we might even start around the same place. Tell me a little bit about your childhood. I would love to hear the friends and the friendships and the relationships that you have had. And then I also ask often, tell me a little bit about how you left home for your work, for your college, for your university. [00:14:23] Tommy Thomas: Wow. That is a penetrating question. Yeah. How you left home. Yeah, one of my recent podcast guests said that one of the things she wished that she learned earlier was how to terminate somebody with grace and dignity. What have you learned about terminating people when it's just not working out? [00:14:52] Samuel Chiang: My biggest piece about termination is, I have to be very clear. I have to tell myself not to pass on any problems further. Oftentimes you terminate because people handed it to you. And, with grace and all that be very clear, keep the dignity of the individual, offer ways to consider rescaling, or in some cases offer them the possibility for HR to help them to look for their next assignment. [00:15:28] Samuel Chiang: Those are some of the things that I have practiced and have practiced consistently. The clarity is very important for people. [00:15:43] Tommy Thomas:   You've been president of The Seed Company and other organizations but take us into that presidency. How did you get there? What was it like when you got there? [00:15:57] Samuel Chiang: Oh, wow. Yeah. I have served on the board of The Seed Company. And I learned a lot. And then I remember, it's a long story. I'll keep it short. I was invited to come off the board to apply and I did. And it was the summer of 2014. And during that time, I wasn't quite sure I was supposed to apply, even though I'd been invited. So, I prayed, and it was during the time that the summer of 2014 was, the Ebola crisis in West Africa. I was actually in West Africa at the time, and the Lord met me, twice. Nothing audible, but it was a sense of understanding from the Lord. And because of those two understandings, very deep, very unique moments. It was almost like he was having inner conversations with me. It was out of that experience that I put myself forward. [00:17:08] Samuel Chiang: And then I also asked the Lord, I said, I need to know that I have a specific assignment within The Seed Company or Bible translation as a whole. And he did, he put on my heart the need for the Old Testament very specifically. So, it was through that and ultimately, the visa process that came into this country, in the United States on a O-1 visa. And then, when I was pointed into the role and started, the board was ever so kind to provide an onboarding coach. That was marvelous in the sense that I lived overseas, working in Hong Kong for 25 years, coming into the United States. I discovered much later; I have multiple massive gaps. And the board was so kind to bring along onboarding coaching and subsequent coaches for me to bridge the gap and understand things. And so that was wonderful in the role. It was challenging. It was knee driven every day, asking God for things that I've never asked before, and then watching and understanding God's leading in that. +++++++++++++++++ [00:18:29] Tommy Thomas: Now, I probably don't know all the, know the whole, how to explain that, but my understanding was that The Seed Company was, at least at one level, a way of shortening the Bible translation process from the classical Wycliffe M.O. Is that correct? Is that more or less, right? Yes. So you, if you're operating there, I'm assuming you had some pushback from people that had been in the field translating the classical way for many years. How did y'all resolve that and realize that those two things could probably peacefully coexist? [00:19:07] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, I think I'll answer that on multiple levels. One level is for the desire of people receiving the scripture sooner rather than later. Everyone, it's almost a justice issue, isn't it? Everybody has a right to the scripture, and will they receive it sooner rather than later? So that is the DNA within and then the indigenous model, which The Seed Company was founded upon, of the indigenous church doing the translation of the Word. That's a little bit different and we need both. [00:19:49] Samuel Chiang: We absolutely need both of the people who have been called. But the calling of the missionary and the calling of the indigenous translator, they're the same call to serve God, and in a very specific field, Bible translation. And so, we need both. Coexistence doesn't always come easy, even today. I'm still involved in Bible translation in other organizations. And even today, it's still not easy. Even with church-based translation, and even with artificial intelligence, that friction continues and the friction that continues, it's really a sense of working it out relationally, horizontally, and then vertically with God. What is God's desire in all of this? So, man's side of holding on to the tension is always very interesting. [00:20:57] Tommy Thomas: A pastor on the East Coast once told me, see if I remember this right, he said the most difficult thing in the world is living in the center of the tension of God's will. [00:21:07] Samuel Chiang: Oh, my goodness, it really is.  And then in Bible translation, it's not only living in the center of God's will, but the desire to have quality assurance, really super wonderful, clear, natural language of the translation, so that the community as a whole will say that is God's Word for me. [00:21:33] Tommy Thomas: What's the most ambitious project you've ever undertaken and how did you get the team to follow you? [00:21:41] Samuel Chiang:   Probably the most ambitious one that I've taken was when we did the First Light Project. First Light Project was a technology project. And then to have content providers that will link in with the studies of the Chinese word of all resident on a software program into China. Now, we have to remember, this is back in the mid 90s and late 90s. And everything back then, it was still slow. A cell phone was not really in existence. People remember satellite phones. And then people in China were still at that time, having some scriptures, scripture was at that time, sometimes carried into China. And oftentimes, the good work of your friend Ed Cannon, FEBC, and then, Trans World Radio were broadcasting into China and people were scribing word for word the precious word of God, and we thought in a multiple horizon scenario, they will have the software and technology available to them. [00:23:01] Samuel Chiang: Maybe what we could do is provide Bible resident on the software with content writers on it, and then give it to the church in China. That was avant garde. It was at the forefront of its time. And, trying to get people around the world on it, has been, that wasn't just in Hong Kong, but it would get people around the world on it was both exciting and exhausting. [00:23:27] Tommy Thomas: So, if I could have shadowed you for maybe a year or so during that time, what would I have observed? What would you be doing? Oh, wow. If you were shadowing me back in the 90s during that period of time, you would probably get something like this on a typical day. I would be in Hong Kong. Early in the morning, making calls to North America, trying to raise funds. I would be during the daytime working with technical teams and contacting teams first to make sure the accuracy of the Bible in digital format will be there. And then in the afternoon, I will be working with the technical teams in India because it was not a Chinese team that wrote it. It was actually the technical team in India that wrote the software for it, for the Chinese Bible. And so that would be a typical day of working, very exciting. [00:24:26] Tommy Thomas: I want to stick with the technology piece for a minute. I know our good friend, Bill Hendricks, told me that you'd been involved in a couple of AI projects. Can you take us into the world of AI and how it intersects with the nonprofit sector in general, and maybe talk about some pros and cons, some risks and rewards. [00:24:46] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, sure. A little bit about AI, artificial intelligence, is, for me, the ones I have been involved in, very specifically, it was 2016 on a Sunday morning. I read in the news that Google AI beat the South Korean in gold chess. And then the newspaper reported that in any given second, the Google AI could calculate a hundred million moves. That got my mind thinking very quickly about the number one issue at that time in Bible translation was in sign language, there was not a scripture, not a full text of scripture for sign language. And it got my mind thinking that people who are deaf in the deaf community when they sign, our body could only make so many gestures. To us, it might seem like millions, but it's a limited set. It's not unlimited. So, we thought maybe the computer vision could help solve that. And so that got us started on the artificial intelligence side of things and we created a not for profit and, and ultimately, we filed patents in that not for profit and then, a year and a half after it got started, not only the US Trademark and Patent office approved all those patents, the board of that not for profit asked us to spin it out into a for profit company and we did ultimately. [00:26:39] Samuel Chiang: So that's a little bit of background to that. Could I expand a little bit? [00:26:44] Tommy Thomas: Absolutely. You're talking to a novice here. I'm probably learning as much or more than anybody that's listening to this. [00:26:50] Samuel Chiang: When we spun it out. The company name is called Avodah, AVODAH.com or AVODAH.ai. [00:27:01] Samuel Chiang:  It is a God story that we actually got that name. We had prayed in wanting to have a single word that would represent, work, worship and service. And we knew the Hebrew name for it, that the word for it, Avodah or Avoda. But to grab that domain name was not the easiest. [00:27:25] Samuel Chiang: We're very thankful to God that it came. And as we spun it out, into the for profit, it's actually working on both the healthcare side as well as the language side, so as to serve, again, the language communities, who are without the word of God. And then also the healthcare side, for what we call ambient technology, ambient sensing. [00:27:50] Samuel Chiang: So, it stays in the background. And it listens to your case. Let's just say you were the doctor. I walked into your office. You've maybe had a nurse practitioner that will meet with me, take my case, and then you as a doctor would meet me and look at the summary of the nurse practitioner has written down. And the ambient AI technology sits in the background listening to the conversation once with the nurse practitioner and the second time again with the doctor. And then it's AI assisted, in helping, the doctor to either confirm or augment the decision and then on top of that, once the patient leaves it does automatic coding into the insurances, et cetera. [00:28:40] Samuel Chiang: So that will reduce the amount of time in a doctor's office, the front office, and then it increases the ability for doctors to serve more patients and, hopefully, save money and maybe increase the revenue. [00:28:56] Tommy Thomas: Wow. You hear people that are fear mongers about AI and what it might do to us and then you hear a story like that obviously made a huge difference. Where does the fear mongering play in? [00:29:14] Samuel Chiang: Yeah, I think the fear mongering is very real and, unfortunately, people have misused AI in many different senses from voice for actors to pictures that portray individuals wrongly. [00:29:31] Samuel Chiang:: And then of course, people use it, in ways that influence and affect, ultimately to the elections. All those are in place. So it is a very large piece that is under consideration for many of the societies right around the world. And it is a concern. (00.20.56) Tommy Thomas: Thank you for joining us today. If you are a first-time listener, I hope you will subscribe and become a regular. You can find links to all the episodes at our website: www.jobfitmatters.com/podcast. If there are topics you'd like for me to explore, my email address is tthomas@jobfitmatters.com.  Word of mouth has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing. Surveys tell us that consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising. If you've heard something today that's worth passing on, please share it with others. You're already helping me make something special for the next generation of nonprofit leaders. I'll be back next week with a new episode. Until then, stay the course on our journey to help make the nonprofit sector more effective and sustainable.   Links and Resources JobfitMatters Website NextGen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas The Perfect Search - What every board needs to know about hiring their next CEO Beyond Literate Western Models - Contextualizing Theological Education in Oral Contexts - Samuel Chiang Orality Breakouts - Using Heart Language to Transform Hearts - Samuel Chiang & Avery T. Willis   Connect tthomas@jobfitmatters.com Follow Tommy on LinkedIn   Listen to NextGen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify  

There are diversions in the church, and then there are Christian tabloid diversions to keep us up to date on the diversions. We were asked about a certain occurrence playing out at a men's conference in Springfield, Missouri, hoping we could explain the general messed-uppedness of whatever happened there. This opens up a different conversation about diversions, the entertainment culture, the cool, big famous preacher guys, and the replacement of church with something (we're not exactly sure what it is). This program includes: 1. The World View in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus (“Unsung Hero” is a must-see Christian movie, Chinese Bible distributor sentenced to 5 years in prison, Supreme Court agrees with Texas' age requirement for porn) 2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

