Bring him home

I heard this said recently.  It's a terrible thing to be lost.  Do you remember ever being lost?  Maybe when you were a kid in a shopping centre?  That awful creeping horror when it slowly dawns on you that you don't know where your Mum or Dad is?  And that you have no idea how to find them? Yep.  Pretty terrifying.  And oh, the sweet relief when Mum or Dad finally find you!

But there's one thing worse than being lost.  And that's being lost, and no one is looking for you.  The word for that, is abandoned.  Right now, MH370 is still lost.  As we read in the papers, all sorts of resources are being applied to find it, and I truly salute the determined efforts of all the search teams who fight on in the face of challenging conditions and witheringly thin odds.  But imagine how you would feel as a passenger or a relative if instead you realised no one was looking for you, or that the search had stopped.  Awful.  Being lost, and no one is looking for you.  Abandoned.

This lesson has a specific meaning to Christians.  All of life is one big search and rescue mission.  I was lost, a sinner and an enemy of Christ, and now I am found.  Today I live in the joy and the peace of God, together with a loving community of brothers and sisters.  We enjoy fellowship, we encourage each other through tough times, we teach and learn from each other, we worship and praise our awesome God together.  It's great.  But as I also recently heard being said - fellowship, teaching and praise are not the primary mission of the church.  All these are merely preparation for one thing - to save the lost, just as Christ saved us.

How do we know this is true?  Because fellowship, teaching and praise can only be better in heaven.  There is only one thing we cannot do in heaven that we can do on earth - and that is save the lost.  This is why Jesus' last instruction to us was "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."  Matt 28:19-20

All of us can "go".  This part's easy.  Everyday, we are "going".  To work, to the grocery, to school, to spend time with family and friends.  The question is, as we "go" are we making disciples?  Baptising?  Teaching them God's ways?  If not, all you're really doing is "going".  Going nowhere to be specific.  All the Bible reading and exegesis, hymns and worship and yes, blog writing will mean absolutely nothing if we don't get out and make a real, eternal difference to someone's life.

When we finally meet Jesus face to face, where do we think the conversation with Him will pick up?  I think it's fair to say He'll pick up where He left off.  "So, Glenn, how did the making disciples thing go?"

It's an awful thing to be lost.  Lost for purpose in life, lost in wondering how to cope with family, with work, with illness, with finances and with relationships, lost in trying to make sense, to make things right.  Even more terrible is being lost and no one's looking for you.  Abandoned.  Thank God, I know that He is searching for the lost.  He found me.  He didn't abandon me.  So, like the emergency search team, how can I now see the lost and say, too difficult.  Better things to do.  Someone else can do it.  When I say this, I am really saying "abandon the search!".  No, in the words of Jean Valjean, let me instead help to bring them home, and rejoice as each is found and returned to God's loving embrace.  

God on high
Hear my prayer
In my need
You have always been there

He is young
He's afraid
Let him rest
Heaven blessed
Bring him home
Bring him home
Bring him home...

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