[A Monday / Wednesday
/ Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]
As
Jesus sent his disciples on an internship ministry, he warned them he was
sending them as sheep
among wolves. In so doing he summarized the character of the culture of sin
whether among global conspirators or in the back alley haunts of drug dealers.
The
world of sin is a satanically organized community. It has its movers and
shakers and money makers. It has its upwardly mobile shaker wannabee’s. Beneath
them are the dedicated workers who serve their cultural overlords for a share
of the spoil. Then there is the slave contingent, the
groveling playthings of the movers and shakers and their favored ones. All these
growl and snarl at each other, vying for dominance or more of the loot of sin;
however, when confronted by a follower of Christ, they can become a vicious
pack.
Jesus
spoke about a King who sent servants to invite guests to the marriage of his son. The invitation was met with hatred for the King which erupted into abuse and murder of the envoys. But
there is another parable. A banquet was prepared and a single servant was
sent with the invitation. Rather than outright rejection he was met with excuses.
The next time the servant was sent, his orders were to “bring" others, not simply to invite.
When there was still room for more, he was sent to “compel.”
Side
by side (setting aside for the moment the Jewish/Gentile implications) we have a
picture of the responsibility of Christ’s followers to invite, and the assurance
that the Holy Spirit is doing what they cannot do: transforming
hearts of wolves to hearts of sheep.
I
take it, then, that one of the requirements for sheep among wolves is to have
an ear for hints of bleating amid the growls--awakened sinners who recognize their sinfulness, are aware of coming judgment, long for hope, are interested in Jesus, ready to
repent, eager to believe.
Your final statement got my attention. I seem to be able to hear the growls of the wolves much clearer than the bleating of the sheep.
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose we are so busy attacking wolves for being wolves that we fail to hear the occasional, "accidental" baaa baaa of an inner struggle in progress?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Sharing this. We have a tendency to attack wolves instead of showing the true character of Christ who gently pointed them to His gospel. Only the Holy Spirit can turn that wolf into a sheep.
ReplyDeleteI'm learning about this daily. I work with a lot of sheep who still have a lot of wolf like charachteristics.
ReplyDeleteThen again, don't we all?
DeleteIndeed! And sometimes we catch ourselves snarling from time to time. And therein lies a dilemma. Sheep in wolves' clothing or wolves in sheep's clothing. Who is the (forgive the term) emerging sheep and who is the performing wolf?
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