The Tent: A safe place for shepherds to reflect together
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GCTSgcowper
Joined: 03 Feb 2010 Posts: 5
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:22 am Post subject: Do sheep have choices? |
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Day 11: Gathering the Scattered. I guess sheep do have limited choices. Those choices would be eat this blade of grass or that blade of grass, follow little Bo-peep today or not. Run, walk or hide. Sheep, like people get distracted and enticed to wander. This is really the first place where I see a major difference between sheep and congregation members. Sheep do choose to leave and I suspect that when a sheep is gathered back into the flock the sheep probably experiences contentment. This is not always the case with congregation members.
Congregation members, however, make real choices even while they are out in the darkness. Yes, they too can continue to run, hide, and avoid capture. Like sheep, their choices landed them in the darkness. I understand that bad choices of alcoholism, pornography, gambling, and drugs can cause a congregation member to wander and scatter from the flock. The major difference with sheep is that sometimes congregation members don’t want to come back.
The issue is that many times a congregation member won’t admit they have made bad choices until they have hit rock bottom. In my setting when someone has left the flock, they usually don’t want to come back. They don’t want to admit that they have wandered away. Occasionally people will “come to their senses†and come back and there is rejoicing when this happens. Initially Christ bids all to come to him. When people wander off Jesus, again, is the one who bids all to come back to him. However, congregation members have the opportunity to choose to come back to the fold or not.
If I was to take the advice, “Don’t come home without themâ€. I’d be out in the darkness searching for a long time. Most of my time would be spent trying to persuade them to come home. I don’t think we should ever beg people to come back. Christ bids people to come and come back; we just need to be sure that Jesus’ voice can be heard through our gathering efforts. Congregation members make their own choices and we need to allow them to live with the consequences of their choice. |
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