Digesting This Parable
written at Monday, September 12, 2011
Have you ever felt this uncontrollable joy that builds up within you, this overwhelming feeling of hope and thankfulness when you find out that a loved one, a friend, a member of your family has recently become a believer in Christ? I was reading the parable of the wandering sheep from Luke and Matthew tonight and was moved afresh.
Now I know the deeper meaning when Brooke Fraser wrote these lyrics:
If to distant lands I scatter
If I sail to farthest seas
Would you find and firm and gather 'till I only dwell in Thee?
If I flee from greenest pastures
Would You leave to look for me?
Forfeit glory to come after
Till I only dwell in Thee
"Does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?"
"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing."
The lost sheep, exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to the shepherd, and yet not desirous to come home. Yet Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. His love is displayed and shown through this parable. Even more moving, when the sinner comes home, all of heaven rejoices.
Digesting This Parable
written at Monday, September 12, 2011
Have you ever felt this uncontrollable joy that builds up within you, this overwhelming feeling of hope and thankfulness when you find out that a loved one, a friend, a member of your family has recently become a believer in Christ? I was reading the parable of the wandering sheep from Luke and Matthew tonight and was moved afresh.
Now I know the deeper meaning when Brooke Fraser wrote these lyrics:
If to distant lands I scatter
If I sail to farthest seas
Would you find and firm and gather 'till I only dwell in Thee?
If I flee from greenest pastures
Would You leave to look for me?
Forfeit glory to come after
Till I only dwell in Thee
"Does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?"
"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing."
The lost sheep, exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to the shepherd, and yet not desirous to come home. Yet Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. His love is displayed and shown through this parable. Even more moving, when the sinner comes home, all of heaven rejoices.
Profile
Knowing
What matters supremely, therefore, is not
in the last analysis, the fact that I know God,
but the larger fact which underlies it --
the fact that He knows me.
J. I. Packer
