Seeking

My life-verse is Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”  David wrote, “You have said to my heart, ‘Seek My face.’  Your face Lord I will seek” (Ps 27:8).  Isaiah 45:19 declares, “I have not spoken in secret . . . I have not said, ‘Seek me in vain.’” Paul said that God has placed Himself near us so that when we reach out to Him, we will find Him (see Acts 17:26-28). This is an extraordinary invitation: “If you seek Him, He will be found by you” (1 Chr 28:9). 

But understand that we will not just “stumble over” God. Nor is seeking Him a casual glance in His direction on Sunday morning.  Seeking God is a life-long, daily, determined pursuit.  It is making time every day for Bible study, prayer, and meditating on Him, His character, and His Word.  It is allowing nothing to distract us or disrupt our heart’s mission – to know God. 1 Chronicles 22:19 says, “Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God.”

But get this: God is seeking you too.  Jesus declared in John 19:10 – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  Imagine that with me – God; the God of heaven, the Creator of all things, the great and holy I AM, sought you and me out to be His own. 

No, it’s not like God has lost sight of you, but you have wandered far from Him, and are lost in a wilderness of your own choices. John 15:4-7 tells the parable of the lost sheep.  Jesus said, “Does [the shepherd] not…go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (vs. 4,5).  The Good Shepherd is on a “search and rescue” mission to find you and restore you and bring you home – and He does so with great Joy.

It is a beautiful two-fold promise. God has pledged that when you seek Him with all your heart, He will make sure you find Him.  And when you lose your way, He will seek you and bring you back home. Either way, Beloved, you win. And the prize? Eternity with the One who created you and loves you – and seeks you with all His heart.

In God’s Hands

Have you noticed that the Scriptures call us “sheep?” I’ve heard people say that sheep are dumb, and I don’t think that is entirely fair. Sheep just get focused on one thing – filling their bellies – and don’t pay attention to what they are doing or where they are going. A sheep will put his head down to graze and keep it down as he moves from one succulent tuft of grass to another. He doesn’t look up to see where he’s headed or how far he has gone from the shepherd or how close he is to the edge of a river bank. One more step and he is tumbling down, down, down, and into serious trouble. If the shepherd doesn’t find him soon he’ll fall prey to a predator and sheep are helpless in a fight.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve wandered. Or maybe you know and love a wanderer. I’ve shared before that I have a prodigal – a wanderer. He grew up in the church and a godly home. But he’s grazing out in the world with his head down. I’ve prayed for him for many, many years: “God, please don’t let him fall away from You.” One morning the Spirit impressed on me to sing “He’s Got The Whole World in His Hands.” “Mama,” He said to my heart, “If I have room for the whole world in my hands then you can be sure my hands a big enough for him to roam far and wide without falling off.”

David said, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast” (Ps 139:7-10). Re-read that last sentence. Your right hand will hold me fast. God loves you too much to let you go. He loves your wanderer more than you do.

If you have wandered from the shepherd, just call out His name from wherever you are. He will leave the ninety-nine and come rescue you and bring you back to the flock. If you are praying for a wanderer, don’t give up. God’s got them, even while they roam. Jesus said the Father is not willing that any of his sheep should be lost (Matt 18:10-14). Beloved, He’s a big God with big hands.

Do You Know Jesus?

I recently saw a meme that said, “I follow Jesus, not the Bible.” But the Bible is where you will find everything you need to know about Jesus.

He is the Seed of the woman who will one day crush the head of Satan and the Passover Lamb. He is the great high priest and the perfect sacrifice, the Prophet and the Captain of the Lord’s army.  He is the Deliverer and our Kinsman Redeemer and the King in the line of David. He is the Restorer of Jerusalem, the Shepherd, and the Source of all wisdom.  He is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and Suffering Servant. He is the Man acquainted with sorrows and the one who brings life to dry bones. He is the Ancient of Days, a faithful Husband, Source of Hope, Judge, Preacher, Mighty Savior, and the Son of Righteousness.

