Seeking the Lost (Protestant and Evangelical Devotional/Caucus)

Ligonier.Org ^ | 4/29/2016

[Gamecock]

Martin Luther, as a herald of the Reformation, exclaimed that the church must be profane. It must move out of the temple and into the world. Luther looked to the Latin roots of the word profane, which comes from pro-fanus (“outside the temple”). If Christ is not relevant outside the church, He is insignificant inside the church. If our faith is bound to the inner chambers of the Christian community, it is at best a disobedient faith and at worst, no faith at all.

It was the Pharisees who developed the doctrine of salvation by separation. They were practicing segregationists, believing that holiness was achieved by avoiding contact with unclean sinners. No wonder they were scandalized by the behavior of Jesus, who dealt with Samaritans, ate dinner with tax collectors, placed His hand upon lepers, and ministered to harlots. Our Lord was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton, not because He was overweight or given to intemperance, but because He frequented places where these things were commonplace.

If guilt by association were a legitimate offense, Jesus would have lost His sinlessness early in His ministry. But He came to seek and to save the lost. He found them gathered in His Father’s world.

Coram Deo

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He commanded us to do likewise. What are you doing in response to that command?

Passages for Further Study

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

[Gamecock]

And that brings us to the end of another week of devotionals.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

And today I will close with a hymn:

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

[.45 Long Colt]

This has become my favorite hymn. Not only do I love the lyrics, all three of my daughters play it often on the piano and I melt every time.

“O to grace how great a debtor...”

[Gamecock]

So rich, so full of Biblical truths.

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.”

[.45 Long Colt]

And Bono is in the news saying he wants Christian lyrics to be more honest. What’s more honest than “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love?”

I suspect he’s listening to the wrong “Christian” music.

[Gamecock]

I didn't hear about that.

After reading what he reportedly said, it sounds like Bono needs to get away from the Jesus Is My Boyfriend genre and look at these great old hymns.