The Lost Sheep

Published on by DanLeave a comment

by Sharla Guenther

This week we are going to learn about another parable.  Do you remember what a parable is?  It’s a story Jesus told to teach a lesson.  The story should be easy to remember and will have a special meaning for us to learn from.

This is the parable of the lost sheep.  Jesus started by telling the story to men called tax collectors and Pharisees.  These were men who thought they were more important than everyone else and they weren’t very nice.  They were whispering about Jesus and how he shouldn’t eat and talk with sinners.

It’s funny they would say that because we all are sinners, we all do things we shouldn’t.  The tax collectors and Pharisees thought that they were better than everyone else.  In fact, they didn’t think they had to repent or say sorry to God for their mistakes.

Have you ever felt really bad for something you’ve done?  Maybe you’ve hit your brother or sister and afterwards you wished you hadn’t.  When you really feel sorry for something and tell that person you are sorry, that is what we do when we repent.

Just like with our family we need to feel bad and say sorry to God when we’ve done something wrong.  The Pharisees and tax collectors didn’t think that they had to do this because they were so important.

Of course Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he told this parable:

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine sheep and go find the one sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he is so excited he carries the sheep all the way home.  Then he phones all his friends and neighbors and has a party to celebrate the sheep that was found.

Then Jesus told what the parable meant:  Just like there was a big party over the one lost sheep, there will be a big party in heaven over just one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine people who think they are perfect and don’t need to repent.

Just imagine, when you say “your sorry” to God all of heaven has a big party just for what you’ve done!  God is much more excited when we say we’re sorry than when we act like nothing has happened and don’t think we need to repent at all.

But you know, Jesus just kept going and he told another parable.  Listen and see if this sounds like something you’ve already heard.

Suppose a woman has ten dollar coins and loses one.  Does she not turn on all her lights, sweep the whole house and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she finds it, she calls all her friends and neighbors and has a party to celebrate finding the lost coin.

Just like the lost coin, there is great joy with all of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.

I think the lesson here is that nobody is perfect (except God of course).  It’s very important that when we make a mistake we realize we have done something wrong and we tell God we’re sorry.  It’s as simple as taking a couple minutes, going somewhere quiet would be best (but you can talk to God anywhere), and just say you’re sorry for the wrong thing you’ve done and ask God to forgive you.

When you ask God to forgive you He immediately erases the mistake from His mind and He won’t think of it again.  It’s pretty easy, huh?!  Just think how happy God will be when you do it ,and you’ll feel better too!

Rummage Sale

Published on by DanLeave a comment

By Jennifer Maier

Forgive me, Aunt Phyllis, for rejecting the cut

glass dishes—the odd set you gathered piece

by piece from thirteen boxes of Lux laundry soap.

Pardon me, eggbeater, for preferring the whisk;

and you, small ship in a bottle, for the diminutive

size of your ocean. Please don’t tell my mother,

hideous lamp, that the light you provided

was never enough. Domestic deities, do not be angry

that my counters are not white with flour;

no one is sorrier than I, iron skillet, for the heavy

longing for lightness directing my mortal hand.

And my apologies, to you, above all,

forsaken dresses, that sway from a rod between

ladders behind me, clicking your plastic tongues

at the girl you once made beautiful,

and the woman, with a hard heart and

softening body, who stands in the driveway

making change.

I am not doing This for Your Sake

Published on by DanLeave a comment

It was my observation the message in the first part of Ezekiel 36 is a broad scale explanation of why God has hammered the friends and neighbors of the Hebrews. They understand what is going on and some are still defiant, others are perplexed. In their discouragement, they know of their unworthiness, and they are unsure of their future. They know their resistance was strong and unabated. God feels their uneasiness and chooses to introduce them to their distant future.

In this chapter we find a powerful promise of a new covenant. They are not specifically told it is a new covenant, but the messianic promise is clear. God has a new plan. He does it all, we are the recipients of a new life. He delivers a promise that we would be prepared, reformed by his grace and mercy, to walk with him. In the end he makes it clear that this message is page two of their life.

There is more, God makes it clear there is life with Him after exile; there is a path out of their dilemma, there is a way to extract themselves from spiritual infidelity. At first, they did not see the solution but it explains why they were in Babylon. The subliminal message feels like ‘absence makes the heart grow fond once again’. The separation from the thing they have known all their life was soon felt and that which they had taken for granted, now absent, was missed and then lamented.

I think the exile is also intended as an introduction to the full impact of the new covenant of grace, the full power of grace is magnified by the harshness of the exile as an antithesis to walking with God. You might recall the messianic hints in Ezekiel 34. In that chapter we explored a promise of the coming shepherd, and all the implications of that shepherd. Now, in this chapter, we expand on that message, we talk about the promises of the Holy Spirit, and the richness of the soon-to-be new covenant. We get a glimpse of his gracious influence, methods of operation, sanctification model, and the process for justification.

