Tag Archives: lost

Bible Gleanings, devotions

The Savior Who Seeks Sinners | Bible Gleanings | July 6-7, 2024

Leave a comment

I searched high and low for it, but it was sleeping with the fishes. My iPhone evidently decided to try its hand at scuba diving, as it dove out of my pocket during a recent kayaking excursion. I lost it at the bank and did everything I could to retrieve it, but to no avail (what a “sinking” feeling!). I looked for it in the murky and muddy depths, and called it from my wife’s phone in hopes that its vibrations would cause bubbles to rise to the surface. I even tried submerging my head to see if I could hear it ringing, but my efforts were useless. 

Although I never recovered my smartphone, I did learn a lesson: I was willing to go to great lengths (and depths) to recover something that was lost because it was valuable to me. And this is the humbling lesson which the Lord teaches us in the Bible’s great story of redemption. Just as I searched tirelessly for my lost phone, the Lord relentlessly pursues lost sinners because of His love for them. He leaves the ninety-nine sheep to find the one that is lost (Luke 15:4). Like the woman who sought her misplaced coin, the Lord diligently searches the whole world for the wayward (Luke 15:8-10).

As a matter of fact, the Lord runs after those who run away from Him, just as He pursued the first sinners in the Garden of Eden and rebellious Jonah who vainly attempted to escape His presence (Gen. 3:8; Jonah 1:3-4). And there is no greater demonstration of God’s searching and stop-at-nothing love than the cross of Calvary, where the Lord purchased the salvation of sinners with the blood of His beloved Son (1 Peter 1:18-19). Upon the gruesome hill of Golgotha, the Lord sacrificed His Son because of His love for those who hate Him and transgress His law. As Jesus famously said,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17, KJV).

This is why Christ came into the world: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Have you experienced the Savior’s steadfast love? Can you sing with the hymn writer John Newton (1725-1807), “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see”? If so, are you willing to go to the greatest lengths and depths to deliver the gospel’s soul-saving message to those who are lost? Do you long to see sinners gathered into the flock of God like Jesus does (Matt. 23:37)? 

“I will sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me.

How He left His home in glory

For the cross of Calvary.

I was lost, but Jesus found me,

Found the sheep that went astray,

Threw His loving arms around me,

Drew me back into His way.”

— “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story.” Francis H. Rowley (1854-1952)

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs, Susie, Aries, and Dot. Brandon and Dakota are also foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and a religious columnist for the Advance Yeoman newspaper in Ballard County, Kentucky. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. His columns are also featured in the Times-Argus newspaper of Central City, Kentucky, West Kentucky News of western Kentucky, and the online blog, Reforming the Heart.

Pick up a copy of Brandon’s latest book, Fundamentals for the Faithful, which explains the importance of all the basics which every believer should know:

devotions, Other

Whatever It Takes | Bible Gleanings – November 28-29, 2020

Leave a comment

Whatever It Takes

Anthony Capuano, a 29-year-old swim coach and lifeguard, became a local hero as he rescued a man from drowning in his car in Newark Bay, New Jersey. According to The Jersey Journal, an elderly man attempted to pull over to answer a phone call, but accidentally pressed on both the brake and accelerator which caused him to speed into the bay. A group of bystanders screamed in fright as the flashing tail lights swiftly sank. That’s when Capuano’s instincts took over. Abandoning his own safety, he dove into the frigid water, swam fifty feet to the man’s submerged vehicle, and pulled him to safety.

Capuano was an unexpected savior, however, because as he recalled, he had to remove his own leg before swimming—his prosthetic leg. When Capuano was a teenager, he was struck by a train that cost him his leg. A paramedic team saved his life and that’s likely what motivated him to pursue the profession of saving others as a lifeguard. Capuano relinquished his own security and safety to deliver a man from death. He did everything he could to get the man to safety, although he had obvious limitations. And he was compelled to come to the rescue because he himself had been saved by the selfless effort of someone else.

What Capuano did for a man in peril is what God wants you to do for those in spiritual peril. The unsaved are drowning in a sea of guilt and sin, and their souls are in eternal danger. Sin is driving them madly down the road of spiritual destruction and they are in jeopardy of fatally immersing themselves into “lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). Only Jesus Christ the Lord can save and deliver them, but it is your Christian duty to swim out to them with the life-saving message of the gospel. You must do everything you can to win them to Christ, just like the four men who overcame every obstacle to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus (Mark 2:1-5).

As C. H. Spurgeon once preached, “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Whatever it takes to get the unsaved to Jesus is worth it—even if you must sacrifice your comfort and security. You may have limitations, but God will use you when you give yourself to Him as a willing vessel. And remember—someone once swam out to you with the gospel. Therefore, let gratefulness for your own salvation compel you to swim out to unbelievers with the same gospel that saved you.

Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Brandon is the founder and main contributor to Brandon’s Desk, the blog with biblical resources from his ministry. He pastored the family of believers at Locust Grove Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky for six years. He and his wife Dakota live there with their three dogs, Susie (Jack Russell), Aries (English Shepherd), and Dot (Bluetick Beagle).

Brandon is the founder and main contributor to Brandon’s Desk, the blog with biblical resources from his ministry. He pastored the family of believers at Locust Grove Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky for six years. He and his wife Dakota live there with their three dogs, Susie (Jack Russell), Aries (English Shepherd), and Dot (Bluetick Beagle).