God's heart for lost sheep

Hudson Taylor found his heart breaking for a man who seemed insensitive to God.

Taylor, later to become a great missionary to China, was a medical student in London, dressing the wounds of a man with gangrene in the early 1850s.

"The disease commenced, as usual, insidiously, and the patient had little idea that he was a doomed man, and probably not long to live," Taylor wrote in his autobiography some years later.

Taylor said he became "very anxious" about the man's soul.  The man's family were believers in Christ but they told Taylor that the man was "an avowed atheist, and very antagonistic to anything religious".

Taylor did not talk of this to the man for several days while working to relieve his suffering.  But, finally, he could not contain himself and told him why he was concerned about him.  The man reacted by turning away from him and refusing to talk.

"I could not get the poor man out of my mind," Taylor wrote, "and very often, through each day, I pleaded with God, by his Spirit, to save him ere he took him hence."

Every day, after dressing the man's wounds, he said a few words to him, fearing that he might be hardening the man's opposition to God.  The man would turn away, annoyed.

Finally, one day he said nothing and turned toward the man at the door as he was about to leave.  The man looked surprised that he hadn't spoken about Christ.

Taylor was so moved, he burst into tears and poured out his heart to the man, telling him "how much I wished that he would let me pray with him".  The man said that, if it would relieve Taylor to pray for him, he could go ahead.

A few days later, the man accepted Jesus as his Saviour.  He lived for some time after that but his attitude was completely changed - telling others about God's goodness to him.

When I read that story, I realize how far short I fall in having Taylor's compassion for those who don't know Jesus.  Taylor's compassion was really God's compassion, flowing through him.

In Matthew 9, the gospel writer says: "When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

That is still how God sees those who do not know him and follow him.

May I pray with God's heart for those around me who are harassed and helpless - like sheep without the Lord as their shepherd.

Prayer for our city

Francis Frangipane says "to reach our cities, Christ must reach his church".

"He must convict our hearts of the arrogance and pride, the jealousy and selfish ambition that have clouded our vision," says Frangipane in his book The House of the Lord: God's Plan to Liberate Your City from Darkness. "We must be cleansed of these sins so Jesus can unite us against evil."

I believe these words are as true today as they were when Frangipane wrote them 25 years ago.

Frangipane was a pastor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the time he wrote his book.  He took part in a multi-church prayer effort in his city and the rate of violent crime in Cedar Rapids dropped 17 per cent.

It's encouraging to me that some churches in our city and others are working to bring us together as believers to spread the love of God - and the good news of Jesus - to the people around us.  But I believe this outreach needs to spread much more widely, especially in prayer.

It's not easy to drop the barriers between churches.  We may have strong theological or cultural differences which stand in the way.  I realize I'm as stubborn - and as prejudiced - as anyone in these areas.

But, Frangipane and his fellow pastors in Cedar Rapids decided to go beyond these cherished positions and pray together.  They did not abandon their theologies.  Instead, they came together on the solid ground of a shared faith in Jesus as their saviour and Lord.

Frangipane says we Christians are a major obstacle to God bringing love and healing to our cities.

He notes Jesus' words in Luke 13 where he laments that Jerusalem has rejected his attempts to bring people into his kingdom.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers!  How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me."

Then, Christ forecasts the ultimate result - the destruction of the city.  Jerusalem was destroyed less than 40 years later by the Romans.

"The lack of blessing in our cities is not God's fault, nor is it only because of the sins of the world," writes Frangipane.  "A number of national problems are because the church has been caught up in its own agendas and programs.

"We have disdained Christ's call to obedience and prayer."

May the Spirit of God awaken us.