Psalm 47:9 The nobles of the nations assemble
    as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
    he is greatly exalted.

This is a rather astounding statement, when you think about it. The Psalmist is saying that all the rulers of the earth are people of the God of Abraham! So much for Jews and Gentiles! There are actually several passages like this scattered throughout the Old Testament, but they have been largely ignored by Jews and Gentiles alike. At issue, I think, is the size of our concept of God. It is very true, and very important, that He chose Abraham and his descendants as His agents through whom to speak to mankind, but that doesn’t mean that people who aren’t in that category, that is, Gentiles, don’t belong to Him, and/or He doesn’t care about them. This was a major struggle in the early Church, with Peter being the one chosen to open the door of faith to Gentiles, as described in Acts 10, which he had to defend to the Church as a whole in Acts 11. That still didn’t finally settle the issue, and after Paul ministered extensively to Gentiles there was another Church council, recorded in Acts 15, clarifying that Gentiles didn’t have to become Jewish converts before they could be accepted as full members of the Body of Christ. As I said, it comes down to whether you believe God is big enough to love all mankind and establish His laws for all peoples. After all, the 10 Commandments don’t just apply to some people! There are some who would like to think they are excluded from prohibitions of some things, like adultery, but it simply doesn’t work that way. The necessity of honoring your father and mother is becoming painfully evident all over the world! Yes, the Jews are God’s chosen people, but He is big enough to love Gentiles, too – and they are equally accountable to obey Him.

Growing up as a Caucasian in Japan, I have always been aware of ethnic differences, but also aware that they didn’t have anything to do with the value of the individual. I was treated as “other” by the vast majority of the Japanese I was around, but in different ways I was equally “other” on the US Air Force base where I went to school. I do carry some scars from that, but it certainly taught me that God’s love, and my value, don’t depend on anything like that. I have lost count of how many countries have been represented in this church over the past 41 years, and that’s just fine. At first it bothered me that people from other countries seemed to gravitate to this church, because I was called to minister to Japanese! However, I had to learn that I couldn’t exclude people any more than God did, and today we have people with ties to this church literally all over the globe. I am not to let my prejudices try to put God in a box!

Father, thank You for how You have used this church to demonstrate Your universal love. Thank You also for the Internet, that enables us to stay in contact with so many people far away. May we be effective as Your agents to draw whomever You choose to You, not putting up humanistic barriers, so that all who will may repent, believe, and be saved, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!