Pine Prairie receives the word of God

For the first time in Pine Prairie, a tent revival opened up Tuesday night at the corner of La. Hwy 13 and Walnut Street.
The revival was sponsored by Christian Tabernacle in Pine Prairie and hosted by the church’s pastor Brother Barry Gautreaux and Brother Davy Boggs of Boggs Family Ministries of Waynesville, Ohio.
Brother Boggs preached Tuesday on the series of stories about lost items found in Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel.
“I like the way it gets started,” said Brother Boggs. “They try to provoke Jesus to anger by saying He must be a sinner because sinners like to be around Him. He answers them in Verse 27 in the lips of the servant to the elder brother when the elder brother is confused about why his dad would be throwing a party. The servant says you’re younger brother has come home and your father has received him safe and sound. So, 27 verses after the accusation, Jesus says He loves receiving sinners.”
As Brother Boggs explained, the three items which become lost are a lamb, a coin, and a son. He further explained how each became lost.
“The son became lost because he had a selfish sinful attitude, and he went in the far country,” Brother Boggs said. “The Bible says he wasted his substance on riotous living. He wasted everything he was made of, and that’s what sin always does. It wastes us.”
Brother Boggs continued, “The lamb became lost by just doing the same thing he’s done everyday. He’s eating green grass and green clover. There’s a little more on the other side of the creek and up on top of that hill. When the shadows start getting long at the end of the day, he turns around to look for the shepherd and listen for his voice. But, the shepherd and the sheep are gone. By living his daily life, he wandered too far from the safety of the other sheep.”
“The coin becomes lost either through neglect or ill purpose someone mishandled that coin. And, off the edge it went. Evidently this woman didn’t know it had become lost, and it fell in a place that was not readily seen. It stayed there a while until she discovered it was lost. By the time she discovered her coin was missing, it is not covered with the dirt and debris of life.”
Brother Boggs then applied the story of the lost coins to people’s lives today. “That’s part of the damage done to us when we’re dropped off the table,” he said. “We wonder why nobody noticed we’ve been broken, wounded, misused, or mistreated physically, emotionally, or sexually. What’s worse is maybe you tried to tell somebody, and they were tone deaf. They didn’t tune in or didn’t believe you. You’re in that dark place wondering if anybody even knows you’re gone, and God knows. God noticed the very moment you were mishandled and dropped from the edge of that table.”
He continued, “In God’s economy, every coin is valuable. God still picks up lost coins. No matter how low you think you’ve gone and no matter how low people’s opinions of you might be, in God’s economy you are still valuable. God still values lost coins.
Each of the three items, according to Brother Boggs, is eventually found. As he preached, “Who went and got the lost lamb? It was the shepherd. Who’s the shepherd in the word of God? That’s Jesus the Son of God. He went and got the lost lamb. Who went after the lost son and spoke in his ear when he was in the hog pen? That was the Holy Ghost chasing after the sinner.”
“Who was the man waiting when the son came home and was running toward him? That’s God the Father. Who is this woman looking for the lost coin? There is one institution in the world that God made that is always referred to as a woman, and that is the church.”
As he concluded the first night of the revival, Brother Boggs expressed, “The Bible says there’s more joy in the presence of the angels over a sinner who repented than 99 who have been saved. That’s not the angels rejoicing. That’s in the presence of the angels. Who they’re watching? God. It’s God rejoicing that a coin has been found.”
The tent revival continues each night for the rest of the week at 7 p.m. and concludes Sunday, September 8. Free water will be provided each night, and no offerings will be collected.