Bible Story 26 - Lost and Found PDF

**Story 26 - Lost and Found** This lesson is based on Luke 15. **STUDY FOCUS** What does the story of the lost coin tell you about the heavenly Father? What does the story of the lost sheep tell you about the heavenly Father? What does the story of the lost son tell you about the heavenly Fathe...

**Story 26 - Lost and Found** This lesson is based on Luke 15. **STUDY FOCUS** What does the story of the lost coin tell you about the heavenly Father? What does the story of the lost sheep tell you about the heavenly Father? What does the story of the lost son tell you about the heavenly Father? What were the thoughts and feelings of the people in the story of the lost son? See also Christ\'s Object Lessons, pp. 198-211. One day when many tax collectors and outcasts came to listen to Jesus, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, \"This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them! So Jesus told them this parable:\" (Luke 15:1-3, T.E.V.) Actually, Jesus told three parables to explain some almost unbelievably good news about how precious people are to God. Read Luke 15 to discover how Jesus described God that day. Whenever people have understood what God is really like, they have wanted to become like Him. People around the world have read the stories in Luke 15 and understood them. One of God\'s student missionaries in Japan used the story of Luke 15 in an unusual way\-\--to teach English to Buddhists. Here\'s her story of what happened: **Introducing the Heavenly Father to Japanese Buddhists** Down the hall by the entrance, the first students of the early-evening classes were arriving. They talked rapidly in Japanese as they placed their shoes on the shelf and chose a pair of slippers provided by the school. I was just beginning to understand a little Japanese, but a lot of it still sounded like the clicking of an electric typewriter. They talked so fast! Of course, that\'s what they would say to me in a few minutes. \"Teacher, prease, you speak too vely fast.\" It was strange to be called teacher. I was really only a college student, but as a student missionary I had had begun sleeping on the floor, eating with chopsticks, and teaching doctors, company presidents, and university students. They came to our language school in Tokyo to improve their English. They had learned to read English in Japanese schools, but they couldn\'t speak it well or understand the spoken language. We would read in English, speak in English, sing in English. I had something far more precious than English to teach them, however. Our textbook would be the Bible, unknown to almost all the students. And our songs would be gospel songs. I hoped to fasten in their minds the hope and joy that Christians know. It was my first attempt at teaching a class by myself, and I was scared to death. I picked up my guitar in one hand and a stack of New Testaments in the other and shuffled in my blue Japanese slippers down the hall to the classroom. The waiting students half bowed from their seats as I walked in. I nodded back (having learned that teachers aren\'t supposed to bow so deeply as their students), put my things down on the desk, and began handing out song sheets. \"Do you know any of these?\" I asked. I really didn\'t expect them to. Most of them were Buddhists. Bibles and song sheets weren\'t part of their lives. They were shaking their heads. \"Ok,\" I said. \"Let\'s sing number four.\" Miss Maehara found it right away. \"I have duh joi \...\" she began. \"Joy, I corrected. \"and th doesn\'t sound like a d. \'I have the joy\' is the way you should say it.\" They sang shyly and hesitatingly at first, then with more confidence as they caught on to the music. went on to the next stanza. I noticed with relief that whoever had typed the song sheet had left out the stanza that says, \"I have the bubbling belief that baffles Buddhists.\" That line surely would have baffled my Buddhists. It took me a good ten minutes to help them through the tongue-twisting \"peace that passeth understanding,\" so I concluded the singing with just one song. Now I needed to explain how to use a Bible. \"This is only half a Bible,\" I began as I gave each one the yellow paperback that said Good News for Modern Man. \"The whole Bible that I have is written in old English, and that is very difficult to understand.\" They nodded. \"Old Japanese hard, too.\" \"So is new Japanese,\" I said smiling. They laughed. \"Now, if you\'ll open your books, you\'ll see that they\'re divided into sections.\" \"Many books,\" observed Mr. Kaneda. \"Also, there are many numbers.\" \"Right. The big numbers refer to chapters; the small ones are for verses. See whether you can find John-that\'s the fourth book-chapter 3, verse 16.\" There was silence for a while. I watched them search carefully. Finally Miss Ogawara, an alert university girl, raised her hand. \"I have found it.\" We waited until everyone had found it, then read it together. \"For God loved the whole world so much\...\" I hope that the Word of God would arouse their interest as well as improve their English skills. Then I had them find Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son. I knew that Jesus had most often taught with stories. It seemed that one of His stories would be the best place to begin. We went through the story carefully; they read the verses one at a time, and I tried to explain the story. I knew they were ready to object to anything they didn\'t agree with. They began to understand: the father was a rich landowner in ancient times. I could almost see the persons in the story through their eyes: the father, with long black hair done up in a knot on top of his head, a swinging curved sword at his side; the younger boy, rebellious and fun loving, wanting his freedom; the other boy, rebellious too, in his own way. I tried to help them see it all\-\-\-\--the parties and travels, the pigs and dirt, the rags and repentance. I pictured the father, standing by the garden gate every day, looking down the dusty road, shading his eyes against the setting sun. They listened silently, absorbed. Then we read the verses that tell of the reunion: the father throwing his arms around the ragged boy; the boy trying to repeat his memorized speech but without the chance to finish it. The joy in the father\'s voice as he shouted out loud, \"For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.\" Mr. Kaneda finished reading. For a moment no one spoke. Then, suddenly, Miss Ogawara spoke. \"This father,\" she said excitedly, \"not only Christian father is like him. He is like Japanese father. There is no difference.\" It was like a sunburst in the cold room. My finger slipped out of my Bible, and the Book closed lazily. \"That\'s it,\" I said gladly. \"God wants us to know what He is like, and the best way He could think of to tell us is by asking us to think of Him as a father-our father.\" The time was gone; the halls were filled with shuffling feet and moving forms. A 2,000-year-old story on again, this time in a Tokyo classroom full of Buddhists. -Donna Taylor Evans **Parable** And he looked upon the crowds with compassion, and taught them saying, \"What woman of you, having a billfold with all your credit cards and your driver\'s license in it, having lost it, would not take a flashlight, and search in the garage and under the sofa cushions and through the darkest corners of your house until you found it? And when you did, would you not call up your best friend and say, \'Rejoice with me! For I have found my billfold, which I thought I had lost!\" \"And how truly I tell you, there is more joy in heaven when one sinner confesses than over many righteous people who need not confession, just as you would take more pleasure in finding a lost billfold than you would in all your money in the bank. \"For just as you would need your credit cards and driver\'s license, so God needs each one of you fulfill His plans for a perfect society.\"