by David Brenneman
And so He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin which I had lost!’ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:3-10 NASB
It's a possibility hard concept to grasp that you are so important to Jesus. You. Yes, you. Even as you look back over your life and you know your highs and your lows. You know your secret successes and your secret failures. Some you've completely forgotten. Some you know so well in your mind that it's as if they happened yesterday.
Yet you my Dear Reader were important enough, long, long before you were born, were important enough for Jesus to go through all He did to save you.
You may find it hard to believe, some do. Some accept it and can move forward in life with Him. Some struggle with it and it's what's keeping them from salvation in Christ Jesus. They keep looking at their worthiness and its not about that.
When anyone turns down the right path, the right road, that God's wanting for them from a life they weren't meant to live, it gets broadcast to everyone in Heaven.
That's what I get from this passage. I don't read it anywhere of the things we do wrong being told or shown to those in Heaven. The sheer volume of tears would be beyond measure. People there who are freed from this body of sin would find no rest if they knew what all was going on in this world. Only Jesus, the Spirit, the Father, can look into time to this very moment you live in. The Angels step into time at the discretion of God.
To know that our obedience is that highly valued, that highly celebrated, wow.
Emptiness is what people find the hardest concept to grasp when they dismiss a life in Christ Jesus. They try to fill that void with anything and everything this world tells them that will satisfy that longing that only a right relationship with Jesus will fill.
It's a God thing that even in Heaven He shows that He wants the best for us in front of those who have already arrived there after dying in Christ Jesus.
He tells those there of our obedience. Tells them of when we're back on track living the way He taught us to live.
I CAN surround myself with people telling me how great I am. That's a worldly philosophy. That's what Satan teaches from everyone's earliest days on this Earth. But what does it profit you to gain that and yet forfeit your soul?
Jesus celebrated our coming to Him to be saved.
Jesus celebrates our obedience by telling others and all Heaven erupts like a last minute score of a close game.
Jesus loves to celebrate you.
He gave us His Spirit until our work on this Earth is done. It's on us to live by what the Spirit teaches us. When we live what He teaches, Heaven celebrates.
Some may easily equate that with a sportscaster giving a play by play of a drive in a game that's going very much according to the plan of the team with the ball. His voice rises in excitement. His jubilation isn't contained. He erupts when the score happens.
That's possibly what happens in Heaven when we get some truth of God understood in our lives and we live it.
It's what we do in our bodies for Jesus that is the only thing valued when we stand before Him to give an account of our lives.
What are you doing in your life that is causing celebration in Heaven? Or for you is Heaven silent and the celebration is for others? Will you be standing before Jesus, giving an account of your life, and there's nothing to show concerning your life in Christ? Will there be anything for you to give back to Him for all He's done for you?
Heaven rejoicing over me is something that I read and find it humbling. I know my life and the struggles that I am living in today and yet my Savior is telling those there about even the little things that I might be getting right in my life for Him. He speaks of those things of me and others and Heaven celebrates. Wow.
Jesus said it and said it more than one way. The next portion of Luke 15 goes into the Prodigal Son. In various ways He wrote it down of how much Heaven celebrates a life lived as He intended it to be lived. He didn't want you to miss it!
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