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God Loves Numbers
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Moore's
Chapel Home Missions & Evangelism Devotions
Beautiful Children's
Devotions - Teen
Devotions -
The
Walk To The Cross
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Nickels and Noses These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps . . . number 603,550 (Numbers 2:32 NIV). I hate annual reports! Once a year pastors have to tally up average attendance figures for morning worship, Sunday school, youth group, women's missionary society, and men's group; plus figure losses and gains in membership; and provide a complete breakdown of every auxiliary's income and expenses. (I suspect we will soon be forced to account for the number of tuna casseroles at carry-in dinners!)
Even more than God's interest in stars and sparrows, is His concern for human numbers. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7). So while I hate the actual tapping out totals on the calculator, those figures do bring a mixed sum of joy and sorrow. The digits represent people who have come to know Jesus Christ during the past fiscal year. The numbers also represent those who have gone to be with Christ. And they represent those who for a variety of reasons have dropped out of fellowship with the church. I'm not sure if God's likes annual reports anymore than I do, but He does love "numbers."
© James N. Watkins |
But numbers are not only important to church officials. God devotes a
whole book of the Bible to precise "Numbers." (Not "over
600,000" but 603,550.) He determines the billions of stars "and
calls them each by name" (Psalm 147:4). There seem to be as many
sparrows, "yet not one is forgotten by God" (Luke 12:6)