God wants you back.

 If you have ever had a son or daughter who turned against you and disappeared, you know what heartache feels like. 

Jesus told a story about a young man who claimed his inheritance while his rich father was still alive and travelled to a foreign country. There was no internet and there were no mobile phones. The father did not mount a search party but every day he went out and looked down the road to see if his son would come back. 

One day he looked out and he actually saw his son in the distance.

I don't want to share personal family secrets but I know what this father went through.

Jesus also told a story of a farmer with 100 sheep. One sheep ran away and was lost. The farmer left his 99 sheep behind and searched for his lost sheep until he found it and took it home.

Today I read a news story about a young couple who went for a holiday on Kangaroo Island off the coast of Australia. They took their one year old pet dachshund with them. One day their beloved Valerie escaped and disappeared into the bush.

They were heartbroken and after searching for 5 days, they had to return home without their pet. The people on the island were very compassionate and deeply concerned. They searched with video cameras and drones for over a year. 

A farmer set up a trap with food for Valerie’s owners were afraid their spoilt house dog might not survive in wild country where snakes and other predators were a constant danger. Finally, a strong, muscular little dog got into the trap. The farmer saw Valerie on his remote video camera and pushed the button to shut the door and lock her in.

Valerie’s owners were beside themselves with joy to get their Valerie back. They had a pet cat and two other dogs but they loved Valerie like their own child.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NRSVue

If you are not in a personal relationship with Father God, He wants you back. He will stop at nothing to win your trust.

(Jesus said…) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jn 10:11 NRSVue

If you are not sure you believe, you might be like Valerie, the little dog that panicked and went wild. If you are not sure, you can talk to God. 

“If you are real and you do love me, please help me to believe.”

God wants to forgive you, to love and care for you.

If Christians have bullied you, abused you, or betrayed you, God did not do it.

For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Lk 19:10 NRSVue

The Answer is the Love of God

 There are so many people who are not satisfied with money, things, sex and empty entertainment. They are hungry for something more, something spiritual. Many turn to New Age meditation, or even witchcraft, but they don’t find real contentment there.

There is a God, a loving heavenly father. He wants to reach the lost souls who stumble from one thing to another.

As Christians, many of us are partly to blame for the confusion around us.

Many Christians read the bible and believe in a supernatural God, but they don’t let God step into their own lives with miraculous answered prayers, even though they have serious needs that they try to deal with in their own human ways.

I have experienced many miracles, but I still often fail to trust God.

There are other Christians who are so upset about divorce, homosexuality and abortion, that they become self-righteous culture warriors and forget to love the people around them.
God is holy, but we must never forget that God is love.

There are also Christians who believe for miracles, but then get trapped in pornography or some other vice.

Many children believe in God, but then turn away because of the failures of Christians.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! Mt 18:6–7 NIV

As a Christian, I was always zealous for truth, but I have had to learn to be gentle and understanding with my own family and others around me.

We must learn to be kind and loving, as well as strong in our spiritual and moral beliefs.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Cor 13:2 NIV

If I am constantly open to receiving the love of God and sharing that love with others, I will not be a spiritual policeman who offends people who need love.

People need Jesus, but they will not recognise Jesus in us unless we love like Jesus loves.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

If you are not yet committed to believing in Jesus, I pray you will meet Christians who love with the love of Jesus.

If you have not yet found the reality you long for in Christianity, talk to God about it. Ask God to show you more of His love and truth.

Restauring Bullied Christians

There are lost sheep that Jesus wants to restore.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ Lk 15:4–6 NIV

This well-known parable of Jesus is ignored by some preachers.

However, it should admonish us that we are called as witnesses for Jesus to win people for Jesus.

Many preachers use this parable to encourage us to pray for others and to evangelise. That is right and very important.

But when I consider this little story carefully, I don't see a wild sheep that has never been tamed.

The lost sheep in this parable already belonged to the flock, but somehow got lost.

I have no experience with sheep, but I do know a bit about keeping chickens.

My wife and I had a few chickens in our small backyard. It was always an outsider, a chicken that was bullied.

Then my mother-in-law gave us more chickens and the bullying got much worse.

One of the new arrivals was of a different breed. This hen had long feathers on its head, but no red crest.

The other hens were the worst racists.

The different-looking hen was totally rejected, cruelly picked on and rejected.

The bullying was constant and brutal. She moved away from the others and secluded herself in a corner or hid behind a bush.

There are communities where sexual sin is punished harshly, but very unfairly, because it is always the woman who is blamed. If a girl or young woman is harassed in this way and leaves the church, who takes care of her?

There are churches where a wife is supposed to obey unconditionally, but when husbands are cruel and domineering, the wife is blamed. Who cares for her?

There are many Christians who truly believe in Jesus, but they are somehow different.

A young man was converted in a very evangelistic church. In this church, cigarette smoking was tolerated for a while after conversion, but not for long.

After a few months this young man was still smoking and he was condemned as a rebellious sinner and cast out.

Such churches criticise churches without discipline. In the New Testament we read of only one case where a sinning Christian was to be expelled from the church.

But only one Christian in the New Testament was expelled from the church because of sin. He was a man in Corinth who was involved in a sexual relationship with his mother-in-law.

There are churches that function like exclusive sects. Those who do not submit unconditionally become victims of bullying. If such a Christian is expelled or leaves the church, no one cares about him.

In Corinth, some such preachers had seized control of the church. Paul rebuked the Christians who had submitted.

In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. 2 Co 11:20 NIV

This still happens. There are many traumatised people who have been victims of bullying in churches and cults. They are lost sheep. Who looks after them?