06/16/2021
Once we have come to love those around us as Jesus has commanded us to do, how do we go about showing that love? We say that there is no greater love than to lay down our life for another, but do we understand the full meaning of this verse? There is also another way we can demonstrate our love that actually saves our life, and the lives the ones we love… that is to bring back a sinner from their wandering.
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
James 5:19-20 ESV
Many Christians today have lost sight of the fact that they hold the key to everlasting life, joy, and God, within their faith, and have become blinded to the incredible power that bringing even a single life to believe in Jesus Christ can have. Many Pastors are content to preach on the Sabbath, and then sit in their offices waiting for someone to knock on their door with a question regarding Jesus, or to ask for a prayer. Those missionaries who have been called to go out into the world to spread the gospel are staying safe in their homes writing letters, and speaking in churches as they solicit funds for some misguided venture. Mission trips have turned into mini-vacations to visit poor Christians, or excuses to tour foreign countries, and not actually to win souls. Christians who once witnessed to others about their faith have lost their voices, and now they resort to handing someone a pamphlet of scripture references on the street corner, or have convinced themselves that by simply believing, and going to church, that they are witness enough… they believe this example to be a sufficiently representative in faith that it will save others. The fire of evangelism has faded in us, and here we sit, bemoaning the world’s lack of faith as if there is nothing we can possibly do. We are afraid to let go of our comfortable life, and do the hard things that are being asked of us. We resist the need to lay down our well known existence in the world to venture into the unknown of faith by picking up our crosses… and following Jesus. Have we looked at this, and realized that in so doing we are laying down our lives?
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
John 15:13-14 ESV
We read this verse and it scares us. In our fear we even convince ourselves that if our spouse, children, or friends were in danger we would give our lives for theirs, but are we being honest with ourselves? This scripture means more than to die physically for someone else, it also prompts us to sacrifice the easy life we are leading so that we can bring souls to Christ. Do we honestly believe that if we won’t sacrifice our comfort to save someone’s soul, that we could actually die for them? Let’s think about this today and ask ourselves if we are truly obeying God’s Will, and spreading the gospel. Let’s ask ourselves if we are paying the cost, bearing the cross, or just pretending?
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”
Luke 14:27-28 ESV
So what is our calling, and how are we answering it? Are we called to be a pastor, a missionary, or to simply witness to others at home? Whatever we are tasked with doing by God, there will be sacrifice, risk, and cost, but there will also be great reward because it will involve winning new souls, and reclaiming those that are lost. Are we ready to venture out of our comfort zone and search for that one lost soul?
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””
Luke 15:10 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus who left the comfort of Heaven to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected to reclaim our souls for you. Thank you for his voice of witness, his life lived in service to you, and for dying that we might live forever with you, but thank you also for the great commission we received from him… to go into the world as He did, and spread the gospel that none would be lost. Help us Father, so that by your Holy Spirit we can reach out to the lives of those around us, and out of our love for them we will witness, and claim their souls, for you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loved us while we were yet sinners, and sent your only begotten Son to die for us. Praised be your name for revealing yourself to us, and sending Jesus to witness and take up His cross, that we would be saved, and you glorified. Merciful are you, because by your grace you saved us. Help us Lord to offer ourselves as witnesses to others in much the same way… without cost, and without obligation, except that they believe. Wash us clean in the blood of Jesus, and in His perfection let us live, witness, and be found worthy before you. Let the souls we have saved during our lives help save our own by joining with Jesus to cover our multitude of sins. In this we worship you now, and forevermore.
““What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4-7 ESV
Rich Forbes