3.8 Million

I ran across this information in an article in an old issue of Outreach magazine. I have "adapted" it to fit this blog.

In the 30 seconds it took you to skim the title of this blog somewhere in the world aproxomately 125 people were born, and 53 people died, 36 of who did not claim to know Christ. In 2007, aproximately 3.8 million people died who likely didn't know Christ.

These are statistics.

But statistics have a face.

They represent real people.

How many of these "statistics" have crossed my path? How many of them could I have shared the gospel with, but didn't?

Jesus gave the great comission, but too many of us act like it is the great "omission".

The church I pastor has grown from 12 people to over 60 in less than four years. Today we had 63 people in a church with 70 seats! On top of that, we had a dozen or more people on vacation. While I stand amazed at what God has done in this little church, the truth is, not one of those increases in numbers has been the result of a new birth. I appreciate each and every one of them, and look forward to even more growth, but the desire of my heart is that we would have new births into the Kingdom.

I have been very convicted lately of my lack of actively sharing my faith. I ask for your prayers that I might be salt and light to those around me.

Since you've been reading this blog, aproximately 500 people have been born, 213 have died, 145 of whom likely didn't know Christ. In the coming days, weeks and months, I pray that we will all think about these numbers and the lives they represent. I pray that our hearts will break for those who die....and those who live not knowing Christ. I pray that we will all get very serious so that people will come to the realization that the answer to this life is the amazing, captivating grace of Jesus!

Ok, so there's that.
Pastor Dave