Lost & Found Fellowship

Devotion of the Day — Luke 6:38 (ESV)

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." Luke 6:38 (ESV)

Devotional — The Overflowing Measure

Jesus spoke these words in the middle of a longer teaching about love, mercy, and generosity, and He made a breathtaking promise: give, and it will be given to you. Not returned in kind. Not matched dollar for dollar. But pressed down, shaken together, and running over. The image is of a marketplace merchant filling your basket to the very brim, compressing the grain, shaking it down, and then piling even more on top until it spills into your lap. That is the kind of measure God uses.

The Greek word for the standard Jesus describes here is striking, He says the measure you mete out is the measure that comes back. But the measure God returns is never stingy. Our generosity, in His hands, becomes the seed for a harvest we could not have manufactured ourselves. It is not that God owes us for our giving, it is that generosity releases us into the flow of God's own nature, who is Himself the great Giver (James 1:17).

For a small church fellowship like ours, this is a word worth sitting with on a Tuesday morning. Generosity isn't just about money, it's about giving grace, giving time, giving encouragement, giving the benefit of the doubt, giving forgiveness. Every act of open-handed giving places us in the current of God's own character. And He, in turn, opens His hand toward us in ways that surprise us.

Today, look for one practical way to give, a kind word to someone weary, a moment of patience you could withhold, a resource you could share. Watch how God's economy works: with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing.

Lord, You are the ultimate Giver, You gave Your own Son for us. Loosen our grip today. Teach us to give freely, generously, and joyfully. Let our open hands become the place where Your overflow lands. Amen.

You are loved. You are seen. Keep going. ❤️

Devotion of the Day

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV)

Devotional — A New Heart for a New Week

There is something quietly miraculous about Monday morning. The week stretches ahead, blank and full of possibility, and God meets us there with a word that goes far deeper than a fresh start on the calendar. Through the prophet Ezekiel, He makes a staggering promise: I will give you a new heart. Not a repaired heart. Not a patched one. A new one.

The Hebrew context here is God speaking to His people in exile, a people who had wandered, failed, and grown hard. And yet His response to their condition is not condemnation but transformation. The word for "stone" (even) evokes something rigid, cold, and unresponsive to God. The word for "flesh" (basar) speaks of something soft, living, and pliable in His hands. God's promise is to do what we could never do for ourselves: replace the very core of who we are.

We carry the same need. The pressures of life have a way of hardening us, disappointment calcifies into cynicism, busyness crowds out tenderness, and wounds left untended turn to scar tissue. We know what it feels like to come to prayer with a heart that feels like stone. But this verse is God's answer to exactly that. He is not waiting for us to soften ourselves before He moves. He is the one who does the softening.

And notice the companion promise: a new spirit I will put within you. This is the Holy Spirit making His home in our innermost being, animating what was cold, directing what was lost, and empowering what was powerless. The new heart and the new spirit belong together, regeneration and indwelling as one gracious act of God.

As you begin this new week, bring Him the places that feel hard. The frustration, the discouragement, the area of life where you've grown callous or weary. Ask the God of Ezekiel 36 to do what only He can do: take out the stone and give you flesh, a heart that beats tender and responsive to Him once more.

Father, You are the God who makes all things new. Where my heart has grown hard, in relationship, in faith, in hope, I ask You to do what You promised. Remove the stone. Give me flesh. Fill me again with Your Spirit and make me responsive to Your voice today. I trust that the same God who spoke to exiles in Babylon is speaking to me right now. Thank You that a new week means new mercy and new work from Your hands. Amen.

Have a blessed Monday, Lost & Found family. You are loved, known, and carried. ❤️

Devotion of the Day

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV)

Devotional — The Worship That Has No End

On Sunday mornings, we gather, a handful of us in a hotel meeting room in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It might feel small. It might feel humble. But today's scripture pulls back the curtain on something breathtaking: every Sunday gathering of God's people is a preview of the eternal worship already thundering around the throne of God.

