Though not the most admired man in the history of missions as far as his interpersonal skills go, C.T. Studd took great leaps of faith to reach the lost in places where others would scarcely dare to go.
"Oh come let us go and find them, in the paths of death they roam, at the close of the day 'twil be sweet to say, I have brought some lost one home." This is taken from an old Hymn and quoted in an old missionary biography, the story of Doreen Gemmel a woman from high society who moved to the slums to pursue God and His people...within a yard of hell. Her stories are much like ours, the same women coming and going, sometimes wondering if you will ever see them again, wondering if lasting change is really possible. Plodding away in the field her entire life in the hopes that just one would know her Savior and His redeeming power in her life.
No one is further from God than the next, we are all level at the cross. But it sometimes seems impossible that one of these dear ones would leave behind the only life they've ever known to embrace what promises to be the fullness of life. I do believe that our God is the God of the impossible. He takes what our finite minds and faith could never dream to be possible and brings it to pass with the sweep of His hand in a fashion that we could never imagine.
As we see some of the same faces week after week with little change of circumstance or heart, I find myself wondering if there ever will be. I don't have an answer for that... some may choose Christ in this season, some may on their last day... others never will.
Recently we rejoiced as one of the women made the choice to leave the game and entered a local Christian safe house. What seemed impossible had come to fruition in front of our very eyes. It seems just as the idea settled in I received a call from this same woman that she had left the home. As I scrambled to find her and a new home for her, she disappeared again. I spent the day agonizing in prayer and aimless pacing. I fear greatly for her safety and her soul yet I have to trust our God. I have to trust that He sees her just as He did an outcast Hagar, that He knows her faults and frailties and that He will be faithful even when we are faithless.
As I teach classes for AHM I give statistics such as "a girl will try leave the game on average of 8 times before she gets out for good" yet I can barely fathom having the depth of love to pursue or even welcome one in after 8 times. Yet this is the heart of our God as displayed in His endless pursuit of us, as He called Hosea to receive Gomer as his bride even after countless acts of unfaithfulness. No, I'll never be able to do it...but the Lord will, and if I choose I may be the vessel through which His faithful arm of salvation extends to the very depths to rescue even just one...
"Therefore, behold I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.' For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold...Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her.I will give her her vineyards from there and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up form the land of Egypt. And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me 'My Husband' and no longer call me 'My Master'"
Hosea 2. This....is our God.
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