A few of us from the team went to a praise and worship event tonight called The Walk. I am so glad I went. It was like a mini church service. A band led worship at the beginning, about 3 songs, then a man came up and spoke for a little while. It was only about an hour long, but it was a powerful hour!
He talked about Luke 15, where Jesus tells the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. He talked about how Jesus was attracted to screwed up, messed up people, and they were attracted him. The Pharisees in this chapter are upset with Jesus because he sits and eats with 'sinners.' Jesus then goes into the parables and basically says, "If you lose something, do you not leave behind what's safe and secure and search with all your might to find it?" Answer being? Yes.
Sometimes, most of the time, it is necessary to focus so much on what is lost that we almost forget what is safe and secure. Now, that's not to say that we stop feeding the saved and forget about the commitments made, but we cannot forget about the lost. We, as christians, must focus on the lost, and finding them for Christ. Amen?
The parable of the prodigal son is a famous one, and for good reason too. That son essentially disowned his father, squandered all his possessions, became lower than servants, and went running back to daddy. And instead of getting what he deserved, the son was welcomed home with wide open arms, clothes, and a huge celebration because "this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." What?! Jesus is telling us here that it doesn't matter what we've done, what our past consists of. The moment we turn back toward our Heavenly Father, the second we look back at him, he is waiting there with OPEN arms and wants to forgive us for the things we've done. This passage is beautiful because of the reminder of the Love of the Father. A reminder of how Deep and Long and Wide is the Love of God. Amen!!
Alright y'all...that was just a snippet of what I heard tonight and I thought I'd share it with you.
Goodnight! :-)
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