Daily Archives: July 20, 2012

Voice

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Deborah over at “Significant Encounters” wrote this Voice.  Short but powerful post.  I believe she’s a beautiful and faithful witness to our Lord Jesus Christ, and I’m honored to call her a sister in Christ.

From “Music For The Soul” by Alexander Maclaren

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July 20

I’ve never seen this put better…

CHRIST’S UNSOUGHT LOVE

I am found of them that sought Me not. – Isa_65:1

Christ’s own word is a wonderful one: “The Father seeketh such to worship Him “; as if God went all up and down the world looking for hearts to love Him and to turn to Him with reverent thankfulness. And as the Father, so the Son – for us the “revelation of the Father: “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Nobody on earth wanted Him, or dreamed of His coming. When He bowed the heavens and gathered Himself into the narrow space of the manger in Bethlehem, and took upon Him the limitations and the burdens and the weaknesses of manhood, it was not in response to any petition, it was in reply to no seeking, but He came spontaneously, unmoved, obeying but the impulse of His own heart, and because He would have mercy. He who is the Beginning, and will be first in all things, was first in this. “Before they call I will answer,” – and came upon earth unbesought and unexpected, because His own infinite love brought Him hither. Christ’s mercy to a world does not come like water in a well that has to be pumped up, by our petitions, by our search, but like water in some fountain, rising sparkling into the sunlight by its own inward impulse. He is His own motive; and came to a forgetful and careless world, like a shepherd who goes after his flock in the wilderness, not because they bleat for him, since they crop the herbage which tempts them even further from the fold and remember him or it no more, but because he cannot have them lost. Men are not conscious of needing Christ till He comes. The supply creates the demand. He is like the “dew which tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” But not only does Christ seek us all inasmuch as the whole conception and execution of His great work are independent of man’s desires, but He seeks us each in a thousand ways. He longs to have each of us for His disciples. He seeks each of us for His disciples, by the motion of His Spirit on our spirits, by stirring convictions on our consciences, by pricking us often with a sense of our own evil, by all our restlessness and dissatisfaction, by the disappointments and the losses, as by the brightnesses and the goodness of earthly providences, and often through such poor agencies as my lips and the lips of other men. The Master Himself, who seeks all mankind, has sought and is seeking you at this moment. Oh! you yield to His search. The shepherd goes out on the mountain side, for all the storms and the snow, and wades knee-deep through the drifts until he finds the sheep. And your Shepherd, who is also your Brother, has come looking for you, and at this moment is putting out His hand and laying hold of you through my poor words, and saying to you, as He said to Philip, ” Follow Me! ”

 

A Word of Caution

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It saddens me to have to write a post like this, but as someone who loves my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I feel led to post a word of caution to people.  I’m not going to mention any names because I don’t want to prejudice any one person to another.  Recently, I’ve encountered some posts implying that another is lying on their blog, and implying that they’re doing things that aren’t right.  I don’t know whether they are or not.  Personally, I have seen nothing on their blog to give me any reason to think so.

To make this short and sweet, please prayerfully consider what others say about other people.  We cannot know someone’s motive for what they say about another.  Some people are very well-intentioned.  Others are less so…  But, I encourage you to read what the Bible says about gossip and slander.

The way I look at it is this: I take every person on their own terms.  I have no problem with anyone so long as they respect me, what I do, and my right to do it.  I think God entitled us all to have an opinion, but that doesn’t give us the right to say things about others that aren’t true.  I neither support or encourage gossip  or slander on this blog.  If you disagree with something I write, I have no problem with you expressing how you feel about it, so long as you do so respectfully.  But, I want you to know you are under no obligation to read this blog.  You don’t like what I say you are welcome to unsubscribe with no hard feelings on my part.

I encourage you to please, please treat others as you would like to be treated.  If someone makes a comment about someone else on your blog please give both parties fair treatment, and consideration.  Don’t dismiss somebody just because someone else doesn’t like or agree with another.  Base your opinions and judgments about people on your own experience with them;  not on someone else’s.

Try to remember that we are representatives of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and that our blogs are being read by people desperately in need  of our Lord and Savior’s forgiveness and grace.  How will they ever experience that, or even want it, if we don’t show that we have experienced it ourselves and given it to others.