The Queen of the Dark Chamber

 

Recently in my study, I came across the life of Christiana Tsai (1890-1984) and I was blessed by her testimony. Christina was one of twenty-one siblings born to a Chinese ruling family. She enjoyed a life of luxury, privilege, and isolation, almost never venturing outside the walls of her family’s palace. However, during her high school years she was sent to a boarding school that was run by missionaries from America.

At school, young Christina heard the Gospel and was drawn to Jesus. When she told her parents that she had become a Christian and been baptized she was basically disowned. Her father said, “You have disgraced your family, by eating the Christian religion.” Then she was given a bag that contained a rope, a knife and an ultimatum – “Renounce the Christian faith or choose between the rope to hang yourself or the knife to stab yourself.”

Christiana went into hiding, but she was eventually discovered by her brother. The hostile sibling not only berated Christiana, but he tore up her Bible and threw her hymnbook in her face. But curiosity got the best of the brother. He came back to Christiana inquiring why she decided to trust in Christ. He remarked, “You do seem much happier than you used to be.”

Eventually, Christina led her brother to Christ and 55 of her extended family as well![1] In 1930, she was stricken with malaria, which left her debilitated. She became sensitive to light and noise, and she remained confined to a dark room from 1931 until her death in 1984. But Christina did not let her infirmity limit her ministry. She prayed that God would give her favor and use her suffering for His glory.

What happened next can only be explained by the supernatural work of God. Word got out in China that there was a sick woman who lived in darkness but knew how to lead people to the Light of the World. Over the years, thousands of people came in search of Christiana, and she was able to lead them to Jesus. From that dark, little room she wrote pamphlets and essays that were distributed, which had a great impact upon intellectuals and seekers.[2]

She became widely known as “Queen of the Dark Chamber.” She wrote, “My bed is not a prison, but a training school; the Holy Spirit is my mentor, and my visitors are my homework.” Amazingly, her autobiography, which she also wrote from her sickbed, was translated into 50 languages and in the English version Billy Graham wrote a preface recommendation!

What an incredible story of how the Lord used suffering in Christina’s life for a grand and higher purpose. Many times in life we don’t know why things happen, but one thing we can be certain of is that God knows how to use pain for gain. For example, Paul and Silas were imprisoned, yet God intervened in that situation for the salvation of the jailer and his family (Acts 16). Later on, the Lord used Paul’s suffering to write the letters that fill our New Testament, and we’ve all been blessed by them. Remember, God wastes nothing and our suffering may be used for the benefit of others! -DM    

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[1] David Jeremiah, Signs of Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 235-236.

[2] Margaret Lamberts Bendroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton, ed., Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 158.

The Power of a Praying Father

 

Spear-carrying cannibals setting his house afire, an irate chief stalking him for hours with a loaded musket, a native suddenly rising-up from a sickbed and holding him captive with a dagger to his heart—the life of John Paton reads at times like a lurid adventure story, with the hero saved at the last possible moment by his own death-defying heroics.

John Paton was a pioneering missionary for 49 years to the cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands. In trying to reach these violent people with the Gospel, not only did Paton face fierce opposition from hostile natives, but he endured great loss as well. Shortly after arriving to the New Hebrides Islands in 1858, his pregnant wife, Mary, gave birth to a son. Mary became sick with fever and died a few days later. Then a week later Paton’s son passed away, because he had no way to nurse the child. Despite these incredible trials Paton soldiered on.

By the power and grace of God, Paton slowly witnessed the cannibals turn to Christ. In 1897 he completed a translation of the New Testament into the Aniwan language, resulting in an explosion of the Gospel. In his autobiography he wrote, “I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God these islands now worship at the feet of Jesus.” Today, over a hundred-years after Paton’s death in 1907, experts say that about 91% of the population of the New Hebrides (now called Vanuatu) identifies as Christian! What a testimony to the impact of a single life devoted to Christ.

But one wonders – where did a man like John Paton find such courage and resolve? According to Paton, he credits his father, James Paton, for the shaping of his soul. John was born in 1824 near Dumfries, Scotland, to a humble, God-fearing family. As the eldest of 11 children, he was forced to leave school at age 12 to work alongside his father in the family trade of stocking-making. Young John was influenced by his father’s prayers, which he said could be heard through the thin walls of the family cottage. He wrote of the power of his praying father:

“In my childhood home there was a small room, “the closet,” where father would go for prayer, as a rule, after each meal. We eleven children reverenced the spot and learned profound truths about God from father’s devotion to prayer. I can never explain how much father’s prayers impressed upon me. When on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in family worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears. We all felt the presence of the Savior. In my distress I could often hear the echoes of father’s cries to God and would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, “He walked with God, why may not I?”[1]

Dads, what a call for us to be prayer warriors for our families. The Bible says in James 5:16, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (NKJV). Dads just imagine how we could change the direction and destiny of our children by teaching them to pray. I praise God that I had a praying father and I learned to pray by listening to my father’s prayers. Hey Dad or Grandpa – are you praying for your kids and grandkids? Perhaps the greatest impact we can have on our youngsters is by wrapping them up in our arms and letting them hear us pray. -DM    

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[1] John Piper, Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 70.

