Prone to Wander Lord, I Feel It. . .

Siu Sum! Xiao Xin!

In my sermon last Sunday, I didn't have time to address this issue again, but Jesus once again reiterated the point that no one can come to him unless the Father draws him or her. When the Father draws you to Jesus, how do you respond? Do you keep wandering or do you turn and go to Jesus?

The first half of Isaiah 53:6 says, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way..." You know it's true. Even the children of God have a tendency to wander, a situation that won't be remedied until we die or Jesus comes back again, whichever comes first.

Problems start when we turn to our own ways, what seems right to us. In the days of the Judges, the biggest problem came because "every man did was was right in their own eyes." We need to do what is right in God's eyes. It does not matter if every person in the world is against us, we need to always do what is right in the eyes of God. And the way to do that is to stick with him.

Don't wander from God. You might get hit by a truck!

In the Hands of God

Sometimes it is difficult to to submit one's self to God but there is no safer place to be than in his hands. As Dr. O.S. Hawkins once said during a sermon at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, "You should not fear that God would put his hands on you. Rather you should fear that God would take his hands off you."

Don't be afraid to fall in the hands of God.

In God's Fold

Jesus' heart broke over Jerusalem as he remarked how he wanted to gather his children together as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings because they were not willing to do so. (Matt. 23, Luke 13) This mother hen imagery expresses a two-fold result: to draw us near to him and to draw us near to one another. If Jesus is drawing us near to him as a mother hen draws its chicks, that means that we cannot come near to God without coming near to our brothers and sisters in Christ as well. If the chicks fight with one another, it is easy to see it would be impossible for any of them to be gathered under the loving wings of their mother. As we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, it is easy to see that we will live in unity in the warm, soft, feathery goodness of God's fold. But that is up to you. Are you willing?