Daily Devotionals
Thirst
Thirst
By Chuck Harris
“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?”
Psalm 42:1-2
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirsts for righteousness; for they shall be satisfied.”
Matt.5: 6
Have you ever seen a baby take a bottle of juice? When it is thirsty, it can hardly swallow fast enough! Picture a stranded traveler crawling though a desert wilderness. The unrelenting heat of a merciless sun, which has sapped his strength, skin is past sweating, the lips cracked, tongue swollen, and his total being cries for life-giving, cool, clear water. No amount of treasure, amusements, or prestige would deter the weary traveler from his goal of refreshing, invigorating H-2-O.
But the baby when it is satisfied, begins to play with the bottle and throws it on the floor! That is what babies do! It is like that with some in the Church in the States regarding God’s Word.
I had to go to the other side of the world, to see a church truly hungry for the Word of God.
In October of 2003 I was part of a group of 3 pastors from the States who went to China under the leadership of Brother Huang Wang, a Chinese ex-patriot who was burdened for his nation to hear the Gospel. He recruited us to smuggle Bibles into the country and to teach a series of basic Christian doctrine classes to the underground church. There was such a tremendous increase in conversions that it outstripped the ability of the local pastors to ground these new born babies in their newfound faith. There was a scarcity of Bibles and this was compounded by false teachers mixing in some Chinese superstition to add to the confusion . And to make matters worse, a lot of those Chinese pastors who were able to competently teach the Word of God were in prison, as “enemies of the State”.
This is where we came in.
When we landed in Beijing, my anxiety rose when the Custom agents seemed like they were paying inordinate attention to our bags, looking for contraband (which is how the State viewed The Bible). I had scattered the Bibles among my clothes so I would not draw attention to them. Wonderfully we all passed inspection and we didn’t have to empty our bags!
From Beijing, I couldn’t tell you where we went to as we were “spirited” away to the hinterlands. We each stayed with brethren of the church, and we were not in the same place two nights in a row. Always moving. Our schedule began at 4 in the morning with rice cakes and coffee . We made our way to a plain cinderblock building where worship began at 4:30. To my surprise the place was packed with young adults, even though there was no heat or electricity. It was an cold October morning in China and you could see your breath in the sanctuary. The only illumination was the candles held by the worshippers. But the joy on each face was unadulterated as they sang in Mandarin songs to the King of kings.
When they were finished with worship, we were introduced and we handed out the Bibles designated for that church. We were told that they would divide the Bible in segments; that when they came together later in the week they would have the whole Bible between them. You would have thought we were handing out gold!
Brother Wang interpreted for us, as the class began. Each one of us gave a short synopsis of repentance from dead works, faith in the living God through Jesus, the resurrection of the dead and Eternal judgment. They all took notes, and when the class was over, and we had closed in prayer, they got on their bicycles and went to their respective neighborhoods to disseminate the teaching they had just heard! That is the appropriate response to the Gospel, we all agreed! Run with it!
We repeated the classes in different locations for the rest of the week , in basically the same format, and each time the response was like the deer thirstily lapping at the water brook.
The Chinese brethren of the underground church commonly encourage each other from Rev.2:10:…”Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” And what of the pastors in prison? They each had started a church in the prison! Proving that the Gospel is not bound!
As we were about to leave, through an interpreter, a sister told us we were a great encouragement to them. We said” Oh, no, dear sister! it was your devotion that encouraged us! “ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ; for they shall be satisfied.” This Scripture always will remind me of the brethren in China. As the plane took off, we were tired and weary , but our hearts were full.
By Chuck Harris
“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?”
Psalm 42:1-2
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirsts for righteousness; for they shall be satisfied.”
Matt.5: 6
Have you ever seen a baby take a bottle of juice? When it is thirsty, it can hardly swallow fast enough! Picture a stranded traveler crawling though a desert wilderness. The unrelenting heat of a merciless sun, which has sapped his strength, skin is past sweating, the lips cracked, tongue swollen, and his total being cries for life-giving, cool, clear water. No amount of treasure, amusements, or prestige would deter the weary traveler from his goal of refreshing, invigorating H-2-O.
But the baby when it is satisfied, begins to play with the bottle and throws it on the floor! That is what babies do! It is like that with some in the Church in the States regarding God’s Word.
I had to go to the other side of the world, to see a church truly hungry for the Word of God.
In October of 2003 I was part of a group of 3 pastors from the States who went to China under the leadership of Brother Huang Wang, a Chinese ex-patriot who was burdened for his nation to hear the Gospel. He recruited us to smuggle Bibles into the country and to teach a series of basic Christian doctrine classes to the underground church. There was such a tremendous increase in conversions that it outstripped the ability of the local pastors to ground these new born babies in their newfound faith. There was a scarcity of Bibles and this was compounded by false teachers mixing in some Chinese superstition to add to the confusion . And to make matters worse, a lot of those Chinese pastors who were able to competently teach the Word of God were in prison, as “enemies of the State”.
This is where we came in.
When we landed in Beijing, my anxiety rose when the Custom agents seemed like they were paying inordinate attention to our bags, looking for contraband (which is how the State viewed The Bible). I had scattered the Bibles among my clothes so I would not draw attention to them. Wonderfully we all passed inspection and we didn’t have to empty our bags!
From Beijing, I couldn’t tell you where we went to as we were “spirited” away to the hinterlands. We each stayed with brethren of the church, and we were not in the same place two nights in a row. Always moving. Our schedule began at 4 in the morning with rice cakes and coffee . We made our way to a plain cinderblock building where worship began at 4:30. To my surprise the place was packed with young adults, even though there was no heat or electricity. It was an cold October morning in China and you could see your breath in the sanctuary. The only illumination was the candles held by the worshippers. But the joy on each face was unadulterated as they sang in Mandarin songs to the King of kings.
When they were finished with worship, we were introduced and we handed out the Bibles designated for that church. We were told that they would divide the Bible in segments; that when they came together later in the week they would have the whole Bible between them. You would have thought we were handing out gold!
Brother Wang interpreted for us, as the class began. Each one of us gave a short synopsis of repentance from dead works, faith in the living God through Jesus, the resurrection of the dead and Eternal judgment. They all took notes, and when the class was over, and we had closed in prayer, they got on their bicycles and went to their respective neighborhoods to disseminate the teaching they had just heard! That is the appropriate response to the Gospel, we all agreed! Run with it!
We repeated the classes in different locations for the rest of the week , in basically the same format, and each time the response was like the deer thirstily lapping at the water brook.
The Chinese brethren of the underground church commonly encourage each other from Rev.2:10:…”Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” And what of the pastors in prison? They each had started a church in the prison! Proving that the Gospel is not bound!
As we were about to leave, through an interpreter, a sister told us we were a great encouragement to them. We said” Oh, no, dear sister! it was your devotion that encouraged us! “ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ; for they shall be satisfied.” This Scripture always will remind me of the brethren in China. As the plane took off, we were tired and weary , but our hearts were full.