for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.  Luke 19:10  HCSB

Have you ever been lost?  I mean, really lost.  Like when you have no idea where you are or how to get out of there.  Last year a good friend and I went to Houston for a conference.  In an attempt to find our hotel, we took a wrong turn.  No problem, right,  Just pull up the address you need on GPS.  Well, yes we thought of that,  but we were in an area where we had no service.  So, you got it, no GPS.  We stopped at two different locations to ask about how to get to our hotel, but were greeted with blank stares and told that they had no idea where it was located.  It would have been really nice to have someone just come up and say follow me, I’ll show you the way.  But that didn’t happen.  We basically drove around and finally drove into an area where we had service and were able to use our GPS to get us there.

GPS stands for global positioning system.  The wonderful thing about GPS is that it pinpoints your location and then uses your location to get directions to where you want to go.  Then you can read the directions on a screen or use something like SIRI on your iPhone to read the directions out to you.

Tomorrow our church will host our third road rally to help earn proceeds for our missionary team to go to Haiti.  If you have never participated in a road rally, I must say, it’s a lot of fun.  A two person team is in a vehicle.  You have a driver and a navigator and the navigator reads from a set of directions which does not include the name of roads, only directions, to get you from point to point.  You must gather items or information along the way, sort of like a scavenger hunt.  I do the route and the directions.  Last year I forgot a stop sign in the directions at the last printing and you can imagine the confusion that caused. I am happy to say, though, that everyone made it in okay, even with my big mix up.  The thing about a road rally is that GPS really won’t do you any good as far as getting you along the route because you have no idea where you are going.  Now, if you give up and choose to return to the starting point, I guess it could help you with that.  If you can come out this year, I can assure you that the route has been double checked and is good to go.

The bottom line is that it is no more fun to be lost than it is to be wandering around aimlessly in the dark and stub your toe on something really hard.  What’s even worse is to be lost in the dark.  As Christians, we use the terms lost and saved.  Lost is before we have Christ in our lives.  I can tell you that I have been there and it was not so much fun.  Oh, I thought I was having fun, but looking back what I was having was a lot of drama and chaos.  We use the term, saved, to refer to when Christ comes into our hearts and saves us from a life filled with sin and debauchery which leads straight to hell, or the lake of fire as it is called in the book of Revelation.  Not some place you want to go.

The thing about being lost is that if someone comes and says they will guide you out of that situation, you may follow along only to find that they are bringing you to a much worse place, right?  So, it is important that we are not deceived.

Make sure that as you go through this life that Jesus is your GPS or your navigator.  Make sure that you are following His instructions to the letter.  Also know that if you feel as though you are stumbling around in the dark, that He is the light of the world (John 8:12).  Yes at times, this world seems like a cold dark place, but in John 1:15 we are told that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

So today if you are feeling a little lost and out of place or unsure of your way, this is not how it is supposed to be.  Turn to Jesus, He is the way, the truth, and the life (14:6).  Jesus has told us that no one comes to the father except  through Him.  If you are looking for the way, turn to Jesus.  If you are lost, He wants to save you.

Talk to Him in prayer, let Him respond through reading the Bible (God’s Holy Word).  Trust in Him to guide you and bring you out of the darkness.  He stands ready and waiting to lead you out of the darkness.  Let Him be your GPS and carefully follow his directions.

Have a great day!