My Thoughts

LOST

We have all lost things. This last week we lost our checkbook. We looked all over the place. We looked in the car, by the computer and anywhere we could think of. But we couldn’t find it. Tracing our steps we realized that we haven’t taken the checkbook anywhere, therefore it’s still here at home. We finally found it on the kitchen table, under the freshly washed clothes waiting to be folded. We were both very happy to find the checkbook.

We often would do anything to find what we have lost. Even the Pink Panther did all he could to get that coin back.

Jesus told a story similar to this.
Luke 15:8-10
8 “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? 9 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.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

I used to have a very friendly dog who loved everybody and believes everyone loved her. And like most all dogs she would get loose once in a while and run down the street. Then I would call out, “Char! Come Char! Come on girl!” She would then stop, look at me and start back. “Oh yes what a good girl. Come Char, come on, oh what a good girl.” About then she would pick up her pace and race back to me at full speed. It’s a good thing I’m a big guy because she would sometimes hit me with her smiley floppy tongue followed by 100 pounds of solid yet wiggly body. She was part lab, part rottweiler, and all charm. She knew I loved her.

God loves us and He wants us. He’ll do anything to get us back. Including sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Just think, loving us so much He sent His son to pay for our sins. Payment which is death.

John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Our sin have made us lost or separated from God much like the coin being separated from the Pink Panther in the video.

Remember God loves us, even when we sin. And we always sin. It’s our nature. God has made it easy for us to return to Him.

John 3:13-15
13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man (Jesus) has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

For these of you who wonder about this bronze snake; you can read about it in Numbers 21:4-9.

This is what God said in Ezekiel 18:30-32.
30 “Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! 31 Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? 32 I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

Even though He was talking to Israel, I’m sure every nation, language, race, everybody is included. We must turn back to God. We must talk others about going back to God through Jesus.

John 14:6
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

And we must do it with love. Anyone one who knows anything about dogs, knows that when your dog runs off, they never want to return to you if your mad and angry at them. (However even if you’re not mad sometimes they still may not want to come back right away.)

On a side note, no matter what some people may say, I never spoiled my dog. Just because sometimes I would take her in my pickup into town, and I would buy us both a hamburger, doesn’t mean I’m spoiling her. We do need to eat.