In today's Scripture we see the demographics of heaven:  ⁹And they sang a new song with these words:   “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it.  For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God  from every tribe and language and people and nation.  And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God.   And they will reign on the earth.”

People from every tribe and language and people and nation RANSOMED by Jesus' blood.  Think about that for a moment.  When we use the word ransom these days, it's mostly in reference to a payment demanded by a kidnapper, for the kidnapper to return the one taken.  In the case of Jesus ransoming people from every tribe and language and people and nation, the stakes are so much higher.  Jesus purchases us from eternal death!  Sometimes when we think of that we take it to the extremely personal level--Jesus ransomed me!  And we ought to do that, we need to do that.  We need to recognize that if we were the only ones on the planet who needed to be ransomed, Jesus would have shed our blood for us.  But Jesus died for far more than us.  Jesus died for people from every tribe and language and people and nation on the earth.  Jesus' death ransomed millions of people, most of whom hadn't even been born when He died.

As we go about the day, if we are among those who have responded to Jesus' death on our behalf, we need to be reaching out to those who haven't yet responded.  The demographics of heaven include people from everywhere, of every size, and every age.  We have the joyous opportunity of helping people become part of that demographic. Those who are far from God and those who are near, but who haven yet responded fully to Jesus' offer of ransom need us to invite them, challenge them and show them how vital it is for them to respond.  This is literally a matter of eternal life and death!  Let's pray for them, and welcome them to join us in the life dedicated to Jesus.  That's our part in this whole process of changing the demographics of heaven.

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You so much for Your many blessings in our lives!  Thank You most of all for sending Jesus to ransom us from sin and death.  Fill us anew with Your Holy Spirit that we may live in such a way that others will be attracted to respond to Jesus offer of ransom in their lives.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.