The story behind the poem below

Tuesday   12-15-15  Home in Modesto 

Scripture reading:    James 1 - 5

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  James 5:19-20  My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins. NLT

O.  James closes his letter with this final statement.  Someone has left the church.  Someone has slipped and fallen into temptation.  Someone has returned to their old life of sin.  Should we gossip about it?  Jesus told the story of a shepherd that went to great effort to rescue one lost sheep. 

A.  I must not be idle.  I must not just pray for that lost one.  I must be proactive to locate him or her.  I must let them know someone cares.  I must strive to bring them back into fellowship with God.

P.  Lord, sometimes we are too quick to write them off.  Please help me to be a good shepherd, who knows his sheep by name and takes note of every one that turns up missing.  You care about them.  Fill me with Your divine love and guide me to them.  May they know that someone loves them and cares!   May I let them know that the door is wide open and lead them through it again into the safety of Your mercy and grace.  Amen.

Ralph

The story behind the poem below:  The year was 1972.  We had recently returned to Argentina to begin our second term of service.  I was ministering in Mendoza, over 100 miles from the city of San Juan where we had planted a church and where a certain 17 year old lad, had come to Christ under our efforts.  But we had heard the sad news that after we left, he had left the church and slipped back among the lost.  I remember praying that Jesus would reach out to him wherever he was.

That night I was ministering in an unfinished church building.  The glass windows had not yet been installed so the sound of my amplified voice could be heard almost a block away.  It was a night arranged by God.  There was no way that this lad could have known that I was in this city.  He was wandering through this very neighborhood, walking in his spiritual darkness and just “happened” to pass close enough to the church to hear and recognize my voice.  He slipped into the back of the church and I saw him.  I could hardly refrain from stopping my message and running back to hug his neck.  But he waited and with a broken spirit fell into the arms of the Good Shepherd once again.  Later that night, alone in my room, I sat and wrote this poem, sending the story and the poem to my dear mother who always saved everything.

Now the poem:

The Lost Sheep

Ralph W. Hiatt  June 1972

Broken by circumstance, crushed by temptation

He stumbled and fell in the darkness of night.

Once he had known Him.  Once he had served Him.

But now he wandered so far from the Light.

Hopelessness reigned where once faith had o’erpowered

the forces of sin in this lad’s former path.

Now he was wandering, lost and uncertain…

Lonely, defeated… awaiting God’s wrath.

But somewhere the knees of a loved one were bending.

Somebody’s prayer reached the portals of God.

And the Shepherd responded by leaving His sheepfold,

Where angels have praised Him since ages untold.

Once more by His Spirit, He walked earthly pathways.

Once more heavenly love touched the soil of man’s need!

Once more the compassion that spilled on Mount Calvary

Brought the Good Shepherd, a heart’s cry to heed.

T’was then that He found him, repentant and broken,

Certain that judgment awaited his sin.

T’was then that two hands bearing scars of compassion

Reached down to caress and to lift him again!

Oh, infinite mercy!  Oh, love without measure!

Oh, grace, after ages of telling… “untold”!

We thank Thee.  We praise Thee, Our Wonderful Shepherd!

The lost sheep again is brought back to the fold!