193 1 year attended a sermon of Huaiyin church. At that time, he invited Pastor Xu, a great preacher, and the leaders of the Bethel Missionary Society in Shanghai to get together: Pastor Xu told the gospel without lofty words and wisdom, but simply quoted the Bible and interspersed with some touching stories, which moved the participants very much. As a result, many people came to the stage to repent and believe in the Lord. Although Zhao was moved by his heart and didn't want to make up his mind in public, he was moved by Pastor Xu's "Everyone is a sinner, even if he has received a college education, he still has to repent". As a result, while praying, he walked onto the stage and made up his mind to believe in the Lord with tears.
Zhao consciously has no talent for preaching. A telegram was prepared for two weeks, and he sharpened it with a fine pen and wrote the speech on the paper. But during the sermon, he broke out in a sweat and his glasses were blurred. 15 minutes he stepped down and the chairman went up to make up.
At that time, Song was very famous, and Pastor Zhao always wondered why others could preach. So he began to study Jia Yuming's Shinto, systematic theology in Chinese and English, theological textbooks of Lutheran Church, and read D·L· Moody's lectures deeply influenced by Tolstoy's theism.
During his illness, the hospital bed was his seminary. During the period, I read many spiritual books in Chinese and English, plus my rich knowledge of the Bible. As a result, it gradually evolved into several important lectures in his future work for college students: the first one is "God's point of view-why do I believe in God?" The second is my outlook on life, the third is my outlook on the universe, and the fourth is my ethics. This information made many students believe in the Lord.
When Pastor Zhao taught English in Jiangyin Christian School, Jiangsu Province, he led 95% of the students to believe in the Lord, so he didn't know whether he wanted to preach or just wanted to be a teacher, preach the Bible and encourage believers to write all their lives.
Later, God gave him wonderful treatment in the third stage of lung disease. After a short teaching career, he embarked on the road of lifelong full-time service. 1933, after seven days of meditation. The preacher, Ms. Zhang Xingchu, told about the holy life and called on the audience to repent their sins, intercede with each other, abandon despicable things and become precious vessels of God. So Pastor Zhao wrote to many people to plead guilty. But there is one thing that involves 20 yuan, and he has been puzzled. He went to the mailbox three times and came back, and finally he threw the confession letter in.
Later, when Pastor Zhao preached on Sunday, many people cried and repented. For the first time, he knew his strength after being broken. In the rear area, hundreds of students believe in the Lord because of the work of the Holy Spirit, and this is the beginning. And that Ms. Zhang Xingchu became Mrs. Zhao the next year. 1935 The news came that Pastor Zhao decided to devote himself to missionary work. There were more than a dozen jobs waiting for him, but he finally went to Yangzhou through prayer and did a job without income. Everyone didn't expect the missionary to be so poor. His father ignored him because he didn't want a beggar's son. Pastor Zhao once described this conversation in his book My Religious Experience:
"Isn't Christianity to honor parents? You don't even listen to your father. " "I have a bigger father now, and I must listen to him." "I must kill you today."
His father tried to cut him with a kitchen knife and was caught by others on both sides. Zhao Qian didn't dare to sleep at night, so he leaned his desk against the door and hung a rope outside the house to escape.
At that time, Pastor Zhao had just come to Yangzhou Church Pastoral Association, which was a church with only a dozen old ladies and gentlemen. They live a confident life. For two and a half months, no one asked him to preach, so there was no income. Later, a Presbyterian church invited Pastor Zhao to a party in Haizhou, Jiangsu, but he didn't have any travel expenses. After fasting and praying for several days, it seems that God finally wants him to pawn his wedding ring. Mrs Zhao prayed in the other room, and she agreed. At that time, it was already dark, and Mrs. Zhao said, "What a shame for a man to be a ring?" She doesn't allow her sister to ask her husband to take out the garbage. Pastor Zhao replied, "How can you go out alone at this late hour?" So they decided to go together and walked for an hour and a half. No pawnshop is open for business. Pastor Zhao asked Jenny Zhao to go home by car and walk home by herself. Jenny cho said, "How can I ride without you at this time?" After returning home, because there is no money to buy milk powder, I can only feed my child a little sugar water.
The next morning, Pastor Zhao went to pawn the ring, half of which was kept for home use, and the other half was used as travel expenses to lead the party. On the halfway train, God's love poured down, and the priest wrote a poem "Lord, I Love You", which was later composed by pastor Su Zuoyang, and was popular in churches all over China and deeply loved by the public.
