Matthew 18:12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We must not give up on any brother or sister who has chosen to leave the Way. It is not normal for them to depart from light into darkness, so their departure is indeed a wicked work of hypnotism and deceit. It is strange for them who have tasted the goodness of God\u2019s living streams to turn away from it and be satisfied with Satan\u2019s infested sewer waters. It\u2019s not normal, and that\u2019s why we need to look for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the story of Jesus, the lost animal was a sheep; signifying that the animal had belonged to the sheepfold. This was a believer. This was a saved soul, who for some reason went astray. We must act like the Good Shepherd; we must climb the mountains in search of the lost from amongst us. It\u2019s not good enough to bring in new people; we need to work hard to keep them in the sheepfold. And like David, when the lion and the bear come to steal a sheep, we must smite the carnivore and deliver the sheep. Every lost sheep is a victim, and we must approach him or her as such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFather, grant me the heart of Jesus so that I can feel empathy for the straying soul and go look for him. Help me not to come judgmentally, but with love and care for the sheep, and anger for the deceiver. This I ask, in Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 18:12 \u201cWhat do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?\u201d We must not give up on any brother or sister who has chosen to leave the Way. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t