Matthew declared Him as the long-awaited Messiah and the fulfillment of prophecy. Mark showed that He was the King with power and authority over every realm. Luke proclaimed Him as the Son of God full of compassion and mercy.  John said that Jesus “was the Word” made “flesh” and the “true light” and the “One and Only” from the Father (John 1:1, 14, 9, 14, respectively). And throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus is revealed as “the Bread of Life” (6:48), “the Light of the world” (8:12), “the Door” and “the Good Shepherd” (10:9,11), “the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25), “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (14:6), and “the true Vine” (15:1). Paul said Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15) and the writer of Hebrews said that “the Son is . . . the exact representation of [God’s] being. In other words, when you see these truths about Jesus, you are seeing God. What we know about Him from the Scriptures is enough to change our lives forever.

The Lord posed the most important question when He asked, “Who do you say I am?” (Matt 16:15). You need to know the right answer, Beloved. Your eternal destiny depends on it.  You will only find Him on the pages of Holy Writ. I encourage you to pick up a Bible and meet the Son of God. It’s the most wonderful discovery you’ll ever make.

Lost and Found

In Luke 15: 3-7 Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves his safe flock to go after the one sheep who has wandered away. “And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (15:5-6a). The shepherd had ninety-nine other sheep, but his heart would not let him abandon the one who was lost.

Your Heavenly Father has the same heart for you. Whether you are in a place you never expected nor wanted to be, or you are in a season of life that is hard, painful, and seemingly unending, God has promised He will find you there and bring you safely home. In truth, He doesn’t have to look very hard, because you never left His sight when you wandered away. That’s because He never left your side. His promise is and always has been: “I will never leave you nor forsake you. Your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:5, 9). Wherever you and I go, if we are God’s children, He is with us. Even if you get caught up in the glamor of the world and wander, or you run away in outright rebellion. Even if I go so far away from His fold that it seems impossible to get back. No matter where we roam, in physical places or seasons of life, God’s heart never leaves us. He never forgets about His children.

Something else I noticed – probably because I’m extra aware of seeing my granddaughter’s name in the Scriptures – He brings the lost sheep home with Joy. Not begrudgingly, not with words of anger or impatience.  Not with frustration or resentment over the trouble the sheep caused. He’s just so happy to have His little lamb back with Him.

Are you in a difficult place? Are you in a hard season? Trust in God’s faithful love for you. Did you carelessly wander away because you were distracted by the glitter and lights of the world? Did you stomp your feet and run in rebellion. Beloved, God is not mad at you. He wants you to come home. Call His Name from wherever you are right now, then watch for His rescue. There is no place that His love will not reach.

Careless Sheep and the Good Shepherd

“His eyes never slumber, and His hands never rest; His heart never ceases to beat with love, and His shoulders are never weary of carrying His people’s burdens.”

Charles Spurgeon on Christ Jesus our Shepherd

My favorite “I Am” statement of Jesus is “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).  It always reminds me of a painting depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd, that hung in the vestibule of a church I worked at years ago. He is reaching from the side of a cliff to rescue one of His little lambs.  Sheep are notoriously clueless and helpless.  They start grazing and fail to notice when they wander too far from the fold or too close to the edge of a cliff.  They love to graze at the edge of the water because the grass is abundant and lush.  But they step on the slippery rocks and tumble into the water. Their wool becomes so heavy they cannot right themselves or climb out.  If the shepherd doesn’t hear their bleating, they will soon drown.

Sound familiar?  It sure does to me.  I have often wandered from the safety of my shepherd’s side following the lush and tempting grass.  But Jesus never fails to rescue me when I cry out.

I love how, in this painting, Jesus has put Himself in a precarious position to bring His wandering one to safety.  What struck me the most about the painting though was the look on the little lamb’s face – absolute confidence in the Shepherd.  There is no worry or doubt that the Shepherd will rescue her.  She isn’t trying to pull herself up the rocky wall of the cliff, but waits for Him to reach her and bring her to safety.   There is no fear of anger from the Shepherd.  Just trust.   This little lamb knows the Shepherd, knows that He is able to rescue her ,and knows that He loves her.

