The Lost is Found

            Tax collectors and other known sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the church leaders and teachers of the religious law complain that He was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them! Oh my!

So Jesus told them this story: A man had a hundred sheep and one of them wondered off and was lost. Don’t you suppose he would leave the ninety-nine sheep safely in the fold and go into the wilderness to search for the one that was lost? Certainly, he would! He would thoroughly search the rough country, peering in patches of thick brush, checking each coulee, climbing steep cliffs and probing crevices and caves for his lost one. The shepherd would search all day and even all night, not giving up until the lost sheep was found.

When he finally finds the lost one, maybe caught in a brush thicket, he will joyfully lift the one who was lost in his arms and carry him home on his shoulders. Then when he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, “come rejoice with me because that which was lost is now found!”

In the same way there is more joy in Heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and safe and have not strayed away!”

How long and hard will God search for His lost child?

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?”

Have you ever lost something you desperately wanted or needed and were determined to search until you found it? I can just see this woman sweeping, moving furniture and frantically looking in all the drawers and closets trying to find her lost coin. I would do the same thing. It drives me crazy when I can’t find something that I know was just there. Where did it go? Where did I put it? It has to be right here!

But finally inside the cracks of the couch, the woman finds the lost coin.

“And when she finds it, how happy she is. She will call in her friends and neighbors and say, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin!”

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

How important is each and every lost soul to God?

Stephen in June and Nov. 2010

“To further illustrate His point Jesus told this story:

A man had two sons. The younger son, who was a bit rebellious, told his father, “Why should I have to wait until you die to get my share of your estate? I want it now.”

So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later this younger son said, “I’m getting out of this dump!” And he packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, where he lived wild and high on the hog, wasting all his inheritance on women, wine and worldly possessions.

However, money didn’t grow on trees so he soon spent all his inheritance. About the same time, a great famine swept over the land and he could find no food. Neither could he buy food, so his belly became very empty. Thinking he could maybe earn at least something to eat, he persuaded a farmer to hire him, but the man sent him into the fields to feed his pigs and gave him nothing. Even the food he fed the pigs looked good, so he sucked and gnawed on the hard corn.

One day as he was groveling in the dirt with the pigs for a morsel of food, it hit him, “Why even my father’s servants eat better than this! They don’t have to fight the pigs for it and even have much to spare! Here I am dying of hunger! What’s wrong with me? I’ll go home and beg my father to take me on as a servant.”

So the young man left that very moment and walked the long miles back to his home. His father, who had been watching for him these many months, saw him coming and filled with compassion, he ran to his son embraced him and kissed him.

The son said, “Father, I have sinned against both Heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.”

But his father told the servants to give this lost son a bath, clothe him in the finest robe in the house, put a ring on his finger and find sandals for his feet. Then he told them to kill the calf they had been fattening and prepare a great feast to celebrate.

“For this son of mine who was dead has now returned to life. He was lost but now he is found! Let the party begin!”

Meanwhile the older son who was in the fields working, came home and heard the music in the house He asked one of the servants what was going on.

“Your brother is back!” The servant replied, “we are celebrating his safe return.”

The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go into the house. He sat outside and pouted, but his father sat beside his first born and pleaded with him to join them.

The older son, who should have been more mature, angrily spouted out his frustrations, “All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do!” With a red face, he jerked up from the chair and towered over his father, “And not one time have you ever given me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this, this rebellious son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes and wine, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!”

His father remains calmly sitting and looks up at him with love in his eyes, “Oh son, I love you dearly, you have been faithfully by my side and helping me always. Everything, all that you see, is yours. But don’t you see we have to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!” (from Luke 15:1-32 NLT)

Oh HAPPY DAY when one lost soul comes to the Father!

If you are lost, He is seeking and searching the wilderness for you. Your Heavenly Father will not give up until you are found. The Angels in Heaven will rejoice when you are found.

What a time of celebration when one child who has wondered from the Father’s house returns home!

If you have wondered away, He is waiting and watching for you. Your Father will welcome you with compassion and open arms.

“Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, Oh Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!

What joy for those who can live in Your house, always singing Your praises!” Psalm 84:3-4