It's been years since I wrote a book review. Now, I am writing a book review for the gift a friend gave me. The title's The Heavenly Man. Who'd expect I'll receive a book after meeting in just one ordinary day. The gift took off that day from being ordinary by the way.
I already heard about the book when I was still in college. The joke seem to be half-true. Classic books are known yet are usually left unread by people. When I unwrapped the gift and saw the title of the book, I shut my laptop down and went to my bed to start reading the book right away.
The first chapter didn't impress me much but I came to know of its relevance as I finished the book. The chapter says about the big contribution of Marie Monsen on the spread of Gospel in China from its South. I continue reading the succeeding chapters and was deeply moved by what I read. I'll never read the book in public as tears will surely flow down from my eyes. I can't imagine that such thing, with this current generation, is happening in China. Men are severely persecuted for their belief. The Chinese government chooses what should people believe in and anyone who are caught to believe to "superstitious" beliefs are arrested and get beaten by the police. But then the time has come that Christianity, which was just left confined in historical section of museums since Mao's times, has come to life once again.
Brother Yun, as they call the main character, was young then. After Witnessing the healing of his father from cancer, he learned about the Lord through his mother. He just knew Jesus healed his father and longed to see just a copy of the Bible, where Jesus' teachings are written. By God's intervention, he finally received a copy of the Bible after fasting and praying for days. His experience shows how God used people around him to get him a Bible. He finally start spreading the Gospel to people. Brother Yun found a way for his Bible not to be snatched by anyone from him. He memorized chapters and books in the of it.
A woman's mother and his paired him and Yun was soon married to a wife which is faithful and obedient to the Lord. Many people in the village come to know about Jesus through Yun's family. The police soon knew about this and they started persecuting the new believers and those who share the Gospel. At the age of seventeen, Yun was arrested and experienced being beaten severely by the police. He stayed in the prison for years and it happened more than once. Yun experienced different prisons where food and water is scarce, along with trials and beatings from the police and fellow prisoners. Yun also experienced fasting for 74 days. He didn't take in any food or fluid until his family visited him in prison. These years increased his faith instead of fading it out. Beatings and trials didn't stop Yun from sharing his beliefs. Many of his fellow prisoners who at first hated him ended up knowing his belief and accepted Christ in their life.
The last experience of Yun in China incarceration was when he broke his legs. He is meeting with fellow believers and the police came. He jumped from the second floor of a building to escape but more police are there where he landed and he was arrested and put into prison. He suffered the pain of having broken legs for six weeks while in prison. After one and a half months, he received a message from God through His Word, vision nd his friend. He miraculously went pass through the gates of ZhengZhou Number One Maximum Security Prison where nobody has escaped before. Other prisoners watched him escape while the no one of the guards didn't see him go away. Soon he met meeting friends who have been fasting and praying for him for more than a week. He soon learned that his legs are already healed.
After all his sufferings and awful experiences and miracles in life, Yun says he has nothing to be proud of. He would just say it is through God's grace that he is still alive. And that he is just being used as an instrument for the great commission. Right now, Yun is living in Germany far from the persecution of Chinese government. But still, he's experiencing persecution and this time from fellow believers - an unexpected and harder type of persecution. People are attacking his testimony though they didn't even met him. People are canceling their meetings with him without even investigating the gossips they receive. But Yun's mission must go on. He now leads the Back to Jerusalem Movement.
Only one word is enough to tell what was impressed to me while and after reading the book...: revival. Contrary to China's situation, many countries are free to speak and share about their beliefs. Not all but many are being cold on being their faith. They focus on other urgent things in their life forgetting about the essential ones. Contrary to many other nations, China's situation leave nothing to the believers except the faith they have in Christ. Aside from arrest and beatings, everything in the house of caught believers are confiscated.
I would recommend the book to anyone. It is not just a book. It's a personal book for me. It seemed like I can feel what Yun felt as he experienced those things. And now, I also share the same vision as him: To know Christ and to make Him known.
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