THE LOST SHEEP
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
The Parable of the "Lost Sheep" found in Luke 15:3-10 is very straight forward for anyone because it deals with something lost that is very valuable to us, and what we would go through to retrieve what ever we had lost. In this instance it was sheep, and those whom Jesus spoke to were very aware of the value in the market place of that time of just one animal.
To us however this parable is rather disconnected because in our social structure even if something gets old it gets replaced with new. We tend to loose the value of things we have. We find today that there are very few heirlooms passed from one generation to another. We no longer have stories of furniture that was made by someone we love, or have the quality of craftsmanship in something that it would hold together that long.
Jesus had several reasons for pointing out how someone would spend all of the time needed to recover that lost sheep in the social structure in which He lived because people had those different values in place. Jesus followed this parable up with another thought with another illustration about "counting the cost" whenever you plane to do something or build something. He knew that during this time people watched closely as someone would begin a project because a failure to complete a building or a misjudgement on funds would make the man a laughing stock in the community. Like the "Lost Sheep" this could mean ridicule and a loss of status for a man in this world. Even though all of what we have talked about so far has been what other may think of us...Jesus was hinting at something else much more important, and that is the spiritual part of this parable.
We become the lost sheep that God is valuing so highly that he would never stop looking until He found us. God's love is so great and His commitment is so strong that without question we will be found, but the second part of that deals with our decision to either stay in the situation we are in or to go with God. This means that in making the decision to go with God we will also have to count the cost of what that means to our life here and now.
Counting the cost of what it will take to be a child of God in this world is important because we cannot have both this world and God...we cannot serve both God and man at the same time. The warning from Jesus should help us to see the price of both being lost to God, as well as the price of serving God because neither of these things are free. In the same way that freedom is free or the loving of others is free...we must decide, and then count the cost. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The Parable of the "Lost Sheep" found in Luke 15:3-10 is very straight forward for anyone because it deals with something lost that is very valuable to us, and what we would go through to retrieve what ever we had lost. In this instance it was sheep, and those whom Jesus spoke to were very aware of the value in the market place of that time of just one animal.
To us however this parable is rather disconnected because in our social structure even if something gets old it gets replaced with new. We tend to loose the value of things we have. We find today that there are very few heirlooms passed from one generation to another. We no longer have stories of furniture that was made by someone we love, or have the quality of craftsmanship in something that it would hold together that long.
Jesus had several reasons for pointing out how someone would spend all of the time needed to recover that lost sheep in the social structure in which He lived because people had those different values in place. Jesus followed this parable up with another thought with another illustration about "counting the cost" whenever you plane to do something or build something. He knew that during this time people watched closely as someone would begin a project because a failure to complete a building or a misjudgement on funds would make the man a laughing stock in the community. Like the "Lost Sheep" this could mean ridicule and a loss of status for a man in this world. Even though all of what we have talked about so far has been what other may think of us...Jesus was hinting at something else much more important, and that is the spiritual part of this parable.
We become the lost sheep that God is valuing so highly that he would never stop looking until He found us. God's love is so great and His commitment is so strong that without question we will be found, but the second part of that deals with our decision to either stay in the situation we are in or to go with God. This means that in making the decision to go with God we will also have to count the cost of what that means to our life here and now.
Counting the cost of what it will take to be a child of God in this world is important because we cannot have both this world and God...we cannot serve both God and man at the same time. The warning from Jesus should help us to see the price of both being lost to God, as well as the price of serving God because neither of these things are free. In the same way that freedom is free or the loving of others is free...we must decide, and then count the cost. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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