It's Friday, May 3rd, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Open Doors ministers to Ethiopian woman who lost everything Desta Alemu knows what it's like to be hated and cast out for her faith in Jesus. After all, she has the ashes of her burned home and business to prove it. She and her family were caught up in violence in their community in Ethiopia. She said, “When we left our home, it was very difficult. We couldn't even find a way to get out; we hid in a neighbor's house three houses down. I can't explain the pain and worry I felt in the chaos. Our possessions were destroyed; we lost everything.” Thankfully, Open Doors was able to help her with both immediate needs—and long-term trauma care. Desta explained, “Because I came [to the trauma care seminar], countless things have changed in me. I've learned about humility, and how Jesus was also persecuted. … Jesus was also hated, and He was also cast out.” In John 15:18-19, Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” Open Doors lists Ethiopia as the 32nd most dangerous country worldwide in which to be a Christian. Chinese Bible distributor sentenced to 5 years in prison In April 2021, Chinese authorities arrested 10 Christians for selling and distributing Bibles in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia — an autonomous region in northern China. Just last month, a judge sentenced one of these believers to prison. On April 15, 2024, Ban Yanhong was sentenced to five years in prison for “illegal business operations.” That's how the Communist government describes the distribution of Bibles to Christians in Inner Mongolia. Originally, the 10 Hohhot Christians purchased the Bibles legally from a church in Nanjing associated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. These churches are the only legal churches in China and are controlled by the Communist government. In Ban's case, prosecutors argued that even though the Bibles were initially purchased legally in Nanjing, selling and distributing them in Inner Mongolia by unregistered house church members was illegal. Supreme Court agrees with Texas' age requirement for porn Great news! The United States Supreme Court has rejected a request to block enforcement of a Texas law that requires porn sites to verify the age of its users. This will ensure that far fewer minors will have access to these ungodly images. In a one-sentence miscellaneous order released Tuesday that included no dissents, the Supreme Court declined to issue a stay in the case of Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. This allows a ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that upheld the age verification law to remain in effect. Last June, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1181, which requires porn sites to verify a user's age. Any company found violating the requirement faces a fine of as much as $10,000 per day. Additionally, a porn company can be fined $250,000 if a minor sees explicit content because their age was not properly verified. Second Boeing whistleblower died unexpectedly A second Boeing whistleblower has died unexpectedly as the company faces scrutiny over safety failures on its passenger jets, reports Fox News. Joshua Dean, a quality inspector for the Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, died this week after a surprise infection left him in critical condition for days. The cause was MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, according to what his aunt Carol Parsons told the Seattle Times, which first reported the death. The 44-year-old lost his job in 2023 and filed a retaliation complaint with federal labor officials, alleging that he was only fired for speaking out. Dean had been deposed in connection with a shareholder lawsuit and had reported dangerous faults in components of Boeing's 737 MAX plane — a model linked to a number of catastrophes in recent years. John Barnett, age 62, is the other Boeing whistleblower.  He had sued Boeing, claiming that he had been retaliated against, harassed, and spied on by the company. He never showed up for his second day of depositions. Barnett was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 9 outside his Charleston, South Carolina hotel the day after he gave a deposition in connection with his own retaliation lawsuit. “Unsung Hero” is a must-see Christian movie And finally, Joel and Luke Smallbone, the Australian duo that make up the Grammy Award-winning group for King and Country, and their older sister, artist Rebecca St. James, are widely known in music circles. But their family's backstory — and unlikely rise to fame — hasn't been told in-depth and in all its glorious messiness, until now.  The Christian movie, “Unsung Hero,” explores the remarkable journey of the Smallbone family as they relocate from Australia to America in search of new beginnings, reports The Christian Post. After the collapse of his music business, David Smallbone, portrayed by a bespectacled Joel Smallbone, finds himself in a challenging position. Together with his pregnant wife, Helen, the “unsung hero” portrayed by Daisy Betts and their six children, they embark on a transcontinental journey, armed with little more than their luggage and a steadfast belief in their musical dreams. The company behind it also released “Jesus Revolution,” “I Can Only Imagine” and “Ordinary Angels.” A wholesome, faith-based film, “Unsung Hero” focuses largely on the power of prayer. In Philippians 4:6, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” “Unsung Hero” also underscores the necessity of a vibrant church community, and the importance of family sticking together against all odds.  James Smallbone, David's father, reminds his son, “Your family isn't in the way, they are the way.” I saw it with my bride, Amy, and our three children Tuesday night.  It is terrific and very moving. I urge you to get your tickets ASAP since it will only be in the theaters through Wednesday, May 8th. Watch the trailer through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com and visit the website, UnsungHero.movie. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, May 3rd in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

There are diversions in the church, and then there are Christian tabloid diversions to keep us up to date on the diversions. We were asked about a certain occurrence playing out at a men's conference in Springfield, Missouri, hoping we could explain the general messed-uppedness of whatever happened there. This opens up a different conversation about diversions, the entertainment culture, the cool, big famous preacher guys, and the replacement of church with something -we're not exactly sure what it is-.--This program includes---1. The World View in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus --Unsung Hero- is a must-see Christian movie, Chinese Bible distributor sentenced to 5 years in prison, Supreme Court agrees with Texas' age requirement for porn---2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

The story of the spread of the gospel in China can't be told without the women who were really the driving force behind the movement. But all too often, their legacies are lost to the pages of history. We are so grateful to our guest this month, Dr. Daryl Ireland, for honoring these special women and helping us understand the history and context for their stories. This episode is special because Daryl is our first male guest on the podcast! Don't miss our bonus episode for this month, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the Velvet Ashes Retreat. Learn more about the retreat HERE. Learn more about ⁠⁠Velvet Ashes⁠⁠ Follow Velvet Ashes on ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠ Featured music is "Daughters and Sons" by Eine Blume. Check out more from them on ⁠⁠iTunes⁠⁠ or wherever you get music! Get in touch with Dr. Laura Chevalier Beer at laura.chevalierbeer@velvetashes.com to share thoughts on Legacy stories or suggest a woman to highlight. Learn more about the Chinese Bible Women Dora Yu (Yu Cidu) Mary Stone (Shi Meiyu , 石美玉) Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity Article about the Chinese Bible Women in Christianity Today Pioneer Chinese Christian Women We are grateful to ⁠⁠Barnabas International⁠⁠ for sponsoring this podcast! Barnabas is a member care organization that shepherds global workers and trains global shepherds. Learn more about them ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

Today's HeadlinesEgyptian Christians representing Jesus to refugees from GazaChallenge and change define 2023Bibles For China equips US churches to reach Chinese families

More than 200 years ago, Robert Morrison had a dream to get the Bible into the most populated nation on earth, but that dream was said to be unattainable. Robert Morrison dared to do it anyway. Now, in our latest book 'Bury Me In China', read for the first time how Morrison gave the ultimate sacrifice to translate, print, smuggle, and distribute the entire Chinese Bible inside China – how he lost friends and loved ones, buried two children, a wife, and eventually died on the mission field, thousands of miles away from the land of his birth.

YouTube视频链接: https://youtu.be/pg-hZCltNq0 加入我们，参加这个丰富而鼓舞人心的圣经研究，深入研究马太福音9:9-13中发现的变革性恩典信息。在这段经文中，我们见证了耶稣与马太之间的强大相遇，马太是社会所鄙视的税吏。通过这个相遇，我们将深入了解我们救主无限的爱与怜悯。 在这个研究中，我们将探讨以下主题： 召唤马太：我们将首先研究耶稣召唤马太成为他的门徒的深刻意义。我们将考虑税吏的文化和宗教背景以及这个邀请的激进性质。 罪人的席位：我们将探讨耶稣与税吏和罪人一同进餐的令人瞩目的场景。这个举动挑战我们反思我们对社会可能视为被排斥的人的态度，以及耶稣如何教导我们展现爱与接纳。 伟大的医生：马太福音9:12提醒我们，健康的人不需要医生，而病人需要。我们将讨论这在我们自己生活的背景下意味着什么，承认我们对基督的神圣之触的属灵需求。 理解上帝的怜悯：通过马太的故事，我们将探讨恩典的概念和主的无尽怜悯。我们将讨论上帝的恩典如何伸向所有人，无论他们的过去或现在的环境如何。 回应这个召唤：当我们结束我们的研究时，我们将关注我们如何亲自回应耶稣的跟随召唤，并在自己的生活中体现他的恩典。对于我们来说，像马太一样放下一切跟随基督意味着什么？ 这个圣经研究对各个年龄段和不同圣经知识水平的人都敞开，无论是新信徒还是经验丰富的信徒。欢迎加入我们，解读马太福音9:9-13的有力信息，发现上帝的变革性恩典如何改变我们的生活，以及我们与周围人的互动。通过互动讨论、小组祈祷和反思，我们将更深入地理解上帝的爱与怜悯，并受到启发，将这种恩典体现在我们的日常生活中。 圣经研究 (Bible Study) 圣经教导 (Biblical Teaching) 灵修 (Devotional) 圣经解读 (Bible Interpretation) 基督教学习 (Christian Learning) 圣经经文分享 (Bible Verse Sharing) 圣经教义 (Biblical Doctrine) 圣经真理 (Biblical Truth) 赞美与敬拜 (Praise and Worship) 基督徒生活 (Christian Living) 圣经启示 (Biblical Revelation) 圣经历程 (Bible Journey) 圣经教育 (Bible Education) 信仰分享 (Faith Sharing) 靈修指南 (Devotional Guide) 聖經中的智慧 (Wisdom in the Bible) 聖經故事 (Bible Stories) 聖經信息 (Bible Messages) 基督信仰深度 (Deepening Christian Faith) 基督徒社群 (Christian Community)

Recorded Aug 28 1991

Recorded Aug 27 1991

Our partners inside of China recently held a secret meeting in Hunan Province. Some leaders from one of the main networks of the underground church came together to discuss the things they've seen in the last 3 years, and what they will do going forward. Out of this meeting they said there is one thing that they have need of... Bibles.

Recorded March 4 1994

Yesterday was a wake up moment, literally. After seeing hundreds of Chinese so happy to have a Bible in their hands... Even I couldn't contain my excitement for something that was previously forbidden, or- is it still?