Doors of the Bible

The eloquent English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) once preached on the simple thought, “…and the door was shut,” (Matt. 25:10). A skeptic in the audience objected to Whitfield. He was overheard saying to another rather loudly, “So what? Another door will open.” Whitfield heard this man’s mocking tone from the pulpit and directly addressed his detractor. The barrel-chested preacher said, “There may be someone here who is careless and self-satisfied, and who thinks, ‘What does it matter if the door is shut? Another will open.’ Yes, it will—the door to the bottomless pit, the door to hell!” Whitfield then pivoted his message to fire and brimstone. History is unclear what became of the jeering man.[1]

Days from death and thinking about his eternity, Charles Spurgeon, wrote, “Soon shall I see an open door into heaven: the pearl gate will be my way of entrance, and then I shall go in unto my LORD and King and be with God eternally shut in.”[2]

Wow! Talk about a study in contrasts. Two doors representing two different destinies—heaven or hell. These anecdotes got my mind thinking about an interesting rabbit trail that meanders through the Bible—doors. In John 10:9 Jesus made one of His seven bold, “I AM” statements, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

In Bible times the shepherd of the flock and the door were one in the same. Sheep enclosures had no gate or door covering the opening. So here’s what would happen each night: as the sheep bedded down for the night inside the pen, the shepherd would lay down across the single opening. With his own body he would create the “door” to protect the sheep. The shepherd blocked intruders and predators from getting in and kept sheep from getting out.

What this means for us is that there’s only one way into God’s sheepfold and that’s through the doorway of Jesus Christ. This was a statement of exclusivity on par with what Jesus would say later in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, but by me.” Then in Acts 4:12 Peter preached a similar message, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

Of course, this idea was nothing new. If you go back through the OT, you’ll see God’s “one door” policy. Noah’s Ark had only one door (Gen. 6:16), yet all who lived in that age were given the chance to enter by faith and escape the coming flood of God’s judgment.

During the Israelites’ exodus from Egyptian slavery, God instructed all the people to cover the posts of their doors in the blood of the spotless lamb (Ex. 12:13). The Lord’s judgment was coming, but all whose doors were covered by the lamb’s blood would be spared from the plague on the firstborn.  

Likewise in the tabernacle and Temple period, there was only one entrance into the Holy of Holies where the blood of an atoning sacrifice could be offered. That door represented man’s separation from holy God and the need for a mediating high priest. In all of the OT pictures, Jesus was the fulfillment. He is our Ark of safety. He is the Lamb. He is our High Priest.

Finally, we think about the door of Jesus’ tomb. Upon His resurrection, an angel rolled back the stone that acted as the door to Jesus’ grave, showing that He had power over death (Matt. 28:2). This is the hope of every believer who enters the door of salvation by Christ alone. Because He lives, we shall live also. Death is merely a threshold from abundant life into eternal life. Jesus has opened the way.   

C.S. Lewis mused over the inner ache for heaven, “At present we are on the outside of eternity’s door. At last to be summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache. We want something else which we can hardly put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into our ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in!”[3]

Skeptics today may bemoan the fact that the Bible declares there is only one door of salvation, but I’m just thankful that there is one! -DM

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[1] Vernon Grounds, “Doors: Open and Shut,” Our Daily Bread, 7 Feb. 1996 <https://odb.org/US/1996/02/07/doors-open-and-shut>

[2] Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, (Abbotsford, WI: Aneko Press, 2020), 297.

[3] C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (San Francisco: Harper One, 1949), 42-43.

Babylon 2.0 - Bow or Burn

Bow or burn – that was the ultimatum given to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Standing in the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar’s golden colossus, these Hebrew boys showed courage in captivity. The narcissistic king tried to do everything in his power to assimilate them into the Babylonian way of life. He changed their diet, their clothes, their names, but he could not change their god!

What’s fascinating about this passage in Daniel chapter 3 is that it’s not just about the past, but it’s also a prophetic preview of things to come. Babylon 2.0 is rising in our time. The Hebrew children faced a despotic king, and we face a wicked cancel culture that is going to culminate in the Antichrist.    

