Who’s Not Here?

Have you ever taken your family to a theme park? Maybe you took kids from your church, or your child’s class at school on a field trip. You get off the bus or out of the car and immediately do a head count. Periodically throughout the day, you keep taking head counts. If the number is short, you follow up with “Who’s not here?”

At church, I help greet people as they come in. I have a couple of other duties I perform as well so I sit in the back pew. Because I sit on the back pew, I know where the majority of people sit. When they are not there, I know. I see empty spaces. Sometimes, if I’m not sure who is missing I ask, who’s not here?

When a person is not where we can see them, or they are not where we think they should be, we sense that they are missing. It’s like a void, or emptiness.

In the Marines we constantly kept a count of all our people. We wanted to know where everyone was at all times. You didn’t want to leave anyone behind and if someone was missing, they could be lost or dead. There was constant accountability. Even in formations we would always count. Every single man had to be present, or accounted for.

When the count was taken, you would say “all present and accounted for.” To be accounted for, you didn’t have to be in formation, someone just had to know where you were. If you weren’t where you were supposed to be, you were “UA” or as the Army says “AWOL.”  (UA= unauthorized absence, and AWOL = absent without leave).

When you get to heaven and you regroup with your family, what if one of your kids is missing?  A spouse?  A sibling?  A parent?  Do you want to say “Who’s not here?”

Think about this long and hard. What can you do today to avoid having to look for that one who is unaccounted for? Please consider this and pray about it. One day it will be too late. Don’t wait to share the gospel. Pray fervently and without ceasing. Do everything you can right now to touch everyone you can with God’s love.

My prayer is that one day you can say “all present and accounted for!”

¹² “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! ¹⁴ In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.  –Matthew 18:12-14

Why Do People Leave The Church? Part II

They are in rebellion against God.

When a person is living outside the will of God, we find it hard to come into the church (building and presence of other believers). This is a reminder of the un-confessed sin in our life and the power of conviction makes us uncomfortable. Like Jonah, we seek to get away from the presence of God. The longer we run from God, the further we get away from Him. That over whelming feeling of conviction lessens, and we began to get comfortable in our sin. Any mention of God or going to church invokes that deep feeling of guilt and we become unsettled.

Then there are those of us who lose a loved one, go through a divorce, or experience some other catastrophic event in our life. We blame God and act out. We may even seek to get even. Our heart hardens and we just pull farther and farther away. We may even seek to discourage others in their walk. Some may claim to be atheists or agnostic.   

Is there hope for the rebellious, wayward soul?

The Lost Son  [Luke 15:11-24]

¹¹ Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. ¹³ And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. ¹⁴ But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. ¹⁵ Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
²⁰ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³ And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ²⁴ for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

If you are living in rebellion, please come back to the Father today. I promise you He will receive you with open arms.