John's vision in Revelation 7 is staggering. A multitude so vast that no one can count it, people from every nation, tribe, people, and language, all standing before the Lamb and declaring with one voice: "Salvation belongs to our God!" This is not a quiet, polished ceremony. It is a roar of praise from those who have been found, forgiven, and transformed.

Notice what they're wearing: white robes. Not robes of achievement, wealth, or talent, but robes of grace. The Lamb made them white (Revelation 7:14). When we gathered this morning, (regardless where you are) we come the same way not because we've earned our place, but because Jesus secured it. Lost & Found isn't just the name of this fellowship; it's the story of every person who has ever stood in that great throng.

And consider the declaration itself: "Salvation belongs to our God." Not to a political system, not to human ingenuity, not to a church building or a denomination. Salvation is the exclusive, gracious possession of God, and He gives it freely to the lost, the broken, the searching. That's why we gather. That's worth celebrating with everything we have today.

As you came to worship today, you were joining a chorus that began before time and will never end. Your praise today echoes through eternity. Bring all of yourself, your weariness, your joy, your questions, your faith, and let it rise as an offering to the One who is worthy.

Lord, today we add our voices to the great chorus of heaven. We may be few, but we are Yours, found, clothed in Your grace, and gathered in Your name. May our worship today be genuine, heartfelt, and a foretaste of the eternal joy awaiting us. To You belongs all salvation, all glory, all honor, forever. Amen.

"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" Rev. 7:10
Have a blessed Sunday, family.

Devotion of the Day — Psalm 92:1-2 (ESV)

It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night.

Devotional — A Song for the Sabbath

The Hebrew title for Psalm 92 is simply this: A Song for the Sabbath Day. Out of all 150 psalms, this is the only one bearing that label. The ancient rabbis used it in temple worship on the day of rest, singing it as a declaration that life under God's care is worth celebrating. As we stand on the eve of gathering together tomorrow, these words feel perfectly placed, not as a duty checklist, but as an invitation into wonder.

Notice what the psalmist declares is good: not performing, not succeeding, not having everything together, but giving thanks to the LORD. The Hebrew word for good here is tôb, the same word God spoke over creation. There is something deeply right, deeply fitting, about a heart turned toward gratitude. Praise is not the ceiling of our faith; it is the floor, the starting place from which everything else rises.

"To declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night", what a rhythm for a day. Morning and evening bookended by hesed (God's loyal, covenantal love) and emunah (His faithfulness, His trustworthiness). Whether tomorrow holds joy or struggle, sunshine or storm, those two truths frame it all: He is steadfastly loving, and He is utterly faithful. Every morning is fresh evidence. Every night survived is more proof.

As you prepare your heart for worship tomorrow, let this be your posture, not just coming to a church on a Sunday morning, but coming as people who have something to say. You are gathering to declare. To proclaim. To lift up a Name that is above every name. The psalmist didn't just feel grateful privately, he sang it. He declared it. Let tomorrow's worship be an overflow of what's already stirring in your heart today.

Father, thank You that gratitude is not something we manufacture, it is a response to who You actually are. You are steadfastly loving. You are faithful. As we gather tomorrow, let our voices and our hearts agree: it is good, so good, to give You thanks. Amen.

Have a blessed Saturday!

Devotion of the Day

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV)

Devotional — An Open Invitation at the End of the Week

Friday has a way of surfacing what we've been carrying. The week's decisions, words spoken, things left undone, they settle somewhere in us as the pace slows. And rather than moving into the weekend carrying all of that unexamined, David invites us to do something radically honest: ask God to look.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart." The Hebrew word for search here is chaqar, the kind of thorough, careful investigation a miner does when looking for what lies hidden beneath the surface. David isn't inviting a surface glance. He's asking God to go deep, to find what even David himself can't fully see in his own heart. That's a daring prayer, and a beautiful one.

Notice what David trusts when he prays this. He doesn't fear the searching. He expects it to be safe. He already knows the truth declared earlier in this same psalm, that God has "hemmed me in, behind and before" and that His knowledge of us is both complete and tender. We can invite God's searching gaze precisely because it is a loving gaze. He sees our grievous ways not to condemn us but to lead us in the way everlasting.