First, notice the dominion – Babylon. The plains where Nebuchadnezzar erected this idol, is the same place in Genesis 11 where Nimrod, Babylon’s first king, tried to build his ill-fated tower to the heavens. Both Babylonian kings tried to create a one-world government unified by religion. Both men were judged by God – God confused the languages of Nimrod’s day and turned Nebuchadnezzar into a beast for 7 years.

Second, there are the dimensions of the idol – 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide (90 feet high x 9 feet wide). In Revelation 13:18 the number of the Antichrist is 666. In the Bible, the number 6 is always associated man (as man was created on Day 6 in Gen. 1). 7 is God’s number of completion and perfection. Thus, man always falls short of God’s standard of perfection.

Third, there is the despot. Nebuchadnezzar is a foreshadowing of the Antichrist that is to come. The Man of Sin, Satan’s CEO, will one day rule his empire from the same city - Babylon - and just as Nebuchadnezzar demanded worship or death, so too the Antichrist will demand that everyone accept his mark and worship him or else face persecution and death:

            15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Rev. 13:15-17)

David Jeremiah wrote, “Nimrod and his tower to the heavens was the first attempt by a world ruler to unify mankind by self-deification. Nebuchadnezzar attempts to do the same thing with his golden idol. Both of these wicked kings were Old Testament forerunners or types of the coming “Beast,” who will reign over the whole Gentile world and demand worship. They say that history repeats itself and according to the Bible that’s exactly what will happen in the future Tribulation. In fact, we can see world leaders reviving the Babylon system over again.”[1]  

We are living in an unprecedented time where the powerbrokers of this world are hoisting upon humanity their godless agenda to move the world towards global socialism and evil.

·         On May 13, 2021 President Joe Biden tweeted out, “The rule is now simple: get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do. The choice is yours.” How’s that for freedom? Now we have businesses and private industries debating whether to enforce the so-called “vaccine passport,” saying you cannot participate or enter places unless you have a record of a COVID vaccine. Smartphone apps have already been created for digitized versions of passports. So far 10 states in the US have banned vaccine passports. Something tells me there’s more here than just public safety, like a test run for control. [2]

·         “The Great Reset” is the plan to move the world closer toward a one-world economic system that sees the end of capitalism and emergence of global socialism. Those backing the movement are elites like Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, Prince Charles and a host of other politicians and corporate barons. TGR goals include: a single global currency, universal basic income, the end of personal property and a move away from fossil fuels (adopting the Green New Deal). Schwab has stated, “The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.”^[3]

·         Then there is the woke agenda of our cancel culture which uses the guise of “social justice” to force people into a warped worldview. I know a parent who pulled their children from their school because they were teaching white kids in the class to feel sorry for their “white-privilege.” The Equality Act which is on the verge of passing in the Senate, would give transgender men the freedom to enter a women’s bathroom, allow minors to get a state-subsidized sex reassignment surgery without parental consent and force states to recognize bizarre marriages like the “throuple” a marriage of three people.[4] If we don’t agree with this craziness then we are labeled as racists and haters.

Those are the idols being erected in our world today and you can see churches and Christians bowing before it, giving into the pressure. We’ve got entire denominations bowing to the LBGT idol, abandoning the biblical definitions of marriage and sexuality. We’ve got pastors who are so spinless that they won’t preach the true Gospel, but some watered-down social justice or prosperity message. Christians are bowing to the culture out of fear they won’t be liked on Facebook.

If the church will bow today under such light pressure, its not hard to imagine how people will bow their knee to an Antichrist who will threaten to cripple people economically. 1 John 2:18 & 4:3 tell us that “the spirit of Antichrist” is already at work in the world deceiving the masses.  

I’ve got news for you – its not going to get any easier going forward to be a God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-follower. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a choice - bow or burn. They had to decide which was more important: the temporary and fleeting approval an arrogant man or the eternal and everlasting approval of a holy God. It was either the fear of man or faith in God!

That day of decision has arrived! God is looking for a few bold men and women who will stiffen their spine, stand up and say, “I’d rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God.” As our world looks more like Babylon, as the days grow darker, and wickedness abounds those who stand for Christ will stick out more than ever!  I’m praying that God will give myself and you the courage to stand and not be ashamed of Christ.

 

-DM

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[1] David Jeremiah, Agents of Babylon (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2015), 96.

[2] Maryn Mckenna, “As the US Unmasks, the Pressure Is on for Vaccine Passports,” Wired, 25 May 2021 <https://www.wired.com/story/as-the-us-unmasks-the-pressure-is-on-for-vaccine-passports/>

[3] <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset>

[4] Erwin Lutzer, We Will Not Be Silenced (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2020), 165-167.