January 23, 2023 … Lost and Found …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2023 - Day 23 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from the group Hillsong United singing  … The Lost Are Found … poignantly singing of how our Lord has come to save the lost and give sight to the blind and to give life to the dead … FOREVER MORE!! 

The Good Shepherd finds the lost lamb ... 

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Highlight Passage: …  Luke 15:6 [NLT] …  

6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’  

… Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to show how much God rejoices over lost lambs being retrieved for His flock.          

Highlight Passage (Context): … Luke 15:1-10 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus shares the parable of the lost sheep to illustrate the joy in heaven with the lost are found.                                                                                                                                               

===============                                                                     .                                                                                                              

Reference Passage: … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… God, thru Solomon shows that if we trust in God completely that He will show the lost the way to go in life. 

Reference Passage: … Isaiah 53:6 [NLT] … 

6 All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the LORD laid on Him the sins of us all.       

… Thru Isaiah, God promises a Messiah to lead His lost sheep back into His flock.    

                

Reference Passage: … Matthew 18:12-14 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ... 

… Matthew relates Jesus telling the parable of the lost sheep and how He, as our Good Shepherd, would leave the 99 in His flock to find the lost lamb which had wandered from the Shepherd’s flock.  

Reference Passage: … Matthew 28:19-20 [NLT] …USE THIS LINK ...  

… Matthew relates Jesus commission to all of His disciples to go and find the lost and help them (and us) find His way to glory.        

Reference Passage: … Luke 19:10 [NLT] … 

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”   

… Jesus declares that it was His purpose in life - and in His death - to find and save those who are lost.    

                                                                  

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, James Banks … AT THIS LINK …   … tells of a man expressing the joy he found in finding lost wedding bands which he found on a beach with his metal detector when he was able to find the owner and return the rings to the owner.  

And that story reminded the ODB author of the story of Jesus’ parable of the joy of the shepherd going out to find the lost lamb who had wondered from His flock (see Matt 18:12-14 and Luke 15:1-7); … and how Jesus likewise charges all of His disciples to go and find the lost  to bring them, like Jesus, back into God’s eternal flock (see Matt 28:19-20).  

Oh, how I pray we’re all committed to that calling today.               

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for seeking me out in the lost and found of life and showing me the way to glory.       

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to thankfully express our joy in being found by You, Lord, … our Good Shepherd, … and brought into Your eternal flock.   …     Amen

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.