Solomon’s Wisdom on Splitting Children & Churches

I have been walking with God for 25 years, and during that time I have experienced two church splits. The first time was when I had been saved for less than 6 months, and the second time was when I was a missionary.

Church splits are a lot like divorces in that there are irreconcilable differences, property disputes and finally child custody disputes. Behind it all – at least in churches – is usually an offence that has festered too long or even someone’s desire to take control. A person who takes control usually has difficulty distinguishing the difference between people and personal property.

In 1 Kings 3:16-28 two women came to Solomon to settle a dispute. They both had children about the same age, but one woman had rolled over on her child while sleeping and suffocated the child. When she awoke she exchanged her dead child with the other woman’s child.

Both women asserted their claim on the living child, but Solomon could not determine which was telling the truth. He then decided to cut the child in two parts and give one part to each woman. The woman who was lying agreed, but the true mother surrendered her right to the child so that it could live.

I remember asking a young leader who was a key figure in a church dispute about the fallout of a possible church split. Until my conversation there had only been a lot of discussion of doctrinal differences and offences, but I asked, “There are over 40 children in Sunday school who come to church without their parents. Have you thought about them? They will be scattered to the wind if you continue.” Unfortunately, wisdom was not heeded that day, and that church was almost brought to and end by the ensuing split which did in fact scatter those children to the wind.

Doctrines are very necessary, but doctrines are the foundations of new life for things that I like to call “people”. As in marriage where children are involved we need to solve differences in the church by considering more than our own personal tastes, dreams and opinions. The spiritual wellbeing of many who are not aware of our differences is at stake, and a selfish or impulsive move on our part can derail the spiritual walks of many others for years to come.

What then is Solomon’s wisdom? Sometimes it is better to lose a personal argument for the greater good. God is sovereign, and He can reveal through wisdom and circumstances who does and does not have the sheep’s and His kingdom’s greater good in mind.

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Rom 14:19

NASA & Expendable Christendom

When NASA sent men to the moon it spent 20-25 billion dollars on the Apollo missions. Thousands of scientists and engineers poured their entire intellects into building a very expensive machine that was ultimately totally destroyed in the using.

There was no sorrow in the destruction of all their inventions though because that was a part of the plan. The Saturn V rocket contained over 3 million parts that all served one purpose, to get three men to the moon and back safely. When the rocket left the ground the launch pad was incinerated. Each stage of the rocket was eventually lost to either burning up in our atmosphere or remaining in orbit as the rest of the rocket fought against the earth’s gravity to lift those three men to the heavens.

One part of the capsule landed on the moon, but to conserve weight it left its landing gear on the moon when it headed back to earth. That very capsule was jettisoned to also burn up after the three astronauts readied the last surviving part of the Saturn V, a small capsule, for reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.

After billions of dollars, thousands of man-hours and the incineration of the great majority of the 3-million part spacecraft NASA had successfully sent three men to the moon – only two of the crew actually landed – and safely back with the addition of some very valuable moon rocks. The vehicle was expendable, but the people were not. There was no grief for the lost rocket but only jubilation in achieving a monumental goal.

The church is a lot like NASA. One of its missions is to send people to heaven, and it is a forgone theological conclusion that no earthly device, organization, building, fame of man, etc. will make it to heaven, only people who have trusted in Jesus for salvation.

The church should have no grief in the expenditure of massive resources to get people to heaven, but it should have considerable grief when its mission to reach the nations is not accomplished. Unfortunately, some of the church could be likened to a NASA that built all those rockets only to never fly them. They would go directly to museums. Or like a NASA that used all those rockets as very expensive fireworks. However, the taxpayers would never stand for such a thing, and neither should the church stand for investing in anything that does not serve the expressed desires and purposes of God, to seek and save that which was lost.

