¨Bamboo in Winter¨

Well that´s a weird title for a post, isn´t it?


It´s the title of a movie we watched New Years Eve. We were at the church all night because they had a service and activities there. Well I will get off the subject a bit.... Andrew slept pretty much the entire night, because he sleeps well when there is lots of noise and moving around. We had to wake him up so he would eat. We got to the house at about 6:15 a.m., and Eliana laid him on the bed, and wouldn´t you know it, he woke up. If he could talk I think he would have said ¨Good morning Mom, Good morning Dad, I am ready to eat and start my day¨.


Ok, back to the movie. ¨Bamboo in Winter¨ is a Christian movie. At the church they watched the movie in Spanish, but Eliana borrowed the DVD, and so today I was able to watch it in English, and understand much more.


It believe it takes place in China and is a true story. The film opens with a man that was a Christian, but no longer wishes to have anything to do with the faith. Him and his wife were arrested because they were Christians, and were tortured in horrible ways. They were tortured so that they would deny Christ. After some torture, the husband denied Christ. But the wife did not, although she suffered very much, and so they killed her.


They had a daughter, and this daughter is well educated, and I believe has studied much about Darwinism and Scientific Reason. A preacher comes to town, and she has a lot of hard questions for him. She does not understand how anybody could be saved because of a simple faith. The preacher is a very humble and simple man, and although he is very tired from his work, he always takes the time to walk with her, and answer her questions.


There is also men that hate Christianity, and are working to destroy that religious movement that is growing, one man in particular that is working to destroy Christianity in this town.


The daughter finds out that soldiers are being sent to arrest this preacher, and she goes and tells him, but he does not want to leave until the baptism is over that night.


So that night lots of people get together at a pond, and the preacher tells people about Christ, and asks if anybody wants to be baptized. Many people walk into the water to go to the preacher to be baptized, and this daughter does also.


And that is when the soldiers show up. The man that is pretty much in charge of destroying the church in that town is with the military. He tells the people to be calm, because the soldiers cannot do anything without his permission, and all they want is the preacher, and they will let everyone go. The preacher is in the water. The Christians do not wish to give up the preacher, and they start to sing a hymn, I believe it is ¨amazing grace¨, except in Chinese. And the Christians start going into the water, and get in a line, and they get on their knees, and so they are in between the soldiers and the preacher. Of course this upsets the military commander, and he wants this guy that is in charge to give permission so that the soldiers can go and beat the Christians in the water. So after some pressure, the guy gives permission, and the soldiers go with their clubs, and beat the Christians in the water, both young and old, men and woman. I don´t know what happened to them all, but I would imagine some died, and some were badly hurt. The preacher wanted to stay, and said he could not leave these people here, but the daughter said that these Christians are protecting him, and they are doing this all for Him so that they do not catch him. And so he runs to escape with this daughter.


But soon they catch up to them, and they arrest the preacher, and I imagine later he is killed. They let the daughter go. The daughter knows where this preacher had hid Bibles, and so she goes and gets them. She tells her father about everything, and of course the father does not want her to be a Christian because of what happened to her mother. But soon he allows her to go, and take the Bibles to where the preacher was going to be going next.


On her way out of town, she runs into the guy that is trying to destroy the church, and gave permission to the soldiers to beat the Christians with their clubs. The guy told her how this Christian faith is nothing, and that people need to look our for themselves, and not worry about others. He told her that if she leaves town, she will be giving up everything.


The daughter pointed to the nearby bamboo trees and says something like:


¨do you see those bamboo trees? They can go through the coldest winter, and through strong winds, and they can be cut down, but they will grow back stronger, and taller, and more full of life than before. But they do not grow individually, they grow as a body¨


She said that because Christians are the same. We may be persecuted, and hurt, and killed, and yet through all the pain and suffering, the church is strengthened and is more full of life than before. The church grows stronger as a body.


She then gave that man a Bible, and he took it. I know he was full of guilt because of how he gave permission to the soldiers to attack the Christians.


And so the daughter leaves town, and I believe God is using her to take the place of the preacher.


Before the preacher was arrested, one of the daughters questions to him was ¨when they arrest and kill you, who will be there to take your place¨, and he said ¨God raises people up to do that¨.


So that is about it. The daughter also had a grandmother that was a Christian, and that grandmother was expecting a miracle to happen, and the daughter thought the grandmother was wanting to be healed because she had health problems. And so after the grandmother passed away, the daughter doubted that Christianity was true because that miracle did not happen. But the father then told her ¨your grandmother was not praying to be healed... the miracle that your grandmother was wanting was for you to know God, and serve God like your mother did before she was killed¨. And so that miracle happened, and the daughter believed and was saved, and began to serve God. Her heart had been changed, and her eyes were opened.


If you don´t watch the movie, I hope you enjoyed reading about it. And if you do watch the movie, I hope I did not ruin it for you by writing about it.


There is so many worldly movies and shows on the television. We as Christians have to be very careful about what we allow to enter our minds and hearts. Do we want to grow in Christ? I used to watch all sorts of stuff on T.V. and in movies, but now I don´t want that, because I know it hurts me. It is sin to find entertaining the things that God hates. And if we don´t do it for ourselves, we should do it for our families, because they will watch that stuff also.


So this movie is different, and you can watch the movie with the hope of being built up, and to grow.


One thing I would like to mention, Christians are baptized in water in the movie, and I know that many people believe that water baptism is a requirement in order to be saved. Jesus Christ commands those who believe to then be baptized in water, but it is not so we can be saved. The Bible is very clear that we are saved by the grace of God through faith, and not from works. We can do nothing to be saved. Salvation is a free gift from God, and if someone believes, it is because God has shown Christ to that person, and given that person to Christ. Salvation is God´s business, not ours. If we have been saved, we have nothing to brag about, because we have done nothing, and God has done everything. We were chosen by God because it was what God wanted, and not because of anything that we have done.


The thief that was crucified with Jesus looked over to Jesus as he was hanging on the cross and basicly said ¨remember me when you are in your Kingdom¨. That thief believed. That thief took responsibility for his sin, and looked to Jesus Christ for help. That thief knew he was going to die, and that his soul would not be saved unless Jesus Christ saved him. God had opened that thief´s mind so he could understand, and his eyes were opened so that he saw that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world.