Lost and Found

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And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost… - Luke 15:6

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost… - Luke 15:9 

… Let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. - Luke 15:23b-24 

“Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”  - John Newton

“We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus Saves! Spread the tidings all around. Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

So that grand hymn of faith calls us to “give the winds a mighty voice.”

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound," exclaimed John Newton, a man who, by his own testimony, was thoroughly lost and gloriously found.

How sweet the sound? Oh yes.

The lost has been found. It is the sound of laughter and merriment. It is the sound of praise. It is the sound that rings through the streets of Heaven and even the angels sing. It is the sound that warms the heart of God. It is the sound that ought to flow from our voices daily and throughout the day, the song of gratitude, of joy, and of love.

Whereas I was lost, I am now found. I am no longer lost, no longer hopeless, no longer guilty, alienated, or dispossessed. I am no longer unworthy, no longer useless, no longer an orphan. God no longer sees me as a sinner, but as a son. I have a hope. I have a future. As He did with Jeremiah of old, He knows the plans He has for me.

I am found.

Do you know the joy of being found?

Or have you forgotten.

The truth can be seen in your attitudes toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, whether you are patient and forgiving or irritable and judgmental? The truth is revealed in your attitudes toward the people who feel lost and broken.

Are you charitable and seeking or critical and aloof? The truth is seen in your attitudes toward new believers. Do you rejoice or rebuff? Do you step aside and move over or do you guard your established territory? Do you join the celebration, feasting with the friends of the father or do you stand afar off as the son who feels he never left home?

You will never be at home as long as you cling to the notion that you never left. You will never experience the full joy of redemption if you forget that you were lost in slavery to sin when grace found you. You will be unmoved at the singing of Amazing Grace if you forget that the wretch saved was you and the lost one who returned was also you. You have been found!

Rejoice, but keep this also in mind. All three of these parables have one thing in common. Someone has lost something and then, find it. It is the person who loses the coin, the sheep, or the son who celebrates the most. Others join in. The son benefits, but it is the Father who finds what he last lost and loves the most.

The greatest joy in the finding is God's and God shares that joy with us.

"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am” ― John Newton

 

“I am still in the land of the dying; I shall be in the land of the living soon. (his last words)” 

“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now i see.”
― John Newton, Amazing Grace

 

 

John Newton's tombstone reads:

"John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy!"