What's Happening at FUMC Elizabethton

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  Today's Devotion from Rev. Ray

  “Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” Luke 15:8

  We were living in a basement apartment in Rapid City. The couple who lived above us was having quiet a party. The noise finally ended, things grew quiet, and everyone settled down for the rest of the night. In the early hours and darkness we were awakened with a sound at the door. When we opened it, there stood a little boy with his blanket, and he was crying. He lived in the apartment above us. We had a hard time waking his parents who were shocked to discover that their child was gone and they didn't even know it.

  Jesus told of the woman who lost a precious coin. She knew that it was in the house somewhere, yet it was lost. Being lost does not make something (or someone) more or less valuable, but it causes us to realize how precious some people, and things, are that we take for granted.

  Not everyone who is lost is out in the wilderness somewhere, not everyone a prodigal; but some become unnoticeably lost right in front of us. Children often get lost in the businesses and ambitions of adults. They can be well cared for, but unnourished in healthy attention. Some wear a smile beneath sad eyes that beg for something that cannot be bought with money, or replaced with another gadget.

  When we speak of the lost, it is easy to have a mental image of who that is. It might even be accurate, but not complete. The woman who lost the coin had lost it from a set of ten coins (ten usually represents completeness). She seemed not to realize her loss until she took inventory. She was incomplete and not aware of it. She found it when she cleaned her house. Is God saying anything to any of us?

  We cannot assume that if life is generally good for us, and if all is well in the house that all is well with our soul. Spiritual inventory is required. Ignore your spiritual well-being and you will become a lost coin in the house. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)

  E. Stanley Jones wrote of a physician who one day discovered the reason for his spiritual malady. “I did not mean to lose my faith,” he said. “It was as though I had put in in a drawer for safe keeping; then when I went back to get it – IT WAS GONE." Do you know where your faith is?

  Grace and Peace, Rev Ray

• July 25, 2021 Sunday Morning Worship