Some time ago I stopped into Whole Foods Market on a Sunday morning on my way to church. On that particular morning, I became aware of a lack of contact with Christians and the Sunday morning non-church world. We are typically either in church, or sleeping in if we attend church on Saturday night. This is really just one example of our isolation from the world around us.

In Bible times, the disciples walked from place to place and so much of their ministry to the world took place along their way to someplace else. In this day and age, we drive along, shut away in the privacy of our cars, and go from place to place in our Christian lives, rarely exposing ourselves to the world (or the world to us). Most of our homes are seldom opened to fellow believers, let alone to the world. We live as though the only goal of the Christian life is to get through this life without committing too much sin, or too severe a sin; so we surround ourselves with fellow Christians to help us get back on track if and when we stray. We focus almost entirely on ourselves while the world around us goes to hell, literally.

It's no wonder Christians waste so much time "beating each other up" - we have too much time on our hands - time we should be using to reach the lost and to let God use us to bring them into the found.

Matthew 16:24, 25 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'"

Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

How are we doing that? We sit in our churches expecting the lost to come looking for us. We do community outreach in which we expect the community to come to us.

Matthew 5:14 - 16 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Have our church buildings become baskets?

Matthew 9: 37, 38 "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." We sit in our churches and pray for the lost; we pray that people will come to church or we try to bring people with us to church. We need to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send us out as laborers into His harvest.

We have the Parable of the Lost Sheep - the owner goes out to look for the lost sheep. And the Parable of the Lost Coin - the woman cleans her house and searches carefully to find the lost coin. But too often we do not even consider the lost, let alone seek to find them. Father, forgive us!

Genesis 27:27 "As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me..." Please lead us LORD!