Bible Study with Jairus – Deuteronomy 14 A Picture of Growing Sanctification   Have you ever wished you had a greater capacity to take in God's love and pour out God's grace? Have you prayed with the psalmist that God would enlarge your heart? (Psalm 119:32) The more we dedicate ourselves to God, the more he can expand our capacity. The greater our capacity to display God's glory, the more God's glory will be revealed to the world until the earth is filled with his glory (Habakkuk 2:14). In Deuteronomy 14, God's holy people were instructed to eat clean food and live holy lives. In the same way, we as New Testament believers must walk in a manner worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1). We must walk with God according to the measure of our faith, not beyond our own measure. However, our capacity for faith can continue to expand through our continuous dedication to God.   Holy people live holy lives and eat holy food. The first topic addressed in this chapter is the topic of cutting. Deuteronomy 14:1 says, “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.”[1] Cutting oneself or shaving one's forehead was practiced by idolaters in Canaan. God did not want his people to participate in this idolatrous practice. Instead, he wanted them to remember they are chosen by God: "a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 14:2). But what practical spiritual meaning does this have for Christians today? When we as Christians do sinful, unclean things, it's as if we are cutting our souls. We harm ourselves and hinder our spiritual growth. Sometimes, our sins even cause physical pain. In my job translating subtitles, I have watched many movies and TV dramas. When I was a young Christian, I wasn't bothered by foul language or the sensual images that I saw while translating these movies. But as I grew spiritually and God's calling on my life became more clear, I began to feel conviction. God was raising the bar for my sanctification. I started to feel uncomfortable when I heard foul language on the movies. But because this was my job and it provided good income, I didn't know what to do. I asked God for wisdom and guidance. One day, I had a prophetic dream. I saw myself scrubbing green feces off my clothes, scraping them into the toilet. But the stains were very difficult to remove. I also saw a filthy pool up ahead. In the pool, a man was swimming while looking at his iPad or his phone. The pool was very dirty and disgusting. In my dream, I heard the Holy Spirit speaking. Foul language contaminates our souls and is difficult to remove, just like the green feces on my clothes. Many people are completely immersed in the filth but can't feel anything. This powerful image shocked me. I decided not to work on these tasks anymore. Although I suffered financial losses, I treasured a clean soul even more than my income. We can try our best to pursue the gift of prophecy, but if our souls are contaminated by filthy pictures or words, we are harming ourselves, just like Deuteronomy 14 discusses. We are slicing and cutting our hearts and souls. Just like repetitive cutting causes scars and callouses, repetitively seeing filthy pictures and words can scar our imagination. We can become calloused to the point that we no longer clearly hear the words of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we want to pursue the gift of prophecy and hear the voice of God more clearly, we must keep our souls holy and undefiled. How does the concept of "not shaving your forehead" relate to the Christian experience? Paul says that a woman's hair is her glory (1 Corinthians 11:15). When a person shaved his or her forehead, they were unable to manifest the glory of God. Today, we can learn that we should manifest God's glory everywhere we go. We must not fall short of the glory of God. How can we do this? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” What we ingest can bring glory to God. Deuteronomy 14:3-20 distinguishes clean animals that can be eaten and unclean animals that cannot be eaten. As Christians, we're aware that we not only ingest physical food, but we also ingest a steady diet of media and information. What we eat will eventually be integrated into our bodies or our souls. What are we feeding our souls? Are we binge-watching Netflix, or binge-reading the word of the Lord? Are we living by the word of the Lord, rather than by bread alone? (Matthew 4:4). Are we meditating on the Lord's word and prayer, like chewing the cud? Are we chewing on the Lord's words in order to grow in sanctification? When we eat clean foods, we will naturally manifest God's glory more. The Israelites were not allowed to eat anything that had died naturally, but sojourners or foreigners could do so (Deuteronomy 14:21). How do we understand this? This is not difficult to understand. The more sanctified we are, the less comfortable we feel with eating unclean foods and doing unclean things. According to the New Testament, we must walk worthy of our calling. Growing in our capacity The second half of verse 21 says, "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” This verse is very puzzling. I'll share my thoughts on this passage. The mother's milk is used to feed the young goat. Using the milk to boil the goat violates a very basic and nurturing principle of life. If you break the eggshell that protects the growing chick, you will kill it. When a chick hatches, it will peck through the eggshell by itself. In the same way, it's cruel to use mother's milk to boil a baby goat. You would be killing a young life with the food that should have been used to feed it. In addition, boiling a young goat in its mother's milk may have been practiced by the seven Canaanite nations while they were worshipping idols. Furthermore, this passage may be teaching a principle about spiritual immaturity. If an immature person stops drinking spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2) and uses it incorrectly, they may die. As Christians we must be true to ourselves and not pretend that we have reached a level of spiritual maturity that isn't true. God permits us to serve God according to the measure of faith we have (Romans 12:3). Don't be too eager to accomplish something that lies outside the capacity that you currently have (Philippians 3:16). Don't pretend or lie. If we go beyond our capacity, we may burn ourselves out. Ananias and his wife in Acts 5 pretended to be more dedicated to God than they actually were. God severely disciplined them. This is an extreme case, but it demonstrates that pretending does not please God. Peter told them that they didn't have to give all the money from the property,  but they should not pretend they did. In the same way, many Christians don't want to tithe. If this is the case, they should pray and ask God for his help in this area. However, some Christians who have no desire to tithe still want to pretend that they love the Lord. This is wrong. It is hard to say that you love the Lord when you don't tithe. The Lord Jesus clearly said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21). God does not want our tithe or money; he wants our hearts. Many Christians say, “I don't want to donate money. But I can provide free goods or services for the church, or actively preach the gospel.” Is this considered a tithe or offering? God commands us to actively preach the gospel and serve the church, so this is still not a replacement for tithing. God wants you to tithe to help you overcome your love of money. If you're struggling with tithing, tell God honestly, “I really can't overcome the love of money. I can't do it now. God, please expand my capacity slowly.”  This pleases God. God will help expand your measure gradually. As God expands your capacity to give, you will begin to tithe willingly, from the heart. In Choo Nam's book, Heaven is So Real, Choo Nam shares her thoughts on tithing. She says God told her that if Christians don't tithe, they will be disciplined for their disobedience.[2] I believe that this testimony is true. But even if it is not, we should still tithe according to the principles given in the Bible. I know how hard it is to do this! Many Christians may not be capable of tithing. But if we really love God, our values will change and this practice will become easier. We will overcome the love of money until we love God even more than we love money. Tithing is just the beginning. Deuteronomy 14:22-29 also teaches additional principles about giving to support the Levites including tithes. Tithing is only one step towards sanctification. God wants us to give above and beyond tithing. How much should a New Testament Christian give? Watchman Nee said that in the New Testament we should give 100%, not 10%. Because Jesus bought us with His blood, we all belong to Him. We belong to God 100%. After we give everything to God, we then appropriate some of His abundance to use in our daily lives. He also said we should “…follow the word in 2 Corinthians 9:7, which says that each person should give according to the order of God. He may donate a half, a third, a tenth, or a twentieth of his income.” [3] If you understand this spiritual principle, you can understand the mistakes made by the Israelites, especially the Pharisees. They believed that once they tithed, their money was theirs to use as they wished. Since they had already tithed, they saw no need to financially support their parents. The Lord Jesus said, "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others." (Luke 11:42). The Pharisees thought that tithing was enough. They completely misunderstood God's purposes in the area of tithing. God's work is constantly expanding in capacity. In the Old Testament, the Levites were set apart for the priesthood. In the New Testament, every Christian is a priest. Unbelievers are not set apart to God as priests. In the Old Testament, there was a difference between clean animals and unclean animals. But in the New Testament, God revealed to Peter that all foods were clean. The Gentiles were not accepted in the past, but they are accepted today. Cleansing and sanctification is a process. Something that used to be unclean becomes clean. Someone who used to be rejected becomes accepted. God's work is constantly expanding. We should never settle for the capacity, measure, or level of giving we currently have. We should always be open to more. It is wrong to think that tithing is enough, or that the Levites are the only priests of God. The Levites were priests at first. Then all Israelites were priests to the Gentiles. Now, all Christians are priests. Non-believers who are currently not priests may be saved tomorrow and become priests of God as well. God wants us to continually grow in sanctification so that more people, Jew and Gentile alike, will join God's holy priesthood through Jesus Christ. It is never acceptable to say, “I already gave yesterday, so I don't need to give today.” You can't say, “My spirit is saved and I am delivered from hell. I don't need God's continued sanctification, renewal, and change. I don't need to offer my body as a living sacrifice.” It's also wrong to say, “Since I've already given 10% to God, I can use the remaining 90% on myself.” Instead, we must allow the life and glory of God to continue to expand our hearts. Giving 10% is only a foretaste. We need to dedicate ourselves 100% to God. Whether material tithing or spiritual dedication, there is a process of gradual and continual expansion. If you say, “I can't overcome the love of money today. I still can't tithe,” look for light and inspiration in God's word. Don't simply read the text of the Bible. Instead, look for light and inspiration in its pages. God's truth can illuminate the dark places in your heart and fill you with God's light. The light of God's word can impact you and shock you, leading to a breakthrough. If you say, “I still can't overcome the love of money,” pray and ask God to expand your capacity. God will certainly help you. Growing in sanctification How many Chinese are Christians? Is it one-tenth? This 10% who are believers represent the Levites. We are the first to be sanctified. We want to reflect God's glory so that more people can see His light and come to know Him. We must experience renewal and change in order to manifest God's glory more and more. We must experience more sanctification so that more Chinese people can be sanctified. Tithing is just one example of sanctification. If we are unable to surrender to God in these practical ways, God will not occupy a very big space in our hearts. It will be difficult for God to manifest Himself through us. We will hinder God's work of sanctification, both in our own hearts and in the hearts of others around us. It is important for us to obey God externally, but it is even more important for us to obey God on the inside. If we are willing to surrender to God in tithing, this proves that our love for God surpasses our love for money. Our giving not only supplies funds for the work of God, but it also shows that we are free from the love of money. This allows God's presence and glory to shine through us. Expectations for Chinese Christians If we want to change China today, we must start with ourselves as Chinese Christians. We can start by obeying God, allowing God to change us, tithing, dedicating ourselves to God, and growing in sanctification. You and I cannot do this on our own, but we can pray to God and ask for His help. Only when we ingest God's word can real change happen. We must take in God's word, chew on it, and allow it to change us and others around us. When we live in the Holy of Holies, we can bring others into the very presence of God. If we live in the outer courtyard, we can only bring others into the outer courtyard. The degree to which we experience sanctification and closeness to God determines the degree to which we can bring others close to God. We must increase our dedication, expand our capacity, become more holy, and manifest God's glory. I shared this message in a Chinese Bible meeting, but the same principles apply to every Christian. If Christians in the United States continue to sanctify themselves and dedicate themselves to the Lord more and more, it will bring about social changes.   [1] All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. [2] Choo Thomas, Heaven is So Real! (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2003), 213. [3] Watchman Nee, Watchman Nee's Testimony (Anaheim, CA, 1991), 29.

