Exponential Growth
One shall put a thousand to flight, two shall put ten-thousand to flight. — Deuteronomy 32:30
I know this title sounds mathematical and nerdy. I guess in a sense…it is! Exponential growth is an awesome thing. Here is how it works: say you had a job offer. You were only going to work for 21 days. The boss offers you $200 per day as option 1. For option 2, he offers you 1 penny the first day, 2 pennies the second day, 4 pennies the third day, 8 pennies the fourth day…and so forth. Which offer would you take? Well, when I first heard this problem, I was like…duh, I’d take the $200 per day and get paid a cool $4,200 for 21 days. Sweet, right? WRONG! If you take the pennies, you make over $10,000 on the 21st day alone! You would actually make a grand total of $20,971.51 for that 21 days of work. Exponential growth is powerful.
Consider 2 raised to the n power. This means 2 to the first is 2, 2 to the 2nd is 4, 2 to third is 8, 2 to the fourth is 16, and so forth. Think about starting with any number, then doubling that, then doubling that, then doubling that…etc. The numbers get big quickly! That is exponential growth.
So, why the math lesson? Well, the best I can figure, WMD goes out to about 2,500 people. That is just from my distribution lists alone. I know of people who forward it on to 100 or more people. For this illustration, I want to just use my 2,500. Let’s say that 1,000 of these are really in love with Jesus and have Him on their lives like crazy. If each one of those 1,000 people invested in 1 person that was not a Christian for the rest of 2011, not just told them about God, but really became friends with them and showed them what God is like, I guarantee you they would want the same Jesus that you had living inside of you…it is just that contagious. If you won them, that would make 2,000 real deal believers. Now, if you, and your new convert spent 2012 doing the same thing, that would make 4,000. If the 4,000 of you spend 2013 making 4,000 more, we are up to 8,000 believers. I will finish it out in chart form.
2014 16,000
2015 32,000
2016 64,000
2017 128,000
2018 256,000
2019 512,000
2020 1,024,000
2021 2,048,000
2022 4,096,000
2023 8,192,000
2024 16,384,000
2025 32,758,000
2026 65,536,000
2027 131,072,000
2028 262,144,000
This means that in the next 18 years, if the Lord tarries that long, the entire United States could be evangelized by every person telling one person a YEAR! You know that 18 years ago there were 1,000 real deal Christians…the real question is: Why hasn’t every person in America become a Christian by now? Because too many Christians NEVER talk about this stuff outside of church. Because too many Christians haven’t come out of the closet. Most only have “religion” so they only go to church on Sunday…maybe Wednesday, and never really give God another thought on the other days of the week. We live in a time where gay rights groups feel free to let everybody know what they want and how they feel about us “intolerant“ Christians. Atheist groups are becoming more and more blatant in their attacks against Christianity. Groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation and ACLU are on the prowl stomping out every Christian spark they can find. I think it is time that Christians come out of the closet as well. It is no longer up to the preachers and the churches to evangelize. It is up to US! How hard would it really be to invest in one person’s life this year and tell them the Good News about Jesus? You could show them kindness like they’ve never seen…especially to the people who aren’t kind to you. You could show them a work ethic done “as unto the Lord.“ You could show them what it looks like to be quick to forgive. You could show them how you don’t participate in the dirty jokes and the trash mouth language the others use. You could show them Jesus and how He lives in you! Then, when you win them, spend time equipping them with the Gospel and the “how to” of going out and telling others. Then, start the whole process over again with someone else. Wouldn’t it be great to see America become a Christian nation again?
Go, and make disciples! — Matthew 28:19
Later
Adam
Wednesday Morning Devotional 