OCTOBER 13

¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

Matthew 18:13

I had an interesting, at the till in a shop, conversation that has hijacked the blog I was all set to write. Maybe that one will appear at another time. So this was the context.

At a homecoming service, which is a church service aimed at those who have left the church to either come back to see old friends or make a reintegration, the preacher made this statement “Jesus places more value on those who have left the church than those who have stayed in or stayed faithful.”

Well, it’s scriptural. Right there in Matthew 18: 10 -14

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹² What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

It is not as if I have never read that scripture before. But this time it really, well stung. The story of the prodigal is well preached and understood and the overwhelming message as I have understood it is that we should be in the church for the right reasons, not wishing we could sample what we believe to be the good the world has to offer. Be honest now, how does it make you feel knowing that God gives more value or he ‘rejoices’ more over the one who goes astray and comes back?

 

After I had gotten over my exaggerated feeling of self-importance and licked my wounds, I looked again and God showed me what he wanted me to see in the first place. You are probably way ahead of me and have seen it already, if so bare with me.

 

We are all-important and have equal value to God. He demonstrated that by dying for us on the cross. Romans 5: 8 states,

 

"While we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

 

He further expresses his love for us in Psalm 17: 8, where he writes,

 

"Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of thy wings."

So if God loves us so much, shouldn’t we manifest the same amount of love for those who have left? Or is it just a case of ‘well when they’ve worked out their differences they will come back’ or ‘I don’t know why they are even out there! They know the truth so why don’t they just come back.’ Unfortunately life rarely is that simple.  But we have to do something surely.

Well if you are not sure how to reach out to someone you know and love that has left, just forward them this blog to let you know that you are thinking of them. Let God do the rest.

The choice of music today is from a group called 'The Imperials' and is called 'All my life'. Click on the picture to listen.

       

     Housekeeping details for you

     The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.

     A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here