Lost Now Found

“I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10

by Chuck Ness

Have you ever lost something so precious and valuable that you searched day after day for it. You looked in every conceivable place you possibly could think of just to find that precious item.

After a Month or even a year later, you find yourself still searching for that precious item that is lost.

Well, consider the Lord, he is searching for the lost. Like the shepherd who leaves his flock to find that one lost sheep. Then when HE finds it, He is like the man who's son returned after living a life of sin in a foreign land. He threw a party for His whole household, because that which was lost was found. All of heaven parties the day Christ finds a lost soul.

You and I Are Barabbas

By Chuck Ness

Like our sin that goes away never to be brought up again by God, so too is Barabbas to history. Neither Christian nor Jewish writings, ever mention Barabbas again. Barrabas was the scapegoat which was released into the wilderness, so that the Levitical ceremonial law of sacrifice  could be fulfilled by Christ. 

The word scapegoat means something entirely opposite from what it meant at the time the King James version of the Bible was wrote. Today, the word is used most often in sports media. It 's used when a particular player or coach is being blamed for a team's poor performance in a game or season. The person receiving the brunt of the blame game is called the scapegoat. The rest of the team is free from blame and the scapegoat is blamed as the reason for a lack of success.

Smoldering Ruins Of Your Past

(Ruins Of Paradise California After devestating Fire)

by Chuck Ness

Knowledge puffs us up, but love edifies. Some, like myself have at times, come off like we are so puffed up with our knowledge of HIS word that we become arrogant towards the lost. To the lost, we become nothing more than a clanging bell that drives the lost farther from Christ, not nearer to THEE.

Sometimes I get so angry that I lose track of the mission I have been baptized to do. Lately, my heart has become so withered with hurt and anger towards those who wish me and mine harm, that I have nothing but hate packed in my arsenal for battle.