Can’t Wait any Longer

Keep the Sabbath, and every week you will learn something new about it. This week, I am learning how much it is possible to look forward to it. Have you ever had a week when you just couldn’t wait for your day of rest and worship? For me, this has been one of those weeks. I am looking forward to telling the world to get lost. In fact, I’m starting a little early.

I was just reading Isaiah 49, which is a wonderful chapter. It’s all about the Messiah and the restoration of Israel. I don’t mean to put Israel down. It’s a wonderful place, and a lot of it is very beautiful, but the only place where I’ve seen more dry rocks and dust is Utah. And a lot of Israel is empty. I hope I’m alive to see those things change.

I found an interesting page about Isaiah 49. I don’t know anything about the site. It suggests that Isaiah 49 refers to China when it talks about Gentiles coming to Israel and helping put it back together. Funny thing, and probably a coincidence, but for some reason I’ve felt compelled to keep China on the prayer list lately. I read about the growth of Christianity there, and it affected me. The Chinese people who were interviewed for the article I read made it sound like the Chinese had no commonly held moral drive to treat others well, and that the principles of Christianity had a profound effect on the way converts behaved toward their fellow human beings. I don’t know if that could be true; surely the basic notions of kindness and honesty and humanity and trustworthiness aren’t limited to the West.

Although we did get those toys full of lead, and the poisoned pet food.

I believe Hal Lindsey used to say China was mentioned in the Revelation. Someone used to say that, anyway. The Revelation mentions an army of 200 million soldiers, and I believe the eschatology buffs claimed the army had to be Chinese because of its size. But it may not be a human army.

Anyway, the page I linked to says some people think Christian influence is going to move from America to China, just as it moved from Europe to America. I can’t say we don’t deserve it. We have gotten pretty disgusting. And I suppose it would be a wonderful thing. I mean, China is the most dangerous nation on earth, and the Chinese don’t treat each other very well. So the more of them become Christians, the better off the world will be.

The Chinese may be better material for the church. We may be ahead of them in some ways, but we’ve been exposed to God, and an awful lot of us have decided we know everything, and we’ve chosen to reject Him, sometimes with amazing hostility and even a ludicrous sort of enmity. As if we can teach God a lesson, for not giving us everything we want and letting us live like one-percenters. Many people in Asia haven’t really been exposed to God, so presumably, a lot of them would react better to evangelizing than rebellious Westerners who think God is “over.”