More of what's important

I realize as we study this seventh chapter that we are running the risk of leaving out many things that are important in making our lives count for God. I'm hopeful that as you read and think of other things, that you will leave notes in the comment section for all of us to learn! I'm hitting the highlights, as they say, just pulling some thoughts from the chapter.
We've talked about the first three verses so far . . .
We've seen that to make our lives count for God, we need to focus on things that are important. Things that matter. We saw that worship matters, and that godly character matters.
As we move through the rest of the chapter, we read lots of names of people. We read a little about what they do, and we see a census-like survey of the people who would be living, working, playing, and worshiping in Jerusalem.
We talked in previous posts about how important the genealogical records were to the Jewish people. Not just from the perspective of history, but also when we think about salvation - when Jesus came to earth as the Messiah, it was vitally important to prove that He was descended from the tribe of Judah and from the lineage of David. So, record-keeping is super important to the Jewish people, all through the years!
One thing that I think we can see from these lists is that individual people are important to God. These names may not mean very much to us, so many years later, but they do mean something to God.  I'm such a dweeb, sometimes. In business, it's important for me to recall people's names, faces, their teams they root for, and lots of other stuff. My brain is limited and I have some epic fails! But we have a relationship with One Who never forgets! And the Jewish people could rely on His faithfulness, too, because they knew Him. He knew them. Individually. By name.
And the scriptures reminded the people:

For you formed my inward parts;    you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works;    my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,    intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,    the days that were formed for me,    when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:13-16, ESV)

5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:5)

But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob,And He who formed you, O Israel,“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;I have called you by name; you are Mine! (Isaiah 43:1, NASB)

Jesus told us:

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, (John 10:14)

Jesus also told us that not only are we known by name, but the hairs of our head are numbered! That's knowing someone very well! (Grin)  God created each of us in His image. He placed us here at this time for His purposes.
A practical application for today would be that we need to make certain that WE know HIM, too. What do we mean? Remember in Matthew, when the topic of conversation was a far-away judgment day?

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’  (Matthew 7:21-23)

This is one rabbit trail I'm heading down, because I don't want any misunderstandings here. This one is pretty clear: Jesus is telling us about what some denominations call the "Great White Throne judgment" that is described in Revelation 20:11. No matter what you call it, it's clear that Christ will tell some individuals who claim to be Christians, that they are not Christians.
This seems harsh, and some people find it difficult to get their heads around it . . . many of us would assume that anyone who prophesied or cast out demons, or performed miracles in Christ's name would be a believer. Just logical, no?
No. Let's look at some examples! We know that the Jewish sons of the Pharisees had cast out demons; we read of it in three places, if you'd like to look it up: Matthew 12:27, Luke 11:19, and Acts 19:13. They were not Christians. Too, there are many references in the Bible to people who claimed to prophesy for God, but who were later shown to be false prophets. In Exodus, we read that the pharaoh's magicians caused their staffs to become snakes, caused water to turn blood-like, and caused frogs to appear on the land. These magicians were not Christians, but part of the occult. We can see that not all seeming miracles are done in the power of God.
Jesus said to these individuals in Matthew that they were never truly believers. Never were Christians. Yes, they were religious, but they never had true faith in Jesus Christ. There was never that personal knowledge and heart changing experience....never anything between them and Christ.
It's yet another proof that it is faith that saves us, not works. When we seriously understand that we have sinned and deserve hell, and when we ask His forgiveness and accept His gift of eternal life, then as Paul says:

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” (Romans 10:9-11, NASB)

True believers will go to heaven. They will never hear Jesus say, "I never knew you." We follow Him, and He gives us eternal life; no one can snatch us from His hand!

and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:28)

Back to our focus for today: people are important to God . . . individuals, families, men, women, and children.

• The list in chapter seven contains many family groupings. God designed the family as the basic unit of society and the building blocks of the church. This is not in any way to devalue singles, who are a vital and needed part of the family of God.  
• The list is made up of men. This is not in any way to devalue women, or to say that they are unimportant to God, for the Bible elevates women to a status that is unknown in other religions. Husbands are to honor and respect their wives, and nurture them. Men are instructed in the Word to love their wives and train their children. Each parent should model the servant humility that Christ showed us.

The fact that individuals and families matter so much to God means that they should be important to us, too. If we will invest our time into telling people about the gospel, our lives will count for God and for eternity.