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As I travel, I tend to get more reading done. This week I read The Heavenly Man. Josh suggested this book to me a few weeks ago, when we were at IHOP-KC (I sure miss The Prayer Room) this book had five facings in the bookstore, so I packed it for reading on trains and busses and what-not. … I had NO idea what I was in for.

This is the story of a leader in the Chinese house church movement… he sufferered horrible brutality at the hands of the Chinese authorities and suffered long in Chinese and Burmese prisons. He lived and suffered for the cause of the Gospel with great humility.

Here are some quotes that grabbed me…

In the context of working hard but lacking a deep abiding in Jesus (my term).

“I was still getting up every morning at five o’clock and praying with other church leaders, and I was still reading my Bible every day, but I was doing these things out of obligation and habit, and not from a willing heartflowing from my relationship with Jesus.” (p. 198)

This struck me bacause I know that feeling and I know how easy it is to do the spiritual disciplines for discipline’s sake. May our relationship with the Lord Jesus drive us to love dwelling with Him and not just doing our devotions for their own sake.

In his discussion about seeking unity:

“When I told him my vision for unity, Zhang laughed… …but I knew Zhang had been deeply hurt by the other leaders.” (p. 235)

I know this feeling too well for I know what it feels like to be hurt by fellow workers and how hard it is to forgive. I am so grateful for Matthew 18 which teaches me to forgive first.

A bit later he described the difficulty of getting leaders together for a time of reconcilliation and the result…

“Although not all differences were ironed out, the leaders got to know each other for the first times and saw how they had far more in common than they had reasons to remain seperate. They also found their theological differences centered upon issues that weren’t essential to the faith.”

Wow, did I love reading these words from this guy. It makes me want to go to Germany to meet him, but I know he would tell me to spend that time with the Lord Jesus in His Word. AMEN!

At another point, the Lord showed him that he had his priorities messed up again…

“I realized again that I was a laborer who worked witout real peace from the Lord. I loved doing things for the Lord so much that it had become my securrity and my source of joy. God wanted to remove this idol from my life.”

God help us not to make ministry an idol.

About the Chinese government…

“We never pray against our government or call down curses on them. Instead, we have learned that God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus, ‘The government will be upon his shoulders.’ Is. 9.6… we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God.” (p.287)

He wrote this about the Chinese government.

About an attack by a Christian that cost him, he was told…

“Brother Yun,…  In China, Christians are persecuted with beatings and imprisonment. In the West, Christians are persecuted by the words of other Christians.”

I have been on the receiving end of this and I am guilty as charged. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, have mercy on me, the sinner. I think it would be prudent for us to memorize 1 Tim. 5:19 –

19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. (1 Tim 5:19 ESV.)

There is tons more I could say about this book, but one more quote and I’m done:

In a Burmese prison when he learned of his impending release, he said “I feel so sorry that many Christians live in bondage even though Jesus has signed their release form with his own blood. When you’ve been set free, you should act like it!”

I think they got the title wrong… I know where the title comes from, but this is the story of The Humble Man.

Here in the sunshine city of Szeged, I’ve been tooling around on my buddy’s bike. I don’t have to ride busses or pay for such. The weather is amazing, its sunny and 82 (f) degrees. I do have to learn about when to ride on the road and when to ride on the sidewalk and when to walk instead of ride, but its a great way to get around. Szeged is pretty flat so gear changing is unnecessary and there are always places to park the bike and lock it up. What a great way to get around… but that is ‘cuz this is a smaller city… I can’t imagine using a bike and covering the ground I need to cover to get around Budapest, need the BKV for that. Until then, I’ll crusie around on these two wheels…

I just updated my travel plan and prayer list.

click HERE to see what has, is and will (Lord willing) happen…

A few weeks ago as Anna and I were basking in the experience in KC, we were prayed for by a young lady from Poland and a young man from Korea. When they prayed for me particularly, she reminded me to keep Jesus as the main thing as I travel and to give me a great confirmation, she pointed me to Col. 1 which has one of the most clear statements about the essential nature and centrality of Jesus in Scripture.

As I study and pray today for this weekend’s preaching, I will be drinking deeply from this text. Indeed, I am reminded of the question at the forum on the Bible last week: what makes your Christianity different from religion? Answer: A relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus instructed and guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

As I travel around, I have been around a lot of children of late. This morning I asked God what it was that He wanted to teach me from the experiences that I am having around children. I was led to think of Enoh. This little boy never hesitates to express his love. Yesterday at lunch he said “I love you” individually to just about everyone in the room. He is a loving child. We can learn to express our love freely from him. Love for our Father and love for one another. When I arrived the other night, I was greeted with his enthusiastic greeting “chica Tom” (Uncle Tom in Croatian). He knew I was coming and was glad to see me. What can I learn from this? I can apply that greeting this way: as my Lord has promised to return, I can look forward to it with great joy. And I can be ready. How? By abiding with Him now and keeping myself fit to be in presence, living in His Gospel by recognizing that I am a mess and living a life of repentance (“God help me, I can’t, so you must”) and faith (“Lord build my faith, give me the strength to lift the shield of faith”). If I am in constant communion with Him in this way, I am ready to receive Him whenever it is time for Him to come. I learned one more thing… or should I say I am reminded of one more thing through my time with Enoh, Our heavenly Father is incredibly patient. I have observed amazing patience in the parenting of Enoh’s mom and dad (Enoh is 2 1/2!). This has reminded me that God is patient with me and that I require a lot of patience from Him because of my fallen-ness. Thankfully. I rest in His righteousness and I dwell in his patient embrace and walk in His patient guidance. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He told us to have faith like a little child. Faith that shows up as love… lived, said and walked.

A couple of years ago a friend in New York told me about a couple who were serving in Sarajevo. I emailed them from Budapest and Laci and I went to visit Dejan and Michelle to meet and see about ministry possibilities together. On the way back from that visit I got to meet Jeremy who serves in Croatia and talked briefly about ministry possibilities. A few months later, Dejan and Michelle met Jeremy and Petra at a CEO gathering in northern Hungary as well as the rest of the gang including Doug and Lea. So Jeremy and Doug talk about baseball as outreach and the layers of connection deepen. Later, Dejan and Michelle hang out with Jeremy and Petra and deepen that connection. Recently, Michelle tells Jeremy about a guy who lives near him in Croatia and a discussion with Garrett about baseball as outreach is set up. I arrive and ride along with Jeremy to this neighboring Croatian city to meet this new contact made who is using baseball as outreach. Well, it turns out, as we talked about baseball fields, we learn that he has heard of Doug and when I asked him where he went to school, he did a degree in computer science at… UVa! no kidding… and he went to the same church while at UVA that Lea did in her undergrad year… wow, God has a pretty cool network… and to think that if Heather had not told me about Dejan and Michelle, today’s meeting would have never happened…