Sun Valley, ID 2007: The chairs keep arriving, but they are empty. Lost brothers and sisters are supposed to be filling these seats. This remains one of the great sadnesses of the Bible and the Kingdom of God that must still be endured.
From Trent Ling:
For various Biblical reasons, people spiritually come and go from a real ministry like this one. Such is the painful fellowship of the Bible. There is no escaping it. Even Jesus saw crowds come and go; disciples come and go; and family members come and go, and come again.
The Bible calls us to follow its directions in managing “come and go” scenarios. We make every effort to “see to it that no one misses the grace of God.” Hebrews 12:15. However, many have coldly refused the grace of God, even though they couldn’t possibly have missed its arrival or availability in this ministry. Tragically, many people quit on Jesus. This was the case in his day, and it is the case in this day. It is certainly one of the deepest of all sources of mourning in the Kingdom.
This is not a careless ministry where disciples fend for themselves or go unnoticed or flail about without help. This is not a place where disciples wander off, like sheep getting lost. Matthew 18:12 contemplates a “lost sheep” situation that miraculously does not occur here. Conversely, in this ministry, there is a saturation of truth, teaching, listening, training, helping, admonishing, and warning. Additionally, countless opportunities to serve God, to repent of sin, and to remain in the sheep pen (the Kingdom of God) are perpetually availed.
However, over the course of a decade of ministering, we do have several lost sons and daughters who have been revealed by the patterned scenario that Jesus laid out for such people in Luke 15:11-24. In all cases, these eventually lost sons and daughters, after coming to faith, began to adopt a selfish “give me” attitude; decided to get “together all they had, and set off for a distant country;” only to “squander” what they used to have in Christ.
Many of these lost sons and daughters have grown embittered in their hearts, wondering why the ministry doesn’t put the world on hold and go run them down as if they were lost sheep. We would spare ourselves no hardship or expense to seek lost sheep, but we don’t have any lost sheep. We only have lost sons and daughters who self-justifiedly may want to be regarded as lost, know-nothing sheep.
The road back for these lost sons and daughters is prescribed by the same set of Scriptures that addressed their departure. To return, they are called to come to their senses (Luke 15:17); set out and come back (Luke 15:18); humble themselves in repentance (Luke 15:18-21); and thereafter, be received and restored forgivingly by God to the fellowship that is in Christ (Luke 15:22-24).
This website can, should, does, and will minister to the lost sons and daughters of the faith who are wandering about in disobedience to the truth. May they come to their senses, and earnestly and humbly return for real one day. Despite the Scriptural responsibility being placed upon their shoulders, this ministry makes genuine and tireless efforts to reach our fallen brothers and sisters. We remember them in earnest and intense prayer and petition; we are always on the lookout for them; and we are filled with compassion, mercy, and sobriety for them and over them. In that, we cannot and do not forget God’s uncompromising path to their restoration and the requirement that they be broken and humble as was the lost son in Luke 15:11-24.
About them, we submissively embrace and live the great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts. Romans 9:2. And, we will always see their fall from grace as unacceptable.
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