Leaving the 99
Hello everyone. Yes, it has been an excessive amount of time since I last posted and yes, I am sorry. Not that many of you probably cared about my absence or even noticed but the polite thing to do is bring it up rather than ignore it. So here goes: I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have no excuses. Simply, an apology.
I guess I should probably catch you up on my life. I am finally back home in Cruces and I have been for awhile. As much as I would like to say that my semester in Spain flew and I can't believe where the time went, I'd rather just be honest. The semester went by at a fairly normal (if not slower than usual) rate and I know exactly where the time went. I could probably give you a play-by-play of my day if you gave me a specific date to walk you through. In any case, last semester was a wonderful experience but being home is even more wonderful.
And now that I am back in Cruces, I've been able to jump back into the church and build those relationships that I was longing to have last semester. Through this, I've been able to frequently meet some sweet girls for bible studies and discipleship each week. Together, we are walking through a study about discipleship and the first day of the study was from a passage in Luke 15. This passage is also known as the parable of the shepherd. You know: leaving the 99 to find the one. There's a song written about it and I highly recommend you listen to it and scream it at the top of your lungs until it becomes your reality but ANYWAYS. If you aren't familiar with the parable, Jesus was speaking to a group of people about a shepherd that keeps such close watch on his sheep that if he has 100 sheep and one goes astray, he will leave the 99 to find the one that strayed. Obviously, this parable is a huge flashing arrow pointing to our shepherd who will leave everything behind to find us (the lost sheep).
So, I was talking to these girls about what this parable means about us as believers and how we should view ourselves based on this scripture. The true and wonderful thing they all began the conversation with was "well, if the Lord values us to the point of leaving 99 sheep just to find us, we should see ourselves as that valuable and that worthy." Which is so true and so refreshing: especially hearing it from a high schooler. There is something so mind-blowing about hearing that truth come out of someone else's mouth. It is one thing to say it to yourself but to have someone tell you: "the Lord values you enough to drop everything just to find you. So believe that...walk in it." It's so special and pure. However, I digress.
The next question was "okay, so then how should we view others because of this passage" and the answers were jaw dropping. Get ready, buckle in, because these girls are about to rock your world. After long conversations with these girls, they came up with the point that: if the Lord is willing to leave everything behind to pursue the hearts of the lost, we should do so as well. Excuse me. This shouldn't matter but I am going to say it anyway: these are high school girls that spoke this. Their intelligence and heart for other people is literally inspirational.
Excuse me, let me say it again: if the Lord is willing to drop everything to pursue the lost, we should too. I mean, it all makes sense when you think about it, right? Christian literally means "little Christ" which is another way of saying "be imitators of Christ" which is also a scripture in case you were wanting to challenge me. But in addition, we are told to deny ourselves to follow Christ...aka drop everything (including ourselves and our pride) to show people Christ. The beauty of self denial can be then found in the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep. The parable ends with "and there will be more joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner than over ninety-nine persons who need no repentance." When we deny ourselves and pursue the lost, just as Jesus does, there is more joy in heaven than ever before.
So this is where we find our joy. The Lord pursues our hearts to the extent of dropping everything to find us. We should do the exact same with those around us. My prayer for you today is that you deny yourself because you know your worth. My prayer is that you walk in the freedom and salvation that the Lord has so freely given to you and that you invite others to do so as well. For as we know, there is more joy in a lost soul finding repentance than ninety-nine who need none.
Amen.
I guess I should probably catch you up on my life. I am finally back home in Cruces and I have been for awhile. As much as I would like to say that my semester in Spain flew and I can't believe where the time went, I'd rather just be honest. The semester went by at a fairly normal (if not slower than usual) rate and I know exactly where the time went. I could probably give you a play-by-play of my day if you gave me a specific date to walk you through. In any case, last semester was a wonderful experience but being home is even more wonderful.
And now that I am back in Cruces, I've been able to jump back into the church and build those relationships that I was longing to have last semester. Through this, I've been able to frequently meet some sweet girls for bible studies and discipleship each week. Together, we are walking through a study about discipleship and the first day of the study was from a passage in Luke 15. This passage is also known as the parable of the shepherd. You know: leaving the 99 to find the one. There's a song written about it and I highly recommend you listen to it and scream it at the top of your lungs until it becomes your reality but ANYWAYS. If you aren't familiar with the parable, Jesus was speaking to a group of people about a shepherd that keeps such close watch on his sheep that if he has 100 sheep and one goes astray, he will leave the 99 to find the one that strayed. Obviously, this parable is a huge flashing arrow pointing to our shepherd who will leave everything behind to find us (the lost sheep).
So, I was talking to these girls about what this parable means about us as believers and how we should view ourselves based on this scripture. The true and wonderful thing they all began the conversation with was "well, if the Lord values us to the point of leaving 99 sheep just to find us, we should see ourselves as that valuable and that worthy." Which is so true and so refreshing: especially hearing it from a high schooler. There is something so mind-blowing about hearing that truth come out of someone else's mouth. It is one thing to say it to yourself but to have someone tell you: "the Lord values you enough to drop everything just to find you. So believe that...walk in it." It's so special and pure. However, I digress.
The next question was "okay, so then how should we view others because of this passage" and the answers were jaw dropping. Get ready, buckle in, because these girls are about to rock your world. After long conversations with these girls, they came up with the point that: if the Lord is willing to leave everything behind to pursue the hearts of the lost, we should do so as well. Excuse me. This shouldn't matter but I am going to say it anyway: these are high school girls that spoke this. Their intelligence and heart for other people is literally inspirational.
Excuse me, let me say it again: if the Lord is willing to drop everything to pursue the lost, we should too. I mean, it all makes sense when you think about it, right? Christian literally means "little Christ" which is another way of saying "be imitators of Christ" which is also a scripture in case you were wanting to challenge me. But in addition, we are told to deny ourselves to follow Christ...aka drop everything (including ourselves and our pride) to show people Christ. The beauty of self denial can be then found in the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep. The parable ends with "and there will be more joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner than over ninety-nine persons who need no repentance." When we deny ourselves and pursue the lost, just as Jesus does, there is more joy in heaven than ever before.
So this is where we find our joy. The Lord pursues our hearts to the extent of dropping everything to find us. We should do the exact same with those around us. My prayer for you today is that you deny yourself because you know your worth. My prayer is that you walk in the freedom and salvation that the Lord has so freely given to you and that you invite others to do so as well. For as we know, there is more joy in a lost soul finding repentance than ninety-nine who need none.
Amen.
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