In comparing a healthy church to NASA I would also compare a church with misplaced priorities to science fiction. So called miracles (there are still real miracles!) just become special effects that serve no other purpose other than shock and awe. I had better get back on the main topic before I say too much…

I can’t but help feeling nostalgic for the bygone days of great visionaries like JFK who rallied a nation to go to the moon, and I also miss the days when I was a young believer and there was a mighty call going forth to fulfill the call of God. We can have those days again. We must have those days.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt 6:19-21

My Big Toe Advocate

My first school bus was bus #133, and it was so old that it looked like one of those school busses you might see in a cartoon that actually had a face and could smile and talk. You know, like Thomas the Tank Engine. I was in the first grade, and during my first few weeks I felt like young Forrest Gump as all the older kids staked claims on the best seats.

Of course the most prized seat was at the back, and only the toughest guy could stake that claim. Not only did this guy - a 6th grade bully who was twice my size – claim the back of the bus as his fiefdom, but for some reason he decided that the big toe on my right foot was his enemy. For many days he would stomp the heel of his shoe on that toe until it was swollen, bleeding and infected.

I was afraid to tell my parents, but my mom saw my limp and after seeing the damage she made me show my dad. Well, my dad, Arthur Watkins, was your typical working-class guy who slaved in a local textile mill his whole life. He was neither the best dad nor the worst dad. He had hands made of steel, and I was generally afraid of his wrath. However, I was soon to see a side of him that I will never forget.

Instead of totally losing his cool my dad just asked me how long this had been going on and who was doing it. He usually said things like, “If a bigger guy bullies you just pick up the nearest stick and knock him in the side of the head.” But this time was different. He just quietly said. “This won’t happen to you again.”

The next day I was on the bus heading home, and dad would arrive home from work an hour after me. The bus soon squeaked to a stop near my house, the double doors swung open and as I began to exit the bus I met the towering figure of my dad getting on. It was a Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western moment, and I knew that some kid on the back of the bus probably would not live to graduate 6th grade. People get arrested for stuff like this these days.

I froze as my dad passed me and went to the back of the bus. He approached the bully who by now was getting spiritual. He looked the kid in the eyes and said, “You have been hurting my son. It will never happen again.” And then without another word we got off the bus and walked home together.

I have never forgotten this day, and it reminds me that if our earthly fathers protected us as best they could then what about our heavenly Father? If I had known what my natural father was capable of doing on my behalf I would have confronted this bully with confidence long ago.

If we also knew the advocacy and power of our heavenly Father we would not put up with the harassment of the bully of our souls, the devil.

By the way, that guy never even looked at me again until I met him over 30 years later. I was preaching in a church, and he was in the congregation. I talked with him after the meeting, but I never mentioned the incident because he did not remember me.

I’ll bet he remembered my dad though!

Death, Hell & Taxes

Ben Franklin said that, “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I for one have been afraid of both. Mind you, I am not actually afraid of taxes, but I have a phobia of filling out tax forms. I actually dislike filling out any kind of form for that matter.

There are many fears in this world, and there is nothing better to help us walk through or overcome a fear than a friend who has passed through the same ordeal and who is now living proof that it is possible to survive. 2 Cor 1:2-7. Anyone who has overcome any adversity such as addiction, depression, sickness, poverty or loneliness is an eyewitness to the fear, hopelessness and finally eventual hope and victory that we all long for.

However, who has gone through the ultimate fear – the fear of death – that we all must face? And the next fear is what may or may not follow, judgment and hell. If I asked a crowded room, “Has anyone here died recently and come back? I am really worried about what comes next?”

And then some guy says, “Sure, that happened to me just last week. The doctor said that I had little time left, and he was right. I died, but then I came back. It wasn’t too bad.”

This is of course absurd, but allow me to continue. Most religions offer some hopeful explanation about death and what may follow, but it is only a hopeful theory without living proof. Atheists offer absolute certainty that there is nothing after death, but even they grow anxious near their own end.

Then there is Jesus whose entire ministry addressed this question. He taught about it, but it did not end with teaching. He displayed such a mighty authority over creation that He was able to overrule sickness, the forces of nature and death itself. Those who were closest to Him even wondered who He might really be during such occurrences.