I don’t know what danger you may have wandered into.  You may be trying to get yourself to safety, too ashamed to cry out for rescue. You wonder if Jesus will come and if He will be angry with you.  Beloved, stop trying to rescue yourself.  Cry out to Jesus – there’s no need to be ashamed. He will come and He is not angry.

The Lord is your Shepherd – whether you are safe in the fold or hanging on the side of a cliff. You are His beloved lamb.

More than Just a Face in the Crowd

 A high school or university has thousands of students roaming the halls, sitting in classes, congregating on the lawn—each student is but one of the many. The shopping mall is filled crowds of young people wanting to see and be seen, hoping that they stand out from the rest.  Perhaps you go to church Sunday after Sunday and sit in your usual spot, one person in a large congregation, hoping for a word of encouragement.  If you search the internet for “Christian Blogs” or “Christian Devotionals,” you will find that there are millions of bloggers out there vying for readers.  I am one tiny voice in the chorus of Christian writers. We often feel like we are just one face in a massive crowd.

In the city of Jerusalem there was a pool, called Bethesda, where “a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed” (John 5:3).  They were there in hopes of healing for the rumor held that an angel would come and stir the waters and the first person to get into the pool would be healed.  Historians tell us that when they weren’t watching the waters they were begging for alms.  An invalid of thirty-eight years was part of that great number.  He was there alone, helpless and hopeless – just one begging face among so many (v. 7).  But Jesus saw this man out of all the other faces and He healed him (vs. 6, 8-9).  We don’t know why He singled this man out, but I believe John included this account to show that Jesus sees each one of us individually.  We are not just part of the vast sea of humanity. 

The Bible tells us that “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son . . . to save the world” (John 3:16, 17), and it is true that the death of Jesus is sufficient to save all of humankind. (Although we know that not all will believe and receive His salvation.)  But He is a very personal God; He who knows the name of every star knows your name too.  Jesus attested to that; He is the Great Shepherd who “calls His sheep by name” (John 10:3).  If you are in Christ, He knows you – personally, intimately and passionately.  You need not worry that you are just a face in the crowd – God never overlooks the one He loves.

The Lord is my Shepherd

One of my favorite images of God is as my Shepherd.  I remember a painting at a church I once worked at of a sheep caught in the brush on the side of a steep cliff, not a secure place to be.  What drew my focus was the look of absolute peace on the animal’s face because it was watching the shepherd who had climbed down the cliff and was reaching out to rescue his little lost sheep.  He trusted his shepherd and was sure that he would be saved.  The Bible often describes God’s people as sheep and Himself as their Shepherd.  I read a book by a Phillip Keller, who had spent several years as a shepherd and put these passages into perspective.  Where we look at sheep and see sweet faces and fluffy white wool, a shepherd sees an animal who is helpless on his own and utterly clueless – the truth is sheep are dumb animals.  How does that make you feel now 😮 ?  Sheep tend to put their head down to graze and never watch where they’re going, never notice danger nearby and can graze their way right off the edge of a cliff.  Hmm – that sounds like me sometimes.  Sheep who get to close to the water’s edge often fall in, soaking their wool making them too heavy to climb out and they often drown.  Sounds a bit like us and sin doesn’t it? We are sheep – clueless, helpless, defenseless – and desperately in need of a shepherd. 

David identified the Lord as his Shepherd in whom he placed all his confidence.  He knew the Shepherd would meet his every need, whether for protection, comfort, food or rest.  Jesus reaffirmed that Shepherd identity in John 10:11 saying, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  The Good Shepherd knows His sheep, He knows their name, their habits, their character and how they get into trouble.  In Luke 15 we learn that a Good Shepherd will search for His lost sheep.  That’s comfort to the heart of this little lamb with a tendency to wander and lose my way.  When I am in danger from my own foolish actions, my Good Shepherd promises to find and rescue me.  The beauty of it is that we are never really out of His sight.  Where a human shepherd has to search before he can rescue, the Good Shepherd knows exactly where we are; we can be assured He is on His way. 

