Missions Statistics Thought

Just had this thought while sitting in the bathroom…

The world population right now is  6,757,510,195.

If one person shares the Gospel with 20 people in his lifetime, and each of those 20 people share with another 20 people, and so on…then after 8 cycles, 25,600,000,000 people will have heard the Gospel.

If one person shares the Gospel with 10 people in his lifetime, and each of those 10 people share with  another 10 people, and so on…then after 9 cycles, 10,000,000,000 people will have heard the Gospel.

If one person shares the Gospel with 5 people in his lifetime, and each of those 5 people share with  another 5 people, and so on…then after 15 cycles, 30,517,578,125 people will have heard the Gospel.

If one person shares the Gospel with 1 person in his lifetime, and each person shares with another person, and so on…then after 33 cycles, 8,589,934,592 people will have heard the Gospel.

All these numbers are well over the current estimated world population. Isn’t this amazing?

Everyone in the world can hear the message of Jesus Christ (pretty quickly too) if every Christian just did his small part.

It is possible.

Jesus and Bathsheba

That would be a worthy attention-grabbing sermon title.

Anyway, after the New Year’s eve service at my parents’ church, I was looking at this Adam and Eve family tree poster…(it’s a pretty cool poster, something I always have the urge to make while reading through the OT, but won’t have to do…cuz it’s available on Amazon.com for $35.49, jyeaaaa)

Anyway, one thing that caught my eye was that among King David’s many wives, his wife that gave birth to Solomon who is in the direct lineage line to Jesus, was Bathsheba.

Ironic.

God is funny. Or maybe He was trying to hammer down a point. Why in the world would He choose Bathsheba, who represented David’s failure and darkest moment, instead of the many available wives, to carry on the lineage to Christ?

There’s many commentaries on this, but the thought that screams out of my head concerns God’s all-encompassing sovereignty. Do you think God knew David was going to choose Solomon to be the next king? Or rewind a bit, do you think God knew David was going to fail in the situation with Bathsheba?

Point- God’s sovereignty is above our failures. He uses broken people for a reason: 1) We are all sinners in need of Christ, i.e. human beings = failures (as in our nature) 2) It’s not about what we want to do, it’s about what God wants to do.

Out of man’s failures, comes man’s Savior. Mark Harris comments, “Bathsheba gathered from the wreck of her life, the wreckage caused by a king, fragments and from that built a future for her son and her grandson many times removed. She becomes a part of the memory of hope among the fragments, a hope made perfect in Jesus.” (First link if you google “Jesus and Bathsheba”)

Practical point for 2009- WHEN we fail this year, repent, fix your eyes on Christ and remember not to have the mindset of ‘God CAN use our failures’ but get up with the mindset of ‘God IS USING our failures.’ Let’s press on.

EDIT: The more I reflect on this and my current circumstances, I feel like God is telling me to STOP judging people’s character and if they’re ‘good enough’ to serve, etc. If God can use me, he can use anyone. I have no right to put myself above people, or put myself above God. I must pray, unconditionally love and unconditionally encourage.