Daily Encouragement

Monday, February 7, 2022

Winter farmview with Scripture 1 Peter 1:8,9

A winter farm scene at the end of our road.
(Although we presently do not have any snow cover)
Click on image for larger view.

"Lost"

Message summary: Today let us also consider the heart of Christ when those whose human souls are lost among us and the rejoicing spirit that celebrates when they are found.

Note: We have been unable to prepare a podcast the last several days due to a problem connecting our old microphone to our new computer. We are scheduled to receive a new one today and hopefully can resume with tomorrow's message.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4).

I regularly visit for a few minutes with a friendly Muslim man from Morocco in a noisy warehouse so our conversations are short but I look for ways to be a witness for Christ in a winsome way. Part of my conversational approach toward him is bringing up news I might hear from his home region. If I am not mistaken he may be the only person I've ever met from Morocco my entire life. Tomorrow I plan to extend my sympathies for a family from his home land who experienced heart-wrenching loss over the weekend. So many throughout the world have been deeply moved by the woeful plight of this young family.

Morocco is rarely in the news but for the last several days a four-day attempted rescue of a five year old boy who fell into a well "rippled across the world — welding so many in hope and then unifying them in grief" (news article). They were able to get the boy out of the well but he died.

These kinds of heroic efforts remind us of the good in mankind in spite of the fall and our total depravity. The scenes of hundreds of rescue workers and heavy equipment, the goodwill sentiments from all around the world, and the great expense incurred, all for just one lost child.

Many who live away from rural areas have never seen a well. We have a well from which we get our water, but it's just a sealed six inch metal casing exposed above the ground (photo on left). The biggest danger is tripping over it and the biggest nuisance is mowing around it in the summer. When I was a child my grandparents had a pump over a cistern just outside their back door. It had a concrete cover that a couple of men could lift off exposing a holding area about 6 feet deep. Brooksyne's grandparents who lived in the mountains of Arkansas lowered a large bucket from a rope into their deep well to get their water.

The closest I have ever been to the type of well the little Moroccan boy fell into was on a Mennonite farm I visited many years ago. The farmer had removed the cover to a hand dug well with a hole large enough for an adult to fall into. I took a photo (pictured right) looking down into the well and you can barely see my reflection in the water 60 feet below.

A prophet in the Bible was thrown into a well (more likely a cistern) which we wrote about many years ago.

But today, in considering the rescue effort in Morocco, another Bible lesson comes to mind, a parable that Jesus taught regarding just one lost sheep:

"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them'. Then Jesus told them this parable: 'Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent'" (Luke 15:1-7).

Today we consider the value of the one lost sheep. In our fallen sinful condition we don't have to try to get lost, we are lost by our very nature. Steven Cole explains that "The Biblical description of those who do not know Jesus Christ is not 'unsaved', but lost. It’s an empty, hopeless word when used in reference to things or to animals, but it’s an especially bleak word when it is used in reference to people.

In Morocco there was great rejoicing when the young boy was rescued but it was followed shortly by painful grief after he died. This recent news story grips our hearts since it deals with innocent human loss. Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep which speaks to the emotions we feel when an animal who is lost that has been found.

Consider these words from our text: "And when he finds it (the lost sheep), he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’"

Today let us also consider the heart of Christ when those human souls are lost among us and a rejoicing spirit among believers when they are found.

The late Bible teacher, Harry Ironside, told of a new convert who gave his testimony at a church service. With a smile on his face and joy in his heart, the man related how he had been delivered from a life of sin. He gave the Lord all the glory, saying nothing about anything that he had done. The person in charge of the meeting was a legalistic man who did not understand the fact that salvation is totally by God’s grace, apart from human merit or works. So he responded to the young man’s comments by saying, “You seem to indicate that God did everything when He saved you. Didn’t you do your part before God did His?” The new Christian jumped to his feet and said, “Oh, yes, I did. For more than 30 years I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me. That was my part. But God took out after me and ran me down. That was His part.” Ironside commented, “It was well put and tells a story that every redeemed sinner understands.”

John Newton's spiritual autobiography written in verse 250 years ago is also a testimony of all who are redeemed. If this is your testimony perhaps you can sing aloud the first stanza, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found; 'twas blind but now I see."

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, how grateful we are that You sent Jesus to seek and to save that which was lost, like the shepherd who sought out the lost lamb until it was found and rescued from danger. We think of Zaccheus, the chief tax collector, wanted to see Jesus but didn't expect Jesus to see Him. Yet Jesus knew right where He was and called Zaccheus to come down from the sycamore tree. Zaccheus obeyed and forsook his sinful way of life so that He might find righteousness through Christ. We also choose to forsake our sin and walk in the path of righteousness that leads to eternal life. Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Found" Video The Found

"Hymn of Heaven" Video From our service yesterday at Calvary Church. This song really touches our hearts. Dedicated to all our readers as we need to remember where our most important citizenship really is!

Rufus demonstrated for me that the pump still works (notice the big hole for the 60' well on the other side of the pump).

The Rufus Hoover farm is along Rt. 322 east of Ephrata, PA. (This experience is from about 10 years ago so they may not be there any longer.) Rufus had an interesting assortment of antique type items for sale along with a bunch of "junk" (you get to do the sorting). Any of our readers who have ever seen "American Pickers", a show about "Antique Archaeology" on the History Channel, would see it as the kind of place they'd select for one of their shows. We had stopped for some 50 cent pumpkins we saw on a road sign but while we were there we also looked through some stuff.

I noticed Rufus and his wife looking down at something so I walked over to investigate. They had removed the cover from an old hand dug, rock lined well and they were looking down into it. He told me, "It's sixty feet deep." I peered in and pointed the camera down to take the photo used in our message today but had absolutely no desire to go down into the darkness (by plan or accidental)! In fact I kept my feet back from the edge of the well as I held the camera out at an arm's distance to take the shot. In reviewing the photo I was reminded of the verse, "But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness."

Brooksyne's note: This morning we heard from an Oklahoma reader as a followup to Friday's message:

The story of the record repeatedly playing the phrase, "He giveth and giveth and giveth' reminded me of a story that I heard at Celebrate Recovery. As you can imagine, I hear some amazing testimonies there. A lady told the story of getting caught up in drugs and alcohol and eventually becoming suicidal due to the path that lifestyle took her down. One day she decided it was the day she would end her life. She sat in her living room with a bottle of alcohol and a gun. Her neighbor in the apartment complex, for some reason turned on a Christian record loudly and then left for work. A while later the record started to skip and played the same phrase over and over, all day long, while God ministered to this young lady until she gave her life to Him. The phrase was, "I love you."

Finally today:

On Saturday evening our long-time friends, Bunny and Peg O'Hare, came over for a visit. We first met them when we lived in New England when I was a pastor and Bunny was chaplain to truckers near Worcester, MA. We moved to PA in 2001 and several years later they moved down to work at Transport For Christ where Bunny was the director of chaplains for many years. They're still active in ministry with Bunny visiting several trucking companies each week and having an extensive residual ministry with scores of people they have met over the years. They both have a moving testimony of being saved in their adult years.

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