Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 - by Don Neuendorf
"And the foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him... these I will bring to my holy mountain..."
Do you think very much about "foreigners"? Last week, with my son's wedding, we had many out of town guests, several of which were from Canada. One of them complained that our network coverage of the Olympics focused too much on "the Americans". I thought (unkindly) that if Canada had television networks they would probably focus their attention on Canadian athletes, wouldn't they?
And yet, there is something there worth thinking about...
Whom do we focus on? Our fellow citizens - our friends or family - our hometown - our church. We are most comfortable with and most interested in those who are close to us. But our Heavenly Father is explicitly more concerned about those who are furthest away. Away from him.
Last week I received in the mail a wrist band that says "Pray for China." That doesn't just mean for that we should pray for Chinese Christians, or for the safety of our athletes in China. It means that we should pray for those who are furthest of all from us and from our Savior, even the atheistic Communists of China who seek to prevent the Church from growing. We should pray for them, because God loves them, and he desires to bring them to his holy mountain.