Luke 15:3-10

3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying:
4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them,
does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness,
and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them,
"Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
just persons who need no repentance.
8 "Or what woman, having ten silver coins,
if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house,
and search carefully until she finds it?
9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together,
saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'
10 Likewise, I say to you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Comments

[Cowtipper]

AMEN !!!!!

[Red donga]

John Chapter 18 verse 9 "That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake. Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none" Jesus is requesting in the previous verse that his apostals be let go and they take him alone to his trial and crucifixion. I happen to be reading John . Though it has been many months since me and my daughter saw The Passion of Jesus(the movie) It still haunts

[Kara]

We are studying the parables with our Youth Group right now! This parable was directed at the Pharisees who didn't like that Publicans and sinners wanted to hear Jesus and repent. (see Luke 14:33 to 15:2, (not posted))

Sometimes when sinners are trying to come to Christ it is easy to get in their way, thinking, "They're such sinners, they're living bad lives still." Forgetting that God forgives them when they repent and are changing their lives.

I know that most people identify with being the lost sheep or lost coin that is recovered, but it is not impossible to be the "smug sheep/Pharisees" who aren't lost, and look down on our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. (Or those who would be our brothers & sisters)

I am thankful that I was lost, but now am found. I pray that God gives me humbleness to remember this when asked about my faith by someone I would think could never be touched by it. God calls whom he will and forgives whomever seeks it.

[James P]

Many of us can catch the Pharisee disease, I have even done it myself occasionally, me of all people. It is natural for us to assume that we must become good people, have faith, and then you become a christian. However, we know intellectually that it's completeley the other way around. You must first put your trust in Jesus, and then He makes you righteous.

I think this sometimes doesn't occur to many Christians because a great many of us before we came to the Lord were simply nice people who didn't know Jesus. Many in that situation look back at their unsaved days and remember that they were nice people, just not yet justified.

That, however, was not true of me. When I was younger, I was baptised into the mormon church. Being 4 years old I really had no idea what I was getting into. But as I got older, the Spirit convicted me and I knew where I was was definitely not where God wanted me to be. After my parents got divorced I was able to leave and join a baptist church, where they take the Bible at its word and don't cry mis-translation every time they come across something in the Bible that was inconvenient.

Needless to say, the mormons were incensed. That time of my life was so dark I try not to even think about it anymore.

Most of us have seen the movie The Return of the King. In the opening scenes it depicted Gollum after he had taken the ring for the first time, alone in the hills, huddled trying to protect himself from the cold. It also really communicated the desperation and madness of the situation. While I never did anything so awful as to murder my best friend, I have felt that kind of desperation. That was what it was like when I first gave my life to Jesus. We looked at that awful scene in the movie as outsiders, but I have seen it from the other side.

Anyway, the whole point of this long sordid affair is this: regardless of how bad it was there for a while, my God came to find me. He came like a rider through the all the awful dark places I had been and just plucked me right out of there. And when He found me, I can tell you this: God and the angels weren't the only ones rejoicing over the return of a lost sheep. There might be some pride inside me talking here, but I think this passage communicates to me differently than it does to many.

My God found me and rescued me from the darkness I was in. As for the darkness that came for me because of my commitment to God, another scripture applies here: "If God be for us, then who can be against us?"

My enemies voices are silenced, their plans laid low by His swift sword. To God be the glory.

[Joshua]

James P.

My heart and mind resonate with yours.
We are kindred.
I have and am going through the same things.
I believe I have been saved a number of years.
I don't have a date of conversion, or spiritual birthday on the calander but believe it was around 1990 when I gave my heart to the Lord.

But I say I believe I am saved, because I apprehend God's Word, the authorized cannon of 66 "love letters" from our Lord.
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the great I AM Himself, the One who spoke and the universe lept into existance, the Living Word, the Bread of Life, the One of whom prophets spoke, the very One who lived and bled and died to save mankind from sin and sins punishment, Hell. He is the One who declares us holy, spotless, robed in His righteousness, instead of our filthy rags of our best human effort, yet we are little more than
"snow covered dung". Our best human efforts are putrid without God's Holy Spirit living in and working through us, and changing us day by day. It is not about what we can do to earn God's forgiveness it is about what Christ has already done on our behalf in order that we might have an intimate relationship for all of eternity with the very Creator of it all.
An awesome thought.
I will spend eternity with the eternal Triune Godhead, experience the resurected Christ, to be able to touch Him and to look into His eyes (if I can bare it) and see there the immeasurable love that He has for me. I don't know if I will fall at His feet or into His embrace, but I do know I will have a brand new body, i will be in a world where there is no more death, diseae, mourning or pain. That all things will be restored to Eden-like proportions. It makes me home sick for heaven.

