Monday Morning Mail, 23rd September 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!


Yesterday morning, Geoff and Dom led us through the first half of Luke 15 – the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, or perhaps it would be better to call them the parables of the searching shepherd and searching woman.


God is a God who goes searching for what is lost; who longs so much for it to be found that he is like a shepherd who leaves most of his flock in the wilderness or like a woman who tears the house apart looking for her coin. Jesus himself said that he came to seek and to save the lost.


Dom used the picture of a child getting separated from their father in a supermarket. The child is lost, even if they don't know it, because they are separated from their father. In the same way, those who don't have a relationship with God as their father are lost.


We owe our salvation to the fact that when we were lost, God came looking for us; that he loves us so much that he gave his own son to die on the cross for us that we might be found. But Jesus told the story to two groups of people – to the tax collectors and sinners – those who are "lost", but also to the Pharisees and teachers of the law – those who thought they were found.


God's message to the lost is this. "I love you. I long to find you, and when I find you and bring you home, I will celebrate." But God's message to those who think they are found is this: "I am passionate about finding the lost and welcoming them back. Don't resent them; don't reject them; join in with my plan to bring my beloved ones home, so that we can rejoice together."


This all ties in with what Neil was preaching on yesterday evening from Luke 14. Guests who had been invited to a banquet made poor excuses, so the host sent his servants out to invite everyone into the party.


It's Back to Church Sunday this coming week – let's be praying for who we can invite, and let's be part of God's wonderful plan to bring folk who are lost back to him that they may be found and so there will be great rejoicing in heaven. Surely that's a key part of what it means to love God and our community!


God bless,


John


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