Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

It’s 10 PM and I just returned from a long day teaching, sight-seeing, and eating in New York City.

One of the pastors at Faith Bible Church in Queens took me out to dinner tonight in Little Italy in Manhattan. I had lasagna at a real italian restaurant served by waiters who spoke broken English but real Italian. I told my host, Greg Woo, that this was probably the best lasagna I have ever eaten in my life. We walked around little Italy and Manhattan’s China Town. Greg drove me to Ground Zero, and I walked around and took pictures of where the twin towers once stood. Five and a half years after the fact and it looks like they are still cleaning out and digging out the area. Then we went to New York University and Greenwich village, where we saw many musicians and people sitting in the lotus position meditating and beggars and bohemian-looking dogs and serious book readers. Next, Times Square. It was dusk, and the lights and signs and buildings were simply amazing. Greg pulled over and I stepped out of the car to take some pictures.

I taught my spiritual transformation class again from 9 AM to 4 PM. A Chinese pastor named John was excited to see me this morning. He was telling others and telling me that, for the first time in seven years, he could move his neck freely. Yesterday I prayed for God to heal him. John appears to be healed. He was saying that he felt young again, he felt like he did seven years ago. He said “I feel strong.” And he slept without pain for the first time in seven years. I know God can heal people. I have seen it done before, and I am now seeing it happen more than ever in my life. My doctoral studies in philosophy trained me to be inherently skeptical of such claims. So, I know what it is to be reductionistic. But over the years God has shown me many things that have shattered my Western-Enlightenment paradigm, including healings like the one I saw today. In classes like I am teaching we do a lot of praying, and we are collectively seeing God provide a lot of answers. I love spiritual environments like this.

I also prayed for some other people to be healed today, including a woman with a very serious blood disease who came to my class today to get some prayer. And one young woman is an M.D., a pediatrician here in NYC. She’s taking off a lot of time to attend my class this week.

Sadly, I had no bubble tea today, probably because I had two bubble teas yesterday. Note: I would be in favor of someone opening up a store in Monroe that sells bubble tea. I also ate at a fabulous Korean restaurant, and drank barley tea.

Tomorrow is my final day of teaching. On Saturday morning I am the commencement speaker at the Chinese seminary’s graduation ceremony. Then, back to Monroe Saturday night. I feel that when I speak to my church family on Sunday morning I will be filled with much energy and many stories about seeing the kingdom of God advancing!

One final thing: people of Monroe - never, ever complain that the traffic is too bad on N. Telegraph until you’ve been driving all over downtown Manhattan during rush hour.

Today I drank bubble tea[1], prayed for a man’s neck and back to be healed[2], had lunch with a Dr. Kim who is Korean and is translating Josephus’s Antiquities into the Chinese language[3], taught my spiritual transformation material from 9 AM – 4 PM[4], prayed for 15 people to be freed from self-hatred[5], listened to many stories of how God was speaking to the Chinese students in my class[6], had many feelings of being very alive and even intense during the day because of the presence of God[7], was told that a woman with inoperable cancer wants to attend my class tomorrow[8], prepared to (hopefully) meet with a Chinese teenager who is filled with anger and hopelessness and has been cutting his arms and burning his arms with cigarettes[9], ate at a restaurant that serves “Steamboat” meals[10], got treated to the second bubble tea in my life[11],  met for 2 hours with 20 Chinese teens who play guitar and I gave them guitar lessons and we worshiped together, got invited by John Hao to come back to Queens to speak at their annual conference in Nov. 2008 and John also asked me if I would go to Asia with him and speak at a conference for Chinese Christian leaders, went to Starbuck’s and walked home on a clear, cool New York City evening with jets flying low overhead into La Guardia and the streets filled with people eating and talking and walking…

…And, earlier in the day, I looked up in the sky and saw a plane skywriting the word “Geico” in the air.[12] I was staring at it, because I’ve never seen this happen over the skies of Monroe. Then some people came out of their building and stared with me. One of them cried out, “Look, it’s Geico!” Some others laughed and cried out, “Geico! Geico! Geico!” And there I was, gazing in amazement with all these strangers at the odd phenomenon in the heavens above. Dr. Kim was next to me. I asked him, “Is that God trying to tell us something?” Dr. Kim, an understated man, said “No,” and I believe he was right. Time now to go to bed…

I just arrived back at my hotel in Queens, New York City. I taught from 9 - 4 today. There are 15 students in my class at the Chinese seminary. All of them but two are from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. After class I rested for a while, then was taken out to a fantastic Malaysian restaurant. The Chinese Church had an evening service which I spoke at - I spoke to 100 cell group leaders, and taught them about praying for the sick. All of my talks are translated into Mandarin. I am tired, but thankful for many things that I saw God doing today. Here’s a picture of me with some of the students in my class.

