Persecution and Tribulation Perfects True Faith (2)

Persecution and Tribulation Perfects True Faith

April 19, 2018

By Niu Li, China

    On the morning of March 3, 1985 of Chinese traditional calendar, all my family were happily busy with my son’s wedding at home when the local ruffian Gao, a policeman of the Town Police Station, walked into my home. He haughtily showed me the arrest warrant, on which said “Illegal gathering. Illegal preaching.” He said to me: “Today, we finally catch you. Come with me to the police station. Our cars are waiting for you at the entrance of the village.” With these words, he pushed me outside. I said: “As you see, there are so many guests at my home. If I leave, what will my family do?” Gao smiled coldly, saying, “Stop talking nonsense. Go quickly. Since we couldn’t catch you in ordinary days, we take this opportunity to arrest you.” At that moment, the people started talking, saying: “Today is a great and joyous day. How can the policeman take him away? How come this wedding ceremony goes on?”
“That’s right. This government is really unreasonable.” “Alas, why doesn’t this government arrest bad men but particularly go against those good people who believe in God?” My wife and my sister followed me about fifty meters, they stamped their feet, shouting to the policeman and crying: “We aren’t against the law in believing the God. How can you arbitrarily arrest him?” “Your heart is too bad. How can you arrest him on his son’s wedding day?” Hearing the cries of my wife and sister, I became even more miserable. I had to pray in my heart: “Oh, Lord, encountering this thing must contain Your good will. I commit all my family to You….” When I was taken to the police station, I came to know Wu, the Deputy Director of the County Public Security Bureau, specially came to the local police station to arrest me. Wu pointed at me with his finger and said fiercely: “Niu Li, run away if you can. How dare you preach against the government’s stipulation? As an old Chinese saying puts it, ‘The arm is no match for the thigh.’ I don’t believe I can’t subdue you. This time I will let you learn something from experience.” Then, he ordered Chai, the chief of the local police station: “You send him to the County Detention House.” Chai bowed obsequiously and said: “All right! All right!” After that, they locked me in a room. While I was worried about what means they would use to treat me, I thought of the Lord Jesus’ words: “And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you” (Mat 10:18–20). The Lord’s words gave me strength, so I knelt down and prayed to the Lord: “Oh, the Lord Jesus, now I know Your will is letting me bear testimony for You. No matter what kind of means the police use on me, I won’t betray You. Please give me the words I should say.” At two o’clock in the afternoon, they sent me to the County Detention House. As the policemen took me to a cell where thirty-seven prisoners were detained, a foul smell assailed my nostrils. A policeman pulled me to the toilet and pushed my head down to the squat toilet, saying maliciously: “Get a good whiff of it.” About three minutes later, he released me, but he said to the head of the cell: “He believes in God; teach him a good lesson!” Then, the policemen left. According to what was told, the head let me stand against the wall, recite the prison regulations, clean the toilet, sleep on the concrete floor, and so on. They used different kinds of methods to torture me; as long as I wasn’t in line with their will, they would give me bashes and kicks.

    Afterward, I was taken to an interrogation room. Chen, the Chief of Interrogation Section, fiercely ordered me to kneel down. “As a believer in God, I only kneel to God, not to people.” I said. Seeing I didn’t do as he said, Chen said in exasperation: “If you don’t kneel down, I’ll sentence you to several years of hard labor.” At his threatening words, I didn’t know how many years they will sentence me to, so I became somewhat weak within. At the point, I remembered the Lord Jesus’ words: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. … But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear you not therefore …” (Mat 10: 28, 30, 31). The Lord Jesus’ word gave me faith and strength, and made me no longer be afraid. Then, Chen said: “The government forbids preachers talking about Revelation and the last days, but you insist on doing it, so you can be sentenced according to this.” I answered: “Since the Bible contains Revelation, I must talk about it.” They saw I didn’t obey them, so they intended to screw me: They asked me alone to dig a hectare of land. When I was tired and wanted to have a rest, the evil police didn’t allow me to rest, but stared at me and said ironically: “Are you feeling tired? Don’t you believe in God? Why don’t you pray to your God and ask Him to come to help you dig?” Without any choice, I had to sustain my exhausted body to go on digging. Sometimes, when I couldn’t bear, I prayed to the Lord and asked Him to keep my heart from submitting to and giving in to Satan. At that time, the Director and Deputy Director of the County Public Security Bureau, the Chief of Interrogation Section, and three other people discussed together to sentence me to hard labor on a trumped-up charge, but under the Lord’s protection, their trick didn’t work. I was released forty days later after being put into the detention house. Just as the Bible says: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). I saw: Though the Chinese government wantonly persecutes us, yet without the Lord’s permission, one of my hairs won’t loss. After this experience, I had a firmer resolution to follow the Lord. When I went back, I continued to preach the gospel, give sermons, and sustain the church.