I cannot fully expound here on the magnitude of what Jesus did when He was crucified, buried and was raised from the dead. However, there is one place in Scripture where His closest disciple, John, sees in one moment the truth of who Jesus is and what He did. Rev 1:9-20.

John sees the risen and glorified Christ just as He is in heaven, the Lord of glory, the Resurrection and the Life. And what a light! John falls as a dead man at the sight, but then something happens and if you can embrace this truth it will overrule your greatest fears.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 1:17-18

• The Risen Jesus is the same Jesus that John had fellowshipped with. Jesus lays his hand of authority, comfort and blessing upon John.
• Jesus assures John that he should not be afraid because of who He really is. He is the first and the last.
• Jesus tells John not to be afraid because He has gone though and defeated death once and for all. He is alive forevermore.
• Jesus now has complete control and authority over the things that are our greatest fears, death and hell. There is no greater authority than Jesus.

When the main fear is defeated all the others will dim and eventually disappear.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:31-39

Imagine the potential of a life following Jesus based on such a secure foundation. Now embrace that foundation and live that life!

Resonance Truth

I remember trying to encourage a young believer once by telling him all the great things God thought about him. He nodded his head in agreement, but his eyes were looking downward. I actually reached out and lifted his chin with my hand so that he could at least look me in the eye. “God loves you”, I exclaimed, “and He has forgive your sins!”

He said he believed this, but as soon as I removed my hand his head fell again. Did this man believe what I said? Yes and no. His mind accepted it, but it did not resonate within.

Resonance. If you know anything about music you know that a well-tuned piano or guitar will resonate the same note as a tuning fork. In fact, if you sing a certain note into the body of a guitar or piano the strings that are in tune with that note will respond with the same note. Try it.

However, if you drop that well-tuned piano or guitar a few feet you will find it nearly impossible to find a coherent note in those instruments with a tuning fork. Humanity itself has been dropped more than a few feet. The drop was so great that we call it The Fall, and when fallen humanity comes into contact with God’s salvation truth it is so out of tune that there is no inner response unless the Holy Spirit strikes the chord. To keep the theology and the analogy simple I will call this chord “conviction.”

Even when we as believers agree with our minds we find it difficult for our emotions to be in tune with God’s truth. We still live in unredeemed bodies and in a fallen world, so the tendency of our souls is to resonate with the environment. The only solution is for us to tune our souls with God’s word on a daily basis to the point that the lies and temptations of the world no longer resonate as true. This is no mere exercise because in doing so the Holy Spirit is also at work.

The strongholds of the enemy also produce resonance, a resonant lie. This happens when a whole society or region agrees with one particular lie such as abortion, gay marriage, atheism, etc. To these people God’s truth sounds out of tune, and in fact they use that phrase, “You Christians are out of tune with your antiquated morals.”

The only way to retune society is with truth, and we usually have to do this one string – one person - at a time. The only way to change society is to change people, and the only way to do this is for them to meet their original composer, God.

In order for us to help people return to God our souls need to be in tune with God and not in resonance with the world. Imagine for a moment Lance Armstrong as he cycles to his umpteenth victory of the Tour de France. Just 200 meters before the finish some guy from the crowd yells, “Loser!” Lance hits the brakes, and walks over to argue with the heckler. NOT!

I do not think that an empty lie would resonate in Lance any more than an empty lie should resonate in us such that we quit the race.

Dad, Can I Help With That?

We all remember growing up watching our dads, grandfathers or uncles assembling some contraption or building something in the backyard. We always wanted to lend a hand, and we were disappointed if they said, “No, it is too difficult for you.”

Even as parents we too lightly consider our kids when they want to be a part of what we are doing. We deem our work too important for their input at times, and moreover when they ask us to be a part of what they are doing or to show some interest we are too often too busy with our own thing.

I often try to remind myself the following. I say, “Mike, stop what you are doing, and go watch that silly YouTube video that your daughters think you must see.” When I do it we always have a good time and a good laugh.