Encounters of Heaven Heal Wounded Hearts by Sean Song July 5, 2021   How many times have we been wounded and hurt because we did not have the right information or proper perspective about a situation? Our understanding was limited to what our natural mind could perceive. What if it were possible to revisit memories with God and see differently what we once lamented? I propose that once we receive a glimpse of heaven or have an encounter with something heavenly, it has the power to radically transform our viewpoint and heal our broken hearts and memories.   In recent years, I completed a certification program on inner healing. I learned that the Holy Spirit can heal our past wounds by helping us reorganize our memory around a certain event to see it from heaven's viewpoint. That is, the Lord can show us prior events from a totally different perspective and thus break off former lies or misunderstandings. This can bring healing to our hearts. Here I share a few experiences of my encounters with heaven and how they brought healing to me and a few people I know. As Christians have sought to have more spiritual encounters, God has responded. It seems, more than any other time in history, experiencing heaven is becoming a more plausible and palpable reality for many. I believe that if you pray in faith for an encounter with heaven, God will surely answer you.   My Father-in-law is Not in Hell! In March 2006, I flew to Baltimore, Maryland to meet my future wife, Ruth. We sat down on the hills of Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore. We were first introduced to each other by people in our church and since then, for a few months, we had been talking on the phone. During our time together that day, she told me the heart–breaking story of her father's sudden death due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He died during her college years. This deeply impacted her, emotionally and physically, especially since she had been at odds with her father and never reconciled before his sudden death. Although she only became a believer in Christ a couple years earlier when she came to the USA, she worried about whether her father would go to hell. She and I have both been taught that a person will go to hell if he or she, upon hearing the Gospel message on earth, refuses to believe in Christ; for those who have never heard the Gospel, they will be judged according to their conscience (Romans 2:15). In the end, there will be a final judgement before the White Throne and all deceased people will be judged. Whosoever's name is not written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelations 20:11-15).   Unfortunately, my wife has no way of knowing how her father will be judged, and if he will end up in hell. She worried that she would never have the chance to make amends with him and apologize. She also blames other relatives whom she believes misled her to have an argument with him. Until the dream I had, this had been a painful situation for her, so much that she had never even mentioned to others that her father died. She cried when she initially told me this story and after years of marriage, I could still see the lingering pain in her heart from this event. I have witnessed her pain and for 10 years, I have tried to comfort her without much avail.   Yet, in 2016, I had an encounter with heaven regarding my father–in–law. This dream was a complete game changer for my wife. After I told her about it, her heart was able to heal. It was only a year after I got baptized with the Holy Spirit that I started having dreams and encounters with heaven.   I never met my father–in–law on earth because he died before my wife and I got married. In this particular prophetic dream, my wife and I were brought to a place where my father–in–law and other people were gathered. My wife was brought inside a building to see her father. In the meantime, I had the opportunity to chat with an old Chinese lady sitting at the door. She showed me a large print edition of the Chinese version of the Bible that she was studying. Here are the details of this dream.   My wife asked me to go with her to a place where she could pick up letters about her father. I questioned her about how people were allowed to put these letters there. She explained that there is a temple where people can drop off letters and they will keep them safe until someone else picks them up. So, we went to this strange place. Initially, it looked like a Chinese temple to me, but there was a man speaking/preaching there. While this man was preaching, my wife approached a counter and picked up the letters she came for. When she got the letters, the man finished preaching. She then asked permission to say a few words about her father. There was a crowd of Chinese people around and they were very excited to see us. I could sense the atmosphere was full of joy and surprise. I even heard people say, “You are the daughter of Tan Ze, right?” It seemed they all knew this man. Although Tan Ze was not my father–in–law's name on earth, I sensed he was known by this name in that place. It seemed everybody knew him there and people were excited to have visitors.   While my wife spoke about her father, I started to film her with my phone in a vertical position. A Chinese man suddenly approached me and offered to film it for me. I handed the phone to him, and he started to film it horizontally. Since he was helping me, I was freed to walk around the place to check it out. I was very curious about where we were. I walked back to the entrance to the door. Once again I saw the old Chinese lady sitting there, so I asked her, “Is this place a church or a Chinese temple?” I was very cautious since it had the appearance of a Chinese-style temple. I was trying to judge if this place was for worshiping idols or God. Then, she showed me the book she was reading. Perhaps this was her way of telling me what kind of place it was. She was studying from a large–print edition of the Chinese Bible. She explained to me that this large–print edition was for the elderly people to use there. Since it was large–print though, it could not hold all the books of the Bible because of its letter size. There were, therefore, only portions of the Gospels in this edition. After talking with her, I turned back to the building to retrieve my phone from the man filming my wife.   Before I knew it, I entered a much bigger place which resembled a gated community. I talked with a few people there, but they were not the ones with my phone. As I entered further into this community, I saw my wife walking out toward me. I proceeded to ask her about the man with my phone and we eventually went back to the building. We found him in a corner and I got my phone back. The dream ended there.   Now, to my knowledge, my father–in–law did not believe in the Lord before he died. However, in my dream, he and the people with him had the opportunity to study the Bible. I am not sure if the place where they were living is considered the Paradise part of Hades, but this is my impression. At the same time I had this dream, my wife also had a dream about meeting her father. However, she has no recollection of either meeting him in her dream or meeting him in mine. When I relayed the details of this dream to her, she received a lot of healing from it. She can now openly talk about her father's death and I do not see her carrying the former pain regarding this matter.   I understand that dreams like this can be challenging to our existing theology. I don't know how a person can end up in a place after death where they can study the Bible and grow to know God. I can only say with certainty that God is good and I resolve to conclude that many spiritual things are beyond my ability to understand.   One Chinese prophetess, Xiulan Laiwang, testifies to a similar experience. In one of her testimonies about heaven, she also describes how she saw her father and mother–in–law reading the Bible in Paradise. She said that when the Lord took her to visit them, they told her that there's an angel in every household in Paradise that teaches them the Bible.[1]   My Aunt Gives Me A Treat An encounter with my aunt is another example of a heavenly encounter beyond my understanding. My fourth aunt died of breast cancer. I don't know if she knew the Lord either. In a prophetic dream, I was taken to a small house where she lives. She received me with fruit grown from her yard. This piece of fruit looked like a mulberry, but it was as big as a kiwi. Although her house was very small, I saw many kinds of fruits growing in her backyard. These fruits mostly consisted of fruits that I have never seen on earth before. The fruit was so ripe when I got there, so I picked some and ate it. Beside her house were many other people's houses. They were very similar to the small townhouses one would see in downtown Baltimore, but not as tall.   I've had several experiences of meeting my fourth aunt. These encounters remind me of a testimony I heard from an Australian prophet named Neville Johnson. He once mentioned that he was brought by an angel to a place with small houses. It felt strange that these were different from the big houses in heaven, so he asked the angel, “What are these houses?” The angel told him that when some people who hadn't heard the gospel passed away, Jesus would appear to them, giving them the opportunity to choose him. If they chose Jesus, they would live in these small houses.[2]   Kat Kerr also publicly shared a similar vision. She saw Jesus appearing to those who rejected him during their lifetime, and he asked them if they wanted to know Him now. Almost everyone cried and said, “yes.” Jesus told them that He would not be righteous if he did not appear to them to give them a choice since their relatives had faithfully prayed for them and decreed that they would be saved in Jesus' name. Kerr encourages people to pray and intercede for their family members even though they may not seem open to the Gospel. She believes that a lot of family members will be surprised to see that many relatives made it to heaven although they thought they did not make it.[3]   I recall praying for some of my family members to receive salvation, and I especially prayed for my fourth aunt after I found out she was sick. I never knew if she received the Lord before her death. It may be that my fourth aunt is already in the peripheral of Paradise as Neville Johnson mentions.   This dream of my aunt brought healing and comfort to my heart. My fourth aunt was a very important person in my family. I was born into a poor Chinese farmer's household. My father worked in a brick factory but injured his back while working there. His salary was little, so my mom raised pigs to support the family. My fourth aunt married a guy in my village whose father was a leader in the local county government. Because of her help, my father later got a job with the government. This turned around the hardship in our family and made a way for all three of us siblings to go to college. This incident was a rare occurrence to happen for those growing up in the 1970's in China.   I later discovered that I had a calling on my life and that God used my aunt to help me get a higher education. This was God's plan. Yet, I had been at odds with my aunt when I was a kid because of my low self-esteem. I avoided her, and I never apologized to her even when I became a believer (I was still young in the Lord). Thanks be to God that I was able to see her in Paradise even though she only has a very tiny house. By the way, I really enjoyed the fruit from her yard. It was incredibly tasty. I wish to visit her again soon when I reach heaven!   Music Box on the Wall In another prophetic dream, the Holy Spirit drove me and a Christian couple who attended our Bible study, to heaven. He showed us the house of his wife in heaven. The house was huge. The vines and wall had grown together as one. There was a music box on the wall beside the front door. You could open the music box and music would play automatically.   The lady had a great passion for music. After listening to my testimony, she was very encouraged that God had installed a music box on the wall of her house in heaven so that she could play music at any time. The wife of my friend who was with me in the dream said she also had a dream of herself at the same time as me, and she saw the Lord. Since she thought she might have been dying (from having the dream), she cried out to the Lord and woke up. Perhaps this was not just a dream and we had traveled there together.   Afterward, the husband told me that this was one of the most difficult times of their lives because of the challenges they faced, principally with their son's schooling. They were frustrated that their child was being bullied in school, so they fervently prayed to God every day for help. They eventually passed through that difficult time and their son is now doing well in school. Yet, at that time, this dream comforted their hearts. The wife was reassured that God cares so much for her that in heaven in the future, he would give her the desire of her heart. In her estimate, God would then surely carry her through her tribulations on earth.     Have Faith in God God is near to us, and more of heaven is being revealed to us. When I studied to complete my certification program on prophecy, I often heard people quoting Psalm 139:17–18 (NRSV) as evidence for how one can have faith in God to receive a prophetic word for others. These verses state, “How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand.” They say God's thoughts for a person are so vast like the sand on seashores. In this way, being prophetic is like picking up a few morsels of sand, or thoughts of God, regarding a person and sharing it with them. If God is love and includes himself in our personal lives, we can trust that He has millions of thoughts about each of us every single day. Surely, God is willing to share a piece of information with you and I as a word of prophecy or revelation to encourage the next person. Whether you are learning to be prophetic or need healing in your own heart, you can approach God in prayer by faith (Hebrews 4:16). Be assured that He will give you encounters of heaven, transform your life, and heal your heart! Let us approach and trust God together.   [1] Lai Wang Xiulan, Jehovah-jireh, 45. [2] From Neville Johnson's sermon on Youtube. No link available. [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Het_gU1nYCI

Mike Gore is the CEO of Open Doors Australia & NZ. In this interview Mike shares about how to pray for persecuted believers around the world, especially in places like Afghanistan & North Korea. He also shares about a Chinese Bible smuggling operation called, 'Project Pearl,' which took place 40 years ago. Open Doors saw one million Bibles smuggled into China in one night. Time Magazine dubbed it as one of the most successful smuggling operations of the 20th century. Mike is a former Hindu with a passion for sharing the gospel, this is a must listen! www.opendoors.org.au Support the show: http://historymakersradio.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Gore is the CEO of Open Doors Australia and NZ. In this interview Mike shares about how to pray for persecuted believers around the world, especially in places like Afghanistan and North Korea. He also shares about a Chinese Bible smuggling operation called, 'Project Pearl,' which took place 40 years ago. Open Doors saw one million Bibles smuggled into China in one night. Time Magazine dubbed it as one of the most successful smuggling operations of the 20th century. Mike is a former Hindu with a passion for sharing the gospel, this is a must listen!

