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Most things we purchase these days are stuck with small labels saying, "Made in China."  In 2009, China finally stepped into first place as the world's top exporter. Taking advantage of its massive population, China continues to shoulder its way forward in the world, despite its long and much-criticized list of human rights abuses.

In 2009, China became the world's largest market for automobiles as well as the world's biggest producer of steel. It isn't a major surprise that this country of 1.3 billion pushed past Germany in 2009 as the world's most successful exporter. Despite China's vast growth, this feat may not have been accomplished in a strong economy; Germany has simply faired worse during the recession than China. Germany's exports fell rather steeply to an estimated $1.17 trillion in 2009, while China's exports fell only 16 percent to $1.2 trillion.  Still, that's the point.  Taking advantage of its massive, cheap work force, China continues to push its way forward, and analysts expect China's economy to surpass Japan's as early as this year. 

"Eventually, though I don't expect this for another 20 years or so, the [Chinese] economy will be bigger than that of the United States," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Dragonomics, an economic research firm in Beijing. "People are just going to have to get used to these facts -- and to remember that most of these facts are simply reflections of China's enormous population, and do not in any way indicate leadership in technology, innovation or productivity."

China and Russia:
Even without being a leader in innovation, China does have a way of making the most of its opportunities. For instance, the Chinese have been taking advantage of the vast, empty lands of their northern neighbor Russia. Russia and China signed an agreement in 2009 to allow China to build pipelines through eastern Siberia in order to eventually bring oil and gas into northern China.

China has also been importing a great deal of Russian weaponry and has been reverse-engineering the technology so that the Chinese could potentially reproduce the same high tech weapons on their own. In the end,  China may gain a great deal more from Russia than Russia is gaining from China.

China and GM Rice:
China has to import a lot of commodities and machinery, but in spite of China's massive population, the country has become a major exporter of grains worldwide. Now, China is working on developing genetically modified (GM) rice strains that are pest-resistant and provide a greater crop yield. Field tests of GM strains are being done right now. If these crops are grown commercially within the next year or two as proposed, they may soon be exported to the world. (Those who conscientiously avoid GM produce will need to check for China-grown food.)

China and Google:
Despite its growth in other areas, China's human rights abuses continue. The Communist government's need to maintain oppressive control over its citizens can still cause the country trouble.

Google recently criticized China after China-based hackers broke in and accessed the Gmail accounts of several human rights activists. Google has threatened to pull out of the country after suffering this "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China" which resulted in "the theft of intellectual property." China is home to 338 million Internet users – nothing to sniff at – and it would be a major irritation for China if Google pulled out.

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, wrote that the company would no longer censor its results on Google's China Web site, saying, "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

If Google walks away, it will make a major statement by a high profile company about what they will and will not deal with - a slap in the face of the Chinese government.  Taking their business out of China would mean leaving behind a massive – and growing - market.  But, it's good to remind the Chinese government that market-size isn't everything. 

One of the things we discovered about worship is that it releases blessings in two directions. Not only are we loving God, but at the same time, He is extending His Love back towards us. In other words, it's a two-way communication. We humble ourselves and acknowledge that He is everything to us; He, then, makes Himself known by revelation, insight and love. Thus, part of the joy of worship is the divine revelation that often results.

In one of Dave Hunt's newsletters, he comments: "Appreciation begets worship, and the Lord responds by revealing Himself in ever greater measure in a fellowship of love that overflows in fruitful witnessing."

The bottom line is that intimacy must precede insight.

Using Scriptures in Worship
Now, not all my encounters with the Lord are dramatic. Sometimes, when I worship Him, I don’t feel a thing, but, by faith, I still know He is there, that He hears my praises and that He is pleased. Other times, my meetings with Him are electric!

Often I will repeat 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 over and over again:

"Blessed be Thou, Lord God of Israel, our father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious Name."

Or, I will repeat certain phrases from Revelation:

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." (Revelation 4:8b)

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Revelation 4:11)

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing....Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Revelation 5:12-13)

"The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever...We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned." (Revelation 11:15 and 17)

"Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. ...For Thou only art holy..." (Revelation 15:3-4).

"Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be..." (Revelation 16:5)

Or, I read one of my favorite worship passages. See Psalm 72:17-19; 91; 95:1-7; 96:1-9; 113; 134; 135; 136; 145; 150.

I let the Spirit lead me and do whatever He tells me. Sometimes I raise my hands, sometimes I'm on my knees, and, sometimes, I'm flat on my face, silently holding the Lord in the Spirit.

Divine Revelation:
God gave us worship so that we might become partakers of His highest purposes. Yes, Christ, Himself, is the major focus of our worship, but as we worship Him, He often reveals His plans and His purposes for our lives to an even greater degree.

In worship, the Lord desires to:

1.make His presence known,
2.reveal His person to us,
3.reveal His power to us,
4.reveal His eternal purposes to us,
5.reveal His personal plans for our lives.

When I am worshiping, I find it very necessary to have my Bible and my journal close at hand. Again, God works differently in each of our lives. But, for me, He seems to make His presence known through His Word. Thus, if I don't have my Bible handy to look up what He has just told me or my journal ready to write down what I've heard, by the time I'm through worshiping, I will have forgotten everything.