As this week closes, try praying these two verses slowly. Let them become a quiet examination: Lord, is there anything in me this week, any bitterness, fear, pride, or wound, that You want to surface and heal? God's searching is never meant to shame us. It is the prerequisite to being led somewhere better than where we were.

As you head into the weekend, let this be your prayer: Search me, God. I'd rather be known by You and led well than be comfortable and walking the wrong way. He is faithful to complete what He begins in us.

Father, search me. I open my heart to You, the parts I'm proud of and the parts I'm afraid to look at. Show me anything that needs Your healing hand. Lead me today and this weekend in the way everlasting. I trust Your love. Amen.

Good morning, Lost & Found Family!

Devotion of the Day

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Luke 12:32 (ESV)

Devotional — The Father's Good Pleasure

There is something remarkably tender about the way Jesus addresses His followers in Luke 12:32. He calls them a little flock not a grand institution, not an impressive movement, but a small group of ordinary people gathered around an extraordinary Shepherd. And rather than apologizing for their smallness, He meets them with one of the most sweeping promises in all of Scripture: the Kingdom itself is already the Father's gift to them.

The phrase "good pleasure" (Greek: eudokeō) is the same word used at Jesus's baptism when the Father declared, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." It carries the sense of a delight that flows freely, not coerced, not reluctant, not conditional. The Father wants to give. The Kingdom is not something we claw for or earn our way into; it is something the Father joyfully presses into the hands of those who belong to His Son.

For a small church, this word is especially alive. The world measures significance by size, reach, and influence. But Jesus re-orients the math entirely. The flock that gathers in His name, wherever that may be, is the very flock the Father has chosen to entrust with Kingdom realities. The church is no afterthought in the purposes of God. You are His little flock, and it is His pleasure to give you everything that matters most.

As you move through this Thursday, release any anxiety about what is lacking or what feels small. The Father's economy is not the world's economy. He gives the Kingdom, not reluctantly, not begrudgingly, but gladly. Walk today in the confidence that you are held by a Shepherd who delights in you.

Where in your life have you been striving to earn or prove your worth? Can you receive today, just rest in, the Father's good pleasure toward you?

Father, thank You that Your Kingdom is not withheld from those who are Yours. Remind us today that we are Your little flock, known, kept, and delighted in. Help us to walk without fear and to trust that You give freely and gladly. Amen.

Good morning, Lost & Found Family! Happy Wednesday

Devotion of the Day

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
James 4:8 (ESV)

Devotional — The Promise of His Nearness

Wednesdays have a way of feeling like a middle-of-nowhere moment, the weekend is behind us, the weekend ahead still feels distant, and the weight of the week has had time to settle in. Into that exact space, James offers one of the most stunning promises in all of Scripture: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Notice the structure of this verse. It is a conditional promise, you move first. Not because God is waiting reluctantly or is hard to reach, but because intimacy requires intention. God is not hiding. He is not far off. But He also does not force His way into our rushed mornings, our distracted commutes, or our numbed-out evenings. He waits to be wanted. And the moment you turn your heart even a fraction toward Him, He comes running.

The Greek word for "draw near" is eggizō, the same word used when the prodigal son was "still a great way off" and his father saw him and ran. It carries the image of closing the distance, of one party moving toward another with purpose. James says: you take one step, and the God of the universe takes a step toward you. That is not a transaction, that is a relationship.

Mid-week is a perfect time to pause and ask: have I been drawing near this week, or just getting through it? A few minutes in the Word, a quiet prayer on a lunch break, a moment of gratitude before the next meeting, these small, intentional movements toward God are not insignificant. They are the very acts by which nearness is built.

Lord, today I draw near to You. Not because I have it all together, but because I know You are there. Meet me in this ordinary Wednesday. Quiet the noise, and let me feel Your nearness, the nearness You promised to everyone who turns toward You. Amen.

