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A man in Brownsville, Texas, has been arrested for felony theft. Authorities say he admitted stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over nine years. It wasn’t that he ate that many fajitas—the juvenile justice department employee stole county-funded food deliveries and sold them to his own customers.
I assume this man’s criminal career started with a single delivery. When no one noticed, he escalated his activities. But now he knows that small decisions have huge consequences.
The tragedy in Somalia continues to make news this morning: the death toll now exceeds three hundred, with nearly four hundred wounded. You may have heard of al-Shabab, the terror group blamed for this atrocity. But you probably haven’t heard of Sayyid Qutb, the fundamentalist Egyptian scholar whose theories inspired generations of Sunni radicals, including leaders of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and al-Shabab.
Two experts recently warned the US House of Representatives that a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack from North Korea could shut down our power grid, indirectly killing up to 90 percent of all Americans. North Korea’s missiles may already be capable of reaching Los Angeles and the western US.
You’ve heard of Karl Marx, whose ideology inspired the communist movement and continues to influence North Korea. But you may not have heard of Friedrich Engels, whose partnership with Marx promoted and popularized his revolutionary ideas.
Actions unseen today can change the world tomorrow.
2 Samuel 17 finds David fleeing Jerusalem and his son Absalom. Two men are sent by a friend of David to warn the king that Absalom’s army is coming to kill him. However, Absalom sends servants to stop these messengers.
The men hide in a well, where an unnamed woman spreads a cover over the well’s mouth and protects them. Then they make their way to David with the warning that saves his life.
If this woman had not protected these men, would David have been killed? Would his son Solomon have been kept from the throne? Would Solomon’s temple and proverbs have existed?
A young boy is sold into slavery by his brothers but rises to rule Egypt and save his family. A fugitive shepherd sees a burning bush and changes the world. An unnamed Roman centurion keeps his soldiers from killing Paul when their ship wrecks at Malta; seven of the apostle’s thirteen letters would not have been written apart from this man’s intervention.
Our culture measures us by our impact on the world today. But history measures us by our impact on the world tomorrow.
Twenty million millennia after we have forgotten today’s headlines, Jesus will still be King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). If you want to leave a legacy that matters, serve the Lord of time and eternity and you will do the works of Jesus in the power of his Spirit (John 14:12).
The poet James Allen Francis noted: “All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.”
Now it’s our turn, to the glory of God.
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