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11.pdf 12/9/2014 12:30:41 PM<br />
WHAT IS GOD<br />
LOOKING AT?<br />
t<br />
C<br />
M<br />
Y<br />
CM<br />
MY<br />
CY<br />
CMY<br />
K<br />
“Emergency! Emergency! All hands on deck. People’s lives are<br />
going down. The sea of darkness has overtaken them, people are<br />
drowning in their own sin but many don’t realise it. The power of<br />
death is overcoming them. They need rescuing. They need saving.<br />
Who will go? Who will respond?”<br />
As I sat down the other day and started to ask God to speak to me<br />
about who He is these words echoed around my head along with<br />
the sound of alarm bells. It was not the answer I was expecting to<br />
hear. I thought He was going to say something about Himself, His<br />
nature or character, something that would cause me to respond<br />
and worship Him. Yet, He did say something about Himself this is<br />
the cry of His heart, His longing, His passion is for the people He<br />
does not yet have in relationship with Him. He showed me the<br />
desperation of what He sees going on in peoples lives and what<br />
He wants to do about it.<br />
Its a wake-up call a call to action. Its like a shout from heaven,<br />
“Do you see them? Can you hear their cries? Will you go for Me?”<br />
In Luke chapter 14, Jesus told a parable about a man who invited<br />
many guests to a great banquet but, one by one, they gave their<br />
excuses as to why they couldnt come. He became angry at this<br />
and told his servants to go quickly to the streets and alleys of the<br />
town to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. His<br />
servants replied that they had already done that, but there was still<br />
room for more. He then told them to go further and compel people<br />
to come so that his house would be full and the people would enjoy<br />
the banquet that he had prepared for them.<br />
In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells another parable, “Suppose one of<br />
you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave<br />
the ninety-nine and go after the lost one until he finds it? Or the women<br />
who had ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp,<br />
sweep the house and search till she finds it?”<br />
At the end of these parables Jesus says that there is more<br />
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over many<br />
righteous people that do not need to repent. We see from these<br />
stories that God wants to get our attention; He wants us to see<br />
what He sees and to look at what He is looking at people.<br />
People that dont yet know Him.<br />
Have you ever lost your keys or your wallet? It can be very frustrating,<br />
cant it? Suddenly all of your attention is set on finding whatever it is<br />
that youve lost. Imagine if you lost one of your children - the whole<br />
world would have to stop, you would let everyone know so they could<br />
join in the desperate search to find them! You wouldnt leave a stone<br />
unturned until you got them back.<br />
This is Gods heart for those that are lost and need saving, for<br />
the people that He does not yet have. God was so set upon<br />
rescuing people out of darkness that He sent His Son, Jesus<br />
Christ, to make a way for them to know Him: “For God so loved<br />
the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in<br />
Him shall not perish but have eternal <strong>life</strong>. For God did not send His<br />
Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world<br />
through Him” (John 3:16).<br />
Jesus reiterated this when He said of Himself “For the Son of Man<br />
came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). If this was<br />
Jesus priority, His mandate from heaven while He was here on<br />
earth, how much more should it be ours as we seek to follow in His<br />
footsteps and do the will of our heavenly Father?<br />
One day Jesus said to His disciples “Wake up and look around you.<br />
The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good<br />
wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal <strong>life</strong>”<br />
(John 4:35-36 NLT). Later on He instructed His disciples saying<br />
“Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His<br />
harvest field” (Matthew 9:37). Gods looking for workers who He<br />
can send out into every sphere of society to reach those who dont<br />
know Him yet.<br />
As followers of Christ were called to fulfil the Great Commission<br />
which He gave to His disciples just before ascending into Heaven:<br />
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the<br />
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching<br />
them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19).<br />
Let’s respond to this Great Commission to be the workers<br />
that find the lost, make disciples and bring them to the<br />
banquet that is waiting for them. As a result there will be<br />
great rejoicing in heaven, but also great rejoicing on earth<br />
as well.<br />
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