It’s Personal!

It’s Personal!

Acts 17:28 NKJV
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

   Seven billion of us now swarm over the face of the world.  Seven billion!  A billion is a hard number to grasp.  One advertising agency put a billion into perspective:
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was walking the roads of Galilee and Judea.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
   Or to put it another way, if you go up onto a mountain top and the air is completely clear, you can see about 10,000 stars.  Now if each of those 10,000 stars represented 700,000 more stars, that would be 7 billion.
   It’s easy to feel lost in the world today.  In life we’re often reduced to our Social Security number or some other numeric designation.  Once in a doctor’s office, while sitting near a sign that assured me of personal care by a caring doctor, I was asked if I was “Cram, Stephen P?” Humph.  Not exactly the personal touch.  Many people work at jobs where we’re small cogs in a big machine.  Does anyone know I exist? Does anyone care about me?  Am I just a name on a bulk mailing list?
   Even Christians feel the loneliness.  After all, with tens of millions of Christians alive right now, how do I know God really cares for me, one lone Christian struggling in the world?
   One of the joys of our faith is in knowing we have a personal God Who knows us as individuals.  The Bible is full of examples of His personal love and care.
God knew you before you were born. He knew you when you were still in the womb.  Jeremiah 1:5a
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;

Jesus reminds us how much we mean to God.
Matthew 10:29-31.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

God knows we exist and He knows all about us.  And our great hope is that we will see Him again.
John 14:1-3
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

   God knows you and you are important to Him.  You are His beloved!  He takes delight in knowing you.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

   Don’t despair, God loves you and watches over you and one day you will go to His house and live for eternity.  He hears your cries and knows your pain.  He knows the frustrations your feel in this world filled with seven billion other people.  You may be a number to the government, but in Heaven you’re a person.

Stephen Cram                         November 6, 2011                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8