Jesus (the Mathematician)

Susan and I attended the Crossroads Leadership Commitment event Friday evening.  Several incremental money increases "mysteriously" appeared in our lives as we have been prayerfully considering our giving.  You can hear story after story about this "coincidence" from people who have testimonial about God providing.  Yet until it happens to you it just doesn't seem to hold weight (where's the mathematical proof?).  Yet I believe Jesus set up this principle long ago -  here's the story:

 

Little did you know that Jesus  was more than a carpenter.  He had a great knowledge of Mathematics - well of course - since he created everything including math.  Naturally he loved math and its application to his trade.  Late at night, in prayer, Jesus would ponder how long it might take to convert the world population to Christianity?   Now Jesus knew that the population at that time was around 300 million people and growing fast (after all God had promised Abraham when the population was only a million that they would multiply quickly). So how could one human (even though the son of God) convert 300 million people who were doubling every 5th generation?

So Jesus set out to begin the process of converting people to Christianity - each person giving themselves w(HOLY) to  God - through him.  Now it takes some time (spiritual time) to get someone 100% committed to God,  With the "spiritual baking time" dilemma, there were problems of distance and communication technologies in that day and time- you know walking, riding, sailing, and writing.   Jesus knew this was a big challenge - rapid population growth, worldly constraints, the skeptic Pharisees, Roman government regulations, the devil, and the list goes on and on.

Well - let's take a logical break from this problem and talk about the results to date.  The best pollsters have estimated that in 1910 there were 600 million Christian adherents (don't ask me what an adherent is) in a world population of 1.8 billion people (1/3 of the population)  Add another 100 years and by 2010 there were 2.184 billion Christians in a world population of 6.9 billion people (32% of the population).   The good news is, that in just over two thousand and ten years, the Christian population increased from the power of one (Jesus) to over 2 billion. Pretty awesome! - but that still is only a compounded growth rate of only 1.08% - just about what a Certificate of Deposit can get you today.

OK - back to Jesus and prayer.  Jesus knew that the two things most important to humans were their time and money.  After much observation he could see that no one wanted to die (just look at what the Egyptians did) and people were always trying to amass money, power and wealth.  SO - maybe time and money could be used to help him in this challenge?  

That's it!!!   Get as much time and money to speed this process.  But that would have to come from the people and in their lifetime (and that requires serious commitment).  So Jesus decided to preach and promote being  "All In" - a journey of giving.... sacrificial giving. What approach would be most effective?

There was a modest track record of giving ever since Abraham - animal sacrifice, tithing etc.  There were even examples that didn't work real well - Roman taxes.  The key success factor would be to teach (and preach) the exponential power of faithful sacrificial giving.   So, Jesus handpicked a team of twelve disciples to assist him in this quest.  Miracles, speeches, demonstrations (how about those fishes and loaves), and intense praying got the ball rolling but Jesus knew his time was short also.  What more could he do?

He could demonstrate the power of sacrificial giving - showing what 100%  "All In" means.  So the exponential giving seed was planted in the hearts, soul and minds of everyone on earth through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit could now nudge every person in their giving journey to experience the joy of giving w(HOLY) to Christ.  That Holy Spirit is nudging each of us.  Now it's our turn to join the challenge of exponential discipleship through giving - in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and the world.

I'm  Garen (the numbers guy) and I'M IN!