Being Recovered

Luke 15:24 RecVer “Because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.”

In the church here in Gurugram, many have come and many have left. Many who left were due to transfer in their jobs to other cities. Many who stopped coming have their own reasons, most of them were not able to leave the denomination they were initially in. Perhaps, it was due to lack in our shepherding that they were not able to see clearly the vision of Christ and the church. This is a lesson for me definitely.

Nevertheless, the Lord is merciful. One of the brothers whom we first met eighteen years ago finally came into the church life! He himself gave a testimony on the 31st December night that he had been observing us and many times thought that we probably were a cult group as opined by many denominations pastors. He now and then appeared and disappeared. He had been to many other Christian groups and yet could not stay in any one as he found many unscriptural teachings and practices. After so many years of wandering, searching, and researching the teachings and practices in the church life, he finally made his own decision. He gave up all his wandering and came into the church life fully. Though his family members are yet to join him, they did not opposed him any longer as was in the past. I used to visit this brother and his family, and every time I did so, I used to share something from the Bible and pray. In fact, in my last visit, I was so bold to tell the brother in front of all his family members, "Brother, stop wandering around in the wilderness. You know where the truth is. Come for meeting and blending. You are already a member of the Body of Christ!" After that, the Lord used a situation and took two of our brothers to visit his family unplanned. Since then, the brother began to come regularly for the meeting.

Another brother who was baptised and had been enjoying the church life many years ago left for reasons unknown. He even completely cut himself off from meeting with any saint. I tried to invite or visit him a couple of times but he willing denied. I had no way to visit him nor talk to him. But as the church, we have been praying for his full recovery. 

Beginning this year, on 1st Jan, he turned up to the meeting with his family, fully vibrant. He himself testifed that he decided to come back fully to enjoy the church life together with all the saints. It was a great joy for all of us to see a brother being recovered!

In both cases, the feeling I personally had was as described by the father of the prodigal son in Luke 15:32 RecVer “But we had to be merry and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life, and he was lost and has been found.”

Praise the Lord for the recovery of our brothers! May the Lord grace them to enjoy Him more and more each day and gain Him fully for His testimony!