VIII. This is My Father’s World (Conclusion)
My faith is very simple. The source of all human
tragedies is due to our separation from God, creating crisis in faith.
It leads to behavioral errors, and sinful acts. Its effect can be as
small as a broken family, or as large as the collapse of a society, or
wars. There can never be peace when there are killings between people
or countries.
In the recent four hundred years, with the rapid
advancement in technology, wars have become even crueler. Weapons of
destruction, when out of control, can destroy all mankind and living
organisms.
To a lesser extend, the poisonous waste produced by
technology can pollute the air, water, and soil; the destruction of
nature by the overuse of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and medicines
are accelerating. If we do not stop it, the world could come to an end.
The train of human history seems to be at the end of its track. We are
slowly committing suicide, unable to save ourselves.
For thousands of years, theologians, ethic scholars
and educators have all been looking for a way to save ourselves, but
human ethics have not improved, but deteriorated daily; it shows just
incompetent we are.
Since we can not save ourselves, why not return to God, the creator, and seek His salvation?
The Bible tells us that if we reconcile with God,
through believing in Jesus, we can receive God’s new life. This life
comes with power from the Holy Spirit, so that we may live in God’s
image; our behaviors will be renewed and our morals will mature.
The result of been reconciled with God is to
reconcile with others as well; we can love one another, even our
enemies.
If the majority members of a society are Christians,
that society will enjoy peace and joy. If all are Christians, that
society would be a heaven on earth. We can then be released from all
sins and miseries that stem from our separation from God.
This is the only way for human to be saved. It
starts with individuals. More aptly, this individual is no others than
one’s self.
When everyone’s self is saved, than all are saved.
Who will execute this mission? Missionaries, of
course, because faith comes from hearing the message, and the message
is heard thought the word of Christ. “How can they hear without someone
preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14)
A bigger mission for preachers is to train each
Christian to become a preacher; that way the gospel can be spread
throughout rapidly. One who hears and then accepts becomes a Christian,
yet each Christian stands on a different level. Churches are the
cradles of Christian growth, yet churches are also on different levels.
High quality churches grow faster; the opposite is also true.
Therefore, the quality of a church needs to be
raised constantly. The key lies in leadership training that empowers
them.
Training a superb church leader takes decades of
pounding and shaping. No matter how knowledgeable he is on theology, he
needs to stand firm on Christ’s salvation. If a church deviates from
the core of its faith, it loses its value of existence. Churches are
also faced with crisis. A church needs to keep its faith pure, just
like the day of the Disciples, so that it may keep preaching the
gospel, enable people’s lives to be recreated, change the world and
save the human race from its crisis.
This is my theological stance. My lifelong work was
determined by this stance. I also believe that God is in control of the
fate of this universe. History will go in the course that God has set.
He will be victorious at the end. People belonging to God will inherit
God’s Kingdom.
I was born in 1929 in a village of China. My father
was an atheist, who also believed in certain cultural superstitions,
such as fortune telling and palm reading. His life philosophy was based
on Confucianism which teaches ancestral worshipping. My mother had
little education, and worshipped all gods, including spirits of Taoism,
and the statutes of Buddhism. My father frequently criticized my
mother’s superstitions in front of us kids; so under his influence, I
thought of myself as an atheist as well.
During the civil war of 1948, I escaped China and
fled to Taiwan. I heard the gospel in 1950, and became a member of a
Baptist church; I also lead the church choir. I was called to enter the
Taiwan Baptist Seminary in 1952. I interned at local churches on
weekends. After I graduated in 1955, I began my ministry which lasted
more than fifty years, most of which was spent in leading churches. I
have also returned to a university and the seminary for continued
education. I have taught middle school and colleges, conducted
community choirs, anchored gospel radio shows, edited magazines, wrote
and directed plays, and wrote articles and novels for Christian
publications. I immigrated to America in 1978. I was the founding
pastor of Baltimore Chinese Baptist Church and Oklahoma City Chinese
Baptist Church.
