Lost

My Golden Retriever just disappeared.  She had taken off before but something told me this time was different.  I called for her numerous times and she did not come home.  I was sitting outside in the backyard and I faintly remember hearing a “car door” about the last time I heard her.  Did I imagine that I wondered, could it be the animal shelter?  Or worse?  I had taken a photo of her at 1:07 p.m. as we were sitting outside.  It had been over an hour now.  Where was she?  I tried to tell myself just to imagine her in the breezeway or coming out from the tall grass.

About 2:20 p.m. she returned and had a spot of blood above her left eye.  The tissue around her eye looked pretty bruised, too. She was dirty so I took the hose and washed her off.  I brought her in the house; she had an adventure that was for sure.  She panted extremely heavily for over 15 minutes.  In a human it would have been called hyperventilating.  There seemed to be no lessening of the intensity.  I sat down by her and held her paw to calm her, and tried to give her water but she wasn’t interested in it.  It looked to me like her gums were bleeding too.  She was still breathing hard but the panting stopped.  I am glad I don’t know what she got into.  She is home.  I had begged God over and over to please bring her home.  

There was a moment when she was missing that I got a glimpse of the Father as He is seeking His lost children.  If I love my dog that much I can only imagine how much He loves his children.  I can almost hear Him saying, “Go get them!  I don’t care about your personal feelings about them, they are My children, you don’t have to like them all, just lead them home.  They are My children, and I love them.”  Animal lovers will understand this next statement:  I couldn’t have cared less who brought my dog home, I just wanted her safe with me.  It could have been the police, my worst enemy or a neighbor.  I would have been grateful regardless, just to have her back where she belongs. Can’t you see the Father saying that about every lost child?  I personally have found salvation and I am assured of eternal life.  Do all His children know Him?  I have no right to sit on my laurels and pick and choose among them.  And in the Great Commission I have been commanded to tell them about Jesus.

Can you see if someone had seen my dog and said, “Well, that dog really isn’t worth the trouble of bringing it home. That dog can figure it out for itself.  I don’t want to interfere.  I know that dog and it has done this before.  I think that dog just needs to learn her lesson.  And besides all that, I’m busy with more important things.”

Can you imagine if someone saw a lost person and said, “Well, that person isn’t really worth the trouble of witnessing to.  That person can figure it out for themselves.  I don’t want to interfere.  I know that person and he has sinful behavior in his past.  I think that person just needs to learn his lesson. And besides, I’m busy with more important things.”  

I sat on the floor with my dog and occasionally, as I petted her head, she would lick my hand.  I was making sure her bleeding stopped.  She was grateful to be home.  I imagined her saying, “I’ll never you leave again.”  Of course there is no guarantee of that.  When I was a baby Christian I could not get enough of Him.  I knew every Christian radio station and the song line-ups for the day.  Little by little I grew up and grew out of certain things.  Today was a reminder that I should never lose sight of the lost.

I understand the lost when it comes to ministry, and it is the sole purpose of why I go to the prisons and tell them my testimony.  But there are other lost, the ones that are not so obvious, the ones who are not all dressed in the same color like in the prison or jails.  It is the lost I see when I run errands in everyday life.  It is the ones that are not behind physical bars that you can see but bars visible in only the spiritual realm.  Like maybe at the grocery store, the gas station or sitting in a church pew.

Let me ask you a question.  Do you witness?  If not, why not?  Could it be you too are not sure what you are a witness to?  And I don’t mean to your denomination, I mean to the Great Commission:  

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ 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, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here are questions to ponder:

What does “All authority” mean in verse 18?  

What does it mean to be baptized?  (Hint: Not infant baptism - verse 19)

What are you to teach them to obey?  (verse 20)

People are lost and will go to hell.  That’s the hard truth.  If you really know what you have in Christ you will know how to reach the lost.  If you don’t know what the Great Commission entails, please take the time to learn. People are perishing and you may be their only lifeline.

My dog is snoring as she lies on the kitchen floor.  What a wonderful sound.  Heaven rejoices with each person who gives their life to Christ and is found.  Oh, how beyond beautiful that must be! Don’t be too busy making a life here, when this is temporary, only to forget about our real calling.  At best we get about 100 years on earth and the only thing that will matter after we are gone is who we took with us.  

The unthinkable happened

Every shred of joy was gone

I left this town in disgrace

I couldn’t hold my head up

At last I dumped the whole mess on Jesus

And said with a demand,

“You’d have to be God to fix this!”

I imagine Him smiling

And today I glimpse eternity

(The short version of Set Free From Darkness)