Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E36 | Everyday Eurasia | Tanja Baum

Transcript

S1-E36 | Everyday Eurasia | Tanja Baum · Eurasia Region Podcast

• 0:06
  Welcome to the special advance series of the Everyday Eurasia
• 0:09
  podcast, Inspiring Fate or Everyday?
• 0:13
  In the coming weeks, they'll be journeying together toward
• 0:16
  Christmas, a season of anticipation, reflection and
• 0:21
  light. In the darker days.
• 0:23
  During this special season of Advent, we will journey through
• 0:26
  the Advent themes of hope, peace, joy and love.
• 0:30
  In these last days of the Advent season, we will join Tanya Baum.
• 0:34
  She's living in Germany near Frankfurt, together with her
• 0:37
  husband Martin and family. For the last two years, she
• 0:40
  served as a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene in North
• 0:44
  Frankfurt. He's also helping the Germany
• 0:47
  District, European Nasrin College and the Eurasia region
• 0:51
  with finances and data protection.
• 0:54
  She will share with us about the team Advent Love.
• 0:57
  How would you describe God's love?
• 1:01
  It's not that easy, is it? I find it difficult to find a
• 1:05
  single word that describes the totality of God's love.
• 1:10
  Even the apostle Paul listed a whole number of descriptions
• 1:15
  when he wrote about love in First Corinthians 13.
• 1:20
  God's love for us cannot be described with a single word.
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  I like to compare it to a diamond which has many facets
• 1:30
  and only reveals its unbelievable beauty through
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  these many facets. Over the next few days I will
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  look at some of these facets of God's love with you.
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  Today we will turn to a parable of Jesus that describes one of
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  these facets of God's love. I will read to you from Luke 15
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  verses four to seven. Suppose one of you has 100 sheep
• 2:01
  and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the
• 2:06
  open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
• 2:11
  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his
• 2:15
  shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and
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  neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my
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  lost sheep. Have you ever looked at this
• 2:27
  story from the perspective of the one sheep that was lost
• 2:32
  perps? You know that sheep don't always
• 2:36
  make the best decisions when they find a good place to eat.
• 2:41
  They tend to forget everything around them, continue eating,
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  and don't even notice that they have strayed quite a distance
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  from the flock. What a terrible feeling it must
• 2:53
  be to suddenly realize that you are all alone, that you are
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  defenseless against the dangers of your surroundings, and that
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  there is no one there to save you.
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  Suddenly you are alone and lost. Alone and Lost describes very
• 3:11
  well how many people in this world feel today, and the
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  reasons for this are manifold. Some of them have simply strayed
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  from the path, some are simply too distracted by everyday life,
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  some do not even know that they can be part of a community, and
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  some have decided to stay alone. But being alone and lost is not
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  how we humans should live. Taking up the parable of the
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  lost sheep, it is clear that a flock does not consist of a
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  single sheep, but always of many.
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  A flock means community, and the Good Shepherd cannot bear to see
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  a single sheep separated from the flock.
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  He must go out and find it so that it is no longer alone and
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  lost. This reveals a special facet of
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  God's love. God's love is a searching love.
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  It never stops searching for the lonely and lost sheep.
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  It never stops searching for you, and it always wants to find
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  you. God's searching love is
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  constantly looking for you. It sets out to find those who
• 4:27
  have strayed from the flock. It searches for those who have
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  not yet been part of the flock. It constantly looks for you
• 4:35
  among the sheep of the flock to make sure you are still there.
• 4:41
  It is God's searching love that leads people like you and me to
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  the great flock of the Good Shepherd and the family of God.
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  Those whom God's searching love finds are touched by it and no
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  longer need to be alone and lost.
• 5:00
  Luke 19 verse 10 says For the Son of Man came to seek and to
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  save the lost. He is seeking you, He is
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  searching for you. Let Him find you and touch you
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  in a whole new way. Today let us pray.
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  Heavenly Father, we cannot even imagine how much you love us.
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  You love us so much that You are constantly searching for us with
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  your searching love. Please find us today and touch
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  us in a whole new way with your love and help us to share your
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  love with others who are alone and lost so that they too may be
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  found. Amen.
• 5:50
  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
• 5:54
  Inspiring Fate for everyday. For more Everyday Stories,
• 5:58
  subscribe on this podcast channel, follow our socials,
• 6:01
  Facebook and Instagram, or our newsletter Snapshots.
• 6:04
  For our newsletter and further information about the Eurasia
• 6:08
  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.