{"id":39681,"date":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/chinese-christian-wont-make-jesus-bow-down-to-state\/"},"modified":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","slug":"chinese-christian-wont-make-jesus-bow-down-to-state","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/chinese-christian-wont-make-jesus-bow-down-to-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Christian won’t Make Jesus Bow Down to the State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derek Lam is a courageous young Christian leader living in Hong Kong. In an article he wrote for The New York Times<\/em> about the suppression of human rights for Christians in China. Lam wrote:<\/p>\n\n

\n

Since I was 16 years old, I have wanted to be a pastor. I was raised in a Christian family in Hong Kong that urged me to live by biblical principles … [Those biblical principles] have also informed my democratic activism for the past six years—and it is for that reason that I am likely to be jailed<\/a> next month and that I will be barred from ever becoming a pastor.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Lam provides examples of what he calls "an unprecedented erosion of religious freedom in Hong Kong, especially for Christians"—believers forced to worship in underground churches, the government tearing down church buildings. The only way to avoid trouble, Lam says, is for churches to stay quiet and small or to bow down to the current leader of China—Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n\n

But Lam boldly declares, "I won't make Jesus bow down to Xi Jinping. He concludes:<\/p>\n\n

\n

Although there is nothing I would love more than to become a pastor and preach the gospel in Hong Kong, I will never do so if it means making Jesus subservient to Xi Jinping. Instead, I will continue to fight for religious freedom in Hong Kong, even if I have to do it from behind bars. What I ask of you is to keep Hong Kong in your prayers as we seek to find light amid the sea of darkness descending upon us.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3389,3621,3623,3760,3865,3934,3942,4569,4580,4628,5103,5140,5191],"tax_ctp_topics":[388],"class_list":["post-39681","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-adversity","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-civil-liberty","tax_ctp_tags-dependence","tax_ctp_tags-endurance","tax_ctp_tags-faith-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-oppression","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-persecution","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-testing","tax_ctp_tags-trial"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nChinese Christian won't Make Jesus Bow Down to the State - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/chinese-christian-wont-make-jesus-bow-down-to-state\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese Christian won't Make Jesus Bow Down to the State - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Derek Lam is a courageous young Christian leader living in Hong Kong. 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