"I want to love him forever and ever. Even though in life I will encounter fierce winds and heavy rains continuously, I will still love Jesus forever and ever." Hymns written by Chen kuo-fu have simple lyrics, with the chorus repeating some words. In the hymn "My Heart Believes You," he is always saying ",I believe you, I believe you." He says that it is not because his inspiration has been used up and he is not able to write hymns but because he is struggling at that time. He had no other way anymore except to confess in hymns and put his faith and hope in God.
Chen kuo-fu grew up in Indonesia and he loved singing Chinese songs since his childhood. After putting his faith in Jesus, he used his talents to serve God and made a lot of Chinese Gospel music albums. He began his career of Chinese Gospel hymns in late 2002 and has launched more than 20 albums, making many listeners gain power through his albums. He was also often invited to hold conferences for preaching the Gospel and witness in Indonesia and countries all over the world such as Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Australia, etc.
In the evening of November 14, he took his wife and the Edward band to bring an auditory feast for the 8th anniversary celebration of the Guangdong province industry and commerce fellowship in the Christian union hall.
First, he sang "Still Worship You," "That's Very Kind of You," "All Things are Possible", and "Still Love Jesus" and other hymns, most of which came from the album, "Rely on Forever." The hymn with the same name as the album was sang by Sien in the Joshua worship group and many Christians are familiar with it. "I can rely on you forever, stick to the confidence to declare, I experience your almighty power truly; only you that I can rely on forever, stick to the confidence to declare, when I come to worship you with my whole heart, miracles are in the near front."
Chen kuo-fu came from a relatively poor family and never thought that he could be a Gospel singer because the reality of his situation made him confused about what he would be in the future. Becoming a Gospel singer was difficult and becoming a popular singer in the world was perhaps much better but there was no turning back after he made his choice. In order not to bring burden to his family, he finished school just in three and a half years by studying and working hard.
At first, his hobby was not singing, but playing football. What people who liked sports fear most is a physical injury. Unfortunately, he broke his leg in a contest and the worst thing was that he had no money to pay for his recovery. He wanted to help parents with financial burdens originally, but his injury made him bring trouble to his parents.
"At that time I was disappointed at God and thought about why would this thing happen to me. But my disappointment did not last long, I began to pray and rely on God." From then on, he began writing poetry without majoring in music. The hymn "Still Love Jesus" made him famous; he repeated "I want to love Jesus forever and ever."
13 years have passed since then, he still serves Jesus and is still being invited to different countries to share his testimony with hymns, bringing the Gospel to different people. "This song was not easy to write because we couldn't still love him when we are confronted with difficulties." He wanted everyone who heard his hymn to think about this problem and called for young people to serve God together.
Then he took his wife's hand and sang the hymn "The Road to Grace" with her, "You are my Lord, you lead me to walk the just road, high or low, you protect us, only you among ten thousand people, love me and know me."
The love between him and his wife also did not come easily and the hymn, "My Heart Believes You" expressed his suffering and his response to the Heavenly Father well with only one sentence. "I believe you, I believe you..." At that time, he had been serving God for six years, but he couldn't see the road because their parents didn't agree with the engagement between him and his current wife.
The heart of Chen kuo-fu was filled with complaints. He thought that God blessed him and he helped parents pay off their debts, but they didn't want to bless this pair of conjugal partners. "I was very angry, in fact I wanted to rebel against them. I would say that I had helped you, but why wouldn't you let me marry her?" His parents were determined at the beginning. They said that if Chen wanted to choose the girl, Chen kuo-fu would cease to be their son. But he didn't complain and chose to believe God. "Thank God that He helped me calm down, he worshipped God and wrote that hymn."
Chorus lyrics repeatedly said "I believe you," even though he couldn't see the road clearly and also didn't understand why God let this happen. But he also didn't want to make a foolish choice of no longer believing in God. "I had two choices at that time, one was to become angry, to leave God and no longer believe in Him. But this was a stupid choice and our life became bad. The other was to believe in Him and to continue to believe him more; so I said in the chorus, I believe you."
"When we said that, He would hear; He will not let the people who believe in Him despair, later she and I were married and the hearts of our parents were changed by God. God also gave us confidence because we could not only get married, but also could get married in Cana in Israel. God made the ordinary water into wine and it was the God that we believe and worship, and he was wonderful." Chen kuo-fu told his story excitedly, "Maybe we couldn't see the road but we must believe in his promise because our hope was in Jesus."
In the end, he also used the story of Abraham and Isaac to share his understanding of the worship with the audience. Chen thought it was our usual life and our praise with our whole heart in believing in Him. "When God wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, this was the true worship." Abraham waited so long to have a child but when God wanted to take his son away, he was not angry and made the sacrifice. This was true worship because worship was to let God rejoice, and what could let God rejoice was our whole heart believing in him. When God comes again, He will not seeing whether we became rich or powerful people, but whether we believed in Him.
At the end of sharing, he sang the hymns "Rely on Forever" and "All Things are possible" again. "Whenever I face the wind and waves, you are always by my side, share life blessings with me, eager to be in a deeper level, whenever there is a dilemma, your will that cannot shake makes my heart filled with peace, full of infinite hope... Only you that I can rely on forever, stick to the confidence to declare, when I come to worship with my whole heart, miracles are in the forefront." He will write hymns based on his experience and sing to different people, to let others know, though facing the wind and waves, God is faithful. So we must still believe love, and worship Him.
