I just received the following email in my inbox from ChinaAid updating me on the situation with Gao Zhisheng:
DAY 50: Gao Zhisheng Held Hostage
Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, has now been missing 50 days, and there is increasing concern for his life. He was last seen being hauled away from his home by more than a dozen police officers on February 4. Reports from inside China indicate he is undergoing brutal torture.
The situation is critical, and with each day that passes, Gao Zhisheng's life hangs in the balance.
Because of Gao's work defending house church Christians and others persecuted in China, the Chinese government wants to silence his voice. ChinaAid president, Bob Fu calls Gao's torture "the most severe persecution in China's modern history." Gao's wife and two children, who have also been abused and tormented by the police, escaped to the U.S. less than two weeks ago. His family is afraid that authorities, furious at their escape, are taking revenge on Gao.
ChinaAid and The Voice of the Martyrs, together with Gao Zhisheng's wife and children, call on all Christians and those who value human dignity and justice to speak out on Gao Zhisheng's behalf by signing a petition to free Gao.
Please go directly to the FreeGao website to sign a petition for his freedom and to also have an opportunity to send emails for the same.
Read a PDF file that is Gao Zhisheng’s personal testimony of his previous capture and torture in the hands of the Chinese government.
About a year ago, God began to grant me a different point of view regarding what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit.I’ve wanted to write about this for quite some time.
“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.As for the earth, it came to be a chaos and vacant, and darkness was over the surface of the abyss.And the spirit of Elohim was vibrating over the surface of the waters…” (Genesis 1:1-2)
“…YHWH Elohim formed the human out of soil from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul.YHWH Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the human whom He had formed.So YHWH Elohim made sprout from the ground every tree desirable to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…”(Genesis 2:7-9)
Five years ago, I was walking (on my knees) through one of the most painful times in my life.God took me through the death of some relationships that had been important to me and through the death of my own self, plans, and ideas so that He could bring me to true, abundant life in Him.It was such a bitter pain that carried on for months leading unto years, and I truly began to despair.I began to lose hope.I wanted to give up on ever having abundant life again, and I was tempted to also give up on God.Why had He brought me to that terrible place?I could not understand it at all at the time.I could hardly see past the pain I was feeling.Why had He previously been so intimate with me, shown me and spoken so much, and worked in amazing, miraculous ways to only lead me straight to the longest and driest wildering desert experience I have ever known?
As I write this now, it reminded me of the psalmist saying, “…my tears have been my food day and night…” and thought how my life had been just like that during those times.I just went to look up those words in the psalms and found Psalm 42.As I read Psalm 42, I recall that Psalm 42 was also part of my food day in and day out.This Psalm summarizes my life perfectly during that period of time, and I cried it out to God countless times:
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
My soul panted day after day as I kept replaying the events of what had brought me to all this pain.It was beyond my human capability to find any comprehension in how insane things had suddenly become and how people who had been some of my closest friends and church family now only seemed to despise me, wanted nothing to do with me, and believed the worst about me.It was beyond my human capability to understand why their hearts had been made so hard against me and why they chose to believe things about me that were far from the real truth.There were days I would even start to believe all the awful things that had been said of me and thought of me by others.After all, why else would God have allowed this to happen?
He had to tear Mary Ann down, that is why.He had to tear me down that He may raise me back up.I had to die that I may live again.There was too much of Mary Ann’s self and the world’s influence upon her.Too much of her thinking and ideas were tied in to the ways of the world, even the religious world.There was a new work to be done; a new creation to bring forth.He had not given up doing the work in me and through me that He had told me He was going to do.But I had to traverse the storming seas and walk through the valley of the shadow of death to arrive at the other side; the other side He had assured me that He was taking me to.
When I was at one of highest points of despair and feeling like the season of pain and abandonment surely would never end, and while God continued to be silent—present, but silent—I was led to write something about the truth that God is THE Hope in our lives.There is no other name by which Hope can be called or described.I wrote the following in my journals of April and July 2004:
Are you feeling on the edge?Tempted to jump over to escape your sorrows and sufferings, your troubles, your fears, or doubts?
What keeps me from going over the edge?God alone!
If I surrender myself to going over the edge into utter despair, utter loss of hope, utter loss of faith, and turn my back on God, who is my one and only true Hope and Friend, I would simply have leapt over the edge into an abyss of hell.
When I make the decision to leap over an edge in my life, for whatever reasons, I am determined it will not be to jump into the pit of this hell and utter despair.I am determined to leap just at the perfect time to catch flight on the wings of the Eagle.I will leap into the air just as the Eagle of God flies beneath me and catches me that we may soar together to the heights of the heavens.This I know can be true because God says, “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
What hope is there if God is not your HOPE?There is none!!If God is not our Hope then only despair and torment are waiting to catch us and hold us in bondage.
“To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing.Why do you say, O Jacob (Mary Ann), and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?Do you not know?Have you not heard?The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired, his understanding is inscrutable.He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power.Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” (Isaiah 40:25-31)
For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name).(Isaiah 51:15)
The same God who brings the hurricanes in your life is the only one who can bring out the rainbows and the sun afterwards!After the hurricane has come and gone, He’s the only one who can put together what the storm has scattered; the only one who can truly make the wrongs all right again.He is the only one who can mend what is broken, heal what is hurting, and bring joy to sorrow’s door.
He is the only ONE!There is no other.To whom will you compare Him?If you were to try, He would not be the God who He really is.Our finite human minds cannot contain the fullness, the greatness, or the power of God.He is the only ONE!There is no other.Jump!I dare us to jump, right into the arms of God, our complete Hope for today, tomorrow, and for eternity.
July 2004
God showed me the lesson with the last two paragraphs above…He brought the hail storm on Friday night and it wrecked havoc on the beautifully growing vegetable garden.I had no control, I could do nothing…yet, as He is the one who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar and causes the hail to fall, He is also the one that can put things back together after the storms.He is the one who makes the garden grow; I leave it unto Him alone.
I was prompted to write about this today for two reasons.I was recently listening to a song by Natalie Grant called “Our Hope Endures”, and the song reminded me of the time in my life when I came to first-hand experiential knowledge of God being Hope itself.And last night, as a dear friend and I were sharing our hearts regarding the choices and actions of our children and how we long for better things for them, God kept reminding me that I must continue to put my hope in Him regarding my children’s futures.Just as He has done a miraculous work with me, so He will do with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mu3F0dQz0
You would think only so much can go wrong Calamity only strikes once And you assume this one has suffered her share Life will be kinder from here Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years Sometimes the sky rains night after night When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions It's more than our optimism Let the earth quake Our Hope is unchanged
How do we comprehend peace within pain? Or joy at a good man's wake? Walk a mile with the woman whose body is racked With illness, oh how can she laugh? Oh, 'cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years Sometimes the sky rains night after night When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions It's more than our optimism Let the earth quake Our Hope is unchanged
Emmanuel, God is with us El Shaddai, all sufficient We never walk alone And this is our hope
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions It's more than our optimism Let the earth quake Our Hope is unchanged
HE endures when we feel that we will not.He holds us up when we cannot hold on.And we never walk alone.This past weekend, as our home church was partaking of the Lord’s Supper and sharing memories of Christ, I shared that in the last few weeks I have been shown how Christ has been with me all the time.Through every day of my life, every season, every mistake, every joy, and every doubt, He has ever been with me.He will meet with us wherever we are.He is ever with us.