Stay On Mission – 20th November 2018

4. ‘None of the shells is perfect’!
“For the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost” Luke 19:10
After a long time of searching along the beach Lynn had collected an amazing array of sea shells. When we sat down at the end of our walk, she was keen to show me the results of her ‘seeking’ so she laid the shells out on the table that we were sitting at, it was a very impressive collection.
As she began showing them to me, she started to examine each shell really carefully and noticed, to her horror, that not one shell that she had collected was perfect! Each one of them, on close examination, had a tiny peace missing, had a small chip, or was slightly discoloured in one part. Even the best of the shells was imperfect!
In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote some words that are very familiar to most Christians:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
This is a verse that is often used in an ‘evangelistic presentation’ and while this is valid it is not what Paul was really pointing to when he wrote his letter to the Romans. His point was that both Jews and Gentiles were sinners who fell short of the glory of God! There is nobody who has a right to God’s mercy and who can consider themselves ‘more worthy’ than anybody else – we all have cracks and imperfections – we were all lost!
To the Christians in Ephesus, Paul wrote:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast”. (Ephesians 2:8,9)
Those in the church are no more or less worthy than those outside and, as such, what should drive us as followers of Jesus, is a passion for imperfect people, to hear and believe the Good News that we have received, the message that Peter spells out in his first letter:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18)
As followers of Jesus, every one of us is the recipient of a gift that we don’t deserve and could never earn. We have received a free gift that is indescribably generous! As Jesus said to His disciples when He sent them out to share the gospel with others, we should recognize that:
Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10:8)
From one ‘imperfect shell to another’, can I encourage you, this week, to reflect on the enormous generosity that God has lavished upon you even though you don’t deserve it. Ask Him to fill you with a passion to share the great news of the gospel to the ‘cracked and even broken’ shells that are around you. For the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost!