Have You Wandered

How can you get the angels in heaven to rejoice?  It is easy, just go out and win the lost, then there will be rejoicing in heaven.  Lost people are so important to the Lord that He wrote some parables about this topic in His Word.

One of these parables was about the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7, “Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

So Jesus told them this story: ‘If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 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 haven’t strayed away!’”

Here Jesus related sheep to people and we know that Jesus was the Good Shepherd, and also the Lamb of God.  To Jesus lost people are bound, or enslaved, by many things and Jesus wants to set them free; in fact, He is very happy when one sinner repents and wants to follow Him.

The Pharisees and scribes were not happy at all when Jesus sat with sinners and ate with them, they were much too pious for that kind of behavior, walking around in their self-righteousness.  Many of the people in Jesus’ day agreed with the religious rulers and they had a problem with Jesus also, saying in Matthew 11:18-19, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Jesus condemned the attitude the people had in His generation.  It seemed that Jesus could say or do nothing that would satisfy them because Jesus challenged their comfortable, self-centered lives.  In every generation this can be a problem, so we need to guard ourselves against this same kind of attitude.  Too often we justify our inconsistencies because if we listen to the Word of the Lord we may have to change the way we live; there are those that seem to have a struggle with that prospect.

Getting back to Luke 15, Jesus told another parable about a lost coin saying this in verses 8-10, “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? And when she finds it, 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.”  Again Jesus relates the coin to a person, and just like the lady rejoiced when she found the lost coin asking others to rejoice with her, Jesus said, “In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

I wrote a song about this subject a long time ago and I still sing it once in a while, this ‘Tidbit’ reminds me of that song.

My question to you is, are you one of the 99 or are you the one who is lost?   If you are one of the 99, that is good, but if you are the one that is lost I have great news for you.  Jesus loves you and is willing to leave all the others and focus on you because He is not willing that anyone be lost but that each one would come to repentance and be saved.  

If you are reading this and you feel the Holy Spirit’s prompting you and convicting you of sin, respond by repenting of your sins; which means to turn in the opposite direction and tell the Lord you are sorry for your sins asking Him to forgive you and to come into your heart and be the Lord of your life.  If you really mean it, I believe that He will and you will become a child of God, praise the Lord!  Then find a church where the pastor preaches the Word of God, get a Bible and start growing.  God bless you and have a super day!!