Bob Sorge, in his book Secrets of the Secret Place, confirms the same thing: "I am personally convinced that I cannot hold onto what God gives me apart from writing it down...Those who retain what God gives them will be given more."

Our Response to His Love:
God's desired response for us (when we are in His presence) is that we:

1.Have an open and contrite heart so that we might see ourselves as we truly are, and experience contrition, brokenness, sorrow, shame, grief, repentance and honesty.

2.Submit and dedicate ourselves to Him to an even greater degree - yielding, surrendering and sacrificing ourselves to His will, His Word and His authority. (Isaiah 6:8; James 1:21-25)

3.Have an urgency to lay our burdens, requests and intercessory prayers at His feet and be propelled to pray even more for the lost, the divisions, the injustices, the diseased, the pain and the difficulties others are experiencing. (Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Timothy 2: 1-3; Mark 14, Matthew 26, Luke 22, John 13 and 1 Corinthians 11)

4.To love, adore, enjoy, honor, exalt, magnify and praise Christ even more than we are doing now.

5.And, finally, that we might go forth and glorify and reflect Him in all that we think, say and do.

Overcome by "the Joy of our Salvation"
The bottom line is that experiencing the manifestation of His presence - through His Word, through His Spirit and through just knowing He is present - fills us with indescribable joy, no matter what circumstances surround us!

[This article has been excerpted from Nancy Missler's book Private Worship: The Key to Joy.]

More than one university professor has cast doubt on the existence of King David and the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Academics are prone to say David was the Jewish equivalent of King Arthur, the stuff of myths and legends. Once again, archeology is proving these doubts wrong. An inscription on a pottery shard found near the valley where David slew Goliath offers evidence that the books of the Old Testament are much older than academics previously thought, and scribes certainly could have been recording the lives of David and his sons 3000 years ago.

An inscription on a pottery shard dating to the 10th century BC has been declared to be in Hebrew. Not only does the ancient language on the shard use certain words specific to Hebrew, but the inscription speaks about taking care of the weaker people in society - widows, orphans and strangers - and calls for the king to get involved. Other Middle East cultures of the time did not promote the protection of the weak; these were ideas unique to the Old Testament and the Hebrew culture.

Professor Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa, who deciphered the inscription, argues that this pottery shard offers evidence that the Kingdom of Israel was indeed in existence in the 10th century BC (the time of David), had a king, and had people capable of writing down histories. It therefore gives evidence to something some of us have never stopped believing, that the Scriptures are as old as they claim to be, despite what modern day scholastics may think.

"It can now be maintained that it was highly reasonable that during the 10th century BCE, during the reign of King David, there were scribes in Israel who were able to write literary texts and complex historiographies such as the books of Judges and Samuel," Galil said.

Galil points out that the shard was found in Khirbet Qeiyafa, a rural Judean town near the Valley of Elah. He argues that if scribes out in the country were able to write the complex text found on this pottery shard, a number of capable scribes would have also lived in central Judea and in the city. This contradicts many academics who have argued that the Hebrew Scriptures could not have been written before the Babylonian captivity because of widespread illiteracy.

While the inscription does not match any exact Old Testament passage, the gist is similar to ideas expressed in verses like Exodus 22:21-23; 23:3, demonstrating a flow of ideas in line with what Scripture taught.

Academics have long complained that the great kings David and Solomon did not really exist because archeological evidence of them has not popped up all over Israel. Yet, conquest during the time of the kings, destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians, Israel's years of being a battle ground between Syria and Egypt, the destruction of the 2nd Temple and eventually the razing of Jerusalem by the Romans all would have played a big part in wiping out the majority of King David-related artifacts.  King Solomon's golden shields (1 Kings 10:17) would have been long gone. Still, David's story remained safe in the Scriptures, protected and fastidiously copied down through the centuries.

This new inscription offers evidence outside the Scriptures by establishing that the Israelites of David's time had writing capabilities.  It isn't alone; there are other evidences of ancient Israel outside the Bible. The Tel Dan Stele describes the victory of a king of Damascus over a "king of Israel" and a king of the "House of David" during the 9th century. (After King Solomon died, Israel was split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah, which was ruled by the descendents of David.) The Mesha Stele, excavated at the capital of ancient Moab, also declares victories over a king of Israel – Ahab, son of Omri. And the Sennacherib Prism describes the Assyrian king's attack on Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah – an attack which failed as described in 2 Kings 18-19.

The Hebrew Scriptures are more than just Jewish history and mythology jotted down hundreds of years after the facts described. These books, penned by dozens of authors, are a consistent message from the I AM, the God not constrained by Time. The Scriptures not only provide readers with the history of Israel, but also give previews of events hundreds or thousands of years before they occur. Most importantly, they describe in advance the death of the Jewish Messiah for our sins (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Acts 8:26-39) and his victory and future reign on the throne of his father King David (2 Sam 7:16-17; Psalm 110:1-2; Matt 22:42-46; Isaiah 9:6-7).