Quantrill
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- Dec 21, 2018
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How many times have you heard of a Christian who was used of God, and who you would like to see and meet, but when you see them, you are disappointed. They didn't look like what you pictured them to be. Greatly used of God, so you pictured them in some great frame. But when you see them you are disappointed. How could this man or woman be who I have heard of?
I have been reading the biography of 'Brother Yun' of China. And this truth was really impressed upon me due to his experience in suffering for being a Christian leader in China. You may not think it relates, but I do. This involves a time when Yun's wife, and mother, and sister came to see him in prison. Deling is his wife. The quote is as follows:
"...I saw my mother was in great anguish, as if a knife had cut into her heart. Deling stood beside her. She couldn't believe her eyes at my physical condition. My wife spoke to my sister and said, 'I tell you, this is not him. This is definitely not my husband!' I was just a pile of skin and bones. Much of my hair had fallen out from being beaten and kicked. My ears had shriveled. I had grown an unkempt beard and had messy hair. The patches of hair that remained were knotted together from my own dried blood. My whole appearance had changed because of the electric shock therapy. My own wife could not even recognize me. My mother knew it was me after she identified my birthmark. She wept aloud and cried, 'This is my son!' " (The Heavenly Man, Paul Hattaway, Hendrickson, 2009, p. 110-111)
Because of his physical condition they could not recognize him as one of their own. But, 'we have this treasure in earthen vessels'. (2 Cor. 4:7) "...that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
Our physical bodies become that which is visible to us in the spiritual warfare. And at times it is not a pretty picture.
Quantrill
I have been reading the biography of 'Brother Yun' of China. And this truth was really impressed upon me due to his experience in suffering for being a Christian leader in China. You may not think it relates, but I do. This involves a time when Yun's wife, and mother, and sister came to see him in prison. Deling is his wife. The quote is as follows:
"...I saw my mother was in great anguish, as if a knife had cut into her heart. Deling stood beside her. She couldn't believe her eyes at my physical condition. My wife spoke to my sister and said, 'I tell you, this is not him. This is definitely not my husband!' I was just a pile of skin and bones. Much of my hair had fallen out from being beaten and kicked. My ears had shriveled. I had grown an unkempt beard and had messy hair. The patches of hair that remained were knotted together from my own dried blood. My whole appearance had changed because of the electric shock therapy. My own wife could not even recognize me. My mother knew it was me after she identified my birthmark. She wept aloud and cried, 'This is my son!' " (The Heavenly Man, Paul Hattaway, Hendrickson, 2009, p. 110-111)
Because of his physical condition they could not recognize him as one of their own. But, 'we have this treasure in earthen vessels'. (2 Cor. 4:7) "...that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
Our physical bodies become that which is visible to us in the spiritual warfare. And at times it is not a pretty picture.
Quantrill