In the history of Chinese Bible translation the name of one extraordinary man stands out: Joseph Schereschewsky. In this episode we're going to take a look at his life and hopefully learn from him and be inspired by his example of perseverance and sacrifice. Most evangelicals know about the genius of Tyndale, but Schereschewsky has been all but forgotten even though he was at least as brilliant as Tyndale. He could speak 13 languages and read 20. And no man of that day equaled him in idiomatic mastery of spoken Mandarin. He had a command of nearly 10,000 Chinese characters, while the average Chinese at the time could use around 700. He was a master of Hebrew, having studied it since childhood. John Hykes of the American Bible Society called him “The Prince of Bible translators.” You can check out Dr. Zetzsche's book The Bible in China here. Muller's biography of Schereschewsky. my books | twitter | music | Hebrew | academic articles | facebook

The great 20th century Chinese Bible teacher, Watchman Nee, said that 'earth governs heaven.' Could he be right? Jesus said he gave us the 'keys of the Kingdom of heaven' to bind and to loose. What if there is a clear connection between our move and heaven's move? Part 3 of the Page One series. ----more---- >> Go to the show notes page for this episode at JesusSmart.com/pageone >> Get the Jesus Smart eLetter and keep current with podcast episode releases Podcast Archive >> JesusSmart.com/category/podcast