Since retiring from churches in 1990, I continued my
mission in Los Angeles. I have traveled all over the U.S. and abroad as
guest speakers. In my spare time I wrote.
It was around the time of the Tiananmen incident of
June 4, 1989. The whole world was in shock, especially the Chinese
scholars; they wanted to find the answers to this senseless tragedy.
What made a nation killing its own innocent children by firing at them
from a tank? There were lots of talks and theories; they all
boiled down to one common conclusion: It was the fault of an extreme
government. If democracy was practiced, none of this would have
happened. Democracy became the miracle pill to all problems.
I was shocked by the scholars’ shallow view of the
whole situation. So I spent the next seven years writing Seeing thru
the Heavenly Secrets. It looks at the deeper levels of culture and
religion to find the sources of problems. It’s a deep and painful
self-examination of the three religions that formed the Chinese
culture: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. It also made comparison of
the five main religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity,
and Islam. It points out that only Christianity can solve the basic
problems of man, and save the mankind from destruction. After the book
was published, it excited the Chinese American communities. Within a
year, three editions were printed. It was used as textbooks in
Seminaries. Chinese American scholars read them day and night, unable
to put down. The books were taken in to China through many different
channels; the Christians and scholars there try to get their hands on
one to read. My sermon tapes were also loosely spread out in all parts
of China. This book was banned by the government, because it threatens
its political stability. I tried numerous times to get it published in
China, but couldn’t find a way. However, this book has been copied by
pirates, even openly; these copies are floating around in China and
abroad. For instance, an internet magazine, Bignews, which talks about
banned news and commentaries, in quoted the introduction, outline and
conclusion in their entirety from this book.
This book presents the result of my life-long search of wisdom. The
purpose of my 200,000-word book, Seeing Through the Heavenly
Secrets, is to testify to the gospel, and to build a theoretical
foundation for the gospel in the hearts of Chinese scholars.
I was a pastor to churches (1952-1990) for
thirty-eight years, and a traveling preacher and writer (1991-1998) for
another seven. I was on the front line of the actual combat zone
working with churches, and then turned into a soldier in the
psychological warfare. Mp physical, mental and spiritual strength have
all deteriorated in old age, followed by many illnesses, yet there are
things I still want to accomplish; I don’t to just give up now. So I
started my third field of service, to sing with children; this suited
my interests the best. Let’s just say that it is my hobby after
retirement.
Who would have ever known that an old soldier like
me, who has fought for the gospel for his whole life, could have slowly
but surely trained such a great music army for the gospel. Through
their singing, the power of the gospel is forcefully moving. This was a
better than expected result. This is also what God’s infinite wisdom
has done through me.
With these three different types of work, the first lasted the longest,
in which I have started several churches which brought thousands of
people to the Lord. The second phase, though shorter in length, had
tremendous impact in the lives of philosophers, theologians and
preachers through my book, Seeing through the Heavenly Secrets; how
much so is hard to estimate. This third phase of evangelism through
music opened a brand new model of evangelism for the churches; its
effect far more reaching than the traditional revivals.
My first phase of work was guided largely by practical theology. My
work in the second phase was based on philosophies, about theories and
appeal to the logical. My third phase of work is founded on Bel Canto,
guided by methodology, and appeal to the emotional. What can not be
conquered by logic can usually be broken down by emotion, to win people
over for the Lord.
Though different in nature, the common goal of all
three types of work is to spread the gospel. This is how God saves the
world.
In my life-long journey of faith, my service now is my best way to live out a matured faith.
Because God’s love is fair, He doesn’t favor any one. Man’s love is
partial, narrow in scope, and conditional, creating unfair treatments.
That’s why Jesus especially instructed the disciples to love those who
are poor and weak. What you do unto the smallest is done onto God.
