By Gao Min, China
At that time, not only were my families monitored and criticized one by one, but the government even let go of me, a little child. I was studying in a civilian-run primary school and my school records were among the best in my class, but I was never given medals or red scarfs. Not only that, but the Red Guards said in an exasperated tone, “You’re a Christian child. Still think you can wear the red scarf? No way!” Hearing this word, I wept tears of misery. After coming back home, I asked my mom why. She said, “Silly child. It doesn’t matter whether you have the red scarf or not. It’s enough for us to believe in the Lord Jesus. If we gain the Lord’s approval, we’ll live in the kingdom of heaven. That can’t be exchanged for any material things.” Seeing my mother’s pious face, I agreed and nodded.
Ever since our family suffered persecution because of our belief in the Lord, I had become the one who was insulted and attacked by teachers and students at school. One day, a teacher led a group of students to come toward my home. They lifted their hands up and down and chanted the slogan all the way, “Down with all ghosts and monsters!” Once they arrived, they started to rummage through boxes and chests to search for our books. At last, they discovered a book of hymn. They raised it and shouted, “Down with all ghosts and monsters!” And then, they ran away noisily. From this time on, the teachers started to discriminate against me and students avoided playing with me. Every time I was excluded by them, I went home in tears to my mother and she would sing hymns with me. As soon as I sang the hymns, I no longer felt sorrowful. … This was how I spent my childhood in such an environment of being persecuted.
In order to thoroughly ban religious beliefs, the Chinese government not only brutally repressed, criticized and arrested believers in God, but even dug deep into ground to search the Bibles. One night of October, the village committee secretary brought twenty persons of the police station to my eldest grandfather’s house. In order to search the Bibles, they used hoes to dig everywhere: they dug up the entire ground inside, and even dug into the outside ground over two meters deep. When they still didn’t find any books, they then shifted their direction, and ultimately, they searched out a Bible my grandfather had hidden on the beam of a roof. When my mother learned that the believers’ Bibles were taken away, she wrapped her Bible with several layers of kraft and then buried it under the ground, covering with pig’s dung. The Red Guards came to my home to search for several times but didn’t discover it. We truly saw the Lord’s marvelous deeds. Therefore, the brothers and sisters all specially treasured this Bible. They made copies of verses in papers and passed from hand to hand to read it.
During the Cultural Revolution, our family still persisted in worshiping the Lord secretly under the encouragement of the Lord’s love. We all appreciated the Lord’s presence and had stronger faith in Him.
Winter went and spring came. In the blink of an eye, I had grown up and had my own family. However, all along I had never cast off the brutal persecution of the Chinese government. On April 25, 1996, when I finished my breakfast, a police vehicle suddenly drove up to the door. Four plain-clothes men got out of the vehicle, broke into my room and bawled at me, “Come with us to the police station.” Before I could react, they forced me into their vehicle. I constantly prayed to God all the way, “Oh Lord, I beseech You to give me faith so that I won’t betray You like Judas.” After praying, I recalled the Lord’s word, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mat 10:29–30). The Lord’s word made my confidence in God grow exponentially. Yes, without the Lord’s permission, they can do nothing to me. The Lord is with me. What else is there to be afraid of? Once we got to the police station, the policemen ordered me to sit on the cement floor, stretch my legs and put my hands behind. A policeman beside me ordered, “Raise your head! Look ahead.” In the beginning, I acted according to their words, but later when I found he was torturing me for fun, I turned my head and ignored them. Seeing this, they violently jabbed me with the electric batons and asked, “Where do you have gathering? With whom? Who is your church leader?” As soon as I said I didn’t know, they would use the electric batons to electrocute me from my ear to feet and the electric batons kept sputtering and giving off blue light. Each time I was shocked, my heart was trembling and I was in extreme pain all over. I thought: Maybe I will be tortured to death and can never go home again. I had some weakness in my heart then. So I repeatedly prayed to the Lord and asked for His care and protection so that I can become stronger. After praying I recalled the word of the Lord Jesus, “Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Mat 16:24–25). The Lord’s word gave me more faith and strength: Following the Lord means that we will take the way of the cross and suffer hardship. Because the Lord has set an example for us—He was nailed to the cross for the sake of redeeming us, undergoing the most terrible suffering, so we, the Lord’s followers, also must suffer hardship and risk our life for Him. That was what the Lord has told us long ago. Thinking of this, I was relieved. I no longer considered for myself and the pain on my body also lessened much more.
Later, a policeman said to me, “Stand up! Go to sit in the chair over there.” I then approached the chair, but before I was near there, he scolded me, “Is here for you? Go back! Go back to your original place.” I had to return to sit on the floor. In this way, he fooled me many more times, saying filthy words as well. And other policemen were all laughing at me. The Lord sympathized with my weakness; in the evening, He arranged my family to bail me out by going through connections. After that, the policemen didn’t let me off easily. They asked me to have the political lessons every few days, inculcated me with atheist thoughts and educated me to love the motherland and the party. Moreover, they threatened me, saying that if I continued to believe in God, they would put me into the prison. And they even sent people to monitor my track. I totally lost my freedom for that.
Experiencing those tortured history of my following the Lord, I see that there is no religious freedom in China. Because the Chinese government always represses and persecutes the Christians brutally, which resulted in the following hardship: how many innocent Christians have been caught and sent to prison; how many Christians have been tortured to be physically and mentally exhausted or black and blue all over; how many happy families have been persecuted to the extent that their families have been torn apart; how many innocent children have lost their parents’ care and love; how many innocent Christians have been restricted by the government and have lost their personal freedom; and how many Christians have been pursued by the government and forced to leave their homes, wandering about outside. … Even so, under the persecution of the Chinese government, believers in the Lord have become even stronger and they are still full of confidence in the Lord. Thank the Lord for leading our family through crisis after crisis. We really taste the Lord’s love and see His wonderful deeds, thereby strengthening our faith and love to the Lord.
Source The Internet
Almighty God, Christ of the last days, is the returned Lord Jesus. Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was founded by God personally and is formed by all those who truly follow Almighty God. Only by following Almighty God's work in the last days can we be purified and brought into the wonderful destination. Dear brothers and sisters, have you followed God's footsteps?
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