Bible Study With Jairus - ACTS 11 Acts 11 tells three stories. In the first, Peter takes six fellow believers to Cornelius's home to bring salvation to Cornelius and all his household. He also baptized them with the Holy Spirit. The second story talks about the advancement of the Gospel by those who were suffering because of the persecution that arose over Stephen. Barnabas also went to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him to Antioch. In the third story, a prophet named Agabus foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over the entire Roman world. Our focus today is that we should pay attention to the working of the Holy Spirit, especially the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We also need to pay attention to the ways that the Holy Spirit communicates with us, including visions, dreams, trances, and so on. Before we talk about this, I want to provide a personal point of reference for this discussion. Let me start by explaining how our Bible study group operates in hopes that it will be a help to others who lead Bible Studies. Our Bible study is usually led by a man or woman who gives a brief summary of the Scripture in the beginning. Everyone takes a turn leading in order to achieve a better understanding of the Scripture as well as to give everyone a chance to practice speaking for God. Leading a Scripture reading session causes the leader to prepare for sharing in two ways. The first is summarizing the background and the basic information of the Scripture to share with the group. The leader may also add some thoughts that they learned from other Bible teachers. This step is very helpful for both the new believers who do not have much Bible knowledge and for those who wish to grow in their knowledge of the Bible. Those who wish to grow can learn to lead a Bible study and share what they have learned from this chapter. Their sharing will help those who are new to the Bible. This also helps those who are sharing to realize they need more understanding. The second step in preparation, which is a more advanced aspect, is to pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit to give you new understanding and thoughts about the Scripture. The unfolding of God's words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130) In other words, I try to help the group leaders to grow in their understanding of the Bible and receive Rhema words from the Holy Spirit. [“A rhema word is a specific word which the Holy Spirit quickens in our hearts and minds at a specific time and for a specific purpose. We receive a rhema word from God when the Holy Spirit specifically reminds us of a particular Bible verse or promise, and drops that “word” into our heart.”- Kenny Gatlin] I often show them an example of how to do this. We often get timely Rhema words from the Holy Spirit in our reading sessions. Providing a Scripture summary in the first step gives newcomers a good introduction to the Bible. And in the second step, the illumination of the Holy Spirit is a fresh bread of life for mature Christians who may find that a basic introduction of the Bible is not enough for their spiritual growth. Most of them have heard the same Bible stories many times already. After the beginning part led by a man or a woman, we will start to discuss our weekly Bible reading with a Q & A session. Sometimes the leader provides a topic and we write down our thoughts based on the topic; otherwise, we write down questions and discuss them together. The following question is a question that was asked by a new believer. He asked, “Why were the disciples first called Christians in Antioch?” It seems like a simple question- the answer is that the word “Christian” had a negative meaning in that time. This question did not contain any inspiration from the Holy Spirit at that moment. It was just about historical knowledge. Since the new believers did not have that knowledge, we explained a bit. We have discussed many questions at this level to help the new believers gain more Bible knowledge. The next question is why does it say Barnabas “was” a good man. (Acts 11:24) My answer is this. The Bible does not tell what happened to Barnabas after he had a disagreement with Paul. Luke, the author of Acts, was one of Paul's disciples. Arguments between Christian leaders will often have a strong impact on their followers. It is true today and it was true in Bible times. It is my suspicion that Luke might have known more about Barnabas's weaknesses than he wrote about here. The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is kind; He does not want to mention man's weaknesses unless they are helpful to later generations. (God recorded various sins as lessons to believers, such as Moses hitting the rock a second time and David's sin with Bathsheba). I mentioned in another Bible study that Barnabas' calling was to help Paul and to bring him center stage. The Bible mentions that only Barnabas accepted Paul when he was converted (Acts 9). It was also Barnabas who went to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Kindness is also one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If we look closely, we can see that many things were dealt with in the same way in the Bible. I don't think Barnabas made a huge mistake when he had a disagreement with Paul. But it was his time to leave the stage and let Paul become the leading apostle. God used Barnabas as a transition and his duty had been fulfilled. Another example is John the Baptist ushering in the ministry of Jesus; when Jesus started his ministry, John's mission was fulfilled. When this second question was asked, I tried to share some inspiration I received from the Holy Spirit instead of just presenting knowledge. However, it was the last question asked that is the main focus and inspiration we got from this Bible study. The question was “Was [Peter's] trance a soul out of body experience or a spirit out of body experience in verse 5?” We were reading the Chinese version of the Bible during our Bible study. The version we used renders the word “trance” as a “soul out of body experience” and it is how “trance” was commonly translated into Chinese. However, this brother saw some comments online in Chinese that this should be translated as a “spirit out of body experience.” Let me give you another example to illustrate this question better. I heard Pat Robertson answer a question on his program the 700 Club. One listener asked if our soul will go to heaven as well. Pat answered that our soul will not be in heaven as we are a spiritual man. Pat is a respected man of God. However, I don't agree with his view on this. Our soul is valuable and will enter into heaven. Our soul is so precious that Jesus gave up his soul life to save our souls' lives. If our soul will not go to heaven, why bother paying such a high price to save our souls? Yes, we are a spirit and we have eternal life in our spirit. But our soul will be transformed just as our body will one day be transfigured. We will become a new tripartite being once we are in Heaven. I understand this is a controversial topic in American Christianity. But as an example, let me present the value of our souls in dreams and visions. I think we have to use both our spirits and souls to receive revelations through trances, dreams, and visions. Why do I say this? Let's talk about the difference between dreams and visions. The book of Daniel says dreams are night visions (Daniel 7:2). Visions include internal visions, or the images from inside your head, and external visions that can be seen by your eyes. I have never experienced external visions, but I experienced internal vision once during the day. In 2013, my wife had new job opportunities open up in different cities. We were seeking God's guidance on whether we should leave Maryland. One day, we were driving to New York to visit a traditional Chinese medical center. My wife was not able to conceive during that time. On the way to New York, I suddenly saw a flow of water come out from between us and rise in a spiral up to the sky. It was like a tornado. I felt it was God telling us to stay. He later told me that there would be a revival in Maryland and that this revival would spread out from us in the future. I have also had more prophetic dreams, or night visions. I will give two examples. In one of the prophetic dreams, I took my wife to look for her father in a strange place. We went to a place that looked like a Chinese style temple. The people there were very welcoming. My wife walked inside to look for her father and left me outside talking to an elderly lady at the entrance. I asked the lady where I was: was this place a pagan temple where people worshipped idols or a church type of building? She showed me she was studying a large print Chinese Bible. My father-in-law died from a cerebral hemorrhage suddenly when my wife was in college. I never met him. My wife had some arguments with him before he died. She was not a believer at that time. His sudden passing was very traumatic for her and she worried her father would be in hell. This prophetic dream brought much healing to her heart. I remembered all the details in the dream after I woke up so I wrote them down. Interestingly, my wife dreamed of her father on the same night. She was so happy to see him in the dream, even though she did not remember other details. I had another prophetic dream in which a couple from my Bible Study group and I were taken by the Holy Spirit to Heaven. The wife had a big house there. The house was surrounded by grape trees and every tree was fruitful. A grape vine grew on the wall and became one with the wall. We picked some fruit while the wife was showing me around her home. There was a music box on the wall besides the main door that could play beautiful music. I later told this woman of how I was taken to Heaven in this prophetic dream to see her house there. She told me she saw the Lord in one of her dreams around the same time, but she did not see the details I described to her. As I was telling her what I saw in my dream, I told her that this was possibly a dream about Heaven. The house was her house in Heaven, but not in the world. She was very encouraged. She loves music and listens to music every day. Like my wife, she does not remember any other details from her own dreams, but was encouraged by the details in mine.   Unlike the experiences of my wife and this woman, my prophetic dreams (night visions) always come with many details. Apart from praying that God would speak to me through dreams before I sleep every night, I also train myself to wake up and record the dreams immediately once I have them. I sometimes get up a few times to record my dreams because people normally forget dreams in five minutes. The fact that my wife and this woman did not remember much of their dreams does not mean their dreams weren't prophetic. As I saw in my dreams, they were taken to those places with me. God may allow me to remember these details but sealed the specifics for them. Job 33:14-18 says, “For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.” It is possible that many have dreams but don't remember and understand them. This happened to both Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. Many times people just forget their dreams because they did not write them down immediately. They could also just sleep too deeply to remember what God has been telling them in their dreams. Personally, I have been practicing to keep alert while sleeping and trying to record all the dreams. Many of our prophetic dreams can be spiritual encounters that are happening in spiritual realms. If our soul is not participating in our dreams, we will not be able to remember anything. The Bible tells us that we were chosen before we were born. This means that our spirit already existed before our soul and body were even created. The Bible also tells us that we have been raised to Heaven with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places (‎Ephesians 2:6). But why do most of us not feel that we are seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places? Most Christians do not have experiences of seeing themselves seated together with Jesus in the heavens, though some have prophesied that it is so. It is because God has not activated our prophetic gift to see this in our spirit. But also our soul is not allowed to remember these experiences even if we experienced them in the spirit. My point is that we must involve both our spirit and our soul to experience what happens in our spiritual encounters. Joel chapter 2 says the Lord will pour out the Holy Spirit on all flesh, old men shall dream dreams, and young men shall see visions. Our sleep can be seen as another form of “death.” God took out Adam's rib to create Eve while he was in a deep sleep. God also spoke to Abraham while he was in a deep sleep. God told him that his descendants would be enslaved for four hundred years in Egypt. Our dreams can be happening in a junction of soul and spirit, as well as in the spiritual and physical worlds. We need both our spirit and souls to remember the dream. We may have experiences in the spiritual realm, but we need dreams to remember them. Why does God speak to us through dreams? One of the reasons is that we are over occupied during day time and there is interference from the world so that we are not able to hear God clearly. The other reason is that we have worldly responsibilities such as our work. For instance, if God speaks to you or shows you a vision while you are driving, it may cause trouble. Some Christians in the Charismatic church often practice waiting on the Lord. They wait to hear from God through worshiping, praising, and praying in tongues to exclude external interference so that they are able to see visions. I heard a testimony from an American prophetic teacher when I was taking a prophetic course. He said he often saw visions while waiting on the Lord and became half awake. One assignment that our teachers gave us during the prophetic course was praying in a quiet place and using our imaginations to see a treasure box that was full of God's gifts. We were to describe what gifts were in there. I was saved in the Local Church Movement where the focus was more on growing as a Christian and study of the Scriptures. What I learned at this prophetic course was too new for me to understand at first. I was not able to see the box from God at all the first few times I tried. It was during a holiday, but since I was under the pressure of the due date, I decided to kneel down and pray again. After a while, I saw a bed sheet come from Heaven and someone passed me a sword. I recorded this initial vision for my assignment. My teacher was a prophet who advised that the bed sheet represented rest and peace and the sword represented war. She believed that God's Word for me was to rest in Him; He would give me the weapons I needed to win the spiritual battle. The reason I am sharing this experience with you is to prove that we are able to connect with the spiritual world, and to show that we can get to know more about the spiritual world through certain prophetic practices. With the prophetic class I took and the help of the Holy Spirit, I gradually opened up more to the spiritual world. Since taking the prophetic classes, I have seen angels and evil spirits, had encounters with Jesus in heaven, and so on. I personally think some of them are real experiences that happened in spiritual realms. They are not only dreams. What does this have to do with the book of Acts? Many people have a tendency to focus on the chronicles of Paul or other stories related to evangelism when they read the book of Acts. However, this book also contains miracles, visions, angels, prophecies, and healing which are not discussed at many traditional churches.  However, they play important roles in this book too. A woman said she could not fully understand most of the context of Acts. For instance, Jesus's disciples seem weak in the Gospels but they accomplish such great things in the book of Acts. The focal point in the book of Acts is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can really change a person. As we all know, God formed man of dust from the ground. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of God, and the man became a living soul. The word “breath” can also be translated as “spirit.” Therefore, we can also call our soul the mixture of the spirit of God (or the breath of God) and our flesh. Our first breath was given by God in creation of us, and our second breath will be given by the Holy Spirit when we receive him in our regeneration. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives and changes our inner self when we become Christians. And the third breath is the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is not talked about much at some churches. Most of the disciples in the book of Acts have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This experience does give us another level of the breath of God. Our soul is a form that connects our spirit and our body, so our souls are affected by both our spirit and body. For example, if someone falls down when sick, the physical body affects the soul. Our soul also experiences changes and transformation when our spiritual men are regenerated. Our souls get damaged or even demonized by attacks from evil spirits.  However, there is another kind of change in our soul when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Many churches nowadays are not discussing much about these changes. But there are several examples in the Old Testament, such as Saul who had a life change by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says Saul had a new heart and became a different man after the Holy Spirit was upon him. Since this was in the Old Testament, it was not the Holy Spirit in his heart (1 Samuel 10:9). It was the Holy Spirit coming upon him. I was part of a church that traditionally focused on the growth of our spiritual life. These traditions teach the believers to overcome sin and self through the power of the cross. However, they do not talk about or promote the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was zealous to pursue spiritual growth and overcome all my sins and weakness through denying myself and practicing bearing my cross. However, I found that many people, including myself, could not overcome certain weaknesses no matter how hard we tried. Later I realized that this was not an area only related to my sins or flesh, but also to the strongholds set up by evil spirits. For example, many Chinese families traditionally worship idols, which brings generational curses to our family lines. In my church background, we did not talk much about deliverance ministries. However, when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I found myself delivered from some of these strongholds or generational curses by the sovereignty of God. Another story from Randy Clark will also help to illustrate this point. He said he had some sexual sins when he was a young believer. He later repented and regretted his behavior. However, he did not realize he had a need to be delivered from evil spirits until the day he met some deliverance ministers who helped to cast out some demons from him. He then realized it was NOT ONLY his personal weakness in the flesh, but a generational curse or the work of the evil spirits who worked in his family line. He found that many in the past few generations of his family had this similar sexual sin. Once the evil spirits were cast out from him and he went through the deliverance ministries, this generational curse was removed from his family line. He testified that his son and daughters no longer repeat the sins he and his previous family members had committed. When I reflected on my own experiences, I had much failure in overcoming certain weaknesses or my flesh when I was practicing bearing the cross in my previous denomination. I found myself and many others saying the words, “I was crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20) but in reality, we still could not overcome certain issues in our souls. You get to know each other very well once you have been in a local church long enough. You will know many people have never overcome certain issues in their life though they try very hard to bear their crosses. Through my own experiences in both the Local Church Movement and Charismatic churches, I found that both aspects (bearing the cross and the baptism of the Holy Spirit) are needed. As He lives in us, The Holy Spirit can work within us to lead us to experience the cross internally. However, we cannot overlook the fact that the empowering of the Holy Spirit can help us to be free from demons and strongholds when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We need both the inner working of the Holy Spirit in us and also the empowering of the Holy Spirit upon us. The Holy Spirit will empower us to overcome more of our weaknesses or flesh if we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is not as many people think- that it only empowers us with gifts of the Holy Spirit outwardly to do miraculous things. You simply cannot leave the Holy Spirit out when you read the book of Acts. You cannot ignore the fact of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You cannot downplay the visions and dreams recorded in the book of Acts. One third of the Bible is about visions and dreams. Many traditional churches do not give room to talk about visions and dreams or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Teachings and doctrines control the podium instead. This will eventually suffocate the church from having the supernatural experiences recorded in the book of Acts, and even hinder people from growing spiritually in the Lord. Today, churches are separated by how much they know about the Holy Spirit and how much they are willing to allow the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to give room to the operation of the Holy Spirit and heed the ways that the Holy Spirit uses to convey his message to us. Visions, dreams, and trances are great tools God can use to talk with us. It involves both our spiritual man and our soul to receive this message.

Based on a true story. Listen in to the story of ZhangBo, a young Chinese preacher in 1960s China, as he risks much to encourage his father in the faith.

