Acts and The Heavenly Man

I just finished reading the Book of Acts and interestingly enough, I was also reading The Heavenly Man on the side.

It seemed like this was God's divine plan for me -- to read these side by side. The book was recommended to me by Hmma and as part of my daily readings and commitment to read through the Bible cover to cover, I just happened to start reading Acts at the exact time I picked up Heavenly Man.

Anyway, if you have not read either of these books, I highly recommend them.

Sometimes, reading the Bible is like reading an old fairy tale story -- it's hard to imagine and fully comprehend some of the stories because they take place in a time, and culture that i'm completely unfamiliar with. Because of this, and because of the culture and place I live in today, I feel like these Bible stories are things of the past and to apply them to my modern current day life, i must treat the stories as metaphors rather than having literal meaning. How am i being persecuted today because of my faith? What trials and sufferings am I enduring for Christ's name? How is God using me to spread the good news to those around me? Truth be told, I feel like I'm not persecuted, or suffering for Christ. I question often if I even have the courage to be able to share with others I don't know or who don't believe about my relationship with Jesus! If i'm honest, my biggest daily suffering comes in the form of toils and hardships faced at the office. yes, we are called to the marketplace and yes, there can be an effective ministry here at work. But i cannot say at this moment that I am answering this call.

Reading Heavenly Man, a true faith story of a Chinese Christian believer in China, made Acts more real to me because Brother Yun lives today. His experiences were lived out in my lifetime. Somewhere in the world TODAY, there is an Acts story being played out. This seems completely unfathomable. Paul's story happened thousands of years ago -- how is it possible that any human being could be enduring similar persecution, complete with imprisonment with beatings and torture and possibly even death for the sake of Christ's name and sharing the gospel to other people?

having just celebrated the 4th of July (Independence Day) and July 1st (Canada day), I realize that many people celebrate the freedom we have in these two countries that we call home. I wonder now if the freedom and abundance of wealth and comfort and peace that I've been able to enjoy has had a negative impact on the depth of faith that I've able to have in my God, Jesus Christ. I pray that I might know what it means to fully trust my life to God -- to fully understand what it means when we say that His way is the best way, or that He is fully in control of my life. but I often ask myself -- do i really know what it means for God to have control when I feel like I already have everything under control? do i really know what level of devotion I have to Jesus when I face no life threats for believing in Him?

Maybe the question is -- do i have to know these things? Do i really need to have the answers to these questions? Do i have to be tested in my faith before I understand the level of faith I have? doesn't God see my heart and know my ways even better than I know?