Devotion of the Day

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105 (ESV)

Devotional — A Light for the Way

Tuesday has a way of reminding us that we are fully in the week now, not just getting started, not yet winding down. The path ahead still has several days of decisions, conversations, and unknowns. It's exactly the kind of moment the psalmist was writing for.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the entire Bible, a sweeping 176-verse meditation on God's Word. And right at the heart of it, verse 105, comes this beautiful, personal image: a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. Not a floodlight that illuminates the next ten years. A lamp. Enough light for the next step. The psalmist trusted that following God's Word one step at a time was more than enough.

There's tremendous peace in that picture. We often want God to hand us the full roadmap, to show us where we'll be in five years, how a difficult situation will resolve, whether the risk we're considering is worth it. But God's design is almost always more intimate than that. He walks with us, lighting just enough ground for the step we're currently taking. His Word guides us not by predicting everything, but by shaping who we are as we go, our values, our discernment, our responses.

Today, wherever you find yourself mid-week, in meetings, in family life, in something you're unsure about, lean into the lamp. Open the Word, even briefly. Let it speak. You may not receive a full answer, but you will receive light, and light is always enough to take the next step faithfully.

Lord, thank You that Your Word doesn't leave us in the dark. Today, wherever the path feels uncertain, be our lamp. Speak to us through Scripture, and give us the courage to take the next step in the light You provide. Amen.

Devotion of the Day

"Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."
Jeremiah 33:3 (ESV)

Devotional — An Open Invitation

There is something extraordinary hidden in the simplicity of this verse. God does not say, figure it out, He says, call to Me. The Creator of the universe, who holds galaxies in place and numbers every hair on your head, extends a direct, personal invitation to every one of us: pick up the line. He will answer.

Jeremiah 33 was written while the prophet sat imprisoned in a courtyard, Jerusalem besieged and crumbling around him. Everything visible said: it's over. And yet into that darkness, God spoke one of Scripture's most breathtaking promises. The Hebrew word translated "call", qara', carries the weight of crying out, summoning, even declaring. It isn't a polite knock; it's the cry of someone who truly needs to be heard. And God says: I will answer.

But the promise doesn't stop there. He will show us great and hidden things, the Hebrew betsurot, literally things that are inaccessible, fortified, beyond our reach on our own. Not just comfort, but revelation. Not just a word of reassurance, but insight, direction, and understanding that we could never manufacture ourselves. Prayer isn't a last resort; it's a doorway into the unseen wisdom of God.

As you step into this new week, with its fresh list of demands, decisions, uncertainties, and unknowns, take a moment before you reach for your phone, your planner, or your own wisdom. Call to Him. He isn't distant. He isn't too busy. He is listening, and He has things to show you that your eyes haven't yet seen.

Father, thank You that You are not silent and You are not far. I call to You this morning, not because I have everything figured out, but because I know You do. Speak into the hidden places of my week. Show me the great things You have prepared for those who seek You. I trust You with what I cannot see. Amen.

When God calls you for a purpose,it won’t always make sense to the people closest to you.

Your spouse may not fully understand.
Your kids may struggle with the changes.
Your friends may question your decisions.

But God never said His call would be convenient or that you aren’t going to go through the fire or be refined, He said it would be worth it.

Jesus made it clear:

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)

“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭38‬)

This includes anyone that you love or put before God.

That doesn’t mean you stop loving them. It means God must come first.

Because when God places a calling on your life, it’s not based on:

People’s approval
Comfort zones
Timing that feels right to everyone else

It’s based on HIS PURPOSE.

And sometimes obedience will require you to step out even when no one claps, no one agrees, and no one fully understands.

But here’s the balance, God is not calling you to abandon love, neglect your responsibilities,or walk in selfishness. God’s will, will always align with His character.

So you can be obedient
AND still walk in love.
You can follow God fully
AND still honor your family.

But at the end of the day, you cannot let anyone take the place that belongs to God.

Because delayed obedience is still disobedience,and partial obedience is not obedience at all.

So if God is calling you, answer Him.

Even if it’s uncomfortable.
Even if it’s misunderstood.
Even if it costs you something.

Because His purpose is greater than your comfort…and His calling is too important to ignore.
God first. Always.