Zhao and the Gospel Crusaders Some God-loving businessmen in Seattle, USA, participated in the local Gospel Crusaders in China advocated by Duncan McRoberts. Zhao translated the word literally as "Gospel Crusaders". They directly supported China people in their own missionary work, which could solve many difficulties of western missionaries in China, such as language barriers, adaptation to life and travel expenses. At that time, the working methods and other missionary methods of churches in mainland China were dominated by foreign missionaries, and China believers were rarely used as church leaders, which was very unfavorable to the self-reliance of churches in China and the expansion of gospel work. After Zhao served as the director-general of the "missionary crusade", he was attacked a lot. On the one hand, missionaries in mainland society can't accept the new vision of "autobiography of China people"; On the other hand, many people don't believe that China people have the ability to manage and manage money. However, Zhao has developed strong perseverance and indomitable spirit since childhood, which is like a game on the basketball court. Everything must be fought to the end. Coupled with his eloquence and beautiful spirituality, he can squeeze through the crowd and refute other people's criticisms. It opened up a new world for China's autobiography and student revival movement in the future.
Pastor Zhao invited the pastor to work with him to promote the smooth development of college students' work. Pastor Yu was very appreciated by Pastor Zhao when he was young, and he had already been invited to participate in the gospel Ministry with Pastor Zhao. When Zhao was invited to preach and crusade, he immediately shared with the pastor: "In order to build a church with rich waterways (Guizhou), after this experience of leading the church, we mainly accepted another Ministry, another vision. On the one hand, it is to solve our (life) needs, on the other hand, it is to enter a new Ministry and new entrustment. I hope you can work with us. You are the first person I have revealed this new entrustment and new vision. " As a result, the young pastor Lee Kung Yu became an important assistant in his later work, helping him to vigorously promote the gospel and revival movement of this college student, and carried out different gospel work in his later life. general situation
1938, Pastor Zhao proved to the county magistrates in Hunan that the director of Hunan Education Department was a master, which was a great event at that time. During the Anti-Japanese War, the university campus was open to the gospel; 1in the winter of 944, Pastor Zhao gave a three-day sermon in the joint school of Chongqing Shapingba Central University and Chongqing University. About 2000 people attend every night, and about 200 people make up their minds. In a short time, there are students working all over the country.
1945, the National Summer Conference of Christian Students was held, and then the National Federation of Christian College Students was established.
The first National Summer Friendship Association for Christian Students was held in chongqing nanshan Middle School, with more than 150 participants from more than 40 universities. Led by the pastor, the speakers include Pastor Zhao and Pastor Zhao. Including Pastor Jinhui Teng, there are 65,438+06 full-time believers.
Pastor Zhao often takes "Is there a god?" As a sermon topic on the first day, and make an in-depth analysis to impress people; The next day, he talked about "Christian outlook on life". Sometimes about 800 students attend, the auditorium is full of people, and people stand at the window and door.
Other topics are "Christian cosmology" and "Christian social ethics", which make intellectuals enjoy it.
The choir sang Chinese and English poems with the accompaniment of Gong Li accordion. Pastor Zhao preached forcefully. On the phone, many determined people came on stage to leave their names and addresses, and then local shepherds or missionaries followed suit.
Pastor Zhao often preaches the importance of a holy life to students, and many people have to repent after the meeting. Every morning at dawn, students come out in droves and pray in the campus. Obviously, these young Christians have gained the ability from above, which is better than the temptation of the environment. 1In July, 945, the Christian Crusaders were reorganized into the Chinese Missionary Society. Zhao used foreign donations to hold a summer fellowship party for Christian students from universities in China at chongqing nanshan Spiritual Institute. At that time, there were 4 1 university 153 academicians who signed up. Due to the inconvenient transportation during the Anti-Japanese War, it took Jinhui Teng from Northwest University seven days to arrive. Participants from Guangxi even walked for 43 days. It can be seen that the Holy Spirit personally worked and moved people to attend the party so tirelessly. At that time, the main news was given by Zhao. Pastor Jia Yuming is in charge of bible study, and Pastor He Gengsi is in charge of special topics. Special guest speakers include Zhang Zhizhong, Zhu Jingnong, Zhang, Yin Quanxian and other political and economic celebrities. The opening ceremony of the first night was presided over by Pastor Zhao, which not only proved the facts, but also clarified the significance of the conference. That night, the whole Nanshan Auditorium was full of people, except college students and science students, many people came, about 600 people attended.
According to Pastor Lee Kung Yu's memory, "I also received prayers at the conference. That kind of simultaneous prayer in full swing is like the prayer at the revival meeting of Song Heji during the Great Renaissance, the prayer of repentance and crying. " Reverend Jinhui Teng was also one of the participants. He mentioned: "The Holy Spirit worked hard at the meeting and I was resurrected. I once again dedicated myself to the Lord and served him all my life. At that time, 16 students were dedicated, including pastor Stephen. " There are many other dedicated people who brought the whole party to the peak of spirit. Since then, the fire of revival has been burning, and many students have been dedicated and called full-time. The monastery is where they are trained. These high-quality devotees have brought new hope and impetus to the future churches in China. On the eve of the end of the summer season, on July 12, the organization of "China Christian University Student Union" was established, and Pastor Zhao was elected as the director-general.
