In 2006, a Christian missionary named David Lin walked into a police station in Beijing, believing he was responding to a routine request. He would not walk out again as a free man for nearly two decades. The Chinese government accused him of fraud, tried him in a court that could not acquit him, and sentenced him to life in prison. For seventeen years, David Lin lived behind bars\u2014malnourished, weakened by illness, cut off from his family, stripped of freedom and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the outside, his story looked like pure loss. Years stolen. A wife left to survive alone. A daughter growing up without her father. And yet David Lin refused to interpret his suffering as accidental. He later said, \u201cWithout God\u2019s permission, I cannot go to prison. Without God\u2019s permission, I cannot come out.\u201d For Lin, God\u2019s sovereignty was not a doctrine for textbooks\u2014it was the only way to survive a cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside prison, he prayed daily. When Bibles were taken away, he memorized Scripture. When fellow inmates were desperate, he listened. At one point, he hand-copied portions of the New Testament so others could read God\u2019s Word. Guards noticed that wherever Lin was placed, violence dropped. Prison officials began moving him from cell to cell because his presence changed the atmosphere. Hardened men softened. Some came to faith. Others later led Bible studies themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the outside, nothing looked like progress. But God was ruling quietly. Laws shifted. Advocates emerged. Prayers accumulated\u2014year after year, unseen. And then, at exactly the right moment David Lin was released in a prisoner exchange and reunited with his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3943,4250,4737,5027,5103,5191,5195],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-66719","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-injustice","tax_ctp_tags-providence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-trial","tax_ctp_tags-trust"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\n