I just get so disgusted with the world around me and wonder if it is all worth it, till I realize their are brothers and sisters that are trying to make it along this narrow and straight path.
At times I lose my footing and slide right back into old ways. I am capable of so much hatred at those who have hurt me and those who are hurting others right now. I am having a hard time with my dad. I hate his guts for raising me as a pot head, hippie. For years I thought that was the way to be. Be free, screw who ever, smoke dope, drink, chasing my pleasures. That was what life was all about for soooo long.
(My mom is another story, ex-con, heroin addict and criminal. My brother sells mj for his income. Grandpa was jailed for growing it. Uncle was in prison for drunk driving and crashing the vehicle which caused the death of his girlfriend.)

So here I am an adult. having been saved, mind you. Yet I am struggling with these besetting sins, so much so that I have pushed away my whole family beacause I do not want to have to deal with the old garbage and the creation of new garbage.

I want to run away to Mombasa, Kenya (I do know one person there) and never be heard from again.
But their gov't is currupt...lol..and ours isn't?

I grew up where mj was the norm, tho it is illegal, which was "stupid and wrong" as far as any of us smokers were concerned. So, I get brought to Jesus the first time by ex-drug addicts, around 1990. I was 17. I said the sinners prayer accepted Jesus into my heart, but I didn't get grounded in church. I was sober at this time (16-19) but was still having sex as much as I could get it from as many girls as I could, I was a man-whore. I believed in Jesus but did not live for Him, I wanted it on my terms. So I was my own little god, I made myself an idol and worshipped at the temple of me.

So, fast forward to 1998. I get reintroduced to Jesus through (you guessed it)
pot-heads. They smoked pot and talked about Jesus and watched the horrible spiritual cyanide that is prescribed by the megadose through the Trinity Broadcast Network.

(I won't get into that tiraid yet. see www.equip.org for all you need to know about essentials of the historic Christian faith. search a suspect teachers name on this page and you will get an article or more on the subjects you are looking for)

So, how long am I am saved? Since 17 or 8 years later when I met the freaks and went to their churches and saw and heard all kinds of strange extra-biblical stuff. When is my spiritual b-day?

I am still smoking pot at this time. It is starting to become more and more apparent (to me at least ) that it is wrong; but not in the least worrisome to those supposed Christians who are smoking pot all around me. For all I know they may wake up too, but that is to remain to be seen. I have cut myself off from them as well, in fact my only conec is an aquaintance, not a friend that I socialize with. They would freak if they really knew me. They would think I was DEA..lol

So, the more I read the Bible for myself, and listen to all kinds of Bible believing pastors/teachers, the more I am becoming convicted by what I am doing and how I am living.

Yet, I am still living contrairy to how I know I should be living.

So, I start chucking everything. I sold all my CD's (2 bucks to 4 bucks a pop) all 300 of them. All the tunes you can think of, that mattered to me anyway. Now I could give two little brown marsmallows about them.

So, here I am doing the holiness purification ritual, but I am still just as currupt an individual as before I was saved........ so I thought.

My politics changed and I didn't realize it till I started agreeing with people like Hannity and Limbaugh. Now I am a rabid Michael Savage listener.

"HELOOOOOOOOOOOO IINFEDELLLLS!!
.........he yells into the microphone. lol I love this guy. God bless Michael Savage.
God save him too, while your at it.

Now it's 2004 and I am still struggling with the flesh and failing. I am not a man-whore any longer. I have been married twice. (those are tales of their own.) I am not given to much drink. I am certainly not addicted to anything, yet I am constantly pulled to my desires, which are not godly.
Yet, I am still loving God and asking for forgiveness for the sin. I know I should pray more and have made a step in that direction as well. I exercise m-f on the recumbent bike for 30 min, and then do my crunches
50/50/50.
But I flaked out tonight, while I am writing this it's getting towards bed time and I don't think I will be going to work out tonite, I'd be up all night.

Yet, I still want to hold onto that mj. I swear if it were free and legal, I would still be bemoaning this sin.
As you can see, in our laws, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's what God wants us to be doing. (ie. same-sex marriage/unions..whatever. It's still sin, no matter what you call it.)

I am one who can justify smoking mj because it does not effect me the way it does others, I have ADD and it sort of has the opposite effect on me as it does to others. I get focused.
So this I use as justification for smoking it. It is the best anti-depressant I have ever used....

And on and on I could go, but I know in my heart of hearts, at the end of the day, it is still wrong, and my Lord would rather me not partake.

For one, I have to hide it, not talk about it, except to other smokers which I don't like, because it effects most of them the way it should, it makes them stupid liberals for the most part, and all they tend to do is soley talk about getting, finding and using, sorry not interested...boring.

Yet I partake. to me it is a private, not a social thing. I don't find groups to smoke with, I would raher be around non-users and non-drinkers, non-partiers. So, I am in a quandrum of sorts. To smoke or not to smoke? There really is no question. I should and will quit. I always say I am going to and then I visit the "ummm.budz..man?".

I would appreciate any good words of godly council.

Thank you SarahK, for letting me share here,
it has been relieving

God bless all of you. Please pray for me to have resolve like I have with so many other areas of my life.
Thank you,
Joshua

[sarahk]

wow.
i'll pray for you and your struggles.

i was saved at my baptism on June 22, 1992.