With the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, college students' gospel work has made great progress. It is estimated that by 195 1, nearly 20,000 students have been led to believe in the Lord. During this period, the full-time officers of the "Students' Union" generally maintained a state of more than 30 people, with about 40 people attending one after another, including China people and foreigners, while foreigners were mainly partners of the "Mainland Association", including Kong Paul, Lai and david Howard Adeni, who served as deputy directors-general. 1946 1 month, the "continental society" lent Pastor Adley to the "Student Union". He flew from London to Chongqing by a large seaplane because he was in urgent need of manpower. His family came to China by boat. After arriving in Chongqing, he attended the prayer meeting of the Winter Games. At that time, "there were many people at the meeting, and the venue was full of prayer, repentance and joy in God." Students get together and everyone can speak freely and ask each other questions. "It can be seen that the students' spiritual enthusiasm at that time, after the Winter Games, the number of Christian fellowship in universities in West China increased day by day. To understand the theological concept behind the revival movement of college students, we can analyze Zhao's growth process. Zhao Ceng said: "The student work I did at that time was in the same strain in doctrine, echoed with Wang Yao in work, and was Song-style in preaching vigorously. Looking back now, the teaching of the revival of grassroots college students during the Anti-Japanese War was basic and was taught by Jia Yuming. " The priest once commented that the revival movement of college students led by Zhao is based on Calvin's belief, but it adopts Wesley's method ... so it needs rebirth and repentance, which means that people need to go through crisis to become holy, to completely avoid crime, to live a holy life and not to fall from sin. It can be seen that Zhao's theological concept is rooted in Calvinism, but he also emphasizes John Wesley's view of sanctification. Therefore, in his sermons, he often asked the congregation to repent, confess their sins and pursue holiness.
The Influence of College Students' Revival Movement —— Frontier sermon
At that time, many college students' beliefs and spirituality were revived, among which frontier missionary naturally rose. Among them, Mr. Bian Yunbo, the author of To the Unknown Preacher, is familiar with it. He began to participate in the missionary work in Yunnan and Guizhou on 1948, but left on 1953. However, many truly unknown preachers are willing to be unknown and even bury their bones in the barren land of the frontier. At that time, the main forces involved in missionary work were China Missionary Mission, Northwest Spiritual Mission and China Christian Missionary Mission. For example, Zhang, the founder of Northwest Missionary Mission, led 100 followers, including some students from cheeloo university, to settle in Hami from Lanzhou and Wuwei to form a group to carry out missionary activities. During the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Zhao thought that he was determined to believe in the Lord as a Christian, but this idea was too simple, and many * * * members pretended to be Christians and joined the student union. In order to avoid political struggle, Zhao insisted on spiritual work, which made it difficult for pro-Communist students to infiltrate into the fellowship. He believes that spirituality and enthusiasm for service cannot be concealed for long. When the new colleague took office, he held a prayer meeting for three hours. On one occasion, at a national conference, someone was dissatisfied because Song Meiling was invited to give a speech. In the evening, Pastor Zhao patrolled with a flashlight and saw a small group of people talking loudly. As soon as they saw the light, they bowed their heads and prayed. Infiltration of * * * members has become a fact. Later, Master Zhao Mu said that if the Lord gave him another chance, he would not only pay attention to weight but not quality.
Zhao Yisheng resolutely opposed the * * * movement and published many articles. One of them, Why Christians Can't Do * * *, was printed into a small volume, and sold 60,000 to 70,000 copies in the United States, and was reprinted by Christianity Today in Britain. This is the first article about Christianity written by China people today. He is also one of the people who publicly announced his arrest. Zhao is a venerable elder in the church circle in China. He is committed to returning students to the Lord and cultivating many church leaders who are loyal to the Bible. His books have been adopted as textbooks by many Far East theological seminaries and Bible colleges. He also founded many ministries, including: International Student Fellowship, Singapore Theological Seminary and Hong Kong Peiling College. 1956 After moving to the United States, Zhao founded the Chinese Christian Church (there are churches in Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Jose, Hayward, Chicago and new york) and held the "Sun Moon Lake College English Summer Camp" in Taiwan Province Province for many times; He also produced a radio program with the theme of "the beginning of knowledge" for six years. 1985, Zhao founded China Ghosts Academy (Los Angeles) in his later years, and finally died at the age of 90.