The Return

I have blogged before about falling from grace; it occurs to me that I should post something about the possibility of returning to grace.
Is it possible to return from a backslidden condition? One would certainly think that a loving God who created us, and has done so much to make it possible for us to be saved would understand the human condition and be understanding of human frailties that result in mistakes. He is, after all, a loving and forgiving God. If we stop to consider the parable of the lost sheep, how the shepherd left the ninety and nine to go search for the one that was lost. Wasn’t that one lost sheep part of the flock before that shepherd went to look for it? Didn’t Jesus say that the shepherd rejoices more for the one sheep that was lost than for the ninety-nine that weren’t? At first glance, that may not seem to make sense, but if you stop and think about it, the shepherd would have been so relieved that he found that sheep before some predator did. That is not to suggest that he would have willingly sacrificed the ninety-nine in order to save the one; quite frankly, it wouldn’t make sense to put even one of the ninety-nine at risk to try to find the one. The one may have already been killed before the shepherd even noticed it was gone. One sheep, off by itself, doesn’t stand much of a chance. Sheep don’t have much in the way of defense mechanisms; pretty much all they’ve got is staying with the flock. One off by itself is easy pickings for a wolf or lion. The Bible tells us that Satan is like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is looking for people who are not part of, or have become separated from, God’s flock. God is, of course, looking for those people, too, but He allows us freedom of choice. So, even when one has separated oneself from God, one still has a choice, whether to let God lead them back to the flock, or to stay off on their own where they become simply prey.
Is there a limit to how far God will allow us to go and still return? Jesus talked about things that one can do and still be forgiven, but he also said that there is one act that can never be forgiven. He even said that you can talk bad about Him, and it can be forgiven you. That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? It seems to me, though, that most people that walk away from the truth end up getting caught up in their own wants and desires and end up not ever even attempting to return, anyway. These people are so involved with things that, in the long run, don’t really matter anyway. At the time, these things seem absolutely urgent, but from the perspective of eternity, really don’t matter. Quite frankly, if you take your eyes off of the prize, it is possible to become so distracted that you never look back at the ultimate gift again.

Sheep

I had someone ask me the question, “Why does the Bible compare people to sheep? Sheep are so stupid.” I told him that’s one reason. Seriously, though, we have more similarities to sheep than we might want to admit.
One of the common characteristics of sheep is that they have a herding instinct. That’s actually good for sheep, because predators (like wolves) are less likely to attack a flock, being wary of large numbers. Predators generally would rather catch a sheep by itself and then attack that one. That’s hard to do, because they stick together so much. If a flock is left alone, a lot of times one sheep will grow curious about something off in the distance, and wander off to investigate. Almost never do they go alone, though, because other sheep will follow it. “Where’s he going?” “I don’t know. Let’s follow him.” “Okay.” Shepherds really can’t leave their sheep alone, because, almost inevitably, one sheep will wander off, and the rest of the flock will follow. Sometimes that ends up not being a good idea, but at least they are all together. Of course, that is part of the reason that the expression "wolf in sheep's clothing" came about; can you imagine what sort of havoc a wolf could cause with a flock if he could convince the sheep that he was one of them ("It's okay to follow me, little lamb, I'm a sheep!"). A lot of people tend to go with the crowd, too. Whatever the crowd is doing, whatever the popular thing is, that’s what they want to do. Some of us can even remember when the popular thing was to rebel against conformity, and all of the nonconformists dressed alike, shouted the same slogans, etc.Sheep are generally very loyal to their shepherd. As long as he (or she) remains in sight, they will follow. If the shepherd is not around, the sheep generally won’t follow someone else. They know whom they are supposed to follow, but if he isn’t around, they may very well wander off on their own. It's no accident that Jesus’ lineage includes David, the shepherd boy who was also a giant-killer (and became king). David had a lot of the qualities that foreshadowed the Messiah: He was a shepherd, he was brave, he withstood a giant, he became king, he had a heart for people, but most importantly, he had a heart for God. Jesus was all of these things and more. The Bible also refers to the leaders of Ancient Israel as shepherds (or pastors). In Jeremiah, God speaks against the leaders of Israel (the pastors) for not feeding the flock, for letting the sheep of Israel go astray. Then God promises that he will set up shepherds that will actually care for the flock, and do whatever they can to protect the sheep. Ezekiel 34 has a very similar passage, God condemning the pastors that fed themselves, and let the sheep go hungry, but this time he promises that he himself will become the shepherd of the sheep; I guess you could say that he promised to become the Good Shepherd. Of course, Jesus told us the parable of the lost sheep, comparing us to sheep, and comparing God to the shepherd of the sheep, and taught us that each one of us is important to God. The shepherd will leave the 99, to search for the one that is lost—not to say that the 99 aren’t important, but the 99 are safe, at least for the moment, but the one that is out there by himself is in great danger. It’s important for us not to be out in the world alone, that’s one of the reasons that fellowship is commanded. In Matthew 25, Jesus talked about the judgment day in terms of separating the sheep from the goats. The sheep being the ones that followed, and the goats being the ones that always wanted to butt (“But, God, I don’t want to…”). Jesus said that His sheep know His voice, and a stranger they will not follow. At the same time, though, it’s not that unusual for some human or another to stand up and try to lead us in some direction. And at least some of us will, because he's one of us. Sometimes that turns out to be good, sometimes it’s bad. There are all kinds of people trying to lead us in all kinds of directions, but we need to be sure to follow Jesus. He's the one that loves us and cares for us.