I also try to talk about my work with my daughters to see what they think. They are interested in some aspects, and they even offer good ideas at times. This shows them that I value them.

Not doing this will put me well on my way to fulfilling that Harry Chapin song Cats in the Cradle where the father has no time for his son, and when the son grows up he has no time for the father.

Not only is this important in parenting, but it is equally important in Christian leadership. Some leaders think that they are the only ones who can do the job right, and they never bring their team or others into their thinking on anything.

When the young leader grows older he may become frustrated because the main leader would neither let him help nor would he ever be interested in the “smaller” and less significant things that he was interested in. Once again the Chapin song plays, and the younger man learns oh too well how to do his own thing and does exactly that. They part ways.

On the other hand we can always bring younger leaders into our thinking even if we are the ones who have to make the decisions. They can help us, but even when they can’t they can stand close by and watch us as we discuss together the “what”, “why” & “how” of the task at hand.

Jesus did this with His disciples as He modeled ministry for them while talking about it. He asked their opinions on various situation, He sent them out to do the same work and He was interested in hearing about their exploits when they returned. Finally He told them that they would do more than He when He went to be with the Father. Jn 14:12

Even in the Old Testament God had a high regard for Abraham to the point of bringing him into what He was going to do. We would do wise to follow the example of Jesus as well as heed the warning of Harry. If we do we can like Abraham be fathers of generations who will father nations. We just need to rememeber that the word father is both a noun and a verb.

The Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him." Gen 18:17-19

A Sin Tax: Economic Boost?

Government leaders and businessmen around the world are pulling out their collective hair trying to find quick fixes and long-term solutions to the world economic crisis. One solution in the US for certain states and municipalities is creating or increasing the “Sin Tax.”

For those who think you need to be more careful about sinning in light of this, don’t worry. This means that certain things like the sale of cigarettes, alcohol and casino profits are taxed more. These are the “sins” that society is talking about.

Also in the news is a resurgence of the practice of granting Indulgences by some Catholic Churches. You used to have to pay hard cash for this, but now the renewed practice of acts of penance in this life can supposedly shave days or years from your time or the time of a friend in purgatory. All I have to say about this it that it makes Christianity look like a divine comedy. What a perversion of Christian truth!

Anyway, back to the sin tax. Imagine for a moment a real sin tax. Every time you sinned there would be a price to pay, and if you did not pay it now you would really have to pay later, but I am getting ahead of myself. Mind you, I really mean a payment for every sin, and if this was levied against all human beings for every sin I think it would vastly increase the economic reserves of every nation on earth.

However, this would also cause catastrophic bankruptcy for every individual on earth, so this is not a good economic plan at all. Still, if it were enacted we would see all sorts of human mechanisms come into being that either redefined sin, or we would see new forms of tax corruption and tax shelters - indulgences and absolvences - that would let people skate through life without any worries. Allow me summarize these under the category of “Other Religions”.

But there is a fundamental problem with all of this. There is no Sin Tax. There is simply a payment. The payment for every sin is the same, flat tax if you will, and the payment is not monetary. It is death, eternal separation from God.

Here we see humanity’s bankruptcy in its basest state. We can’t pay because it cost more than we have or more than we are. We need to plead – ask – for bankruptcy protection. God will forgive our debt by buying back our lives with the life of His Son. The only stipulation is that ownership is ceded to God. Your life will no longer belong to you. Don’t worry though. God takes very good care of what He purchases.

God is not a banker, but He is able to cancel out the debt of the entire world with one grand payment. It is free to us, but it cost Him dearly.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23

Christian Glue: Trust

In my 25 years of walking with Jesus I have also been walking alongside people who are themselves walking with Jesus. I have seen friendships come and go as well as ministries come and go.

As I have pondered the joining and breaking of relationships I have noticed some unexpected characteristics. There are many who believe that the main bond that ties friends and even ministries together is a common belief, and for Christians to walk together it is essential to have the same foundations and goals. However, within Christendom there is another bond that can be neither taught nor bought. It is trust.