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Jairus means “Jehovah who enlightens.” This is not a commonly used name and until 2016, it didn't mean anything significant for me more than any other name. However, through a series of personal challenges, Jairus suddenly became very meaningful to me and thus Jairus Bible World Ministries came to bear this name. I married my wife in 2006. For 10 years, we battled with infertility. We tried every method available to us including Chinese herbal medicine and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Our five IVF attempts failed, and even our last-ditch effort to secure a pregnancy with an egg donor ended quickly when our donor changed her mind at the last minute. You can imagine the darkness my wife and I experienced. Through a long journey of relentless prayer and fighting to believe a prophetic promise from the Lord, God spoke to me in a dream and told me that my wife would soon become pregnant. Miraculously, and to our surprise, my wife found herself pregnant with our miracle daughter on May 28th, 2016. Elim, our crowning glory, was born healthy months later and remains our precious miracle baby. Though our hearts are now filled with great joy, this ten-year process was not without many dark moments of the soul. When I look back, I can see that God tried to speak to me and give me strength many times, but I had a difficult time hearing him. The years between 2014 and 2016 were a time of transition for me. I didn't know it at the time, but God was transitioning me from an Evangelical church to a Charismatic congregation and entrusting a ministry to me! I would move from a season of testing in the wilderness to abundance. Yet, before I could, I had to face the reality of my situation. The reality of our bareness was difficult. I felt like I had hit a wall when it came to receiving healing and also the baptism of the Holy Spirit (as evidenced by tongues and manifestations). These were two things I had been diligently seeking after I became aware that they were available to me. In fact, my desire for these two things is what drove me into Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. I had been a Christian for 13 years, but I had never attended a Charismatic church. In sharing the rest of this story, please be informed that I am not inferring that one denomination is better than nor superior to another. I have learned that each church who is serving Christ embraces certain biblical truths and no denomination has the whole picture. I remain deeply grateful to all of the churches I've attended in the past. They have helped me in numerous ways including both spiritually and even financially. Sharing my experience of being in two very different denominations is for the purpose of showing how God was taking me out of my comfort zone to allow me to learn about Him from a different perspective. The church I was mainly involved with before my charismatic church experiences didn't encourage individuals to have personal ministries. Instead, a congregant's main responsibility was to continue building the ministry that the founders of the denomination had started. My background taught me that we should be committed to build the ministry of the age, which is a term we give to the ministry of our founders. This is different than the beliefs of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches who teach and encourage every Christian to have their own ministry. When I first heard this preached, it was a foreign concept to me. In my determination to know the Lord more and receive a miracle, I committed to pray every day in 2014 until the Lord healed my wife and baptized me in the Holy Spirit. Each day during my lunch break I would sit in a park and pray for these things. I continued to do this until I was overcome with devastation from the failure of our last IVF treatment. The doctor diagnosed that there would be no way for us to naturally conceive. Our only hope was to use an egg donor. As a final option, we tried this as well, but it also rendered fruitless. Looking back, my wife and I believe it was God's intention for us to conceive naturally. We believed in miracles at the time, but we weren't completely certain that God was going to give us a child naturally which is why we tried every other option available to us. Although devastated, my wife and I remained steadfast in our weekly Bible studies. We had been holding Bible studies every week in Chinese with a few other families. One week we came to chapter 5 in the Gospel of Mark. Written there is a story about a man named Jairus who went to Jesus to request his presence to heal his sick daughter. Jesus agreed to go with him and heal his daughter, but on the way to his home, Jesus was stopped by a woman with a bleeding problem. This woman spoke to herself as she made her way to Jesus, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well” (Mk. 5:28 NRSV). Of course, the woman did get healed, and Jesus praised her stating that it was her faith that made her well. Reading the story this time stood out to me in a different way than before. I raised the question to our participants: “What do you think Jairus's reaction would have been when Jesus delayed, and this woman was healed?” Would he have said, “Come on, Jesus, my issue is more important; I came to you first because my daughter is dying and now you stop for this unclean woman!? Have some respect, people; there is a line here!” I'm sure I may have felt this way if I were him. I was once at a healing meeting in New York and I witnessed what people are capable of when they are desperate. They all tried to rush in the door of the church to secure a spot inside because the limited space would not hold the couple thousand people in attendance. Perhaps, though, Jairus may have acted like a saint, and he may have said, “That's fine, no problem. Her need is more important than mine. Don't worry, everything is in God's hands. Even if my daughter dies, she will be in heaven with God.” Or, Jairus could have reacted passively, “Whatever happens, happens. There is nothing I can do anyway. It's not my call.” The Bible does not describe Jairus' reaction, but I learned from a great Chinese Bible teacher, Witness Lee, that what the Bible does not say is equally as important as what it does say. I can only imagine that Jairus's reaction was filled with emotion and panic. At the end of the story, someone from home tells Jairus to no longer ask Jesus to come to his house. Verse 36b says, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” But verse 37 records Jesus' immediate reaction when he heard this: “But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” What happened between the words spoken by Jairus' friend in verse 36 and the words Jesus spoke in verse 37? Did Jesus see the agony in Jairus's face? Or could he see that Jairus' faith was weak? I think both may have been the case; otherwise, Jesus would not have spoken to him immediately. It's just like Jesus to step in and speak life to someone in the midst of all the negative voices. On this particular day of our Bible study, when I read this phrase, “Do not fear, only believe,” it was as if God had spoken it to me personally. These words penetrated my heart. It was like I was being led by the Holy Spirit into the inner emotions of Jairus. For a moment, the woman and Jairus were one. I don't mean in a literal sense; they were still different people. But in a spiritual sense, these two characters were both a part of me. Some of the feelings Jairus may have experienced such as panic, disappointment or anger resembled some of my own. And yet, like the woman, I was approaching God by faith hoping for a miracle in my wife's body. I was so impacted by this revelation that I started to use this phrase when I published the recordings of our Bible studies online.  As our discussion continued, I raised another question. “Why did God allow the delay in the healing of Jairus' daughter?” We know God is sovereign and nothing can happen except by the will of the Father. We also know that the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible and it is no coincidence that Mark put these passages together in one segment. I felt there must have been a purpose in the delay of the healing of his daughter. My wife always talks about the author, Cao Xueqin, who wrote the novel Dream of the Red Chamber. It is a well-known 18th century classic Chinese novel. Many say that Cao Xueqin was writing about figures related to the Royal family, and it would have put him in danger if they knew he was referencing them. Because of this, he masterfully created several characters and put the different characteristics of one person into them. I find that the Holy Spirit is also a master when it comes to the inspiration behind the writing of the Bible. I felt the Holy Spirit had revealed the answer to me. The purpose of the delay was obviously to heal the woman with the blood issue. But what does the issue of blood represent? It is the leaking out of life; it is a lack of faith. The leaking of our faith must be stopped first before we can be healed. Perhaps you have heard the saying that God wants to give us what we ask for, but first he will give us something we need. Before the healing of his daughter, Jairus needed to be healed from his lack of faith. This woman with the issue of the blood was a woman of faith and a blaring sign to Jairus of what he needed in order to receive his miracle. What Jairus lacked, this woman stood as an example of. When I was praying in the park one day in the beginning of 2014, I had a conversation with God that went something like this. I said, “I will never stop bothering you, Lord. If you do not heal my wife and baptize me in your Holy Spirit, I will bug you every day until the end of my life. I will see you one day in heaven and even ask you to your face—WHY? Isaiah 28 says, ‘those who trust in the Lord will be never put to shame.' If I were put to shame for this matter, the shame will be yours. If you don't do these things according to your promise, then I can say you are a liar. But I know you are not a liar. I don't understand what is going on here [in my life].”  All my emotions came pouring out. I was like that infamous woman with the issue of the blood. Sometimes I was adamant, perseverant, and full of faith. But other times I could be like Jairus full of agony and pain while holding the promise of Jesus to heal his daughter. We all have access to the promises of God concerning healing (which is stated in many verses in the Bible). However, I was experiencing the delay of its coming. My question to you, reader, is this: Are you also experiencing a delay in any promises you have been believing for? Do you see yourself in these two characters? I have certainly seen myself in them. I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me that day, “The delay has a purpose. Do not fear, only believe.” I felt really encouraged and all of us in the Bible study also felt the same. We ended our time with each person declaring “Do not fear, only believe.” I felt the Lord was using this difficult time to perfect my faith in Him. In due time my wife would be healed. Now, getting back to what I mentioned earlier. The concept of having my own ministry was foreign to me. It was not on my radar. I even struggled with the fact that it may be against my former church's teaching. I wondered if it would be seen as pride or self-promotion. Despite my reservations, I still felt I should go ahead and start this ministry. I thought to myself, “What's a good middle ground I can take?” I decided to use “Jairus” rather than my own name since it had spoken to me so much. In January 2016, at an Elijah List conference in Oregon, God spoke two things to me. First, he confirmed to me that Jairus Bible World Ministries is from him. Second, he assured me that my wife and I would have a baby that year which we did. God's response to Jairus, the woman, to me and to all that believe for a promise is the same: “Do not fear; only believe.” I pray this post has been a blessing to you!

