Powerful lessons....

Wow...God has been teaching me so many lessons while being here in Honduras! I have been having a blast with building, and working in the cafe, shopping in the market, and taking cold showers! And just hanging out with my classmates! But what I wanted to share, was the message the pastor shared with us, not this last Sabbath, but the Sabbath before. It was a powerful sermon...the pastor gave the example of the lost coin, and the lost sheep. In the story of the lost coin, the coin didn't know he was lost. He was also lost inside the house. The sheep in contrast, did know he was lost, and he was lost outside the fold. In the same way, we may be Christians, and may be weekly church goers, but we might be unknowingly lost. There are also those who are not professed Christians, who are outside the church, and who know they are lost. Which state is better? To be lost and know it? or to be lost and not know it? to be lost while the truth is right beside you? or to be lost where you have to search for the truth? When you sit and think about it....it is actually better to be lost when you know that you are lost, and when the truth is something you search for. Because if it is something you are searching for, you will treasure and prize it much more then if it is handed to you on a silver platter. This is almost better then being in the church, going to church, but just floating. I'm not saying that those who are outside the fold, are in the right. But those that are in the church need to be aware of their state. And they need to be searching for truth. Powerful eh? And to go along with being a Christian, yet not just floating, Wednesday night, one of the staff members of the school gave another powerful worship thought. He told a story about his brother, who was not a Christian. This brother was giving a stranger a ride in his car. The one consolation about this stranger, was that he was carrying a Bible. That was why the brother was not as nervous about giving this stranger a ride. A little while down the road, when they were out of town, this stranger pulled out his Bible. But it turned out to be a fake, because the stranger opened the Bible, and inside was not the treasures of scripture, but a gun. This stranger stole the brothers car, and other things. This just shows, that just because we look like Christians on the outside, doesn't make us Christians on the inside. We can't be a living lie...we need to make sure that our hearts are just as dedicated to Jesus Christ as our actions might look like. We need to be through and through Christians, not just floating. And we must also search for truth with all our hearts.