In the past several decades, I’ve lived in
metropolitan cities, and worked among the educated and middle- to
upper-class people in society. After middle-age, my work in the US was
geared largely toward the highly educated scholars and experts. I got
further and further away from the poor, creating a gap between my
beliefs and the reality. After the first stages, it’s natural for me to
accept God’s calling to go to the poor in remote and backward places,
to make up for my past shortcomings. I needed to put down myself, to
learn from God’s love, and to love those who need it the most.
There are over ten tribes of aborigines living in the remote mountain
areas in Taiwan, each with its own spoken language, but not written
language. They are separated from the main stream society, creating
societies of poverty and neglect. During the Japanese occupation, they
were in opposition with the people in power, making them the targets of
oppression and prejudice. It wasn’t until Taiwan was freed that they
received protection and privileges, shortening the distance between
cities and villages. In comparison, however, they are still poor and
neglected. They feel ashamed of themselves; they are being pushed to
the bottom of society, never to be freed from a fate of tragedy. They
easily give up on themselves. The easiest way to release themselves is
to abuse alcohol; when you are drunk, nothing can worry you. But when
you wake up, the reality is still the same and their lives are even
more difficult. “A poor couple can never find happiness.” That is why
aborigine families are especially problematic, with many broken homes.
Alcohol related accidents and illness are also rampant. Their fatality
rate is particularly high, with the average life span of fifty years,
creating countless single-parent families. Many children ended up with
no one to take care of them, and were turned over to orphanages.
Christian Mountain Children’s Home is an orphanage that takes in
aborigine children.
This was the main reason why I chose Christian
Mountain Children’s Home. These children are the weakest of the weak.
They are also the “smallest” whom Jesus loved the most.
I have no money or power to give them; I can only
pass down what little music talents I have to this group of treasures
beloved by Jesus.
Therefore, I taught them everything I know, with my deepest sincerity
and most patience. I didn’t hold anything back; I even gave them my
heart. The children felt my sincerity, so they in turn did their best
to learn.
In the past seven years, I have not forgotten even for one day the
calling from God, I never stopped thinking for one day how to make the
children even better, more accomplished, more useful in God’s hands.
Whether I am in Taiwan or the US, the kids are the ones I think about.
It’s as if I live my life now for them. I’ve said to them once, “What I
pass on to you is more than what my own children had received from me!”
The founder, Rev. Yang, said to me, “I give the children stability in
life to grow up without worries, but you make them useful, my
treasures.”
According to legends, an artist carved a rock that’s blocking the road
into a statute of angel. He said, “I was only releasing the angel
that’s been trapped inside that rock.” I referred to this story and
said, “I was only digging the diamonds out of the mines, which are the
children.”
“He made from one man every nation of mankind.”
(Acts 17:26) If all men are of one family, then all men are children of
God. There are no separation between nations, races, rich and poor,
intellectual differences; we are all of one family. We should treat
everyone the same, love one another.
For seven years, we have surpassed the boundaries of
nations and races because music has no nationality, but speaks the
language of the world. Music has no theological disagreements, so it
surpassed religious boundaries. Music pulls people of different
cultural backgrounds closer together to exist in harmony. Even though
we have own beliefs, these beliefs need to be shared with everyone with
love, even to believers of a different religion. Singing brings people
together better than sermons. Therefore, we accept all invitations to
preach the gospel. We have no limitations, no enemies. We can turn
enemies into friends in love. As a result, others can not label us as
belonging to certain political party or certain Christian group.
Even though we belong to our nation on earth, and
are faith to it, even more so we are citizens of heaven, and are loyal
to God. Everyone loved by God is loved by us. Lastly, In Christ’s
salvation, all blessed are to be united into one.
Copyright © 屬於 . 版權所有. 寇順舉牧師,師母網站 David Kou & Deborah Kou home page 六龜山地育幼院 原住兒合唱團 christian mountain children home _COPYRIGHT2