Bible study with Jairus- Numbers 2 Numbers 2 records Jehovah's arrangement of the encampment of the 12 tribes of Israel around the tent of meeting in the following order: Judah takes the lead in the east, next to Judah is the tribe of Issachar and Zebulun.  To the south is the tribe of Reuben; next to Reuben is the tribe of Simeon and the tribe of Gad.  On the west is the tribe of Ephraim; next to Ephraim is the tribe of Manasseh and Benjamin. The tribe of Dan takes the lead on the north; next to them is the tribe of Asher and Naphtali. The Levites were, of course, not counted.  The names of the leaders, as well as the division numbers in each tribe, were mentioned in addition to recording this order.  Many readers may be confused after reading the names of these unfamiliar tribes, leaders, and numbers.  It's enough to make one's head spin. Just this week, I saw one of my teachers from the United Theological Seminary, post a sentence on Facebook by John Wimber (the founder of the Vineyard Church).  It reads, "When we are losing the encounter of the Lord, we will start counting on people.” I am paraphrasing it as I did not know where it came from. This means that we should focus on meeting the Lord every day instead of the achievements we have done for the Lord. The Bible records David's two sins.  His first sin was committing adultery by marrying Uriah's wife. The other sin was counting the Israelites. This census was the sin of spiritual immorality. Why? As Joab (David's general) said, if David is not satisfied, he can ask God to give him more. Why count Israel? When David was counting the Israelites, his heart became proud, and he had drifted far away from God. He was counting his achievements and those achievements became the idol of his heart causing God to be displeased. Watchman Nee, the founder of the Local Church Movement, often said that God values more what we are than what we do. It's not hard for us to draw inspiration from the story of David and the words of John Wimber and Watchman Nee. We don't need to pay too much attention to the names and numbers of those tribes in this chapter. Rather, we should pay attention to how we can stay focused on the Lord. Under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we did notice that a very important phrase in this chapter from the second verse "around the tent of meeting." Numbers 2:2 (NIV) says, "The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family." While we had our Bible study, the Holy Spirit especially illuminated this and reminded us to pay attention to these words “around the tent of meeting.” In the version of the Chinese Bible we used, it was translated as “facing the tent of meeting.” The translation in the NIV is not that clear. But the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) version says, “The Israelites shall camp each in their respective regiments, under ensigns by their ancestral houses; they shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.” It also says, “facing the tent of meeting on every side.” In other words, Jehovah's encampment isn't just focusing on the order, division numbers, and the names of the leaders of the twelve tribes. These are important, but what's more important is the principle of the encampment of the tribes of Israel: to "camp facing the tent of meeting on every side. " In other words, the principle of spiritual warfare is to "face God and turn one's back on the world and the enemy." This sounds different from the strategy in the world. We usually face our enemies.  What should we do if the enemy suddenly attacks?  It's a different story here. Although we need to understand the enemy's movements, the key to win at spiritual warfare is to “face God,” receive enlightenment and guidance from Him, rather than fighting the enemy according to our flesh. Many pastors often testify that when they feel overwhelmed by the needs of the world and the busyness of working for the Lord, they slowly lose God's presence and their peace in the Lord. They become overwhelmed to the point of suffering a nervous breakdown. “Burnout” is a word that can describe this situation. The tent of meeting or tabernacle serves as the dwelling place of God. This is where God's presence is. To the east of the tabernacle is the gate to the outer court of the tabernacle where the priests offer sacrifices, manage affairs in the outer court and perform their services. In the center is the Holy Place of the tabernacle, and to the west is the Holy of Holies. Each tribe is to camp facing the tent of meeting on every side, each man under his standard with the banners of his tribe. Although the Levites were not counted here, it doesn't mean that the Levites had no status. On the contrary, the Levites have a very important status here. They are the connection between God who dwells in the tabernacle and the different tribes of Israel who encamped facing the tent of meeting. By serving each tribe, the Levites brought their needs before God. At the same time, the Levites also brought God's presence and instructions to the tribes of Israel outside. If you weren't able to recognize the work of the Levites, it is easy to think of this arrangement of Jehovah as a few dots. But when you notice the work of the Levites, the arrangement of God is no longer a few dots, but rather, a net. In this net, God and man form a big wheel through the link between the Levites as priests and the cooperation amongst different tribes. It's like what Ezekiel mentioned, wheel intersecting a wheel (NIV, Ezekiel 1:16). No matter which tribe we belong to, or in which church God places us, our most important task every day is to draw near to God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. It's just like what the ministry of the Levites represents here. Our most important task every day is to meet with God. Our hearts must be towards God. We must face God and turn our back on the world and its needs. It's not that we shouldn't get in touch with the world and carry out various activities. But rather, we must ensure that we don't deal with things for the sake of just dealing with them. I often hear people say that it's not the needs of human beings that motivated the ministry of Jesus. Rather, the will of the Father was what motivated Him. He only did what He saw His Father doing. If Jesus came to earth because He was merely trying to meet the needs of human beings, then his ministry was not successful, because many people's needs were not met. But the Lord Jesus came to fulfill God's will for Him. If the Heavenly Father spoke, He spoke; if the Heavenly Father did something, He did it. Similarly, we should operate in this way to serve the affairs of the world, such as caring for the orphans and poor people. If it's because we are simply responding to the needs of human beings, we will eventually collapse and fail to meet all the needs of the world. If we do it because of God's will and guidance in our lives, no matter how much we do, we are filled with God's presence and rest. Many pastors and other spiritual leaders start their ministries by first waiting on God. But slowly, the needs that they are facing become greater, and gradually, the needs take all of their attention, causing them to unknowingly focus on the needs rather than God.  Remember, we cannot turn our backs on God and face the world and its needs; we need to turn our back on the world and its needs and face God. There is a saying in China called "Take a coat by the collar,” which means if you grasp the main idea of something, the minor details will become clearer. The main point here is "facing the tent of meeting.” When each tribe is "facing the tent of meeting,” many of the following activities will be easier to do or manage afterward. But if a certain tribe begins to take his eyes off the tabernacle or off of God and turn to his enemies outside, or if he pays too much attention to the tribes next to him, which then generates competition, this main point or collar is destroyed. Problems will occur in the operation of this big net or this big wheel designed by God according to His wisdom. For example, we know that God's chosen people should be in unity. But when we see the shortcomings of other Christians or denominations, it is inevitable to criticize and judge. It is not that we should not help other churches but that God leaves the right of judgment to Himself; therefore, it is not our responsibility to judge others. We should keep our eyes on God, and not others, denominations, etc..  When we are more focused on what others are doing either right or wrong, the enemy will take advantage of us creating discord and destroying the large net woven by God.   We should not be jealous of other's gifts and different callings. Just as the eyes should not be jealous of the ears, we should be satisfied with our own gifts and take hold of our calling firmly. Our eyes should be focused on God and treat other people and denominations from God's perspective. Now that we understand this most important principle let's look at the order, names of the leaders, and the number of people in each tribe and see what kind of spiritual significance they each have. First of all, let's take a look at the tribe of Judah on the east, towards the sunrise. We know that Judah is the tribe of war.  The book of Judges records that when the Israelites went to fight against the Benjaminites, they asked Jehovah who should go up first to fight, and the Lord said that Judah should go first. The Lord Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. ​​In Genesis 49,  Jacob prophesied that his son Judah was a lion's cub. Next is the tribe of Issachar. Judges said that the tribe of Issachar were men “who understood the times” (1 Chronicles 12:32 NIV). We can say this tribe has the gift of prophecy. We don't know exactly what the gifts of each tribe are, but it seems that Judah has more like the gift of an apostle, and Issachar has more like the gift of a prophet. Their different gifts complement each other.  The apostles and prophets are the foundation that the church was built on In the New Testament. The next tribe, the tribe of Zebulun, may represent provision and gospel preaching because Zebulun is a harbor; his border will extend toward Sidon (NIV, Genesis 49:13). Perhaps the tribe of Zebulun represents the gift of the evangelists in the New Testament. This is only my guess, but in any case, I think the order of the twelve tribes here is not according to the natural order of their births, nor is it the order of whether they came from the same mother so that they may be arranged according to their gifts and their spiritual maturity before God. These three are collectively referred to as the camp of Judah. Second is the camp of Reuben, which is located in the south. This includes Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. I think that the gift of Reuben is shepherding because he tried to protect Joseph when some of his brothers plan to kill him. The meaning of the name Simeon is “heard,” while the name Gad means “luck.” I don't exactly know what gifts Simeon and Gad represent. Maybe they represent God's mercy because Simeon slaughtered countless people and could have been the key person that participated in the plot to kill Joseph. But God pitied him. Reuben also sinned, but Moses prayed not to let the tribe of Reuben be few. Jacob prophesied in Genesis 49:19 (NIV), "Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.” Perhaps Gad has the gift of resurrection from failures. Behind these two camps is the camp of the Levites. They are responsible for carrying the instruments of the tabernacle. We could say that they were moving tabernacles around, or in other words, they carried the presence of God around. The third camp is Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, which is located on the west. All three are descendants of Joseph. The West is where the Holy of Holies is. I feel these groups of people represent what John the beloved represented in the New Testament. John rested in the bosom of Jesus, and he was an intimate friend of Jesus. These three tribes are all dependents of Rebekah, whom Jacob loves most. The fourth camp is the tribe of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, which is located in the north. To me, they also represent certain aspects of Christ, who is our ultimate savior. Of course, other tribes also represent certain aspects of Christ as well.  I'm not sure why Jehovah has arranged it that way. However, my guess is perhaps they are arranged according to their different gifts and the maturity of their spiritual lives. Let's take a look at the leaders. The leaders of each tribe are mentioned here for the second time because the Lord has already appointed them in Chapter 1. For example, the leader of the tribe of Judah is Nahshon, son of Amminadab. There is no detailed record in the Bible, so we have no way of knowing what kind of a person Amminadab was, how he could give birth to a leader like Nahshon, and what education and help did Nahshon receive to become the leader of the Judah. Nahshon commands 74,600 soldiers in the tribe of Judah. I don't know how many people you are shepherding or how many people God has entrusted to your leadership, but I know that a pastor leading a church of 2,000 people, or even a church of 200 people, is a very difficult job. Therefore, it was not easy for Nahshon to lead 74,600 people. He must have received excellent training and help from God to take such responsibility. Being a leader is not a ruler but a shepherd. Nahshon would have to face God every day and bear the responsibility for 74,600 people. On the one hand, he was leading these people. On the other hand, he was shepherding them or carrying them on his shoulder or his back before the Lord because the New Testament had already told us that the responsibility of the elders was not to rule over but to shepherd. We are all priests who carry those who are under our shepherding. I just cited Nahshon as an example to tell you that he has a legacy from his family, and he learned this from his father Amminadab. God knew him. God had personally called him to be a leader, indicating that God had already personally trained him. The same goes for the other tribes and their leaders. Not only was a tribe's leader mentioned, but the names of their fathers were also mentioned. We won't mention each one of the leaders of the other tribes. But hopefully, this helps you to see the principle behind each leader. Let's take a look at the numbers now. Each tribe's division numbers are different. Don't think this is just a trivial matter. This reflects the prosperity of the tribe. Naturally, the increase in number reflects that they have been blessed before God. Judah's tribe was the largest. This may be one of the reasons they were in the first camp. I don't know the meaning of each set of numbers.  I know God wasn't happy when David was counting the numbers of Israelites. But it's okay for Moses to count here. Why? It's still the principle that we talked about earlier, "camp facing the tent of meeting on every side" is the main point. When Moses was doing the counting, he had a face to face encounter with God. He was doing it in the correct order. But David's heart was full of pride when he was counting the numbers. He was doing it in the wrong order. Meeting God first is the priority. If God is first, counting the things that you do spiritually for God is okay.  If you neglect God and just focus on the spiritual needs in your ministry, it won't be pleasing to God.   We must first pursue God before working for Him or pursing His gifts.  I'm not saying to neglect service or gifts but we need to balance it all correctly by seeking God with all of our hearts first. This will enable us to walk confidently in our calling and be victorious in battle.  Let's meet God first daily before we face the needs of the world. No matter what we do, hopefully, it is done out of our love for God instead of duty or ambition. In this way, we will certainly be able to please God. But let's not overlook the fact that God has indeed given us different gifts. Just like the twelve tribes, they are all placed in certain places by God to carry out certain duties according to the calling and gifts that He has given us.  

Chinese authorities raid underground Bible School. The students remain undeterred in their studies!

From a traditional Chinese religious background, J encountered the grace of God through friends and church. Even her mother submitted to Christ through reading the Chinese Bible. While listening to a talk by Patrick Johnstone, J responded to an altar call to submit herself to missions in Japan. After attending another church, she came to ARPC and immediately became involved in the photography ministry, Drawn by Light. During this time J began exploring the Japanese Christian work in Singapore in the Japanese churches. She found a group reaching out to Japanese expatriates in Singapore led by a Japanese Christian couple. When they left, after much prayer she and her team started a Japanese/English language exchange cafe.  This was paired with one-on-one meetings with the Japanese participants.  Listen to this amazing story of God’s grace.

Chinese art expert Claire Roberts speaks with Nikki Anderson about Yang Zhichao’s work and the significance of his work Chinese Bible (2009). Recorded at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF), 23 May 2015, in association with SCAF Project 26, Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible.

Chinese art expert Dr Claire Roberts speaks with Nikki Anderson about Yang Zhichao’s practice and the significance of his 2009 work Chinese Bible. Recorded at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF), 23 May 2015, in association with SCAF Project 26, Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible.

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) presents Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, 2009, curated by Claire Roberts. Chinese Bible is a performance installation comprising 3,000 diaries and notebooks collected by Beijing-based artist Yang Zhichao. In this short film, go behind the scenes of the Chinese Bible install and hear the artist and curator discuss the project. Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, SCAF Project 26, was at SCAF from 14 May - 1 August 2015.

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) presents Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, 2009, curated by Claire Roberts. Chinese Bible is a performance installation comprising 3,000 diaries and notebooks collected by Beijing-based artist Yang Zhichao. In this short film, go behind the scenes of the Chinese Bible install and hear the artist and curator discuss the project. Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, SCAF Project 26, was at SCAF from 14 May - 1 August 2015.

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) presents Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, 2009, curated by Claire Roberts. Chinese Bible is a performance installation comprising 3,000 diaries and notebooks collected by Beijing-based artist Yang Zhichao. In this short film, go behind the scenes of the Chinese Bible install and hear the artist and curator discuss the project. Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible, SCAF Project 26, was at SCAF from 14 May - 1 August 2015.