Rest yourself in the care of the Good Shepherd my friend, He knows you and loves you – so much that He gave His life to rescue you.  The Lord is my Shepherd, that’s all I need to know.

In the Hard Places

“There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you.” Micah 4:11

“How did I get here Lord? This is not where I’m supposed to be!”

Sometime we find ourselves where we don’t want to be. It may be in a physical place or a season of life, but it is unexpected, uncomfortable and, at times, even unbearable.   I have been in physical places that were so discouraging and depressing that I felt hopeless. I have been in seasons of my life that were hard, frightening, and lonely; I felt like Paul who said, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Cor.. 1:8b). I am sure that you have too. These places and seasons come to all of us.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve wondered, “Lord, how did I get here?” The Word of God gives us the answers. The Old Testament prophet Micah preached to the people of Israel and Judah some seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. He proclaimed the judgment of God against the sinfulness of the people, and told them of coming disaster from the hand of the Lord. He identified some key issues that brought them to this place.

He rebukes them for their sin, proclaiming “All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sin of the house of Israel” (Micah 1:5). Sin separates man from God, and also separates us from God’s best for our lives. It has been rightly said that sin will take you farther than you meant to go, keep you longer than you meant to stay, and cost you more than you meant to pay.

Another reason for the places we find ourselves is deception. The people in the ancient world were dependent on the religious leaders, who often distorted the words and laws of God, leading many astray.   But we have Truth written for us in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit helps us to understand and apply those truths to our lives. If we are not studying the Word of God, if we let others define truth for us, we will always be led astray.

Micah also recognizes the problems we face when we forget who God is and what He has done. In Micah 6, God asks through the prophet, “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you?”(6:3), and then reminds them of His redemption, faithfulness and love. God is full of grace, mercy, compassion, tenderness and love so vast that we cannot fully comprehend it. When we forget that, when we doubt His love and care, we wander off in search of the things He longs to give us. We find ourselves in difficult places and seasons.

Stepping out of the book of Micah, we find another reason for the places and seasons of our lives Joseph was sold by his jealous brothers into a life of slavery, but God was always with him, and He used Joseph to save countless lives, including the lives of those same brothers, from a seven-year famine. Joseph recognized God’s hand, telling his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to…[save] many lives” (Genesis 50:20). Sometimes God allows difficult season and places to accomplish a much greater purpose that we can’t see in the moment.

But God is faithful to His children, and when we are lost, He seeks us out and brings us back home. That is the heart of our key verse. And that is the heart of our Heavenly Father, as Jesus demonstrated in a parable He told in Luke 15: 3-7. He tells of a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine safe sheep to go after the one sheep who has wandered away. “And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (15:6). The shepherd had ninety-nine other sheep, but his heart would not let him abandon the one who was lost.

Your Heavenly Father has the same heart for you. Whether you are in a place you never expected nor wanted to be, or you are in a season of life that is hard, painful and seemingly unending, God has promised He will find you there and bring you safely home. In truth, He doesn’t have to look very hard, for He never left you, even when you wandered away. His promise is and always has been: “I will never leave you nor forsake you. Your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:5, 9). Wherever you and I go, if we are God’s children, He is with us. Even if we are lost because of rebellion. Even if we are so far away from His fold that it seems impossible to get back. No matter where we roam, in physical places or seasons of life, God’s heart never leaves us. He never forgets about His children.

Are you in a difficult place? Are you in a hard season? Whether it was your own wandering or the providential hand of God, trust in His faithful love for you. Turn to Him and call His Name, then watch for His rescue. There is no place that His love will not reach.

Faithful Lord, my Good Shepherd, You have promised to always be with me. Even when I am in hard places and seasons, You are there. Father, help me trust in Your love and know that wherever I am, I am never far from Your heart. Amen.