    In order to prevent me from preaching, the government has monitored me all the time and doesn’t give me the slightest freedom. When the first-generation identity cards were issued in China, all our villagers went to apply, so did I. But when others got their identity cards, I didn’t receive mine, so I went to ask the village secretary about the reason. He said: “You’re not allowed to obtain an ID card from the police station. They said that if you got your identity card, then you would preach everywhere, so I won’t give you.” After I heard his words, I was very indignant, thinking, “These people are so malicious. They actually use so base means to hinder me from going out to preach. Although they had withheld my identity card for 20-odd years, they still failed to prevent me from traveling everywhere to preach and work. Glory be to the Lord!

    When the Chinese government saw I still preached everywhere, they tried to arrest me many times, but for the sake of God’s protection, I wasn’t arrested by them. One night in September of 1987, about eight o’clock, I rode my bike and just reached the main road in front of my house. Suddenly I saw two police cars flicking the warning lamp were fast coming toward my home from half a kilometer away. I knew this was the police coming to arrest me, so I immediately rode my bike fleeing along the secluded alleys to the outside of the village. When I approached the lock-bridge, the only exit to the village, I saw a police car was parking across the bridge, lighting the warning lamp. I hurriedly lay down my bike in the dark, and lay prone in the sweet potato field by the road. For a while, I saw several policemen walked toward the police car. One of them asked loudly: “Have you seen Niu Li escaped from here? We went to his home a minute ago, but he wasn’t at home. Some villagers saw Niu Li rode his bike and fled this way.” A policeman inside the car answered: “We have been here all the time. We don’t see him. He must be around here. He can’t run far away. Let’s quickly search around here.” With these words, several policemen shining their lights walked in the sweet potato field to search me. So I immediately bent down and went in a cotton field. A few minutes later, one policeman found the place where I lay prone just now; he shot at the sky several times. All other policemen gathered around him, the policeman said: “Look, these sweet potato vines were pushed down; this must be the place where he hid. Let’s search quickly. He can’t flee this time.” The sound of the pistol and their talk gave me the creeps and made me break out in a cold sweat. I hadn’t thought they came to arrest me with guns this time. I thought: If they can’t find out me, then shoot blindly to the field. Won’t I die at once? I squatted in the cotton field and daren’t make a movement, afraid that I could be discovered by them. At the crisis, I kept praying to the Lord in my heart: “Oh, Lord, my life is in Your hand. Please watch over and protect me. Without Your permission, I can’t fall into the hand of the police.” After my prayer, my heart calmed down a lot. So, I bent down and carefully got out of the cotton field, and then crawled along the path by the ditch. I crawled about half a kilometer, crossed a dyke, and then ran to the home of Brother Li whose family all believe in the Lord. Only then did I feel safe.

    The police hadn’t arrested me; therefore, they frequently went to my home to arrest me. I thought of the Lord’s word: “But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another” (Mat 10:23). So, I left my home and family, and went to another county to preach and build churches.

    In my personal experiences, I saw: The Chinese government outwardly puts up banners saying “religious freedom,” but secretly uses every possible means to persecute religious relief and hinder people from believing in God. The Chinese government indeed is the satanic regime that persecutes God. Thank the Lord for His watching over and protection, so that I can overcome the Chinese government’s arrest and persecution time and again. In the persecution and tribulation, I had a firmer faith in and love of the Lord.

Source The Internet

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