I reread the Fresh Manna on June 12, 2009. Have you ever thought that it might be strange for any of us Christians to have suffered in many different ways? So I decided to open the book of "Jesus Freaks" and found this story of John Jue Han Ding who shined brightly during the worst torture time. His story will make you sick and we will realize that our problems are nothing to compare with what he has gone through. John’s secret? God gave him mighty power to endure the unbearable.
Temporary, Light Affliction
John Jue Han Ding, During the Red Guard Era, 1966-69
John Jue Han Ding could feel the mighty power of God within him, strengthening him to endure the unbearable. They had tied his hands behind his back and then emptied a bucket of human waste on his head. They had left him like that for days, never giving him a chance to clean himself. He was given food, but with his hands tied behind his back, he had to lie on the floor and lick it up like an animal. The food had to pass through soiled lips. He still did not deny his faith and refused to admit to crimes he had not committed.
Then his torturers filled a cell with human waste and put him in it with a multitude of common criminals. Now they all waded and suffocated in it. The common criminals were told they would all be kept like this indefinitely unless they forced him to comply with the demands of the interrogators. To survive, these criminals now competed in torturing him day and night.
When he came to this point in his story, John stopped. His face started to glow, and he began to sing with a beautiful voice. Here are the words of his song:
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
it working for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory, while we do not look at things
which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporary,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17,18 NKJV
The authorities eventually gave up and stopped trying to make John deny his faith. They then released him.
