Lost and Found

This week as we continue in our series, Leverage, we are talking about the why behind Jesus’ call for us to use our resources for the sake of those around us. Through a story about a shepherd with a lost sheep, Jesus helps us see that the why here is intimately connected to the character of our God. Let’s dig into this vital truth together.

Lost and Found

I lost a sock in the wash the other day. I finally found it Wednesday night. The first thing I exclaimed when I did, though, was, “Oh great, now this will mess up my illustration for Sunday.” For a full two weeks there, though, if you were to go and open my sock drawer, you would have found one sock neatly folded and lying on top of the rest of the rolled pairs underneath it. I’ve lost socks before, but they usually turned up faster than this one. As it turns out, it got stuck in the arm of my light jacket. Since the last time I wore and washed it, though, it got cold and it just sat in our coat closet with the sock sitting in its sleeve until I put it on Wednesday and made my happy discovery. I’ll confess, though, as much as that one, lone sock lying on the top of the pile bothered me every single time I opened my sock drawer, I didn’t invest much time searching for its sole mate. It was just a sock after all. If I didn’t ever find the match, I would have eventually thrown it away (at which point, of course, I would have immediately discovered the other one). I have other pairs. And, when those wear out, I’ll just buy a new pack. I actually look forward to doing that every few years. There aren’t very many things that feel better than a brand-new pair of socks. 

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Morning Musing: Jeremiah 29:10-14

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Promises like these in the Old Testament are encouraging almost beyond words.  To find ourselves in the midst of a truly difficult season–especially one in which we are reaping the bitter fruits of time spent sowing unrighteousness in our lives and the lives of those around us–and to encounter these kinds of reassurances to a people who were in just that kind of a situation, gives us hope that the mess doesn’t need to be our end either.  But in this hope and encouragement that God is for us, these promises were intended to accomplish something even more important. Read the rest…