God loves the world. Each of us is chosen by God, and we all have different experiences and stories behind our faith in God. Here are 40 stories and experiences behind people's faiths that I have heard and seen. Maybe the story behind your faith might be here.
While part 1 contains the stories of six Christians, the second episode shares other amazing stories of five believers who encountered God in their hard times.
7. She believed in God after destroying her idols.
She was a polytheist that she worshipped many different idols, such as "the great emperor" and "Fox Fairy", two Chinese mythological creatures. In one word, the idols were known as "Baojia Immortals". She had been worshipping these idols piously for many years, thinking they could protect her.
A sudden disaster caused a change in her belief. She lost her husband at an early age, and her only son worked in Shanghai after graduation. She thought it was a benefit of serving idols. But one day, her son developed a very rare disease: idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. Due to the abnormal increase of pulmonary artery pressure, it is a rare pulmonary vascular disease with a very low incidence rate (about 5.9 per 1 million people). She could not understand why her son contracted an illness with such a low incidence rate. Despite spending a lot of money, she could not save her son's life; grief-stricken, she took his ashes and returned to her hometown.
After hearing the news, her relatives went to visit her and comfort her. One of her sisters, a Christian, spoke to her: "Look at your family, so many idols, which one blessed you? Why do you still worship them when your husband and your son are gone? The idols are made of gold and silver, the work of men's hands."
With the help of her sister and the congregation, she tore down all the idols in her family and followed her sister to the church. She sang and praised with the believers and listened to the sermon. She felt that the door of her heart was opened by the Lord. Eventually, she turned to God and became a Christian.
8. Discriminated against, he came to Christ.
This brother, who suffered from polio when he was a child, lost part of his ability to work and had a hard time walking, but his IQ was not low. Because of this, he was sometimes ridiculed by individuals in school and society. Even when he went in search of jobs, he was discriminated against because of his disability. Later, he made a name for himself in a factory for the disabled. With a few hundred yuan a month, he could hardly maintain a normal life. He was very self-confident and did not want to rely on his parents to support him, but he could not find a proper job either. He craved love, attention, and someone to help him.
His neighbor's aunt was a believer. She was very concerned about him, often comforted him, and persuaded him to believe in the Lord. Later, he followed her to church.
Here, he felt the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The brothers and sisters did not discriminate against him, and they showed great enthusiasm and respect for him. He was influenced by the love here and soon became a believer. In addition, he joined a fellowship in the church and was very happy to fellowship with the believers every day. The pastor of the church also cared about him. Later, through the efforts of the church, he found a fixed job as a quality inspector in a factory with a monthly salary above 1000 yuan. He felt very happy in Christ and among his brothers and sisters. Taking advantage of his expertise in painting, he actively published bulletin boards for the church and participated in painting and calligraphy competitions organized by the church.
9. From an atheist to a believer
This brother was a staunch atheist raised in an atheist household and did not believe in God at all. This continued until he retired. After retirement, he had nothing to do and felt an emptiness within.
One day, he met an old colleague who was also a good friend at the park. The friend told him that because it was Sunday, he was going to church and invited him to go as well. Feeling embarrassed to refuse, he went with him to see what the God he believed in was like. That was how he went to church for the first time.
At first, he sat there with disdain, but when the praise was over, the pastor began to preach. Later, he clearly remembered that the pastor spoke about the Book of Job that day. He went from casually listening in the beginning to being absorbed in the sermon. He also wondered how Job did not change his faith in God despite going through so much hurt? Later, accompanied by his friends, he asked the pastor some questions and explanations regarding certain matters. This way, he felt that his heart was opened and he loved Christianity. The next week, he also attended meetings with his friends. After some time, he became a Christian. He believed in God and preached the gospel to the people around him.
10. She was misled by heresy and returned to the Lord.
This sister, originally a teacher, was led to the church by one of her colleagues after retirement and eventually became a believer. But out of curiosity, she liked visiting other churches.
She was once invited to follow a sister to a so-called church organized by Koreans. This church was particularly opposed to the traditional Chinese Christian faith. The main backbone of the church were returnees from Korea. Every time they met, the small gifts and lunch attracted her, and she felt that these people also read the Bible, prayed, and spoke of love. What she did not realize, however, was that this was a heretical organization, different from orthodox Christianity: its leaders were like the Messiah, like "Jesus Christ", they slandered the Chinese church, spoke only bad things about it, advocating that salvation could only be gotten in their church. Also, believers were not allowed to go to the "cathedral" and other churches and gathering places. There, they also focused on "tithing". They always asked for money and even the missionaries' clothes and mobile phones were bought by the believers. The female believers had to help the missionaries cook, wash clothes and do housework. People were cursed and even threatened if they tried to betray their church.
She ran back to her original "cathedral" and asked the priest about it, who told her it was a heretical cult. She resolutely cut off the relationship with the heretical so-called church and returned to her original church. Here, once again, she felt true faith.
11. Though someone in her workplace hurt her, she gained love in Christ.
This sister was a hardworking, conscientious and responsible employee in her workplace. She did not try to curry favor with people, she was not a talker, but a doer. Even so, she had been supplanted and attacked by some colleagues, and often experienced a "squeeze": she had no advanced rating, and her salary rise was very slow, not to mention her promotion. After working for more than ten years, she remained an ordinary staff. Some people even bullied her, saying that she was "narrow-minded" and "stupid". Sometimes when there were mistakes at the workplace, they would blame her. She was judged wrongly and had no one to appeal to.
She was very distressed, and in her distress, she got a chance to attend a church meeting. She met her childhood best friend who advised her to go to church and believe in God.
When she got to the church, she heard the hymn of the choir before the sermon, and her tears began to flow uncontrollably because she felt that in this temple, there was a kind of loving warmth rising in her heart, a kind of comfort. At that moment, there was no one trying to outwit the other, no scheming against anyone, only the voice of God.
As a result, the honest woman went to church come rain come shine. Sometimes she worked overtime during the day and attended evening meetings. She believed in the Lord, had a sense of trust and security in her heart, read the scriptures, and prayed every day.
To be continued…
(The article is originally published by Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Nonye Nancy
