The Heavenly Man - A second extract from his book | Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway

Your churches are sleeping!

Brother Yun escaped to the West a couple of years ago, and is now based in Germany. Here, in a further extract from his book, he gives an opinion of the church in the West.

I've seen people in Western churches worshipping as if they're already in heaven. Then someone invariably brings a comforting message like, 'My children, I love you. Don't be afraid, I'm with you'. I'm not opposed to such words, but why is it that nobody seems to hear a Word from the Lord like, 'My child, I want to send you to the slums of Asia or the darkness of Africa to be my messenger to people dying in their sin'?

Multitudes of church members in the West are satisfied with giving their minimum to God, not their maximum. I've watched men and women during offering time in church. They open their fat wallets and search for the smallest amount they can give. This type of attitude will never do! Jesus gave his whole life for us, and we give as little of our lives, time and money as we can back to God. What a disgrace! Repent!

This may sound strange, but I even miss the offerings we used to give in China. On numerous occasions the leader of a meeting would announce, 'We have a new worker who is leaving tomorrow to serve the Lord'. Immediately every single person would completely empty their pockets of everything they had. With that money the worker would buy a train or bus ticket and leave the next day.

Often this money was not just everything we had in our pockets at the time, but everything we owned in the whole world.

Just because you have a church building doesn't necessarily mean Jesus is with you. He is not welcome in many churches today. In Revelation 3.20 Jesus said, 'Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me'.

Often this verse is used as an invitation for salvation, but actually the context Jesus was speaking in was very different. He was standing outside the door of the church in Laodicea, knocking to get in!

Of course not all Western churches are asleep! Of all the strong churches I have visited in the West I've noticed one thing they all have in common: a strong and sacrificial commitment to missions among unreached nations. I'm not talking just about local outreach, or even attempts to start churches in other cities in your nation. I'm talking about a heart to establish God's kingdom in the most gospel-starved and spiritually dark areas of the world, where nobody has ever heard the name of Jesus. When you start putting your time, prayers and finances there you will soon experience God's blessing on the work of your hands.