[Joshua]

Thank you SarahK.

[Joshua]

This is today's devotional from Charles Stanley, from In Touch Ministries. Great pastor/teacher.
You can hear his archived sermons online also.

God bless you SarahK. and everyone else in the Blog-o-sphere.....

23 July


A Call to Repentance
2 CORINTHIANS 7:10-11

We learned yesterday that genuine repentance of sin includes: agreeing with the Lord that our behavior or thought pattern is ungodly; establishing in our thinking that this sinful habit is displeasing to God; identifying—with the Spirit's help—what would please Him; and taking steps under the Spirit's power to turn from sin and walk in godliness. Whether we are nonbelievers starting to come to faith in Jesus or believers wrestling with sin, we all need to practice biblical repentance.

Three key words describe the process of repentance: recognition, agreement and commitment. Unless we recognize that our behavior or thoughts are sin, we will not see any need to confess them to God. Recognition comes as we study God's Word and learn what He identifies as sin. We must then agree that God's pattern for life is correct and ours is wrong. The epistles to the Ephesians and Galatians are both helpful in revealing what pleases and displeases God. Without agreement, our confession would be more of an "I am sorry about the consequences" statement. Commitment is also necessary. Isaiah proclaimed, "Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame (Isaiah 50:7 NIV). We must commit ourselves to turning away from sin and choosing God's way.

We who belong to Jesus can change permanently. Remember Christ promises that those He sets free will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

[Joshua]

I am sorry forgot to give URL for that last post.
Here it is and check back daily...as it changes, uh.. daily.. :o)

Charles Stanley, Today's Devotional:
http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/devotional/index_76096.html

And these are the other two I start my day with before I get to the more pressing stuff...like uh...what is SarahK up to today, I better check

Mount.Mus[e]

then IAMO.us

DrudgeReport.com,

Ann Coulter on Thursdays-http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/archive.shtml

Michael Reagan on Wednesdays- http://www.caglecartoons.com/archiveColumnist.asp?columnistID={9F1778EA-71BA-403F-8AB2-30247135A8CD}

MensNewsDaily.com

HumanEventsOnline.com

NewsMax.com

The American Spectator- www.spectator.org

The Cato Institute- www.cato.org
TownHall.com

The Center for Reclaiming America-
www.reclaimamerica.org,

But I usually read all my devotionals first...
So I am going to get back to them...lol

Before I make SarahK my new "idol" to worship.
Not!! Your great, SarahK, but only one holds the title AWESOME, in my book.

The word awesome describes only one thing that is the fullness of God, His magnificance, His glory, His mercies are renewed each day, all His attributes to be distilled into a word.

AWESOME. To be struck by awe. Awestruck, awed..

Not just surfer lingo, dude....

Yap, at'ch'all later.
Joshua from [P-Town], Oregon

My Utmost For His Highest- Oswald Chambers:
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/

Our Daily Bread:
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb.shtml

[Joshua]

Wow! I can't believe how well this devotional goes with the other, God is so awesome like that. He knows what we need.
These change daily (that's why they're called daily devotionals..I am so smart.heh)

Anyway this was so great it needed to be posted to accompany the other.

My Utmost For His Highest- Oswald Chambers

July 23
Sanctification

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . sanctification . . .
—1 Corinthians 1:30

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The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He "became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . ." Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life.

The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh. Sanctification is "Christ in you . . ." ( Colossians 1:27 ). It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification— imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His Word?

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness— ". . . kept by the power of God . . ." ( 1 Peter 1:5 ).

[Joshua]

This is so uncanny, yet not. My last devotional I read, Our Daily Bread, goes in the same theme as the others. Isn't God awesome?

Our Daily Bread- daily devotional

(see above for url, but this one won't be there any longer after today, but I think you can search by the date on their site.)

Dying Daily
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

We are hard-pressed on every side, . . . always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. —2 Corinthians 4:8,10

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Are you in a situation where you are often misunderstood for your faith in Christ? Are you surrounded by people with a carping, critical spirit? Do you get little or no credit for the work you do in your church or for your family?

The proper response is a willingness to have a humble and submissive spirit—to die as Jesus did throughout His life. Yes, our Lord died once on the cross; but in another sense He also died every day. The cross was the culmination of an entire lifetime of dying. He was willing to be misunderstood and maligned, to give up home and comforts, to take the role of a servant. That was His“death.”We must be willing to die in that way as well.

When we die with Him, God’s gift to us is“the life of Jesus”(2 Corinthians 4:10), the most attractive life ever lived. His beauty will gradually grow in us and become our beauty as well.

Remember this saying:“A picture is worth a thousand words.”The portrait you draw of Jesus with your humble, tranquil presence in the face of grievous wrong is worth many words on the subject. Some may see the life of Jesus revealed in you and long to enter into that life. That’s how dying daily can help bring life to another. —David Roper

Dear Jesus, take my heart and hand,
And grant me this, I pray:
That I through Your sweet love may grow
More like You day by day. —Garrison

Living daily for Christ requires dying daily to self.