Yet, he also knows that some may still resist. They will remember their ways and not believe that God can and will forgive them. In that mindset, they truly lament, then he offers honesty and hope…

Ezekiel 36: 24-32 says — For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct! [NIV]

In our worst day, defiant of his grace, we will always find self-love at the core of our sin. What causes us to repent? It’s simple, I suspect repenting occurs when we cannot but wince when we notice the absurdness of our action that set us at odds with God. But before we can get to that point there will be a self-quarrel to accept the facts and then reconcile to the need to repent. It is constant, this wincing thing, because our mistakes and transgressions are non-stop. How then shall we live?

We find solace in the Goodness of God. His goodness overcomes our badness and leads us into the proper state of mind to repent. We resist kicking and yelling right up to the point where we relent and repent (or we do not repent and consequences happen). It is a repetitive cycle. Our God loves us through it all. He smiles as we struggle, because he knows the outcome and humors us as we work through the details. Who could love us more than God does. Anyone? I suspect not. Our wife and children take a close second in that race, but he is king of the hill. I choose Jesus.

The Breath of God

Published on by DanLeave a comment

It has been my observation, to understand God is to understand the three persons who comprise God. Getting your head wrapped around the difference between God the Father and Jesus is one thing. But many struggle to grasp who the Holy Spirit is in a way they could explain clearly to someone else. Yet, scripture tells us that knowing the Holy Spirit is the path to God’s wisdom. Understanding the Holy Spirit is vital to your walk with God.

The Bible describes the Spirit as the “breath” of God. John 20:22 says – and he [Jesus] breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit [NIV]. When you start walking with the one true living God, the Holy Spirit transforms you to become more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11). The Holy Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). His direction is consistent with God’s plan. Paul says — Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17)

1 Corinthians 2:9-12 says –What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived — the things God has prepared for those who love Him — these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us [NIV].

Clearly, Paul is encouraging us to explore the deeper relationship with God. But not just an awareness, rather he us telling us that we are to peer deep into the connection between us and the Holy Spirit, we are to give profound attention to his nudge, for he becomes a window to the wisdom and majesty of the one true living God. Where do we learn? At the feet of the one true living God.  How do we learn? We learn through the conduit provided by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says – Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies [NIV]. Ephesians 4:30 says – And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption [NIV]. John 14:16 says – And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever [NIV]. Romans 5:5 says – and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us [NIV]. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says – Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? [NIV]

The Holy Spirit hovers over believers in Christ and dwells within them at the same time. He is painfully aware of the massive cost (the death of Jesus) to establish this line of communication between us. He has access to and knows the Father’s thoughts – he is permitted to communicate many of those thoughts to us.

What is the impact? When you pray or read the Bible, you may very well sense God speaking to you through scripture; after all, that is one of key roles of the Holy Spirit in our life. God’s plan for us exists, we learn that plan from the Holy Spirit when we are meditating on Scripture. As our advocate (in addition to Jesus), he brings our hopes and dreams to the feet of God the Father. The Holy Spirit works in your life, teaching and giving opportunities for service. In that service, we learn to honor God’s notions and his way. The more you let this sink in, the easier it will be to give the Holy Spirit the proper place of authority He deserves in your life. Furthermore, his plan for your life will become noticeably clear.

Faith, Hope and Love – here are three elements we can grasp that honor God and honor the temple he has given us. Love is the cornerstone, the under girth of faith and hope. Faith and hope are fueled by the nudge and teaching about love from the Holy Spirit. The more we learn about trusting God (faith) and embracing the larger picture of everlasting life (hope), the more effective God’s love is in our life. How do we know this? These things are not tangible, you cannot touch love as a stand-alone object.  These things appear through our actions. You cannot touch them, but you can see the impact of faith, hope, and love in your life and others around you.

Why does this matter? When these things are fueled by the Holy Spirit, active in our life, growing us and nurturing us, we are able to reflect these attributes using the Gold Standard for these attributes – we model our behavior in accordance with the one true living God.  He displays these attributes; we are created in his image; we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate these attributes.  Selah!

The Holy Spirit is an equal among and a true member of the Trinity. Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit interact and exist in a binding community, co-equal, co-eternal, and one in essence with one another. Genesis 1:1-2 says — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters [NIV]. Mark 1:9-12 says – At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. A voice came from heaven: ‘You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased’ [NIV].

Acts 15:8 says — God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us [NIV]. 2 Corinthians 13:14 says — May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all [NIV]. Acts 2:33 says – God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He (Jesus) has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out [upon us] what you now see and hear [NIV].

Can we resist the influence of the Holy Spirit that envelopes us and fills us up to the brim? Can we avoid the message that comes straight from the thoughts of God? Can we run from God’s truth? I suspect not. Read his word, pray, listen to Him, grow in faith, walk with God!

I choose Jesus.