I had an eerie feeling this afternoon as the jet I was flying in went directly over Manhattan and I looked down on the space where the twin towers had once stood. I imagined what it would be like to be in a plane packed with people, passing over Manhattan, then banking unexpectedly and losing altitude, and then… Unlike those passengers I arrived safely at La Guardia Airport. As I departed the airplane I looked at the pilot and said “Thank you.”

I was picked up by my host, John Hao. We drove past Shea Stadium into Queens, into the heart of Chinatown. “How many Chinese are there in NYC, John?” He replied, “The estimate is 800,000.”

He took me to my hotel where I’m writing this. It’s a tiny room I’m in, with no TV, which for me is good. I’m here to concentrate on spiritual things, so I don’t need the general vacuity that’s on television.

John took me to a Chinese (what else?) restaurant. We shared three dishes - “sizzling beef,” a kind of chicken in a sauce, and a delicious fish entree. For dessert we had fruit that I have never eaten in my life. I can’t remember what he called it, but it’s from China, looks like human eyeballs, and is very good. Plus we had a sweet bean soup (I’ve had this one before - excellent!).

We talked and talked about what God is doing in our lives. John Hao is a great leader. His church in Queens is over a thousand people and growing. He’s the pastor and the president of the seminary I’m teaching at this week. Plus John is around the world starting new Chinese churches and educational centers in places from Montreal to China.

The part of our discussion I can’t get away from is when John told me about a “church” in China that has 400,000 people in it. (Note: the biblical word “church” means “people,” not “a building.” And, if you are at all familiar with Christianity in Asia you know that some of these churches grow to be this size because they are networks of underground small groups. For scholarly work on this see Penn State U Professor Philip Jenkins’ book The Next Christendom.) John is one of the leaders who is helping disciple the leaders of this huge church. He then told me how recently he went there in secrecy (because of Chinese government oppression of Christians) and met in a cave with 60 church leaders. This cave was dug out by the people’s own hands. It’s underground, just like the explosively growing Jesus-movement in China is.

Then John asked me, “If God wanted would you be willing to come to China with me and spend some time teaching these leaders?” I said, “Let’s pray about this.” If God wants, I’ll go.

Tomorrow morning I walk six blocks from my hotel to Faith Bible Seminary where I’ll begin teaching Chinese seminary students from 9 Am - 4 PM. Then tomorrow night I’ll meet with about 100 small group leaders in John’s church to talk with them about the power of God, especially as it relates to physical healing.

Below is a picture I took on my walk back to my hotel tonight. I loved the time with John Hao. I feel inspired and filled with energy. I’ll give Linda a call soon and then probably write in my journal.

Tomorrow I fly to New York City. I’m going to teach at Faith Bible Seminary in Queens. This is a seminary for Chinese students who have finished an undergraduate degree in college and are now involved in more intense studies and training to be leaders for the church.

I teach from Tuesday through Friday, from 9 Am to 4 PM. The course I am teaching is called “Spiritual Transformation.” It’s about how God changes lives. I have taught this same course all over America, Canada, and various other places such as India and Singapore. Linda and I went to Vancouver some years ago where I taught this material at a conference for Chinese Christians in Canada. If you are interested you can access some of my teaching material here.

Then, on Saturday, I will be the commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony.

This past January I spoke at a Chinese Christian conference in NYC at Faith Bible Seminary. It’s right in Chinatown in Queens. There’s a Starbuck’s a block from where I will be staying. My hope is to go there at night, log in, and make some posts about my experiences this week.

(Here’s a picture taken of me with Pastor John Hao and his wife Rosie and one of the seminary professors, taken in Jan. 2007.)

I asked my Philosophy of Religion class at MCCC the question, “What was the one thing Jesus talked about the most?” I had already taught the class about the other four great world religions - Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. Now, I was teaching about Christianity.  Out of 30 students many answers were given. No student got the correct answer.

My general experience is that most Americans, even many who identify themselves as “Christian,” miss this question. And that’s too bad, since Real Christianity is revolutionary. Real Christianity, once understood and embraced, is life-and-world-changing. There’s one thing Real Christianity is not: boring.

What was the one thing Jesus talked about the most? The correct answer is: the kingdom of God.

Jesus begins his public ministry by announcing, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

• The famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) is all about the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven (they refer to the same thing, which is: the “rule” or “reign” of God).
• The parables of Jesus are all about the kingdom. Note how most parables begin with the words, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”
• The Real Jesus looked at life as a battle between two opposing kingdoms. One the one hand, there is the kingdom of God/heaven/light, and on the other hand there is the kingdom of Satan/earth/darkness. There is, on Jesus’ view, no third kingdom, no “spiritual Switzerland” that functions as a kind of “religious neutral zone.” Jesus believed that every person is in either one of these kingdoms or the other.
• The one thing we are to hunger and thirst after is the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
• And then there’s “The Lord’s Prayer,” in which Jesus tells us to pray that the kingdom of God would be now “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Real, authentic Christianity is essentially about the kingdom of God. It’s not about building our own little personal kingdoms here on earth. This is how it was for Jesus. It is the focus for all of his Real Followers.