Some of my best friends are also those with whom I argue the most. We usually have the same goals, but differ on how to get there. We also differ on how to solve certain problems, but we agree on what the solution looks like.

Yet I know others who are more closely aligned ideologically, but they can’t seem to walk together. The reason more often than not is a lack of trust or broken trust. In light of this I see a few areas of trust that act as a strong glue when the forces of this world and the work that we are trying to do try to tear us apart.

Respect & Honor: There are fewer things more empowering for a man than being respected by his friends. This means both public and private respect. It is strong glue, but when it is violated it often damages things beyond repair. We need to watch over our words so that they always build up and not tear down.

Integrity: This does not imply perfection, but it does imply that the person is the same in private as in public. Some leaders strive to look good; however, good leaders strive to actually do good.

Ambition: I trust people who foster a collective ambition, and the greatest collective ambition is for God and His kingdom. I believe in a good kind of ambition for a ministry, but not when it is competing with another ministry to be more prominent. The worst kind of ambition is a personal ambition that will use others for self promotion rather than promoting others over themselves. When a person positions others as pawns only to sacrifice them later for personal gain he might become king, but he will never be trusted again.

Honesty: I had an argument with a friend not long ago about a new evangelistic method that I did not like. We both later admitted that we were both wrong and that the other had good points. I simply love and trust this brother. Nothing is hidden at the end of the day.

Catastrophe: When a man is in the midst of trials, falls or fails, his circle of “friends” sometimes distance themselves from the calamity so that they do not lose some kind of public status by having been associated with that person. They may even consider it expedient to sacrifice that relationship, but there is no such concept in God’s word. God seeks, saves, redeems and restores.

No one really trusts people who do this, but sometimes we hear of people who risk scandal by associating with a friend who is in real trouble. Which would you trust?

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Prov 17:17

Missions: Pregnant With a Baby

The following is part of a comment I left on one of Ed Stetzer’s posts recently. He has a great blog and some great books for all you who dream of church planting or for all of you missionaries who dream of, well, the same thing, finally getting a church going.

As a church planter I can attest to the pressure to produce that outward gem, the dynamic Sunday morning meeting. I am in an environment - Ukraine and a few other places for the last 16 years - where there is no choice but to be missional. I have started one church, and we are now on our second. Starting a work from nothing is not easy, and many things that might be taken for granted in the west just don’t exist here. For example, I have never met a Ukrainian who has gone to Vacation Bible School. They were in Pioneers or Komsomol.

I was recently in the US where a pastor asked, “So, have you started your church yet?” This really bugged me because it is like asking a pregnant woman if she is planning to have children in the near future. It is as dumb as my redundant blog title “Pregnant With a Baby” which I saw in a newspaper. What else would a woman be pregnant with?

Having a child requires an initial interaction (sex), conception, prenatal formation and birth. Then comes parenting, etc. Each part of a child’s life is important as is each stage of a believer’s life. Just focusing on herding a bunch of people into a well-organized meeting is both shallow and short-sighted.

A photo of the newborn in the hospital maternity ward is great, but this does not portray the actual labor and pain of the mother in carrying and giving birth to that child. The plan of God is not represented just by a gathering of His people in one place once a week. Life is more than a snapshot and so is Christianity.

I remember reading about the life of Hudson Taylor years ago and his passion for Jesus and reaching the lost. Later in his ministry he was hit with the reality of the need to start churches, but that was secondary to reaching the lost. For him it was about the people and their relationship with God.

In Ed’s blog he talks about pastors who burn out on church planting. They lose their passion and become “shop keepers” while ignoring the spiritual disciplines. If we focus on the basics without yielding to a success-motivation I believe that more of us will cross the finish line actually breathing. “Crossing the finish line first and dropping dead is not victory.”

