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This week we are beginning our study of Luke Chapter 15. Please read verses 1 to 10 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)
‘“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbours and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin. In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”’
Recently, Oasis Community Church was privileged to have over 20 young (and a few not so young) people attending Soul Survivor in Peterborough. If you’re not sure what Soul Survivor is, here is the description from their own website:
Soul Survivor “put on a range of events for young people, youth leaders, and for the whole church, to help people deepen their relationship with Jesus and grow in the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit.”
Each day there are 2 ‘main meetings’ where thousands of young people meet to worship in song and listen to relevant teaching/preaching. Each meeting has a point where the attendees are encouraged to respond to the moving of God’s Spirit. Sometimes this is in regard to healing or other personal ministry. On at least a few occasions, there is an appeal for a response to the call for salvation. This year, at the 4 events, there was a total of almost 1500 people who accepted Jesus as their Saviour for the first time. It was incredible to be there and to see hundreds making their way to the front of the hall.
I’m sure that, like me, you’re incredibly happy when you hear of so many people “coming to Christ” and our hearts are full of gratitude to God for His saving grace.
Jesus’ parable today is quite important for us to understand how God feels about someone who turns from their sin. It’s easy to ‘lose’ our focus when we are talking about the lost sheep and the lost coin. Our attention may be entirely trained on the item that is lost. We may even spend a long time thinking about the kind of rejoicing that is going on in heaven. I remember a song from decades ago called ‘Heaven invites you to a party’. This song told the story of great rejoicing at the birth of the Saviour and revelling in the promise of salvation for each one of us. As we discussed yesterday, parties are great events and there is so much happiness on display.
There is no doubt that angels are closely interested in our salvation. We see numerous scriptural references showing the role of angels in the lives of those who have responded to the grace of God and are called to His purposes. There is a wonderful verse in 1 Peter that talks about salvation and says ‘Angels long to look into these things’.
However, the parable’s main point in my opinion, is in regard to the focus of the celebration. God and His angels looks for sinners and rejoices over even one who repents. We tend to look for vast numbers of converts as I did in Soul Survivor, but God rejoices over each and every one of them as if they were the ONLY ONE.
May God give us the same focus and to treat each person as an individual who has been searched for by God, may we rejoice in their repentance in the same way as happens in heaven!
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