{"id":4663,"date":"2026-09-21T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/?p=4663"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T08:07:09","slug":"perdue-dans-la-maison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/perdue-dans-la-maison\/","title":{"rendered":"LOST IN THE HOUSE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <strong>LOST IN THE HOUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Weekly Update<\/strong> \u2013 September 21, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My father-in-law pointed this out to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Gospel of Luke, there are two parables in which the lost (the son and the sheep) are lost <em>outside<\/em>. The other parable is different (the shortest of the three): the parable of the lost coin (vv. 8\u201310). It is <em>inside<\/em> the house that this coin is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is true that most lost souls are found outside the church, the third parable that Jesus shared reminds us of this terrible reality: there are lost coins inside the house, inside the building, inside the local church. The coin is in the house, and yet it is lost! And often, those who are lost within the church don\u2019t even know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is why, in the house of God, in our Christian communities, and in our youth groups, we must <em>\u201clight a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully\u201d<\/em> until that lost coin\u2014that teenager in the youth group, that child who grew up in Sunday school, that retiree who attends the evangelical church Sunday after Sunday\u2014is found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was saying the other day to a brother who is just starting out in ministry: <em>\u201cWhen you preach, no matter what the sermon is, always keep in mind that in your audience, there is surely a lost coin. It is essential that this coin, which is stuck under a piece of furniture, be safe with the other coins in the heavenly purse of God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few weeks ago, at a small Chinese church in the outskirts of Paris where we were holding an evangelistic service, out of the 37 people present, 14 \u201clost coins\u201d were found!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we knew how many coins are lost in our church buildings, the content of our hymns and sermons would change radically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tim and Yukki<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, September 21, my Dad would have celebrated his 89th birthday. He went home , last month, to be with Jesus. I miss him so much.  <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> <strong>LOST IN THE HOUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4665,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions\/4665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timotheepaton.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}