Devotional/Discussion thought of the day

It’s been on my mind since on of my members did the math in Bible Study.

If 5 people each told 10 people, 5 of whom would listen, and each one listened and told 10, 5 of whom would listen…… 25 the first day, 125, the second, 625 the 3, 3135, 15625, 78125, 390K, 1.9 mill, just shy of 10 mill, 48+ mill, 244mill, 1 bill + and in 12 days, everyone in the world would have heard…..of God’s love, of His peace, of His mercy, of His desire to be present in our lives.

That’s viral –

One wonders though – if the math is that simple – why doesn’t it happen?  Even if the rate of expansion was half as large… 1/10th as large….we aren’t talking about each of us doing a Billy Graham.. but just telling our friends, our family, why we have hope in this life, and for the next.  Why we have peace in the middle of storms, why we find gathering with others who trust in Christ, or who need encouragement to trust, so much a part of our lives.

Which brings up the question of virility – a related word that talks both a greater than normal strength, and energy.

For certain, in these days it seems the church lacks virility, at least in these parts. ( it seems much stronger in persecuted and impoverished areas)  We seem weak when confronted by society, we bow to political pressures and are often a tool for those who have agendas different that sharing the hope of glory found in being in Christ, (see Colossians 1)  As one set of lyrics regretted, “we lack the power, we once knew in our prayers…”  It is as if our message of hope has been stripped from us, as we take a fatalistic approach to the future of the church, finding excuses like that we are in a post-christian age, in a post denominational era.  We rationalize our weakness, rather than turning to the source of our strength.

St. Paul writes:  “^3:14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, ¹⁵ the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. ¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. ²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen!
Ephesians 3:14-21 (NLT)

Our strength comes from experiencing Jesus’s love for us, the very love of the Father, even as we realize we cannot begin to comprehend it.  Yet that love completes us, empowers us, breathes life into us.

As we know that love, we begin to love more deeply those around us… even though we cannot comprehend the strength that flows through us to do so.  We find that source of love comes from living in Christ, being part of Him, even as He claimed us, when we were baptized into His death, that we might be revived, resurrected into His life as well.

And at the end of the day, as we found our virility in Him, we shall find that His love, which is the gospel, which is the power to rescue those broken and dwelling in the darkness… has indeed infected the world, that it has gone viral, that it has become part of our “dna” of who were are….

Let us then focus on Him, receive His mercy, commune with Him, rest in Him… for the Lord is with us!  AMEN