Friday, June 12, 2009
Context 15:4-7
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
I had an interesting revelation about the parable of the lost sheep this morning. This is one of the most famous parables in the bible yet God spoke powerfully to me regarding this verse which i have not known.
The parable of the lost sheep as most of us know speaks of the fact that God loves the sinners so much that He will go all out just to save one sinner. And heaven rejoices over the repentance of 1 lost sinner than many who do not repent.
In this parable - sinners are liken to the lost sheep Shepherd - liken to Jesus Christ/ the Church
Above are insight common to believers who knows about this parable.
But interestingly, God spoke to me quite a few steps with regards to this.
First when someone is lost, he/she is always away from the crowd. The sheep was lost because it was away from the 99.
Psalm 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Hence those that are backsliding are usually are those that start to break off from the crowd.
Secondly, God showed me how we can effectively reach out to such people.
1) Personal touch
The shepherd went out all the way to look for the sheep. This means stepping into people life, knowing what they are doing and appealing to their interest. Every single individual is important to God. So if we
understand that and always move through love, then we will be able to get them saved and back in church.
2) Integration
Interestingly many of the revelations that came to me recently are a result of thinking about the verses
over and over again. Many of us dont realise that the parable of the lost sheep does not end when the sheep is found by the shepherd. Besides the rejoicing, the next thing a shepherd would do is put it back into the crowd of sheep in which the sheep went astray. This speaks of us over the fact that when we successfully get a person back/ saved, we are to make effort to integrate them into the crowd of sheep.
3) Building their own altar before God
When Jesus use this parable, its interesting. Because for normal people like you and me we are unable
to tell 1 sheep from the other. Only the shepherd has that kind of knowledge which is able to differentiate one from another. Meaning the shepherd has personal knowledge about each and every sheep. And just as the shepherd has knowledge about its sheep, each and every single sheep also has a personal relationship with the shepherd.
John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
So the final step is for the" lost sheep" to learn to build their own altar before God. This is important for a believer to realize that as a mature believer, the believer must learn to have a personal walk with God. There are times when we feel that we are just "one of the many" in the crowd. We may even sometimes feel disconnected with the cell group we are in. But we need to realize that even though we maybe "one of the many" God has personal knowledge about every single one of us. So by always building our own altar before God, we can weather through the storms of life even sometimes we feel we are alone.
And another thing to realize is that although individual sheep are moving along the path with their own challenges and difficulties, but when each sheep look up and look forward, the sheep will realize that it is not alone, because the whole group of them are moving towards 1 general direction.
This really speaks about us over the fact that although individually we may have our own struggles, but when we look up and focus on God, we realize that we are not alone in this walk with God. There are many who are around you, who faces their own challenges and battles but yet each of us is persevering on to see the glory of God manifested.
Context ( Matt 14:25-31)
25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous,[b] he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
I was reminded of this familar passage few days ago. Wehn Jesus asked Peter to walk on the water with Him, initially Peter was not afraid to step out and start walking on water.
In many of our life circumstances, we are often like Peter. When we first hear the voice of God, we take steps of faith and begin stepping out with our heart full of faith, ready to do amazing things for God. We confess the word of God promises and begin visualizing and incubating our dreams.
But often God will take us through a second stage. Its when the wind was boisterous (verse 30) and the storm starts to grow bigger and bigger. And like Peter, many of us begin to SEE the wind, it wasnt that he didnt believe in the promises but he has began to focus on the wind and the storm, his eyes were no longer focused on Jesus, thats when he begins to sink. And like Peter, many of us tend to "sink" when circumstances no longer favor us, thats when our faith is tested.
Interestingly God gave us the solution here when we are faced with such circumstances. Just like how Peter cried out to the Lord, we must cry out once again to the Lord. And just like Jesus stretched out and caught Peter hand (verse 31), Jesus will stretched out His hand and help us through. Many a times, when we read this story, we stopped here.
However there is a final stage. Jesus and Peter walked back into the boat. So through this verses, God revealed the final stage of our dream fufillment. When we work together in partnership together with Him, we see our dreams and visions come to pass, we no longer see ourselves struggling through life.
