The Problem of the Lost

I was on a run a couple of days ago, day-dreaming as I often do on my runs, when a loose black dog came barreling up to me. I stopped running since dogs sometimes decide it is fun to eviscerate prey...which is what I become when I run from them. The dog was young, and friendly however, and had no desire to nibble my intestines. I noticed that the house right in front of us had an open gate to the back yard. I used my great powers of deduction and determined that the owners had unwittingly left their gate unlatched, and their dog had taken advantage of their lapse. So I called the happy dog to follow me, and lured him into the yard, then latched the gate.

Good deed accomplished, I continued on my run. A car with the window rolled down slowed beside me.
"You haven't seen a loose black dog, have you?" the driver asked.
"Why yes! I put him in the yard where you left your gate unlatched."  I pointed to the house down the street. It was indeed her dog, but it was not her yard or unlatched gate. She retrieved her dog, and I continued on my run.

Yesterday, I got a message in my email that a neighbor's cat had escaped and hadn't come home the night before. She included a photo. I went on a walk with my dog, and suddenly saw the cat! It was sitting in a sunny spot in a yard up the street from my neighbor. I stood still, and called my neighbor. "Is your cat a tabby with a white chest?"
"Yes!"
I gave her directions and stood quietly in the street, watching and praying the cat wouldn't move. My neighbor pulled up in her van and her hopeful face fell when she saw the cat . The cat was still there, and did look a lot like her cat, but it wasn't her cat. I felt terrible for raising her hopes, and leading her to the wrong cat.

I thought about those two incidents on back to back days. In the first, I found the right dog, but returned him to the wrong place. In the second, I found the wrong cat, hoping to return him to the right place. I suspect (as usual) God was trying to teach me something. What if the animals were like the Word of God? If one applies the correct Word of God in the wrong place, on ears unable or unwilling to hear it, it will not find its redemptive home in their heart and soul. In contrast, if one applies an incorrect or untrue twisting of the Word of God on ears eager to hear truth, the hearer will be deceived and misled. In either case, the Word of God will not bear fruit. The right Word must be applied to the correctly receptive ears. The right animal must be returned to the right owner. Otherwise, the lost will not be found...and the found will be lost.

Got it?

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Luke 15:3-7 

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Isaiah 55:2-3

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

2 Peter 2:1-22

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 Timothy 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.