Romans 11:4-5

"But what saith the answer of God unto him?  I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
Romans 11:4-5


This is another scriptural selection from Jeff W of Davenport, IA.  There is a lot of interesting stuff going on here.  One point is that things are never quite as scary as they seem. :)  Elijah thought that he was alone, and that everyone else was against him... and he found out that there were still 7 thousand people that were doing pretty well. :)  The other part is that no matter where we are in life, God is watching out for us, aware of things like whether we are worshipping Baal or not. :)  If we haven't sold our souls to Baal yet, then there is still some hope.  It's that whole sinner's anonymous thing that we have talked about before.  God came to call sinners to repentance... he walks out to find the one.  Church isn't a private club for the extra-righteous--it is a twelve-step program for recovering sinners.  There are people all around us who have amazingly brilliant potential... who are good and strong and righteous at the core, but who have gotten a little muddy along the way, so the shininess of that light within is kind of hard to see.  But God knows who still has a spark and who doesn't... (hopefully there are very very few of those).  And this world is full of people who are trying to clean the mud off the spotlight of their souls... I'd venture to say that we are *all* doing that to some extent.  Just because it is taking a while doesn't mean that we should give up on the people around us.  God knows who they are, and that they haven't gone Baal-worshipping lately.  That matters.
So, today... let's remember that we are important to God, no matter where we are in life.  Let that light seep through.  And let's also remember that the Lord has plans for the people around us... they have light within too, just like we do.  Let's not give up on them.  (Oh, and let's not go worshipping Baal today either.)