“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.” (Luke 15:4-7 The Message Bible)
Monday morning, I spent some time going through the church picture albums. Yes, there was a time when everything was not digitalized. I was searching for some pictures of my sister who recently transitioned home to heaven, believing that surely there has to be a few photos since she was a charter member. After going through several albums, I found what I was looking for, but I made another observation and also came up with a conclusion that is applicable to all believers. This includes you and all who have confessed Christ in your family and friends orbit.
On my search through the albums, I looked at many pictures of infants that are now adults with their own families. I looked at the pictures of youth singing for the Lord, performing in Christmas and Easter plays, participating in youth activities, and seemingly glad to be in church services, based on the smiles that were on their faces and the regularity of their participation in the life of the church. Unfortunately, many of the infant and youth and youth in the pictures, and even some of the old photos of adults are missing. They are not available to be included in present day pictures of the faithful. Where did they go? Are they still in church, just attending elsewhere. Or did they choose to take a unwise, unapproved LOA, leave of absence, from the church, or have they just given up on the church altogether? These were questions, just based on the observation of the pictures of the faithful.
The conclusion I came up with is that we, the faithful, have to do a better job in evangelizing. As you note in the closing verse, making disciples starts at home, in our Jerusalem and spreads out to the geographical concentric circles that include out Judea, our Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. With a sense of urgency, we should start winning back those who once attended regularly when they were in the pictures of the faithful. Let get them back to a local church, or to a church where they reside if they have relocated. We all need the Lord, whether young or old. So, let’s start brining those who were once filled with zeal about church back to the house of God. That’s part of the work that we have been commissioned to do. Go back to the top of this meditation and look at the example of the shepherd in the story told By Jesus in the opening verses. It’s in that set of stories Jesus told about the lost; the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
Now, let us commit to demonstrating that evangelizing is still part of our work. Let’s start making disciples first in the vicinity or better put, those in close proximity of where we live first. And remember, nobody is too grown that they don’t need to grow in the Lord. And if you want to tell that “whoever” you reach out to that I said so, go ahead, because I know that I’m right about it.
Have a terrific Thursday! Share this word! Get your camera phone ready to take some new pictures of some of the sheep we will bring back to the fold. Be ready to post some updated pictures of the faithful! Oh my! By the way, let me check before I close! You are still in the pictures, aren’t you! I hope so! I love you! Be blessed!
“And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8b Modern English Version)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King