My Humiliation Their Persecution

Precaution: this entry has some disturbing content.

It happened again. When will I ever get beyond the moments of another failure, a dull mind, and more humiliation? It’s peck, peck, pecking away at me and affecting other areas of my life. I’m so tired of being humiliated. Such were my feelings when I picked up a book about the life of Liu Zhenying. Liu is a underground house church leader in China. He has suffered greatly because of his faith in Christ.

Here’s some of what I read: “The cell leader, who had been appointed by the guards came and deliberately urinated on my face and urged the others to do the same…This was a great humiliation but I was too weak to protest…One afternoon I was also carried to the yard, where the guard instructed the men to throw me into a septic tank where the waste of all the prisoners was collected…The guards electrocuted me again and again…They even used their electric batons to stab me inside my mouth. I cannot easily describe the pain this caused. I thought my brain was going to explode. My mind and body shake even today when I think about those experiences. I longed to die to escape the pain...”

"I’ve suffered many tortures and torments in my life…But I tell you from the heart that the most difficult thing I’ve ever experienced was seeing the condition of my family when they came to visit me in those days. They were all skin and bones from lack of food, were dressed in rags, and I could see they were struggling terribly…The paternal instincts inside me cried out to be a good daddy to my precious children, and a good husband to my dear wife…Usually the authorities come and confiscate everything of value from the prisoner’s home, even pots and pans, clothing and furniture. Sometimes they even take away farm animals and seed."

Well now, that puts a different spin on humiliation. And I thought forgetting a few words or not understanding questions was difficult. More importantly than my little world of lost words is the world in which our brothers and sisters suffer. While we live in relative ease and self-imposed unawareness, others of our body are imprisoned, beaten, raped, burned and chased from their homes.

The second Sunday of November is International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

And yet these men and women are able to rise above these difficulties in a way that makes my Christian life look feeble. “I’d suffered some horrible tortures, but God has been faithful. I’d been dragged in front of judges and courts, but God had been faithful. I’d been hungry, thirsty, and had fainted from exhaustion, but God had been faithful…Through it all, God was always faithful and loving to me. He had never left me nor forsaken me. His grace was always sufficient and he provided for my every need…I didn’t suffer for Jesus in prison. No! I was with Jesus and I experienced his very real presence, joy, and peace every day. It’s not those in prison for the sake of the gospel who suffer. The person who suffers is he who never experiences God’s intimate presence.”

All other days are International Days of Prayer for the Un-persecuted Church to have the same faith and courage.

(From The Heavenly Man with Paul Hattaway: Monarch Books – 2002)