CCD posted Growth and Service Path of a Countryside Christian Band in May. Today we're going to share a touching testimony of Brother Zhou Shengliang and his sister Zhou Sheng'ai. They're both members of this band.
These siblings were born in an ordinary farmer's family in Xichuan County, Henan Province, central China. Fate wasn't fair to them from the beginning: they had severe vision impairment when they were born. It turned out that congenital cataracts ran in their family for generations. They're all practically blind. However, they didn't blame fate or others, but came with faith before God for His mercy. When their entire family accepted Jesus as their savior, they all had joy from the Lord.
As a saying goes "Everything comes to him who waits," God also doesn't let down those who come to Him with faith. His grace was beyond what they could ask for. The vision of the brother and sister improved a lot after their family converted. More than that, God prepared spouses for them to start new families. People like them with a hereditary disease are either deemed unsuitable for or prohibited to get married, according to medical common sense and certain regulations. But almighty God had broken the family curse. Brother Zhou trusted his marriage to God even before he got married. He prayed that if God gifted them with children, they would raise them up well no matter what. They would teach them to know God and be used by Him when they grow up. His sister thought the same, praying to God that she would be a good witness to influence her in-laws to become Christians.
Brother Zhou had a daughter after he got married. When she was one, they took her to have a full body examination and the result delighted the whole family: she was perfectly healthy. Her blood and vision were both normal without any hereditary issues. Sister Zhou also trusted her life to God. Her first was a boy with minor vision impairment. When her family encouraged her to have a second baby, she was scared. She worried that with her condition, she was going to pass the misfortune to the next generation. Later, with the help of her family and Christian friends, she finally walked out her shadow and trusted herself completely to God. Last spring, she had another boy. After the hospital ran some tests, no hereditary disease was found. He completely got rid of the hereditary disease that ran for generations.
We're more than willing to ask God to eliminate the hereditary disease in our body, what about the spiritual hereditary diseases in the church? There are indeed many unwritten traditions in the church which we don't need to give examples of here, and they also hinder the healthy development of the church. However, they don't want God to heal it. Today, who will become the model to break the old traditions and establish healthy churches. (Isaiah 58:12)
It also dawned to us that curing the spiritual hereditary disease in the church is harder than the ones of the flesh because people don't realize it is a disease.
Jesus said,
"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."(Matthew 19:26)
"'If you can'?" said Jesus. Jesus also said to those who ask for him, "Everything is possible for one who believes." (Mark 9:23)
The Almighty God can not only capture the hereditary diseases but also the life of sin that came from Adam.
It is true that some believers in the church are blind. Although their eyes weren't cured like these siblings, the eyes of their heart were opened.
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people." (Ephesians 1:18)
They could see heaven, God, and the meaning of life, but those who have good physical vision and health still live in ignorance, darkness, and despair.
However, praise the Lord that Christians like us who believe in the everlasting God with all our heart were blind but now we see.
-Translated by Grace Hubl
