Tag Archives: the love of the father

Knowing God

The Good Shepherd and the lost sheep

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Jesus said: “for the son of man has come to save that which was lost.“ (Matthew 18:11), and continued with the parable of the lost sheep (verse 12). So when we read about the lost sheep , we tend to focus on the sheep and the miracle of salvation – the rejoicing in heaven – when one is returned to the fold. Another translation actually puts it: “to find lost people and to save them.”

As true as this is, I think there is a bigger picture as well. The Greek word translated as “lost” means much more than just wondered off track; it means killed, ruined, destroyed. Matthew quotes Jesus as saying this in the context of children being corrupted, but when Jesus talks about coming to save the lost  in Luke’s Gospel He is referring to Zacchaeus the tax collector, who clearly was not a little child. Jesus’s statement is far more powerful and explosive than we tend to make it. I don’t think He is only talking about people who are lost to their Father’s love, but He is talking about the creation that the Father lost when Adam handed it over to Satan in the garden of Eden. He is talking about the heart of the Shepherd, not just the condition of the sheep. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but receive everlasting life,” is about lost people, but verse 17 is about the lost world: “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might him through him might be saved.“

Jesus left his Father’s side and the sheep fold of heaven, that through Him the ruined creation might be saved. Talking figuratively of Elijah, He says (Matt 17:11) that the Holy Spirit “will restore all things.” When Peter preached the gospel after healing the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, he said that heaven must receive Jesus “until the time times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken of by His holy prophets since the world began.” We can pick apart the phrase “restoration of all things“ to make it fit our theology until every Greek cypher is dust in our hands, but surely the restoration of all things means the restoration of all things. All things. Jesus came from heaven to gather the lost sheep into His arms to bring it back to the Father’s fold. Having completed the work of salvation at the cross, He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to make it fit for heaven again. When Jesus comes for His bride all of creation will be restored: “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. … because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19,21)

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that God’s Geography isn’t the same as ours. The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t a place that we travel to; it’s a dimension that our spirits move in. Jesus told us where it is in Luke 17:21 “Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” When the miraculous happens in our lives the Kingdom of God crosses dimensions and comes to us, restoring another ruined corner of creation to God’s perfection. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The Holy Spirit is longing to restore every ruined area of our lives: it’s what He has come here for. Habakkuk gave us these wonderful verses at the end of his prophesy:

“Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labour of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls— Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.” (Habakkuk 3: 17-19)

We may have been a Christian for many years and still find ourselves wandering in the midst of the devil’s ruin. Our spirits can feel a long way from the fold where they belong. When that happens we need to take our eyes off the barren fields and the empty stalls and focus them on the Good Shepherd and the abundant life of His Kingdom. Then He will come, gather us bleating in His arms, and make us ‘walk on our high hills’ again.

Pursuing Love, Walking in the Spirit

Mountains and Waterfalls

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The flowers of the grass

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 
because

“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.” 

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” (1 Pe 1 22-25)

I was on a mission trip to Switzerland in May, staying at a Bible college up in the hills overlooking a lake, facing some prominent peaks of the Alps. I was walking down a path one morning to check out the bird life, having read the above passage from1 Peter before I left. In all the times I have read that scripture, I had never thought about “the flower of the grass,” until this moment when I found myself standing in it, looking across the valley at the view which the photo above captures a corner of. I took the picture from where I stood with the flower of the grass at my feet, the Bible school behind me, representing the enduring Word of God, looking across the valley at the beauty and majesty of God’s creation, drinking in liquid bird song and the flutter of butterflies among the wildflowers, drenched in peace, and above all feeling cradled in the love of the one who had made it all. After nearly 40 years in the Lord, I felt the Father’s love in a new, intimate way that morning.  And while I was standing there trying to contemplate the majesty of my loving Father through this tiny fragment of His creation the thought occurred to me: the flower of the grass doesn’t even last anything like as long as the grass itself. And this is as much as our glory is worth!

The thoughts tumbled in: how often do we try to elevate ourselves with our opinions, our superior “wisdom,” our spirituality, our ”rightness” – especially our rightness? But our glory is no more than the flower of the grass at my feet compared with the glory of God in all His majesty and the eternal truth of His Word, and my opinions are of no more value by comparison than a used bus ticket buried in the folds of  my pocket. “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.” And yet we carry within us the glory of the One who made the mountains. How can I possibly offer people my bus tickets instead of letting them know something of the love, the peace and the glory that has been poured out into my heart by the Holy Spirit of Creator Father God? Why do I even look at them?

Without love, we stand alone, and all we manifest is what is corruptible;  the flower of the grass. When we reach out in love to others we can manifest the glory of God and the incorruptible truth of His word, quickened by the power of His Spirit. Switzerland is full of waterfalls. I was telling a wise friend about my experience on the hillside, and likened the idea of standing in the flow of God’s love to standing under a waterfall (I am hardly the first person to do so…) My friend said “A waterfall pours into a pool, then flows out of it. Our job (actually he said “your job,” but it applies to all of us) isn’t to try and direct the flow of the water, but just to stand beneath it. It will take its own course out of the pool.”

Our hearts are that pool. The love of God has been poured into them (Romans 5:5), and it pours out as rivers of living water (John 7:38). I don’t think we can truly love unless we stand under that waterfall. Jesus came and died to make it possible. The Father’s waterfall carries no negative pollutants; it always brings forgiveness, always drives away hurt. It always renews, always washes away the old, it is always fresh, always new, always clean, always pure. It is the Father’s waterfall that drives the dynamo of His power on the Earth. When we stand beneath it we cannot hold onto pain and disappointment, but letting go we can let the water come, and in our own situations we can be like Jesus, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” (1 Peter 2:23)

“Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), and so the greatest and most perfect gift of all, the love of God, must also come down from above. It can’t return from where the waterfall has already passed. If we look to any other source to meet our deepest need we are looking for secondhand water.

“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life. |(Psalm 43:7-8)

Isaiah exhorts all who are thirsty to “Come to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). When we do, it is not just our thirst that is quenched, but the thirst of those around us as the Lord commands His lovingkindness with the water that pours out of the pool of our hearts. If we will stand in the Father’s waterfall we will see the glory of the mountains made manifest, not just the flower of the grass.