China!

When I was growing up my parents were concerned for the “starving children in China.”  Every Christmas we would donate money saved up for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (yes, it was a Southern Baptist congregation.)  I’ve had the pleasure to work with a couple of very special Chinese immigrants who were kind enough to bring me presents when they returned from a trip home.  Most are so much younger than I am that the Cultural Revolution was described to them by their parents, not lived through themselves.

Christianity had remained alive in China, and now it is growing exponentially, according to a recent BBC article.  Thinking of all the missionaries that went out from Europe, it was quite disheartening, yet a blessing, to read:

There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe.

How many times have we heard people repeat Elijah’s complaint:

.. and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (1 Kings 19:14b KJV)

Only to find out, as he did, that was not a valid statement.  God knew exactly how many followers He had remaining true:

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. (1 Kings 19:18 KJV)

Did you notice our Lord did NOT say “There are seven thousand who worship me,” nor did He say, “I command seven thousand who serve me.”  Nope – the best that could be said was that these had not bowed to nor pledged allegiance to a false god.

The Chinese have done better.  They have openly professed their faith. In spite of being regulated by their government and once sent underground, they have thrived:

Christianity not only survived, but with its own Chinese martyrs, it grew in strength.

All of that growth while the ruling party states:

… the Party promotes atheism in schools but undertakes "to protect and respect religion until such time as religion itself will disappear".

What if a local church – America, Canada, Europe, anywhere – held five services on Easter Sunday?

On Easter morning, in downtown Beijing, I watched five services, each packed with over 1,500 worshippers. … However, these numbers are dwarfed by the unofficial "house churches", spreading across the country, at odds with the official Church which fears the house churches' fervour may provoke a backlash.

Fervor?  Have you attended a church recently that offered you fervor?  A feeling of enthusiasm?  Intense passion?  Does the congregation leave the service with zeal?  Or, not.  How strange to think of China praying for us, evangelizing more than the countries who sent missionaries to her many years ago.

May we find service to our Lord to be as intense!