Where Are the Christians?
Scripture Reading — Isaiah 2:1-5
In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established … and all nations will stream to it.
Isaiah 2:2
“All nations” is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. God is an inclusive God. When he established a beachhead in our fallen world by starting a little nation called Israel, he was already thinking big. God’s plan was to reach out through Israel to call all nations to himself.
Today, as never before, God’s intent is being fulfilled. Today in Kenya there are more Anglican worshipers on a typical Sunday than in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States combined. The number of practicing Christians in China has overtaken the number of worshipers in all of Europe. God’s promise of a gospel that reaches “to the ends of the earth” is being realized (Acts 1:8). All nations are streaming toward the mountain of the Lord’s temple—not by pilgrimage to a physical temple in Jerusalem, but by coming to Jesus, the one who fulfills the temple’s deepest meaning of God’s presence among us.
Unfortunately many of us haven’t kept up on what God is doing to fulfill his global plans. We still think of the church as strong in Europe and North America but in its infancy in the rest of the world. The truth is far different.
Praise God for the amazing things he is doing in our world. And thank him that in a shrinking world we can experience community with fellow believers from across all cultures and nations.
Lord, you are doing great things in the world. Open our eyes to see. Catch us up into your marvelous work of calling the nations to Christ. Amen.
About the author — Bob Heerspink
Dr. Robert Heerspink was director of Back to God Ministries International from 2006 until 2011, when he passed away. He had previously pastored several Christian Reformed churches. Bob loved to write and was a frequent contributor to the Today devotional.
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