Missions: Ejection, Reflection & Reconnection

When I served in the United States Air Force my job was aircrew life support. This had to do with everything that kept the pilot of an F-15 fighter jet alive: parachutes, ejection survival kits, water survival training, helmets, oxygen masks, etc. One day I had just changed out the survival kit on an ejection seat before the pilot climbed in for a mission. The kit including a life raft that automatically deployed and inflated after the pilot was released from his ejection seat. Hopefully, he would never need this…

I had a few more jobs that day, and upon returning to the squadron shop I found out that the same pilot had just ejected over the Gulf of Mexico. I froze and turned pale with fear, but we later found out that all my equipment had worked and the pilot survived with injuries after punching out at over Mach 1 and landing in the Gulf.

The pilot was not in error, and the cause of the crash was structural failure. The Air Force knows that a pilot’s confidence is often low after a mishap, so they always seek to get the pilot back in the cockpit as soon as he is physically able. Our pilot was flying again in a month.

On the mission field there are also mishaps of various degrees where the missionary has to punch out, leave the field (eject). This could be battle-fatigue, health-related, severe persecution, marriage or family related or even spiritual failure.

Regardless of the reasons I have found that even though many ministries do a good or average job of sending out missionaries very few know what to do when a missionary has to eject. This is true for small ministries and large denominations alike. The ministries and leaders do care about their people, but they just don’t have the experience with this phase of ministry.

Some missionaries end up as adjunct staff members of churches with little definition, few who understand them and little to do because it is believed that they need an extended break from all ministry. This is often called “being retooled”, but this is not only a misnomer but a total misunderstanding of what the missionary needs.

I have experienced this to various degrees during our 16 years on the field, and I now find myself advising other missionaries who feel that they have failed, been fruitless or found themselves on the perpetual “sick list” of their ministry because they needed to eject for a season.

While the needs of many missionaries are very unique and not easily understood by the sending agencies there are some simple principles by which we can keep our missionaries encouraged and moreover, in a state of health in all areas of their lives. There are not many who will uproot their lives to move to another country, so we would be wise to help those who do as much as we can. The bench of replacements is usually empty, so I have compiled a short maintenance list that will keep us flying. To be fair to my own ministry many of us are working on ways to better implement these ideas.

Retool
I hate the way this word has become a blanket answer for actually doing little, but in the right context it means to sharpen or give a better tool for the task. The zeal of the worker is not in question, only the effectiveness of the tool. This is a matter of training, and training does not mean sitting. It means doing.

Rebuilding
When something has been built wrongly it needs to be repaired or built again from scratch. It might need a new foundation altogether. Some missionaries have a works or a man-pleasing foundation that cause them to burn out quickly. This might also cause them to burn others out. Unfortunately, this may take an extended season of sitting and learning how to be a follower of Jesus all over again. The famous racing horse Seabiscuit had been trained so badly – trained to lose so other horses would feel more confident - that his new trainer said that he just needed to learn how to be a horse again.

Relaunching
This happens when an attempt at launch reveals a faulty strategy or poor state of readiness. Reassessment, correction, and subsequent better preparation will make a relaunch more effective. Again, inactivity is not the answer. Listen, study, Work!

Refreshing or Refueling
When someone needs encouragement then we should simply encourage them. This is not a complex or deep concept. The umbilical cord from sending nation to the field is often long with limited nourishment – encouragement, coaching, mentoring – coming through. The missionary might have done everything right and still have met with little success. Refreshing comes with periodic breaks in ministry to spend time with God, family and missionary friends who know how to encourage us with new perspective and wisdom.

Restoring
On most computers there is a “restore point”. This rolls back the operating system to a time before the virus or mistake was made that caused the computer to shutdown. Restoration when there has been personal error is not easy, but suffice it to say that there must be a plan to remove the error and reboot the person’s life and ministry at that point. The restoration can occur in proportion to the health of that person and the renewal of trust with those who were affected by the failure.

Resuscitate
To bring back to life, from death or near death. This is essentially CPR. All people, saved or unsaved, are valuable to God. If you don’t believe this then look at the average price paid for each individual life. A good shepherd will leave the 99 for the one.

A battered reed he will not break off, and a smoldering wick he will not put out, until He leads justice to victory. Matt 12:20

He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Is 40:29-31