Good Morning Friends,
Today’s parable is about lost things but is also true about people who are spiritually lost as well. Here we find that it is best to respond to people who are lost with the same or greater effort that we would exert as if searching for things of value…and discover in the effort that indeed they are of great value. For here we discover we are meant to respond to them in a way that honors Jesus. Here we become transformed as we share the way God is searching for them through us. In engaging the lost, we too are changed. Have You Found Christ’s Celebrated Love In Your Personal Mission?
Scripture: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:1-10 (NRSV)
Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”
Luke 15:31-32 (NRSV)
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen
1 Timothy 1:12-17 (NRSV)
The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!< The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 (NRSV)
Message: I do so love the parables of Jesus they point to just how special we are. Today’s points to the core of the Christian mission…love that we find and celebrate. Here we discover that our relationship with God is the foundation and cornerstone upon which everything else is built. Like the parables, real life shows us that the love of God is there for the taking, the lesson is there for the learning and yet there is the problem of sin. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were indifferent to the lost and even antagonistic toward them. In today’s parables Jesus teaches them and us how wrong it is to reject those who are not part of the family of God. When combined with our passage from Exodus, the one thing that matters most to God is the lost, for God will even change the divine approach to keep the promise. The lost matter so much to God that heaven throws a party when even one person comes home and we should too. We should be willing to demonstrate our concurrence with Christ. We should be willing to celebrate when a lost person discovers Christ. We should be willing to seek and find a lost passion in ourselves for lost people. We need to admit that even Christians lose our way and need a Savior to seek us, find us and restore us so we might then respond to our Savior as Lord. It is in this way we experience love…it is in this way we experience God. It is in this way that our identity as Christians is restored.
And So, friends, following Jesus requires a total commitment that includes a responsibility for reaching the lost as the way of becoming found. Until we do, we miss the mark for this is in the way we experience love…it is in this way we are to experience God. It is in this way that our identity as Christians is restored. Friends, if you are lost know that God is looking for you and will never give up, so you need never give up hope. And for those found, be passionate, persistent, and patient in joining the search of God to help others in need of the way home.
Pray we have compassion for the lost for we too have been lost. Pray we truly believe that people who are spiritually lost are too valuable to give up on. Pray we repent when our compassion, effort, and persistence wanes. Pray we never get disconnected. Pray we seek the transformative experience of the grace of Christ and receive the gift of celebration as Christians. Pray we never lose our identity. Pray we experience the joy of finding the lost. Pray we not search half-heartedly. Pray the lost are found and the found restored. Pray we learn to improve our relationship with God. Pray we experience the joy of finding the lost. Pray we let God get His hands on us and bring us home as God shows the way to others through us to join the party.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 