I just watched this VCD in cell group last Saturday, entitled “the Cross, Jesus in China”. It showcases the development of Christianity in China over the past decades, and how it has managed to blossom eventually despite almost being quelled by communism and cultural revolutions.

I have always had the head knowledge about China being a hard ground, but when you hear the testimonies of preachers being locked away in prison for a good twenty years, the heart is shaken. It gives you some impression of what Apostle Paul must have gone through in the last phase of his life journey on earth.

Yet what moved me the most is the way the Chinese believers treasured the bible in the past decades, where they had no easy access to it. The interviewees talked about how there was only one worn-out bible shared by the whole village, and how the owners would not part with the bible even when offered money or goods which are worth the equivalent price of a car. It also mentions how flocks of 3 or 4 villagers would go to the owner of that one bible in a village, about 3 times a week, and copy down verses, to slowly assemble their own handwritten bibles. Such was the hunger for the Word.

The show also mentioned how bibles were preserved through the book-burning during the cultural revolution, some even through the sacrifices of lives. It talked about how the ink in some of the bibles was smeared through the tears shed when believers laid hold of the book, and how they would kiss it, knowing the blood and tears that had gone into it.

I stand ashamed. My bible is old and worn, largely from usage, but partly also from lack of care. But what is worse is how my use of the bible has deteriorated over the years. When I was a new Christian, in the army, my bible was like a bedtime storybook – I would always read it in the hour before I go to sleep. As the years went by, it became like a novel to me – a book I would read on occasion, but fleetingly through. And in recent years, it became like a reference book – something to flip open on occasion only to refer to certain verses. What a dramatic contrast to the believers I see in the VCD! Must it take persecution like that before I will learn to treasure God's Word so devotedly?

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Joshua 1: 8

If I can't even achieve the first part of meditating on it regularly, how can I attempt to do everything written in it?

Help me Lord to have the hunger for Your Word and discipline to meditate on it day and night!

Further Reflections