BBD 06.21.16 Lost (New)

#1 · June 21, 2016, 1:03 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on June 21, 2016, 1:03 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1756^th

Burning Bush Devotional

21 June 2016

Lost

Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help
me.I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do
not forget Your commandments. – Psalm 119:175-176 NKJV.

Return, you backsliding
children, And I will heal your backslidings. – Jeremiah 3:22 NKJV.

For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. – Matthew 18:11 NKJV.

A man
and a woman on their way from Baltimore to New York became lost during their
drive. Somehow they turned onto an access road of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power
Station, and things went downhill from there. When they arrived at a locked
gate preventing entry to a sensitive area, why didn’t they just turn around?
No, they did not turn around. Instead, the man apparently used a bolt cutter he
just happened to have in his car to cut the chain which secured the gate. After
the couple was arrested they claimed not to have seen the two “No Trespassing” signs on the gate. Both
the man and the woman were arrested for trespassing; and when they were
searched, the woman was found to have a small metal pipe which smelled of
marijuana. The woman was also charged with possession of a controlled dangerous
substance. A spokesperson for the Atomic Power Station assured the public that
the couple had been under surveillance the entire time. She also said there
were several layers of security preventing entry into the most sensitive areas
of the power station. (York Daily Record 05.29.16)

I have
gotten “lost” a few times while
driving, and one time I was so lost that I actually bought a map to find my
location. I guess I could have asked someone for directions, but that would
have been admitting failure violating the unwritten code of manhood to never
ever ask for directions. Okay, I will confess, I have asked for directions a
couple of times. However, I have never been so lost as to whip out my bolt cutters
and cut the chain on a gate with two “No
Trespassing” signs barring the way to a nuclear power plant. Of course, I
have never been smoking pot while I was driving either. What kind of people are
these? I do have some bolt cutters that are in my farm pickup, but I have never
seen a need to carry bolt cutters around in my car.

Are you
lost? There are at least three ways that we may be in some way be lost on a
spiritual level. The worst kind of lostness is to not know Jesus as your
Savior. Jesus came to seek and to save you (Matthew
18:11). In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me.” Jesus is addressing Revelation
3:20 to the members of the congregation at Laodicea; however, the
context and terminology suggest that most were not authentic believers being
without a saving knowledge of Jesus as their Savior. Jesus is knocking at the
door of your heart and He wants to come in, will you let Him?

Another
way we can be lost is that after we have come to know Jesus as our Savior, we
then turn away at some point. The Old Testament speaks of this as “backsliding” (mentioned in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Hosea) in KJV or of choosing your own “willful ways”
in the NIV. This is addressed in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us.” A
false claim of the critics of the apostle John was that believers are without
sin, unable to sin. John makes it clear that this is not true and he gives us
the solution to this form of lostness in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If
you have chosen your own “willful
ways” instead of God’s will, now is the time to confess
those sins to the Lord.

A third
way of being lost is when we have a broken spirit. Psalm
119:176 says, “I have gone
astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your
commandments.” The Expositor’s
Bible Commentary says this about Psalm
119:175-176, “The last verse of the psalm is a cry from a broken
spirit, not a confession of apostasy. The psalmist feels helpless, like a ‘lost
sheep,’ and cries to his Good Shepherd to ‘seek’ him, for he has not neglected
God or His word.” What is the solution to being lost? For all three
types of lostness we just need Jesus. We must look unto Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first devotionals
was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities
throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

www.theburningbush.net

www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for McCoy Greer, Michelle Abetz,
Shane Hall, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer
and Jeanie.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at edwrather@yahoo.com or
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1756^th

Burning Bush Devotional

21 June 2016

Lost

Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help
me.I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do
not forget Your commandments. – Psalm 119:175-176 NKJV.

Return, you backsliding
children, And I will heal your backslidings. – Jeremiah 3:22 NKJV.

For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. – Matthew 18:11 NKJV.

A man
and a woman on their way from Baltimore to New York became lost during their
drive. Somehow they turned onto an access road of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power
Station, and things went downhill from there. When they arrived at a locked
gate preventing entry to a sensitive area, why didn’t they just turn around?
No, they did not turn around. Instead, the man apparently used a bolt cutter he
just happened to have in his car to cut the chain which secured the gate. After
the couple was arrested they claimed not to have seen the two “No Trespassing” signs on the gate. Both
the man and the woman were arrested for trespassing; and when they were
searched, the woman was found to have a small metal pipe which smelled of
marijuana. The woman was also charged with possession of a controlled dangerous
substance. A spokesperson for the Atomic Power Station assured the public that
the couple had been under surveillance the entire time. She also said there
were several layers of security preventing entry into the most sensitive areas
of the power station. (York Daily Record 05.29.16)

I have
gotten “lost” a few times while
driving, and one time I was so lost that I actually bought a map to find my
location. I guess I could have asked someone for directions, but that would
have been admitting failure violating the unwritten code of manhood to never
ever ask for directions. Okay, I will confess, I have asked for directions a
couple of times. However, I have never been so lost as to whip out my bolt cutters
and cut the chain on a gate with two “No
Trespassing” signs barring the way to a nuclear power plant. Of course, I
have never been smoking pot while I was driving either. What kind of people are
these? I do have some bolt cutters that are in my farm pickup, but I have never
seen a need to carry bolt cutters around in my car.

Are you
lost? There are at least three ways that we may be in some way be lost on a
spiritual level. The worst kind of lostness is to not know Jesus as your
Savior. Jesus came to seek and to save you (Matthew
18:11). In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me.” Jesus is addressing Revelation
3:20 to the members of the congregation at Laodicea; however, the
context and terminology suggest that most were not authentic believers being
without a saving knowledge of Jesus as their Savior. Jesus is knocking at the
door of your heart and He wants to come in, will you let Him?

Another
way we can be lost is that after we have come to know Jesus as our Savior, we
then turn away at some point. The Old Testament speaks of this as “backsliding” (mentioned in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Hosea) in KJV or of choosing your own “willful ways”
in the NIV. This is addressed in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us.” A
false claim of the critics of the apostle John was that believers are without
sin, unable to sin. John makes it clear that this is not true and he gives us
the solution to this form of lostness in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If
you have chosen your own “willful
ways” instead of God’s will, now is the time to confess
those sins to the Lord.

A third
way of being lost is when we have a broken spirit. Psalm
119:176 says, “I have gone
astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your
commandments.” The Expositor’s
Bible Commentary says this about Psalm
119:175-176, “The last verse of the psalm is a cry from a broken
spirit, not a confession of apostasy. The psalmist feels helpless, like a ‘lost
sheep,’ and cries to his Good Shepherd to ‘seek’ him, for he has not neglected
God or His word.” What is the solution to being lost? For all three
types of lostness we just need Jesus. We must look unto Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first devotionals
was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities
throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

http://www.theburningbush.net

http://www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for McCoy Greer, Michelle Abetz,
Shane Hall, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer
and Jeanie.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at edwrather@yahoo.com or
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org